Lectures; theory of architecture iv arch 246 i

Contemporary architecture
20-10-1433 Dr Ahmed Osman Ibrahim
Future Systems' Selfridges Department Store in Birmingham, 2010.
Contemporary
architecture is
the architecture
that is produced
at the present
time. This
architecture
contains the
architecture that
is produced at
the recent
decades, from
the eighties until
the present time

Blobitecture
Kunthaus building- "Friendly Alien“- designed by Peter Cook and Colin Fournier,
Graz, Austria, 2003.
Some exemplars of
such architecture are;
1- Blobitecture:
contemporary
architecture
movement whose
buildings are defined
as organic and
Amoeba-shaped.
buildings of curved and
circular forms.

Blobitecture
The Kunsthaus Graz at night showing the BIX media Façade
-The Kunsthaus Graz,
Grazer Kunsthaus, or
Graz Art Museum was
built as part of the
European capital of
culture celebrations in
2003.
- It becomes an
architectural landmark.
- Its exhibition
program. It specializes
in contemporary art
of the last four
decades.

Blobitecture
The Kunsthaus Graz at night showing the BIX media Façade
-whopper of a big,
bright, blue bubble
with a shiny, scaly,
iridescent blue acrylic-
glass skin that not only
has a serious case of
goose bumps but that
flashes and glows in
the dark.
-Quirky, spiral-tube
light fixtures
- BIX (a cross between
big and pixel), 925
standard, circular,
fluorescent tubes.

Blobitecture
Ron Herron’s blob-like architecture in his sixties projects, such as the Walking Cities.
-The term “Blob
architecture” was first
used by the architect
Greg Lynn in the year
1995 in his Digital
design experiments by
using Graphical
meatball software.
- Archigram, who are a
group of architects
who worked in the
sixties, to which Peter
Cook belonged. A
member of the
Archigram group,
architect Ron Herron.
came out with

Blobitecture
Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, along the Nervión River, built in 1999
came out with
-If Blobitecture is
viewed from the
formal aspect and not
the technological
aspect, it then belived
to be began with
Antoni Gaudi's organic
designs in Barcelona.
- few critics belived
that Blob architecture
came out of computer
software; others
related it to curved or
Odd-looking buildings
such as Frank Gehry's
Guggenheim Museum.

Blobitecture
-It has a steel
framework with
sprayed concrete
façade
- Since its construction
the building has
become an iconic
architectural landmark
and seen as a major
contribution to the
regeneration of
Birmingham.
- Designers; Jan
Japlicky and Amanda
Levete.

Blobitecture
-The building's facade
is curved, wrapping
around the corner of
Moor and Park Streets.
-The facade comprises
15,000 anodized
aluminium discs
mounted on a blue
background.
- More than 15,000
aluminum circles
placed on the
building's curvy
exterior creates a
glimmering fish-scale
effect.

BlobitectureBlobitecture

Dr Ahmed Osman Ibrahim20-10-1433

Selfridges Department Store

Allianza Arena, Herzog and De Meuron, Munich, Germany, 2005.

Norman Foster’s Philogical Library, University of Berlin, 2005.

Burj Alfateh- Corinthia Hotel, the Egg building, Khartoum, Sudan, 2003.

2-Critical regionalism
-This architecture
movement uses the
buildings geographical
context and tried its
best to resist
placelessness and lack
of meaning of modern
architecture by the
employment of power
that formularizes as
well as considers the
place and the meaning
of architecture.
- The most famous
advocates of that are
Alexander Tzonis, Liane
San Antonio Public Library, Texas, Mexican architect Ricardo Legorreta, 1995.

Jorn Utzon’s Bagsvaerd Church built in Denmark at 1976
Lefaivre and last but
not least and the most
famous among them is
the critic Kenneth
Frampton.
- The advocacy of this
movement was since
1983.
- According to
Frampton Jorn Utzon’s
Bagsvaerd Church built
in Denmark at 1976
and Alvar Alto’s
Saynatsalo Town Hall in
Finland at 1952 are
good exemplars of this

The drifting clouds above the sea and the
shore forming a wondrous space in which
the light fell through the ceiling - the clouds -
down on to the floor represented by the
shore and the sea.
The rectilinear, modular structure of the
building and its integrated courtyards, as
well as the connecting corridors, are said to
be inspired by the design of Buddhist temple
in China.

Alvar Alto’s Saynatsalo Town Hall in Finland at 1952
movement.
-Frampton proposes
that, critical
regionalism should
adopt modern
architecture, critically,
for its universal
progressive qualities
but at the same time
value should be placed
on the geographical
context of the building.
Emphasis, Frampton
says, should be on
topography, climate,
and light.

Traditional building materials such as brick are used.
Brick is, by nature, cellular. The bricks were even laid
slightly off-line to create a dynamic and enlivened
surface condition. The massive brick envelope is
punctuated by periods of vertical striation in the form
of timber columns which evoke Saynatsalo's setting in
a heavily forested area.
The butterfly truss gives call to medieval and
traditional styles. It was the Italian Renaissance from
which Aalto drew inspiration for the courtyard
arrangement.

-The NMB Bank’s
Dutch gable pitched
roofs set at slight
angle to each bricks,
is the 17th century
Amsterdam’s
vernacular
architecture.
-The wall slopes
deflect sound
upwards and thus
cut down the noise
of adjacent
motorways.
Anton Alberts’ and others NMB Bank, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 1987.

- Saudi Arabia has a unique architectural
heritage that has developed over the
centuries.
- Historically, building designs and materials in
Saudi Arabia were dictated by the climate,
geography and resources available.
-For example, builders in the central areas
preferred adobe for its malleability, availability
and insulating qualities.
- In western Saudi Arabia, stone and red brick
were common, while Jeddah’s builders used
coral from the Red Sea.

Contemporary Saudi architects are increasingly
looking to these traditional building designs
and Islamic concepts for inspiration. This
combination of tradition with the ultra modern
strengthens the link between a cherished past
and an innovative future.
King Saud University and the King Khalid
International Airport are two striking examples
of just how well traditional (Islamic) design and
modern structure can be combined.

Prince Salman’s Central library at King Saud University (1957).

King Khalid International Airport, 1982.
- King Khalid
International
Airport designed by
HOK (formerly
Hellmuth, Obata +
Kassabaum)

An interior view of King Khalid International Airport, 1982.
-The spectacular
roof design was
inspired by the
indigenous palm
tree.
-Natural light is
tremendously
accommodated
in the interiors

The ARC Office Building, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Abiat Architects, Egypt, 2011.

-The Arc occupies a prime location site of
about 5250 square meters of area in a
newly developed neighborhood of Jeddah.
-It is an office building composed of a
basement, ground, first, and second floor
with a total area of 11000 square meters.
-The net rentable area of 5800 square
meters is composed of 20 basic flexible
office space units that can be joined
according to the market requirements.

-Each unit has a separate entrance opening
directly to the outside and extends from
the basement to the second floor having
its own private parking spaces and roof
terrace overlooking the nearby Red Sea
coast, thus perfectly applying the concept
of an “independent office villa”.
-Morphologically, the result is a fan shaped
mass sculpted by a 3dimentional folding
plane.

-Glass boxes screened by operable
aluminum tight meshes. Environmentally,
-The aluminum lattices wrapping the office
boxes are fully adjustable and dividable
into numerous sun breakers panels that
can fold and slide each independently
reaching a complete perpendicular
position to the building’s façades. In that
way, both opposing goals of protecting the
building’s occupants from the severe

western sun, as well as of allowing them to
enjoy the adjacent Red Sea view are
successfully reconciled and achievable
according to those occupants’ will.
- Culturally, the folding plane wrapping the
office boxes is clad in local beige stone and
continuously metamorphoses from floors
to walls and roofs, symbolizing the
geographical and traditional values
inherent in the buildings context and

deeply shared by its different tenants no
matter their apparent diversity may seem.
The operable sun breaking system is an
abstract modern recall of the traditional
system of the mashrabiahs.

3- Deconstructivism
London Metropolitan University, Graduate Centre, Holloway Road, London by
Daniel Libeskind, 2004
-The French
Philosopher Jacqes
Derrida has
commenced the idea
of Deconstructivism in
the year 1980.
- architects depended
on the structural
treatment of surfaces
and the adoption of
shapes that don’t have
linear lines and form
that don’t have linear
edges to produce
buildings characterized
by massive volumes

3- Deconstructivism
The Crystal addition the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) at the intersection of Bloor St.
and Queen's Park in Toronto, designed by Daniel Libeskind
and distorted
architectural design
elements.
-The boredom and
dullness of many
repetitive and
monotonous building
forms had lead to the
emergence of
intellectual revolution
searching for
whatever new in
architecture.

3- Deconstructivism
The Library & Learning Centre – University of Economics & Business Vienna designed
by Zaha Hadid Architects is located in Austria
It is only architecture
gumptious
intellectuals have the
ability to extract
pearls from the
oceans of ancient
architecture that
composes a great deal
of rich and precious
ideas.
Deconstructivism,
which was clearly
known due to its rapid
spread in the
eightieth, could never

3- Deconstructivism
be understood
without linking it to
the twentieth of the
19th modernism,
precisely when going
back to analyze the
Monument to the
Third International,
which was designed in
1919 by Vladimir
Tatlin.
- The Sculpturalism
design form was an
interpretation to what
affected the society

3- Deconstructivism
such as economical
disability, which was
symbolized by the
tumbling and
imbalanced form that
was considered as a
continuation of the
Russian Bolshevism
ideas.

3- Deconstructivism
such as economical
disability, which was
symbolized by the
tumbling and
imbalanced form that
was considered as a
continuation of the
Russian Bolshevism
ideas.
- Tatlin's constructivist
tower was to be built
from industrial
materials: iron, glass
and steel. In materials,
shape, and function, it

3- Deconstructivism
was envisaged as a
towering symbol of
modernity leaning
450.
-It would have
dwarfed the Eiffel
Tower in Paris. The
tower's main form
was a twin helix which
spiraled up to 400 m
in height, around
which visitors would
be transported with
the aid of various
mechanical devices.

3- Deconstructivism
The main framework
would contain four
large suspended
geometric structures.
These structures would
rotate at different rates
of speed. At the base
of the structure was a
cube which was
designed as a venue
for lectures,
conferences and
legislative meetings,
and this would
complete a rotation in
the span of one year.

3- Deconstructivism
Above the cube would
be a smaller pyramid
housing executive
activities and
completing a rotation
once a month. Further
up would be a
cylinder, which was to
house an information
centre, issuing news
bulletins and
manifestos via
telegraph, radio and
loudspeaker, and
would complete a
rotation once a day.

3- Deconstructivism
At the top, there
would be a
hemisphere for radio
equipment. There
were also plans to
install a gigantic
open-air screen on
the cylinder, and a
further projector
which would be able
to cast messages
across the clouds on
any overcast day.

3- Deconstructivism
It was designed to
make people recall
the dream of the
Tower of Babel. Tatlin
wanted all countries
to use this expressive
edifice. It is
unfortunate that this
edifice was made out
of empty tins and
cigarettes packets to
represent how
construction could be
coupled with the
dynamism of mass
movement.

3- Deconstructivism
The architects of the
eightieth referred
back in their works to
the structural and
mechanical concept
of Constructivism
which was inspired
by Vladimir Tatlin’s
Monument to the
Third International.
Many works evolved
from Tatlin’s edifice
then followed with
cheap

3- Deconstructivism
and simple structure
construction
elements either
firmly tied or not.
-This new
architectural
movement is a
continuation of Post
Modernism ideas.
Post Modernism
architects called for
perfection in
architectural works,

3- Deconstructivism
whereas
Deconstructivism
architects called for
disturbed Perfection,
which become the
formal imperatives
for Deconstructivism
of which buildings
are partially scattered
and expressed to
come out with vivid
architectonic
reflecting the random
social directions

3- Deconstructivism
(Similar to what
Tatlin’s edifice
reflected).
Deconstructivism is
as well an expression
to the impossible
careworn attempt to
create an
uncountable feelings
that characterize the
present global village
(Globalization).

Lectures; theory of architecture iv arch 246 i

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