Thursday
If you buy a new BMW car, you can make a trip to the place near where these fine German machines are built, in southern Germany. These photos of the building where many of the cars are kept for their owners are impressive. One thing that people who criticise some of the horrendous modern architecture used to house people en masse in the 1950s, 60s and 70s tend to forget is that when these buildings are done right and with the needs of clients in mind, they work superbly.
Of course, some stunning cars have been made in very ordinary-looking places indeed. Like Aston Martin.
Brian Micklethwait has dug out some superb pictures of modern buildings via this guy. Amazing stuff.
But sometimes the future doesn't look like we planned.......good example in Taiwan:
http://flickr.com/photos/cantikfotos/sets/72157594230283909/
http://flickr.com/photos/cantikfotos/sets/72157594190669543/
Posted by Vinegar Joe at December 13, 2007 07:34 PM
Cars don't make decisions and interact with one another but people do. That is why modern architectural concepts often work for factories but fail with housing.
Most housing projects were designed with simple goals of maximizing traffic flow or minimizing maintenance while completely ignoring the ways in which people actually lived their lives. Traditional housing solutions worked better and simply "feel" better to their occupants because they evolved over long periods of time as the individuals of each generation tweaked the designs to meet their needs.
Modern housing failures result from the now classic error of using top down design for dynamic interacting systems. The designers rarely have the information they need to actually accomplish their task. Only an evolutionary process can provide the best results.
Posted by Shannon Love at December 13, 2007 09:58 PM
That is why modern architectural concepts often work for factories...
Well, I didn't like that post modernist BMW monster. It's moo machine like. Even the lobby of a factory should be more human-friendly. Warmer colors. Less gigantic spaces.
Posted by Jacob at December 14, 2007 01:31 PM
Nice. I wonder if the vague similarity to Chris Bangle's work on the cars themselves is intentional.
But for modern automotive architecture, it's hard to beat the McLaren Technology Centre.
Posted by Sam Duncan at December 14, 2007 02:26 PM
Jacob: I did not like it either. But it is nonetheless impressive.
Posted by Alisa at December 14, 2007 02:40 PM
