architecture

…just wait awhile – Hate the view from your apartment window? Just wait a little while, and it will change…if you live in Dubai. A skyscraper being built there will change shape as the floors spin around a central core, revealing different views out the windows.

In the June 25th edition of the Independent, David Usborne quotes architect David Fisher as saying, “Today’s life is dynamic, so the space we are living in should be dynamic as well. Buildings will follow rhythms of nature. They will change direction and shape from spring to summer, from sunrise to sunset, and adjust themselves to the weather. In other words, buildings will be alive.”
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Prince Charles once described a modern building in London as resembling a gigantic toaster. Many people say they do not like modern architecture, and one reason for this may be that often form doesn’t follow function.

When you look at the exterior of a building, can you tell whether the building is a city hall, an art museum, a library, or a live theater? According to a new study, most people can’t.

Residents of three different cities were shown pictures of city halls, libraries, art museums, and live theaters in a distant city and asked to guess which of those four uses applied to each of the buildings. They were correct only 32% of the time, which is not much better than random guessing, which would have led to correct answers about 25% of the time.
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