Test your Design IQ
MANILA, Philippines – Who is the Berlin-based contemporary architect known for works that are at the intersection of architecture, communication and new technology?
His works include the Mestia Airport in Georgia, the Metropol Parasol in Seville Spain, the Curiosity Center in Denmark, and the new Apartmenthouse Johannisstrause in Berlin.
He studied at Stuttgart Univeristy, the Cooper Union, and Princeton, and founded his own architectural firm bearing his name in 1996. With this many talents in architecture and other fields, his works encompass urban planning, buildings, installation work, and objects with new materials.
Known for a signature style that he famously calls “beyond the blob,” he first tested his innovative ideas on a larger scale with the Stadt.Haus in Stuttgart. Merging architecture with interactive technologies, the building explored the relationship between the so-called virtual town hall and the actual built town hall. The Stadt.Haus project also demonstrated his concern for linking the interior with the urban context and the landscape. This was achieved by installing an artificial rain canopy and a series of light sculptures that registered the wind’s movement.
Since that time, this works have become landmarks in European cities with their digital inspirations, sinuous curves, and crystal like growths that turn each work into an architectural masterpiece.
In the Metropol Parasol in Seville, Spain, parasols grow out of an archeological excavation site into a contemporary landmark. With his redevelopment of the Plaza de Encarnacion in Seville, this project becomes the new icon for Seville, re-establishing the city as one of Spain’s most fascinating cultural destinations.
The newly built airport in Mestia, Georgia, we see his characteristic folding calligraphy as white surfaces run parallel to each other bending upwards, sandwiching its volume, simulating ski slopes that disappear in the snow. This three-slab choreography that twists and turns upwards, accenting the fluidity of interior space, is part of Georgia’s plans to develop tourism in Mestia, a beautiful medieval town with its stone defensive towers that are part of UNESCO’s list of World Heritage sites that is also famous as a ski resort.
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Last week’s question: Where is Peterhof located?
Answer: St. Petersburg, Russia
Winner: Joel J. Mendoza of Caloocan City
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