Arch 1101 2019
The Fifth Element is set in New York around 250 years from today (2259)
THE MOVIE HAS ARCHITECTURE AS ONE OF ITS STARS.
New York in this time is not seen as some modern gleaming futuristic metropolis and with complete rebuttal of current architectural ideas, but instead is just a continuation of the current Architectural ideas built on top of existing buildings, thus making the city more vertical than it currently is.
The architectural styles of New York, such as Art Deco and its classical influences are still continued but just on a larger and grander scale. You can still note classical and heritage styles of architecture, such as arches, pediments and parapets.
To survive the increased density, traffic is also raised to elevated sky paths on top of each other.
We don’t see any other cities, so we are not able to figure if this occurs all over USA, or only New Year due to its current limitations, being on an island.
What also is part of the architecture is that there is no attempt to generate a new modern world in the future. Instead the architecture is dirty, gritty, grey and brown coloured, all of which are uncleaned. The city is chaotic and grubby, and not this well mannered, ordered and peaceful world that many sci-fi movies tend to convey.
One could say being a continuation of the status quo one currently perceives New York as being.
Clothing and fashion though has immensely changed, but architecture seems to not have evolved in a similar manner.
House X clearly shows a strong use of Axonometric as part of the design development.
Being able to visualize a three-dimensional shape is a very important skill that an Architects needs to comprehend and the use of Axonometric is a very useful drawings tool, especially in this design.
As you can see with the images, you are able to get 2x elevations and the roof plane in a single drawing.
With the complex shape of House X, the use of Axonometric also is able to give you a strong understanding of the relief of the design, showing areas that are recessed and also where others protrude.
Although elevations are also a useful too, they are only able to provide a single facet of the design, while an Axonometric is able to provide more.
With a design like House X, showing a strong rectangular shape, axonometric was a very useful methodology to represent this design in a drawing.
This building was designed by Architectural firm Snøhetta, who are based in both NYC and Oslo. What makes this building great in my opinion is how as a Scandinavian building is able to capture what a public building should be. They way people are able to walk over it and interact with it, and how it then flows to the water, which is such a critical part of Norwegian heritage.
It’s such an accessible building to people and that what public architecture is about.
The shape some have said is reminiscent of a piece of ice sliding into the water, which again is something Norwegians would be very accustomed too as part of their landscape.
Inside there are excellent views to the waters edge and a high use of timber, which is a material used frequently in the Norwegian architectural vernacular. I love the way in which this building internally defines the main theatre in timber and then the use of the external skin in glass. You end up with two distinct elements, which although are so different, yet work together to form the colonnade around the building.
I was in Norway when they were building this and have always wanted to go back and see the finished product.
This building was designed by Louis Sullivan, an Architect from the USA. This building was designed as a bank in 1908. Louis Sullivan loved the notion of being true to materials, so that stone should read as stone and has all the compression and feeling of loading that stone does.When you see a painted piece of timber, it always reads as a painted finish.
Sullivan worked in the mid-west USA, and was famous for his ‘jewel box’ bank designs.
This building takes classical elements, such as the arch and uses them in a modern appreciation. We all see a bank as being a timeless solid institution, and this building still achieves this in my opinion, but in a modern contemporary manner.
This is a good use of semiotic and the use of signs and symbols in the design and its interpretation. I suggest you read up on this as it is a common approach to architecture, especially if you designing a church, synagogue mosque etc where there is meaning in virtually everything.
Although the building is built in that architectural period of high ornamentation, you still are able to get a classic timeless, even modern feel to the building.
Look at the photo of the interiors and those arched windows, and how the light just flows into bank. The way in which the windows frame the light and the outside world in amazing. Light is such a critical tool for the architect.
This house is near the Blue Mountains of Sydney and was designed by Peter Stuchbury. This house in my opinion works off the Australian vernacular to generate a modern new home. The way it hugs the landscape, like a rock on the edge of a hilly cliff. The use of the steel cladding reminiscent of a old Australian shearing shed. The use of concrete/masonry to relate the rocky nature of the landscape really make it work in the Australian context.
There is a small central open are with a fire pit that would be such a lovely spot to sit in the winter months, again tying back to this Australian ethos of the campfire.
This is the Robie House in Chicago by Frank Lloyd Wright (FLW) and was built in 1910, although many people when they look at it today would say it was built in the 1970’s, and this shows how advanced the theoretic
This is the Robie House in Chicago by Frank Lloyd Wright (FLW) and was built in 1910, although many people when they look at it today would say it was built in the 1970’s, and this shows how advanced the theoretical approach that FLW had to architecture.
This is what was called the Prairie Style of housing, designed for large flat blocks in the mid west of USA.
With this house, every part of the house has detail and is well thought out. FLW always makes it clear of his intentions and the houses are so clear to read and understand. When you enter there is a really small door/entry, which FLW wants you to experience that, then you enter a room that plays with light and natural/artificial comparisons.
FLW likes to play with the light in the house, and you have windows with stained glass, therefore you get light, but you also get patterns to the windows.
I love the dining room. FLW designed the chairs to the dining table that have high-backs, so that when you are sitting around the table, the back of the chairs forms the smaller enclosed volume from which there would be a more intimate and personal space to be with your family or close friends.
al approach that FLW had to architecture.This is what was called the Prairie Style of housing, designed for large flat blocks in the mid west of USA.
With this house, every part of the house has detail and is well thought out. FLW always makes it clear of his intentions and the houses are so clear to read and understand. When you enter there is a really small door/entry, which FLW wants you to experience that, then you enter a room that plays with light and natural/artificial comparisons.
FLW likes to play with the light in the house, and you have windows with stained glass, therefore you get light, but you also get patterns to the windows.
I love the dining room. FLW designed the chairs to the dining table that have high-backs, so that when you are sitting around the table, the back of the chairs forms the smaller enclosed volume from which there would be a more intimate and personal space to be with your family or close friends.