1,720,964 research outputs found
Starchitecture: Scenes, Actors and Spectacles in Contemporary Cities
No full textHow and why do spectacular buildings get commissioned and procured? What are their visible urban effects? What can urban planners, architects, and policymakers learn in order to engage in more successful citymaking?
In recent years, media and critical attention has been lavished on famous architects, and the contributions of their designs to the branding of cities. The post-“Bilbao effect” global landscape is one where cities compete for the highest-profile skyscrapers, cultural projects, and high-profile developments designed by star architects whom even casual readers know by first name: Frank Gehry, Bjarke Ingels, Jean Nouvel, Zaha Hadid, Norman Foster, Rem Koolhaas. Far less is known about the decision-making processes behind these projects and their subsequent urban effects.
A unique combination of urban studies and photography, Starchitecture investigates projects designed by star architects in cities including Paris, New York, Abu Dhabi, Bilbao, and the architectural microcosm of the Vitra campus in Weil am Rhein, Germany. Author Davide Ponzini and photographer Michele Nastasi seek to explain and critique a growing global condition by revealing how starchitecture has been and continues to be deployed in cities around the world. The arguments they raise are vital to understanding the urban landscapes of today, and tomorrow
Città d'immagini : fotografia e paesaggi in trasformazione: skyline, rendering, icone
No full textLe immagini fotografiche giocano oggi un ruolo attivo nei processi di trasformazione delle città in senso iconico e spettacolare. Seguendo la nozione di "artialization" (la natura imita l'arte), i paesaggi delle città contemporanee possono essere interpretati come il risultato di processi correlati alla produzione e alla circolazione di fotografie: ciò avviene sia in termini di creazione di un immaginario, attraverso una serie di modelli che informano la nostra interpretazione dei paesaggi urbani e ne orientano le trasformazioni, sia nei termini di mutamenti fisici e tangibili dell’architettura e dei suoi contesti. La relazione tra le immagini fotografiche, l'architettura iconica e la tendenza alla spettacolarizzazione del paesaggio urbano è qui indagata attraverso tre parole chiave - lo skyline, il rendering, le icone -, tre categorie interpretative che strutturano i capitoli principali della tesi e permettono di approfondire e comprendere criticamente le caratteristiche delle immagini stesse e il ruolo che esse ricoprono nella diffusione dell'architettura spettacolare nelle città contemporanee. La tesi è corredata da una serie di casi studio presentati in forma di atlante di immagini, e da un apparato di oltre trenta interviste a studiosi e professionisti (fotografi, "renderers", direttori di riviste, blog e siti web di settore), che risponde alla necessità di esaminare l’immagine dell’architettura contemporanea nell’insieme delle sue diverse manifestazioni
Starchitecture. Scene, attori e spettacoli nelle città contemporanee
No full textArchitetti e progettisti di fama internazionale sono spesso chiamati a progettare edifici esteticamente esuberanti, ma anche a realizzare programmi di rigenerazione di grandi aree urbane, o a ridefinire l'immagine di intere città. La retorica del 'Bilbao effect' è ormai diffusa in tutto il mondo e le città competono nel collezionare architetture spettacolari, in molti casi prestando scarsa attenzione alla complessità dell'ambiente urbano e alle reali condizioni locali. Nei dibattiti pubblici e accademici, l'architettura firmata è raramente messa in discussione nelle sue molteplici implicazioni urbane. In Starchitecture un urbanista e un fotografo esplorano le trasformazioni più spettacolari di importanti città contemporanee. Basato su un corpus fotografico originale e sull'analisi critica di dozzine di progetti ed edifici firmati a Bilbao, Abu Dhabi, Parigi, New York e in altri luoghi, questo libro documenta e spiega come la 'star architecture' incida sullo sviluppo delle città. I temi approfonditi grazie a questo approccio si rivelano fondamentali per comprendere i paesaggi urbani di oggi e di domani
The City of Renderings. Photorealism, spectacle and abstraction in contemporary urban landscapes
Full text linkPhotorealistic renderings of architectural designs are now pervasive in media of every kind
and regarded as indispensable in the world of architecture at every level. They occupy a
space between architecture and photography whose mixing of virtual and real, production
and re-production, entails a series of implicit premises and results that are generally taken
for granted, conveying a markedly spectacular vision of the city and of architecture. After
discussing the reasons for the growing use of photorealism in architecture, the paper
presents and analyzes the main categories of photorealistic renderings and their recurrent
characteristics, with the aim of showing how the most evident aspects of these images
correspond to a range of tendencies in contemporary architecture. The essay, in addition,
puts forward some reflections on the relationship between photorealistic renderings and
architecture, the reality of construction and society
Toward a photographic urbanism?: Images iconizing cities and swaying urban transformation
No full textToday, the circulation of images of iconic architectural projects is a visible part of broader transnational mobilities of urban policies, investments, expertise, and people. Through images of their places and future projects, cities compete to stand out on the global scene and the presence of iconic buildings in these promoted imaginaries often follows a trend of spectacularizing the urban environment. Easily recognizable urban and architectural projects typically have a high figural profile and, we argue, their images can serve as a reference for a broader understanding of urban transformation. In this sense, iconicity contributes to accelerating the representational, symbolic, and market values of buildings and sites, rather than considering their actual use and meanings for citizens, and city users. Cities competing for a place in the global imagination through architecture strongly lever photographic images that are generally perceived as objective representations of the urban and architectural environment. In this chapter, we investigate three main categories of photographic representation: pictures taken by amateurs and tourists as souvenirs of their travels; photographs produced by professionals for promotional purposes; and photorealistic architectural renderings that anticipate the construction of spectacular projects. We concentrate our attention on recurrent images and types such as the iconic building and the skyscraper as well as the skyline and waterfront, which have come to define many cities around the world. We draw on the extreme case of Dubai – considered a city of distinctive skylines and the setting for the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa – to show how grand-scale architectural and city images concretely shape the urban environment. Other examples of highly iconic cultural buildings set on the waterfront of large-scale urban developments (e.g. the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Louvre in Abu Dhabi) will show how architectural renderings influence public opinion, ease social approval, or stir fierce controversy concentrated primarily on the spectacular rather than on the actual architectural, political, and economic substance of projects, or, again, their use. According to this evidence, one can observe how the virtual imagery of renderings at times substitutes actual projects in the public domain, both locally and internationally. We argue that photographic images of masterplans and iconic buildings not only serve as powerful tools for the recognition of cities, but have also become a sort of model for decision-makers to follow. In this sense, such imaginaries can be considered as drivers for urban transformation, in some instances gradually supplanting other technically informed representations of architecture and the city
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