Casa Batllo : The House of Bones
Restored and remodeled by the Spanish modernist architect Antoni Gaudi in the years 1905–1907, Casa Batllo is now one the most overlooked buildings by the tourists who visit Barcelona.Although Casa Batllo is a museum now, Gaudi designed it for for a wealthy Barcelona Aristocrat.
The local name for the building is Casa dels ossos (House of Bones), and indeed it does have a visceral, skeletal organic quality.
The National Aquatics Center in Beijing.
“…The Water Cube was initially designed by PTW Architects (an Australia Architectural company) [2], CSCEC International Design and Arup with structural Engineers Arup conceiving the structure. The structure was built by CSCEC (China State Construction Engineering Corporation). Comprising a steel space frame, it is the largest ETFE clad structure in the world with over 100,000 m² of ETFE pillows that are only eight one-thousandths of an inch in total thickness,[3] The ETFE cladding allows more light and heat penetration than traditional glass, resulting in a 30% decrease in energy costs[3].
The outer wall is based on the Weaire-Phelan structure, a foam (structure formed by soap bubbles).[4] The pattern is formed by taking a slice through the foam, and it was chosen in preference to the Kelvin foam because the more complex Weaire-Phelan structure results in more irregular, organic patterns than slices through the regular Kelvin foam.[5]
The structure will have a capacity of 17,000[3]during the games that will be reduced to 6,000 afterwards. It also has a total land surface of 65,000 square metres and will cover a total of 7.8 acres (32,000 m²)[3]…”
You know, I think religion is a memetic meta-parasite. One that, with luck, will eventually fade into extinction.
But damn, if religion doesn’t inspire some cool architecture:
Via levelhead.
