Frank O. Gehry | Tectonic Genius or Pure Sh*t?

It is perhaps fitting that in 2012, starchitect Frank O. Gehry designed the abstract white stage set for Christopher Alden’s abstract and sublime production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni by the Los Angeles Philharmonic. I certainly would not be surprised by the many clients, builders and even fellow architects who wouldn’t wish to see Gehry consigned to flames of hell, dragged into its depths for his unapologetic architecture and obsession with moving fish. Indeed even I at times, even when looking at his latest ‘crumpled paper bag’ (as it is ‘affectionately’ known) creation in my home of Sydney must look up and quizzically enquire, “Mr. Gehry, what do you think you are doing?”

Architects, CommentaryHugo Chan18 August 2018architecture, design, opera, frankgehry, frank gehry, bilbao effect

In Memorandum // Dame Zaha Hadid 1950 - 2016

Sudden death is never a happy affair. The shock is arguably even greater when perhaps the most famous and controversial architect of our time passes during what would have otherwise been routine treatment for bronchitis. The great outpouring of grief has however, allowed all those aligned both within and outside the field of design to reflect on her life and her work.

Architects, CommentaryHugo Chan3 April 2016architecture, design, zahahadidComment

Haterz gonna Hate, Hate, Hate...

Whilst listening recently to Patrik Schumacher’s fiery declaration for the Architectural Review’s series on Architecture and Freedom, he made an impassioned declaration once more on the separation of politics, political correctness and architecture. Although perhaps more defensive than I would have liked, and perhaps less eloquently catchy when compared to Taylor Swift’s response to ‘haters’, the Review’s series has raised extremely provocative questions on the role of architects and the relationship to morality and ethics.

Commentary, ArchitectsHugo Chan4 December 2015architecture, design, zahahadid, azerbaijan, parametrics

Frank O. Gehry | Raising Heads, Eyebrows & Questions

Ladies and gentlemen, let us give a warm hand to Sydney’s newest celebrity! More controversial than Utzon and certainly more talked about than the demise of James Barnet’s sandstone monuments, it seems certain that everyone in Sydney has an opinion on Mr. Frank O. Gehry’s brown paper bag. Indeed, no woman but the dame of Sydney’s architectural criticism circuit Elizabeth Farrelly could have expressed more eloquently the status of Gehry’s structure: “But if, like me, you suspect there's more to life than unbridled market-forces, more to literature than Fifty Shades, more to architecture than the whackiest curves your software can spew up, more to beauty than two oiled and opulent orbs [of Kim Kardashian] – this "more", surely, is something our houses of higher learning should pursue.” (Farrelly, 2015).

Architects, CommentaryHugo Chan25 March 2015architecture, design, frankgehry, gehry

Sin in Suburbia

Sydney is a beautiful city. Of this I have no doubts. Indeed this city has been blessed with an endless expanse of blue skies and golden shorelines running from its northern shores to its southern reaches. But for me, this city also has a dark secret. Within a city of 3.6 million people, is a metropolitan area over twice the size of Hong Kong, a city of 7 million people. The desire for backyards, for individual homes and for large gardens is in my opinion this city’s single largest problem to achieving sustainability. There is great sin in developing suburbia.

Sustainability, ArchitectsHugo Chan1 May 2014architecture, sydney, hongkong, design, sustainability, suburbia

The Sustainable Desert Paradox // MASDAR City

As exotic as the desert is, alluding to the mystical tales of Arabian Nights, a sustainable carbon-neutral project is certainly not the first thing one would associate with the landscape of folding sand dunes. To heighten the paradox, carbon neutrality is certainly not associated with a city which has grown wealthy from exporting black gold. Indeed cheap oil has facilitated urban sprawl across the United Arab Emirates and accounts for 70% of the nation’s gross domestic product (Crot, 2013, p. 2812; Reiche, 2010, p. 378). The newly completed Masdar City, designed by Foster + Partners therefore stands as a hopeful testament against all the stereotypes we have placed upon the Arabian Gulf.

Sustainability, ArchitectsHugo Chan29 April 2014architecture, design, normanfoster, sustainability, masdar, dubai

Setting an Example to Follow // One Bligh Street

A stone’s throw away from Sydney’s iconic monuments, the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge, is a seemingly unremarkable elliptical tower known simply by its address: One Bligh Street. Completed in 2011 by Architectus and Ingenhoven Architekten, this structure is certainly more than what it seems, having been praised as “Australia’s first ‘green skyscraper’” (Philip, 2012).

Sustainability, ArchitectsHugo Chan26 April 2014architecture, design, ingenhoven, sustainability, sydney

Sustainability // Via Psychiatrists and Breastfeeding

In a rather enjoyable yet confusing keynote speech in 2013, Chiliean architect Alejandro Aravena proclaimed that the key to sustainability would be achieved “in this generation, more psychiatrists, in the next generation, more breasts.” (ArchDaily, 2013). It was also for me, not at all evident in the commencement what the connection to therapy and breasts sustainability would have, and so I have decided to use this blog to decode his alternative explanation for achieving sustainable construction.

Sustainability, ArchitectsHugo Chan18 April 2014architecture, design, sustainability, alejandroaravena, lecture

The Curious Case of Biomass Energy

Architecturally speaking, the industrial typology of factories has always served as both inspiration and frustration. While modernism has seen the virtues of industrial warehouses as the ideal balance between space and expression with no ornamentation, others have lamented its lack of human warmth and relationship to a natural landscape. Enter Thomas Heatherwick. Sadly now postponed indefinitely, his Teeside Biomass Power Station in the United Kingdom represented a deconstruction of the factory typology and attempts to melt in a natural landscape with what can otherwise be described as the dull industrial process of electricity generation.

Sustainability, ArchitectsHugo Chan11 April 2014architecture, design, biomass, energy, sustainability, thomasheatherwick

The Moral Dimension

I have noticed that almost all of my posts so far concerning the issue of sustainability have had a focus on green architecture and urbanism. Today therefore, I want to take a step in a new direction and examine the statement of arguably one of the greatest figures of architecture today, Dame Zaha Hadid. In a recent interview where she was asked about the over 800 migrant worker deaths that have occurred in constructing her 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar Stadium, she boldly declared that it was the duty of governments to protect workers and that “It’s not my duty as an architect to look at it” (Dezeen Magazine, 2014). This statement was in a way furthered a month later by her company’s director, Michael Schumacher, who took to Facebook to declare that we must “STOP political correctness in architecture.” (Schumacher, 2014). While I am of course unable to go into depth about these issues, I do want to point out that this of course raises the interesting question of who should be in charge of managing the morality of our social fabric.

Curious to Discover More?

Contact Us

Musings

Curious to Discover More?

Contact Us