Ballardian architecture thread
- Thread starter chava
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ver$hy ver$h
Well-known member
JG Ballard on modernists and death
The modernists wanted to strip the world of mystery and emotion. No wonder they excelled at the architecture of death, says JG Ballard.
www.theguardian.com
chava
Well-known member
Not recent, but I kinda like this:
www.dezeen.com
Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye sunk in Danish fjord
Asmund Havsteen-Mikkelsen has sunk a scale model of one of Le Corbusier's most famous buildings in a Danish fjord, as a statement about the Brexit vote and Donald Trump's election.
www.dezeen.com
hmg
Victory lap
Saudi Arabia reveals plans for 100-mile-long linear city named 'The Line'
World Architecture Community News - Saudi Arabia reveals plans for 100-mile-long linear city named 'The Line'
worldarchitecture.org
woops
is not like other people
amazing. there are outright morlock and eloi levelsNot recent, but I kinda like this:
Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye sunk in Danish fjord
Asmund Havsteen-Mikkelsen has sunk a scale model of one of Le Corbusier's most famous buildings in a Danish fjord, as a statement about the Brexit vote and Donald Trump's election.
woops
is not like other people
oops the diagram is actually from this articleSaudi Arabia reveals plans for 100-mile-long linear city named 'The Line'
World Architecture Community News - Saudi Arabia reveals plans for 100-mile-long linear city named 'The Line'
chava
Well-known member
Apparently they will begin developing this year. Madness. But maybe this is how to deal with the urban sprawl problem. I'd preferred erecting city walls again, but that proposal seems like a lost cause in European cities.
The layered layout, however, is just another iteration of the failed functionalism of post-war urban planning.
Then again I suppose there do exist people on this planet longing for a smart home in a smart city with MBS at the control panel.
The layered layout, however, is just another iteration of the failed functionalism of post-war urban planning.
Then again I suppose there do exist people on this planet longing for a smart home in a smart city with MBS at the control panel.
ver$hy ver$h
Well-known member
chava
Well-known member
Idk if this is Ballardian, but I am on a dystopian architecture trip at the moment so I guess this could fit in here:
www.wired.com
The Vast Housing Developments of Mexico's Failed Experiment
Aerial shots of these housing developments reveal an indifference to human needs
ver$hy ver$h
Well-known member
Tracking the Locations of J.G. Ballard’s Super-Cannes - DesignObserver
A photo-essay on the futuristic marina and business park in the south of France that inspired Ballard’s disquieting fantasy about corporate crime
designobserver.com
woops
is not like other people
This thread is shaping up with the photos. I remember seeing La Grande Motte on maps when I was living in the south of France, but I gravitated more toward a seaside town called Palavas-les-Flots, perhaps out of some atavistic attraction to Blackpool, the main seaside town in Lancashire where I grew up.
ver$hy ver$h
Well-known member
Love this one,
Great description in the article too,
"The site’s concrete immensity and inwardness are certainly Ballardian. Geraniums, agapanthus, bougainvillea and prickly pear colonize the balconies in these becalmed residential towers, where no life seemed to stir, and palm trees flourish on some of the stepped aerial platforms. From some angles, down below at ground level, the complex looks like a blank-surfaced, monumentally futuristic reimagining of a Mesoamerican pyramid, or one of Max Ernst’s petrified lost cities sinking into the jungle. Anything could be going on up there."
woops
is not like other people
yeaH it's a good article. I do remember that there was a lot of odd architecture in that part of the south. there'd be a new school building with rippling curves and glass in the middle of nowhere surrounded by vineyards. i was just looking at pictures of the polygone in montpellier very near where i was living, which is exactly the kind of thing ballard is quoted as hating in the article - mock-classical chaos with green glass everywhere
maybe a bit like wandering round canary wharf while more aware you're in europe. this pic maybe gives a sense of the scale of conception
all the two big circles and colossal arch at the end were new build, distinct from the red roofs of the old city further back.
maybe a bit like wandering round canary wharf while more aware you're in europe. this pic maybe gives a sense of the scale of conception
all the two big circles and colossal arch at the end were new build, distinct from the red roofs of the old city further back.
woops
is not like other people
that massive arch-like bulding at the bottom there reminds me that while the historical centre of paris is more or less untouched, they do have a lot of modern business buildings in La Defence, including an even more mental arch building
relatively neat hausmannised paris in the foreground complete with square. hello owen hatherly hope you're reading this.
relatively neat hausmannised paris in the foreground complete with square. hello owen hatherly hope you're reading this.
ver$hy ver$h
Well-known member
ver$hy ver$h
Well-known member
Anyone got any notable examples of a building or piece of architecture seeming to exert a certain influence?
On the grand scale you've got things like cathedrals inspiring religious awe, but you also get things like certain people's flats or houses where for whatever reason people seem to go particularly nuts.
On the grand scale you've got things like cathedrals inspiring religious awe, but you also get things like certain people's flats or houses where for whatever reason people seem to go particularly nuts.
ver$hy ver$h
Well-known member
There was an abandoned train tunnel which some of my mates and their older brothers explored when we were kids and that had a real aura.
I only ever saw the entrance, but that was enough. It was in this swampy, overgrown trench and all barred off by the time I got round to checking it out.
It's huge in my mind, much bigger than a standard train tunnel.
I only ever saw the entrance, but that was enough. It was in this swampy, overgrown trench and all barred off by the time I got round to checking it out.
It's huge in my mind, much bigger than a standard train tunnel.