Imagining architecture as the structure upon which meaning grows and contributes to the phenomenon of a place is particularly helpful when investigating Holl's Linked Hybrid, because the design expresses a desire to meld the objective, concrete of the building itself to the experience of the residents living and moving within.
Construction on Linked Hybrid began in 2003 and completed in 2009, when Holl's design won the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat's award for Best Tall Building (CTBUH 2009). Part of a slew of new developments born out of Beijing's revitalization as a result of its hosting of the 2008 Olympic games, Linked Hybrid is a mixed-use development consisting of "a ring of eight 21-story towers, linked at the 20th floor by gentling sloping public sky bridges, lined with galleries, cafes, restaurants, bars and shops" (Busari 2008). Each tower is rectangular, with some towers being additionally linked at the bottom with horizontal extensions. The face of the buildings is nearly uniform, with square windows breaking up the concrete walls except for where diagonal likes of concrete cut across multiple squares, thus giving the outside of each tower the appearance of kind of fence or netting held rigid by the diagonal reinforcements, giving the complex a lightness not otherwise possible.
The aforementioned sky bridges extend outward from corners and edges, so that they punctuate the sharp rectangles with slopes and curves, giving the impression of biological filaments growing in between the concrete structure of the towers themselves. These perform the "linking" and hybridity hinted at in the name, because they serve to connect each tower while simultaneously providing a visual departure from the monotony of the towers.
The eight towers and linking sky bridges form a rough elliptical around a massive water feature and green space in the center of the site, and provide a kind of intimacy while nonetheless remaining a "porous urban space" (Holl 2009). The sky bridges as well as the frames of the inset windows feature blue, red, yellow, and green details and lighting, the only color except for the green of the rooftop garden spaces.
One may see the hallmarks of phenomenological theory firstly in the shape of the overall design itself. The buildings form a ring around the central area, thus creating a "city within a city" while remaining porous enough that "all public functions on the ground level, - including a restaurant, hotel, Montessori school, kindergarten, and cinema - have connections with the green spaces surrounding and penetrating the project" (Holl 2009). The green spaces serve to disrupt the wall of concrete created by towers, and is the most obvious example of the design's overarching theme, which is the emergence of novel, biological meanings around, on top of, and through the concrete structure of the building itself. The water and green space functions as a way of suturing the development into the larger city, because the greenery serves as a kind of amorphous glue, by which the clearly related towers of Linked Hybrid may be further linked to the architecture of the surrounding city. In turn, the green space serves to funnel people into and out of the complex so that residents and visitors themselves become this connective tissue, with their individual experiences providing the means by which the phenomenological experience of Link Hybrid and the city of Beijing as a whole are integrated and synthesized.
Before continuing on to analyze the finer details of Linked Hybrid's design, it will be useful to briefly consider a few of the more common negative criticisms of the complex, because even these criticisms can help demonstrate how Linked Hybrid serves to exemplify phenomenological practice. The most importance negative criticism leveled at Linked Hybrid is the way in which its towers form a kind of wall, which according to some reviewers cuts off the complex from the city, "reminiscent of gated communities that are becoming increasingly popular around the world" (Busari 2008). While the previous discussion of the green space should help to reveal why this criticism is perhaps not particularly valid if one examines the entirety of the complex and not just the towers, it nonetheless helps to reveal how Linked Hybrid attempts to enact a phenomenological practice by creating a particular place conducive to certain experiences. The ring of towers serves to isolate the central space of the complex from the rest of the city while the green space functions as corridors to that interior, so the combination of the two can be seen as representative of the underlying tension between objective nature and the intentional structuring of physical reality by human beings. Far from portraying an impermeable wall, the...
Science Fiction Film Comparison In the world of science fiction, anything and everything that is imagined is possible. Aliens can travel across the galaxies and come to the earth and be aggressive or friendly depending upon the story being told. As fantastic as these works are, within even the most bizarre scenarios there is a grain of realism. Some pieces of science fiction, whether written literature, television, or films, have inspired
Science and Fiction The film Moon (2009) depicts the story of a man who is on a three-year mission on the moon mining helium-3 for people back on Earth. He is residing by himself and accompanied by a robot named GERTY. A couple of weeks before he gets to return to his family back on Earth, he starts to see things that are not there, including a teenage girl that he
Science, Society and Environment Application of Fox's continuum values and their implications based on relationship between nature and society Science, society, and environment are three components of a person's life. No matter what part of the world an individual lives in, he or she will experience science, have a certain environment and a society all around him. These three components are also embedded within an individual. An individual forms society along with
Science and Religion Does science discredit religion? In general we have the sense that, historically speaking, it does -- but only because so much of the historical conflict between science and religion has hinged upon the way in which scientific advances have disproved factual claims that were advanced by religion, or (as Worrall phrases it) where religion is "directly inconsistent with well-accredited scientific theories…the erstwhile religious claim…must, from a rational point-of-view,
Audiences and their equipment and expectations have changed, too. Many have DVRs, streaming video, portable television, and certainly hi-def or plasma sets. Therefore, not only do they expect higher quality programming and effects, but network scheduling is now a moot point. Audiences can also engage in repeat viewings, watching and analyzing more attentively, which leads producers to create "increasingly sophisticated narrative worlds that sustain and reward intensive fan involvement on
Science and Religion Seek the Same Thing Science is the study of how the human race comprehends the world around them, while religion is what they apply to translate their study on the never-ending belief. There is a radical distinction between the two because the human beings use science to explain their relationship with God, while they use science to correlate with their surroundings. According to the Muslims and Christians, creation
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now