This edition of Section D, Monocle 24's weekly review of design, architecture and craft, travels to Indonesia’s third city Bandung, where former architect and current Mayor Ridwan Kamil "is transforming public space." The show also takes a tour of three early 20th-century apartment buildings in Montreal, and hears from Neri & Hu Design and Research Office in Shanghai.
Shanghai: The Latest Architecture and News
Monocle 24's 'Section D' Explores Public Space in Bandung and Housing in Montreal
The Top 10 Most Impactful Skylines
Emporis, a German company that collects and distributes information on construction and the built environment, has released a ranking of the world’s 100 most visually impactful skylines, using statistical analysis to address a topic often made frustratingly subjective by civic pride.
To create the rankings, Emporis used data from its archives to determine the number of high-rise buildings in the cities it studied, and applied a points system that gave each building a numerical value determined by the number of floors it has. To standardize their ranking process, the points system ignores spires and other ornament, and does not include television or antenna towers, masts, bridges, or similar architecture.
Of the top 10 most impactful skylines, seven are in Asia, while North and South America combined have the other three. Notably, cities filled with rich architectural history fail to make the list, or fall surprisingly low in the rankings; London is number 44, Paris is ranked 66, and Rome does not make the cut.
To see the top ten skylines, read on after the break, and click here to see Emporis' complete list.
Family Box / Crossboundaries
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Architects: Crossboundaries
- Year: 2015
Keep It Glassy 2 / Coordination Asia
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Architects: Coordination Asia
- Area: 1000 m²
- Year: 2015
An Interview With Zhang Bin, Atelier Z+
"It’s really easy to build a building. From the very beginning to the realization; it’s very easy! You just give it an interesting form and you get approved. But the real issues are how to make it user-friendly and to enhance the quality of the life of the people trying to escape the influence of the “system”. That’s the challenge. In my experience […] I’ve learned that for architects, both Chinese and foreign, the use of form to create an object is easy but how to do the right thing is very challenging."
- Zhang Bin, Shanghai, Sept 2013
The Architectural Lab: A History Of World Expos
World Expos have long been important in advancing architectural innovation and discourse. Many of our most beloved monuments were designed and constructed specifically for world’s fairs, only to remain as iconic fixtures in the cities that host them. But what is it about Expos that seem to create such lasting architectural landmarks, and is this still the case today? Throughout history, each new Expo offered architects an opportunity to present radical ideas and use these events as a creative laboratory for testing bold innovations in design and building technology. World’s fairs inevitably encourage competition, with every country striving to put their best foot forward at almost any cost. This carte blanche of sorts allows architects to eschew many of the programmatic constraints of everyday commissions and concentrate on expressing ideas in their purest form. Many masterworks such as Mies van der Rohe’s German Pavilion (better known as the Barcelona Pavilion) for the 1929 Barcelona International Exposition are so wholeheartedly devoted to their conceptual approach that they could only be possible in the context of an Exposition pavilion.
To celebrate the opening of Expo Milano 2015 tomorrow, we’ve rounded up a few of history’s most noteworthy World Expositions to take a closer look at their impact on architectural development.
Shanghai Natural History Museum / Perkins+Will
Poggenpohl Shanghai Studio / Office for Flying Architecture
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Architects: Office for Flying Architecture
- Area: 2200 m²
- Year: 2014
Student Accommodation / Wuyang Architecture
Video: Rob Whitworth, Stunning Cities in Hyperlapse
Witness the urban life of five stunning metropolises through the lens of Rob Whitworth with these "Vimeo Staff Pick" hyperlapse videos. From the unexplored urban life of the North Korean capital Pyongyang to the towering skyline of Dubai, each video explores an incredible sequence of daily living in cities across the planet. See more, including video from Kuala Lumpur and Shanghai, after the break.
Ennead Tapped to Design Shanghai Planetarium
Ennead Architects has won an international competition to design the Shanghai Planetarium. The “celestial” design hopes to elevate the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum’s (SSTM) “scientific and technological capacity” while redefine the district Lingang upon its completion in 2018.
“Drawing inspiration form astronomical principles, our design strategy provides a platform for the experience of orbital motion, and utilizes that as a metaphorical reference and generator of form,” says Ennead Architects.
Flask - The Press / Alberto Caiola
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Architects: Alberto Caiola
- Area: 130 m²
- Year: 2014
Songjiang Art Campus / Archi-Union Architects
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Architects: Archi-Union Architects
- Area: 150000 m²
- Year: 2015
Lone Ranger Hot Dog Shop / Linehouse
Kids Museum Of Glass / Coordination Asia
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Architects: Coordination Asia
- Area: 2000 m²
- Year: 2015
Office around a Tree / Lukstudio
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Architects: Lukstudio
- Area: 133 m²
- Year: 2014
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Professionals: Shanghai Dong Yuan
Waterfront Restaurant / Pro-Form Architects
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Architects: Pro-Form Architects
- Area: 1500 m²
- Year: 2012