SKETCHES, PHOTOS, THEORY AND RANDOM ARCHITECTURAL THOUGHTS BY AN EDUCATOR (AND WANNA-BE GLOBETREKKING) ARCHITECT.

Saturday, June 9, 2007

06.09.07: A FRIENDLY ALIEN











This project raises a number of questions regarding architecture and context. Before I post quotes by the architects, and my analysis, I am going to start with a series of questions / statements that I am trying to come to terms with myself:


1) This building absolutely does not address its context; it looks nothing like anything that surrounds it.
2) This building absolutely addresses its context; it visually communicates its purpose as a place for experimental art.
3) This building is completely out of place adjacent to an historic city center that is a UNESCO world heritage site.
4) This building acknowledges its place across the river from a UNESCO world heritage site by incorporating a viewing platform into its façade from which people get sweeping views of this historic city.
5) This building challenges its context formally, by aggressively confronting the baroque architecture which surrounds out.
6) This building is sensitive to context because it’s massing respects the height of neighboring structures, and one nozzle aligns with an historic structure.
7) This building is sensitive to its context because it restores an 1840’s cast iron façade to its original intent. The first cast iron façade in mainland Europe.
8) The cast iron building from the 1840’s was revolutionary for its time; the Kunsthaus Graz carries on this tradition of technologically advanced buildings.
9) The context for this building is not the city of Graz, rather the international art scene which this city is a part of, and was part of even before the Kunsthaus.
10) The context for this project is not the city of Graz, rather the state of experimental architecture at the beginning of the 21st century.
11) The context for this project is not the city of Graz, rather the potential for new digital technology to shape the course of architecture.
12) The building fits perfectly within the context of the city of Graz because it is exactly the point where the past and future meet, representing Graz’s bipolar nature.

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