De Rotterdam by Office of Metropolitan
Architecture
Another
majestic and great work by the Office of Metropolitan Architecture is
De Rotterdam that is named after a Holland America Line
oceanliner. The 495-foot-high project was named the "winner" of
"Best Tall Building" for the Europe region. It was developed by
MAB and OVG Projectontwikkeling.
The development has three
interconnected mixed-use towers accommodating offices, apartments, a
hotel, retail and conference facilities. The book notes that
"unlike a typical tall building, where the programs are stacked one on
top of another, in De Rotterdam, the functions come in side by side
It suggests that a
jumbling of the bland buildings of Rockefeller West or Embarcadero
Center could create an interesting, perhaps exciting, shifting
"barcode" of urban aesthetics.
The book notes that "De
Rotterdam's stacked towers are arranged in a subtly irregular cluster
that refuses to resolve into a singular form, and produces intriguing
new views from different perspectives."
The jury statement offers the
following commentary:
"De Rotterdam subverts accepted
notions of how a skyscraper is supposed to behave. While the
collective massing suggests a refined and simple monolith, the
slightest change of perspective reveals secondary and tertiary
complexities. Sunsets cascade through the small gaps between the
offset upper volumes, as if the building is some king of ancient
timekeeping device. In certain lights, the towers are shimmering
and immutable, at dusk, they are translucent revealing the K-braces and
other structural interventions required to achieve the impression of
shifted solidity. The translucence also lends levity to the
otherwise massive building, re-confirming its daytime appearance as the
sail of a large ship while re-inventing it at night as a box lantern at
the harbor's end."
The book's introduction also added:
"The Europe winner, De Rotterdam,
is a deceptively straightforward project that appears as a
reinterpretation of a multi-tower project from the High Modern era in
North America, but then reveals myriad subtleties as one's viewing
angle changes, and as day changes to night. The Netherlands' now
largest building breaks down its scale by shifting the upper portions
of its three towers slightly off-center, which seems a curious
and minor intervention until nightime backlightning reveals the
structural acrobatics required to accomplish this.
Wangjing Soho in
Beijing by Zaha Hadid
Built
by SOHO China Co. Ltd., the spectacular, three-towered Wangjing Soho in
Beijing is one of Zaha Hadid's greatest creations. All three
towers, the tallest of which is 656 feet tall, are clad with bright
alumimum thin bands that horizontally recall the voluptuous pleats of
fashion designer Fortuny. "Wangjing SOHO creates some of those
stop-dead moments for the Beijing visitor - sculptural mountains in the
middle of the city," according to Antony Wood, one of the council's
jurors. The building was a "finalist" in the Asia and Australasia
regions.
The Jockey Club Innovation Tower by Hadid
Guangzhou Circle in
China
The
453-foot-high Guangzhou Circle building in China was developed by Guang
Dong Hong He Construction and designed by AMproject.
The book contains the following commentary:
"The 'Bi' disc is one of China's most enduring symbols, with a history
going back 5,000 years. Here, set alongside the Zhujiang River,
the reflections of the disc-shaped structure forms a figure '8' in the
water, also an enduring symbol of good fortune....It is the south gate
of Guangzhou, and by extensions, for all of China, as the city is a
terminus for ferry boats and high-speed rail."
The building's form conjures a frozen ferris wheel.