I love me a good science center, but I particularly like it when the actual building manages to educate as much as the exhibits inside do. Case in point, the The Swiss Technorama Science Center in Winterthur, Switzerland. Way back in 2002 they hired Ned Kahn to design a unique facade for the building which consisted of thousands of small aluminum panels that move with the air currents revealing the patterns of turbulence in the winds. Obviously the still shots don’t do it justice, so if you have a few minutes I highly recommend checking out the video below to see it in action, it’s quite hypnotic.
While it’s not the first underwater hotel (that honor goes to the Poseidon in Fiji) a new hotel being built in Istanbul hopes to set itself apart from its competitors since it’s being built on the ruins of a historical 1930s tobacco factory in the city center. The hotel will have 7 floors all underwater and every room will have a view of the sea. Of course no one’s really sure how great that view will actually be since local experts claim the visibility in the Istanbul Bosporus Strait is only about 10 feet.
However the hotel is on track for a 2010 opening, which will coincide with the city taking over from Linz, Austria as the Cultural Capital of Europe. It’s being build by Tanriverdi Holding who have promised a multi-million dollar budget to ensure the hotel is finished to 7-star standards, and that it’s also 100% waterproof.
I know what you’re thinking, the neighbors must love this guy, but it’s not what you think. This isn’t one of those ‘tacky Christmas decorations all year round’ kind of house. In fact the building and an adjacent one have been used for exhibition space and art classes for over 30 years and they’re both scheduled to be torn down to make way for a new larger structure.
So as a final farewell to the buildings local Houston artists Dan Havel and Dean Ruck turned them into an art installation known as ‘Inversion.’ Using boards from the outside of the houses they created a large funnel-like vortex running between the two that ends in a small hole in an adjacent courtyard. It’s a cool effect particularly for those who always wanted to experience a black hole without the whole ‘being crushed to a quantum singularity’ end result.
Unfortunately if you were hoping to catch a glimpse of the Tunnel House in person you’re probably too late. The public opening for the installation was held on May 21 and the houses were set to be demolished in early June. But there’s nothing stopping you from doing this to your own home.
(Update: Thanks to Alex for clarifying that the house was actually created and torn down in 2005.)
Ok, so the building itself is not actually floating but the unique design of this apartment building gives the impression there’s not much holding up the residential dwellings. Created by the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (or OMA) the Singapore Scotts Tower will be a 36 story, 153 meter tall tower located in the city’s shopping and lifestyle district and will include 68 high-end apartments.
The building’s design includes four individual apartment towers that are vertically offset from each other and suspended from a central core tower which is what makes it appear as if they’re floating. Besides being photo fodder for every tourist with a camera the lifted towers also reduce the building’s footprint leaving more room for park space and other leisure-related structures on the main floors.
I’ll agree that the building looks slick but I wonder how many potential customers are actually turned off by imaginative designs like this? I’m sure the engineering behind it is completely sound but people no longer have the feeling that tall buildings are indestructible given past events. (No matter how unique those events were.)
Related Tags: Architecture, Design, Educational
Permalink
By Andrew Liszewski
