so, seeing Zaha new mountain train station building thingy got me thinking....
with all the new, non-traditional, custom form that we are now seeing in buildings, what happens when these buildings need to be maintained.
When buildings were boxes, the client / contractor usually ordered a spare piece here and there which could be used to replace broken pieces (I am thinking of glass, for the most part).
Now that every piece of a building can be custom fabricated, what happens five years down the road when you need another super-duper-curvy-wurvy (that is a new term which is being thrown around in the most avant garde architectural scenes right now) piece of glass for your building???
i imagine you'd have to take the original specs to the same fabricator or someone who can do the same kind of one-off thing. Maintaining Ghery's bilbao shouldn't be much of an issue because the cladding are thin standard sheets that are then "stretched" over the frame. His disney concert hall, which seems to have much prettier, thicker, and CATIA-speced panels would probably be a much larger hassle to maintain.
I like this topic.
I often wonder similar things, ...like Polycarbonates seem to collect so much dust, and wind reaks havoc on sht metal panels over time....
also, using cutting edge technology for fabrication can backfire if that technology suddenly becomes obsolete and you need to fix something a few years down the road...
somewhat like the Betamax and Laserdisc phenomonons, in 10 yrs when the buildings need to be fixed people are going to be scrambling to find the one CNC machine still working...
"Now that every piece of a building can be custom fabricated, what happens five years down the road when you need another super-duper-curvy-wurvy"
You ask the actural building frames for reconstruction, or do you mean there will be an end to the options by form, material, new sandwich sheets, Design or engineering ?
One form a particular design, a strange item ; they all will cost the same so to say. in 500 years it will not be about if some particular brick can be made , with n.c. it is other things that is the issue, but no n.c. is cheaper and safer than 3D cutting, and sheets material is something anyone can emagine. Still this new architecture is not at all about architecture, it is about the production, the new jobs the mountain of money, the schools and how math. can mean a brand new perception of things, architecture is to small for this.
fleetwoodmacdaddy, I have seen plenty of boxy buildings in bad condition due to lack of proper maintenance so no excuse here. Doesn’t maintenance always depend on the people being in charge of a building? Either they have the sensibility or not. A different topic is materials and how they age over time and glass / metal seems to be a good choice here. The plastics seem to always disappoint. Has anybody seen that blobby thingy in Graz recently? Curious to see how all that polycarbonate performs over time.
I agree with you about building performance being linked to maintenance. I am just curious how one deals with the inevitable 'broke window' when the window is a custom fabricated, curving in 3 directions, piece of glass
Telecom Italia installed all-glass phone booths years ago, I have seen many of them with missing or scattered panels, they look like s…t, and they where flat pieces, just laminated, you are right it can be a big problem. But then again we are talking Austria here
Anybody seen the museum in Graz recently, please post some images
i wonder if these structures were ever intended to be "maintained." why not just crumple them up and throw them out? sometimes i think we believe architecture to be sacred, but zaha's buildings was never designed to last forever. when one starts to look a little down at the heels, just tear it down.
well, it's a bit more complex than what i'm making it out to be. take a mies building for example. it would absolutely pain me to see one torn down, but the truth is none of his structures were meant to last forever. in fact, no framed building on earth was intended to last forever. but what do you do with the few of these buildings that were truly great? archive and rebuild them? it's going to be a huge preservation question in the next century.
not on the same scale, but when i go to home depot i can't find anything that actually fits or works well with my house when something needs replaced. i have to custom everything! (my house was built in 1950)
one thing you can say about the pyramids is that they were standardized. same goes for the greeks. and even the renaissance italians while not necessarily being standardized were at least modular. there is definitely a relationship between standardization and longevity.
anyone know the full story with the ennis-brown house?...i know there's a 'necter who is a contractor for the repair project...i'm thinking it would be similar to what is happening with that house now. although the ennis brown might be more of an assembly problem, whereas the zaha canopies are a fabrication problem (the assembly was pretty simple)...??
Nov 30, 07 5:37 pm ·
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blobby building upkeep
so, seeing Zaha new mountain train station building thingy got me thinking....
with all the new, non-traditional, custom form that we are now seeing in buildings, what happens when these buildings need to be maintained.
When buildings were boxes, the client / contractor usually ordered a spare piece here and there which could be used to replace broken pieces (I am thinking of glass, for the most part).
Now that every piece of a building can be custom fabricated, what happens five years down the road when you need another super-duper-curvy-wurvy (that is a new term which is being thrown around in the most avant garde architectural scenes right now) piece of glass for your building???
thoughts....
i imagine you'd have to take the original specs to the same fabricator or someone who can do the same kind of one-off thing. Maintaining Ghery's bilbao shouldn't be much of an issue because the cladding are thin standard sheets that are then "stretched" over the frame. His disney concert hall, which seems to have much prettier, thicker, and CATIA-speced panels would probably be a much larger hassle to maintain.
I like this topic.
I often wonder similar things, ...like Polycarbonates seem to collect so much dust, and wind reaks havoc on sht metal panels over time....
also, using cutting edge technology for fabrication can backfire if that technology suddenly becomes obsolete and you need to fix something a few years down the road...
somewhat like the Betamax and Laserdisc phenomonons, in 10 yrs when the buildings need to be fixed people are going to be scrambling to find the one CNC machine still working...
"Now that every piece of a building can be custom fabricated, what happens five years down the road when you need another super-duper-curvy-wurvy"
You ask the actural building frames for reconstruction, or do you mean there will be an end to the options by form, material, new sandwich sheets, Design or engineering ?
One form a particular design, a strange item ; they all will cost the same so to say. in 500 years it will not be about if some particular brick can be made , with n.c. it is other things that is the issue, but no n.c. is cheaper and safer than 3D cutting, and sheets material is something anyone can emagine. Still this new architecture is not at all about architecture, it is about the production, the new jobs the mountain of money, the schools and how math. can mean a brand new perception of things, architecture is to small for this.
fleetwoodmacdaddy, I have seen plenty of boxy buildings in bad condition due to lack of proper maintenance so no excuse here. Doesn’t maintenance always depend on the people being in charge of a building? Either they have the sensibility or not. A different topic is materials and how they age over time and glass / metal seems to be a good choice here. The plastics seem to always disappoint. Has anybody seen that blobby thingy in Graz recently? Curious to see how all that polycarbonate performs over time.
pluk
I agree with you about building performance being linked to maintenance. I am just curious how one deals with the inevitable 'broke window' when the window is a custom fabricated, curving in 3 directions, piece of glass
fleetwoodmacdaddy
Telecom Italia installed all-glass phone booths years ago, I have seen many of them with missing or scattered panels, they look like s…t, and they where flat pieces, just laminated, you are right it can be a big problem. But then again we are talking Austria here
Anybody seen the museum in Graz recently, please post some images
I think in ten years when I am
"scrambling to find the one CNC machine still working"
I will have to look no farther than my garage, or possibly down the street.
This will kill that... blah blah blah.
Big fucking deal.
It wasn't too long ago when everything was custom made to begin with including nails. Something breaks - fix it or replace it.
i wonder if these structures were ever intended to be "maintained." why not just crumple them up and throw them out? sometimes i think we believe architecture to be sacred, but zaha's buildings was never designed to last forever. when one starts to look a little down at the heels, just tear it down.
Like all the "boxy" office parks that are designed to last for 5 years.
thats due to discounted cash flow. no need to build for any longer.
well, it's a bit more complex than what i'm making it out to be. take a mies building for example. it would absolutely pain me to see one torn down, but the truth is none of his structures were meant to last forever. in fact, no framed building on earth was intended to last forever. but what do you do with the few of these buildings that were truly great? archive and rebuild them? it's going to be a huge preservation question in the next century.
not on the same scale, but when i go to home depot i can't find anything that actually fits or works well with my house when something needs replaced. i have to custom everything! (my house was built in 1950)
pyramids man
question is...can you design a cool structure that shields the elements but doesnt need high maintence......
i think the moment shit started to break and it needs to be replaced, it might not get replaced if the costs are high.......
the moment a piece becomes "custom" it goes up in price by 3x at least..... thats how contractors/builders make that coin......
3 dimensioned curves will always give issues ....
b
see [url=http://www.designmuseum.org/design/cedric-price]CP[/ulr]...
one thing you can say about the pyramids is that they were standardized. same goes for the greeks. and even the renaissance italians while not necessarily being standardized were at least modular. there is definitely a relationship between standardization and longevity.
even building with solid materials that last
concrete
wood
steel
plastics tend to haze/deform/break
plastics are also an oil product so give the rate of the oil industry now go figure the price of plastic based materials...
b
anyone know the full story with the ennis-brown house?...i know there's a 'necter who is a contractor for the repair project...i'm thinking it would be similar to what is happening with that house now. although the ennis brown might be more of an assembly problem, whereas the zaha canopies are a fabrication problem (the assembly was pretty simple)...??
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