What's Up With All The Death Stars?
It's a case of life imitating art as Death Stars sprout around the globe and the inevitable looms as competing Galactic Empires will surely annihilate the planet. Rem Koolhaas strikes first with a new scheme for Dubai. It's like Manhattan...but way more futuristic and in the desert:
[Image via NYT]
The 44-story sphere is actually a "a self-contained three-dimensional urban neighborhood" containing smaller spheres joined together by a series of tubes. As is their nature, OMA seem to be establishing a new intra-office archetype (quick, call the patent office!), as this scheme is not entirely dissimilar from the one they visited with the RAK Convention and Exhibition Centre.
[Image via OMA]
The RAK is a scheme so original, it's actually Original - as in primoridal. In the architect's words: "the sphere and the bar explicitly abandon claims to formal invention or 'originality'. (The sphere even existed before man itself...) Yet both geometries still continue to feed the architectural imagination: perfectly autonomous shapes, within their bounds the promise of a perfect world."
Moving on, it's time to forget about 5-star hotels, because Heerim Architects have designed what appears to be a Death Star Hotel in Baku, Azerbaijain:
[Image via Inhabitat]
The rendering is a bit misleading though, as this isn't a sphere at all. It's more of a disk - a Death Palette if you will. Way less terrifying, and way less likely to engineer a complete takeover of the universe.
And just for good measure, let's include the original piece of interstellar architecture that inspired these bold new designs:
[Image via George Lucas' brain]
Oh, and just so this post isn't ENTIRELY without academic reference, consider this sentence the obligatory Boullee reference.
· City on the Gulf: Koolhaas Lays Out a Grand Urban Experiment in Dubai [NY Times]
· Death Star Lunar Hotel in Baku, Azerbaijan [Inhabitat]
· Otto Wagner and The Millennium Falcon [Life Without Buildings]
· OMA will Eat Itself [Life Without Buildings]
[Image via NYT]The 44-story sphere is actually a "a self-contained three-dimensional urban neighborhood" containing smaller spheres joined together by a series of tubes. As is their nature, OMA seem to be establishing a new intra-office archetype (quick, call the patent office!), as this scheme is not entirely dissimilar from the one they visited with the RAK Convention and Exhibition Centre.
[Image via OMA]The RAK is a scheme so original, it's actually Original - as in primoridal. In the architect's words: "the sphere and the bar explicitly abandon claims to formal invention or 'originality'. (The sphere even existed before man itself...) Yet both geometries still continue to feed the architectural imagination: perfectly autonomous shapes, within their bounds the promise of a perfect world."
Moving on, it's time to forget about 5-star hotels, because Heerim Architects have designed what appears to be a Death Star Hotel in Baku, Azerbaijain:
[Image via Inhabitat]The rendering is a bit misleading though, as this isn't a sphere at all. It's more of a disk - a Death Palette if you will. Way less terrifying, and way less likely to engineer a complete takeover of the universe.
And just for good measure, let's include the original piece of interstellar architecture that inspired these bold new designs:
[Image via George Lucas' brain]Oh, and just so this post isn't ENTIRELY without academic reference, consider this sentence the obligatory Boullee reference.
· City on the Gulf: Koolhaas Lays Out a Grand Urban Experiment in Dubai [NY Times]
· Death Star Lunar Hotel in Baku, Azerbaijan [Inhabitat]
· Otto Wagner and The Millennium Falcon [Life Without Buildings]
· OMA will Eat Itself [Life Without Buildings]
BLOCK BY BLOCK: JANE JACOBS & THE FUTURE OF NEW YORK - Poignant and personal, these brief recounts and interpretations of Jane Jacobs ideas illustrate the widespread impact and influence of her ideas.
SPACE METS ART / ART MEETS SPACE - This sexy monograph published by Victionary presents a series of striking exhibition spaces that demonstrate the intersection of graphics, multimedia, structure and architecture.
VERB: NATURES - Nature meets technology in this, Actar's latest Verb Boogazine. Presenting some of the most striking projects to grace the pages of the series, the work presented in Natures attempts to give us a new way to understand of our environment.
BEST AMERICAN COMICS 2007 - Guest Editor Chris Ware assembles an absolutely fantastic collection of the year's best in comics and introduced me to several new cartoonists, including the breathtaking work of Anders Nilsen.
2G BOOKS: LACATON VASSAL - I can't say enough good things about Lacaton Vassal and this catalog seems to be the only collection of their work. Great photos, great interviews, and some very beautiful, very original work
Comments on "What's Up With All The Death Stars?"
-
Marc Joseph @YoungArchitect.net said ... (3:05 PM) :
-
bryan said ... (6:34 PM) :
-
Avi said ... (10:37 PM) :
-
Hotel photographer said ... (8:23 PM) :
-
Megan Lubaszka said ... (8:43 PM) :
post a commentI completely agree. WTF is up with this death star craze? Where is it even coming from?
they could at least have giant laser beams if they're going to ape the deathstar...
Will Jedi training be provided?
Impressive. It could be nice to be there to take some pictures... But it seems too fake.
this is a really beautiful sphere competition entry
http://www.esaruskeepaa.com/jeongok-ri.htm