Week 1 - building found

I have found two unbuilt buildings that I am interested in.

One of them is the Cardiff Opera house (1994 - 1996), designed by one of the most famous unbuilt architects - Zaha Hadid. It was designed as a part of the Cardiff Bay redevelopment project, in order to create a new home for the Welsh National Opera company. The fear is perhaps the most significant of all political realities and leadership combined with vision is required to overcome it. The project collapsed since the Millennium Commission refused to fund the project as it was considered to be financially risky.

[iv]

This design is a fine example of urban design, which would become an expressive landmark against the waterfront. The concept of the project comes from the idea of hierarchy between serviced and servicing spaces, which are interpreted into outdoor and indoor spaces[i].

It was an important building which contributes to its local area because it was for Wale’s international images, with “Cardiff Bay” becoming a euphemism in architectural and cultural circles for narrow-mindedness, provincial conservatism, and ignorance[ii].

The second building is the Elias’ House designed by Richard Rogers in the USA. The client of the land, Michael Elias is a Hollywood screenwriter and director, who wanted something spectacular for his house. Despite it is relatively in a small scale, I personally like the idea of simplicity and the way the building is set with nature.

[v]

[vi]

The Elias house has been one of Rogers’ signature moves in terms of tensile structure[iii], which is very sustainable as he concerns. However, due to the fact that Elias got married and decided to move somewhere else, the building has never been built. Therefore, it will be great if we could visualize that building by using our digital computing skills.

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Reference:

[i] “The Zaha Hadid project details”, The Hyatt Foundation, The pritzker Architecture Prize, assessed on 18th March, 2008, <http://www.pritzkerprize.com/2004/pdf/Cardiff.pdf>

[ii] “Cardiff Bay Opera House”, Wikipedia by the free Encyclopedia, assessed on 18 March, 2008, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardiff_Bay_Opera_House>

[iii] “Unbuilt houses: House on the Hill - A PACIFIC PALISADES BACHELOR PAD BY RICHARD ROGERS”, ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST, assessed on 16 March, 2008, <http://www.architecturaldigest.com/homes/spaces/2007/03/unbuilt_article?currentPage=1>

[iv]"The unbuilt category", ARKATEKCHA - architecture with an australian accent, theme contempt by Vault9, WordPress.com, assessed on 17 March, 2008, <http://arkatekcha.net/category/unbuilt/>

[v][vi] “Unbuilt houses: House on the Hill - A PACIFIC PALISADES BACHELOR PAD BY RICHARD ROGERS”, ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST, assessed on 16 March, 2008, <http://www.architecturaldigest.com/homes/spaces/2007/03/unbuilt_slideshow>