A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
City Futures 2009 International Conference, Madrid 4-6th June 2009, European Urban Affairs Association (EURA) & Urban Affairs Association (UAA) ; The paper tries to take a critical look at the concept of Bigness as defined by Koolhaas, its relation to architectural scale and the impact it produces in the cities. Especially in the context of a globalized world, now that cities compete ichnographically to gain a position in this new international urban scene. The present tendency of cities urban design centred in huge representative buildings that impact on the city network do so in a way that could be interpreted as a reference to the Bigness theory formally stated by Koolhaas in his S,M,L,XL and previously foreseen in his famous Delirious New York. Koolhaas based it upon five principles: the consideration of Bigness as a quantum of scale in architecture that goes well beyond monumentality, the programmatic complexity implied in Bigness cannot reveal to the exterior a single image evoking interior uniformity, the new technologies of the machine age introduced in architecture have made Bigness scale functionally and tectonically possible, and finally the last two: the impact in the city, just because of its enormous scale, is independent of the quality of the design; consequently, such buildings are “no longer part of any urban tissue”; therefore, in the best scenery they just cope with context, at worst they simply ignore it.
City Futures 2009 International Conference, Madrid 4-6th June 2009, European Urban Affairs Association (EURA) & Urban Affairs Association (UAA) ; The paper tries to take a critical look at the concept of Bigness as defined by Koolhaas, its relation to architectural scale and the impact it produces in the cities. Especially in the context of a globalized world, now that cities compete ichnographically to gain a position in this new international urban scene. The present tendency of cities urban design centred in huge representative buildings that impact on the city network do so in a way that could be interpreted as a reference to the Bigness theory formally stated by Koolhaas in his S,M,L,XL and previously foreseen in his famous Delirious New York. Koolhaas based it upon five principles: the consideration of Bigness as a quantum of scale in architecture that goes well beyond monumentality, the programmatic complexity implied in Bigness cannot reveal to the exterior a single image evoking interior uniformity, the new technologies of the machine age introduced in architecture have made Bigness scale functionally and tectonically possible, and finally the last two: the impact in the city, just because of its enormous scale, is independent of the quality of the design; consequently, such buildings are “no longer part of any urban tissue”; therefore, in the best scenery they just cope with context, at worst they simply ignore it.
Bigness Ground Zero - La Bigness dopo l'undici settembre Bigness after 911
| Online Contents | 2002
| British Library Online Contents | 1995
| British Library Online Contents | 1997
Koolhaas congrexpo à Lile - Bigness
| Online Contents | 1995
Five cities / Rem Koolhaas: Bigness
| TIBKAT | 1995