Correcting Killer Architecture 98
minstrelmike writes In Leeds, England, architects are adding a plethora of baffles and other structures to prevent the channeling of winds from a skyscraper that have pushed baby carriages into the street and caused one pedestrian death by blowing over a truck. Other architectural mistakes listed in the article include death ray buildings that can melt car bumpers and landscape ponds that blind tenants.
Re: (Score:3)
Whatever about hipsters I'm certainly no fan of modern glass, concrete and steel spiderweb homogeneity. I mean you could take a building off the streets of just about any modern city and transplant it into another without anyone raising an eyebrow. Even the iconic ones are rarely that interesting, just more elaborate variations on the theme. Go back in time a little and enormous cultural variations can be found in architectural design, producing some marvellous and unique urbanscapes.
Still I suppose, at lea
Re: (Score:2)
The problem with concrete is that it doesn't get enough love and attention, and dirty concrete does look terrible. Maybe in countries with less grime and rain its less of a problem than in the UK. Good clean concrete architecture is amazing though. Why do so many modern buildings hide their concrete and steel behind a skin of brick?
Anyway, get a load of F**k Yeah Brutalism [tumblr.com] for the best of it. Although a lot of it doesn't exist any more.
Re: (Score:2)
Seems to me that there is no reason to eschew buildings with exposed concrete j
Re: (Score:2)
I actually like the look of the AT&T Long Lines Building. I think the term is too all-encompassing, and that there needs to be more than one category when structures identified as Brutalist vary so significantly. Hell, even older Romanesque buildings could qualify based on the use of hard materials with few windows, but either way, comparing the Boston City Hall with the AT&T Long Lines Building one sees quite a difference.
Re: (Score:2)
If it makes me feel like I should be turning in my neighbours to earn extra food stamps or favours from the local Kommissar, maybe even the use of a People's Trabant to impress the other comrades, it's brutalism to me.
Re: (Score:3)
Go back in time a little and enormous cultural variations can be found in architectural design
Perhaps that says more about the reduction in cultural variances than changes in architectural design. Huge commercial skyscrapers dominate the skyline of globalized commercial centers around the world because globalized commercial centers share the same culture.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:The Law of Unintended Consequences Strikes Agai (Score:4, Informative)
If you had RTFA you would see that he specifically put sun sheilds in his design. They were "value engineered" out. Which means, as ever, it's the accountants and senior managers that deserve to die.
Re: (Score:3)
Buildings are often modified as tastes change, if something is as simple to remove as these sun shields proved to be, then it's not unreasonable to assume that in the future, after the building is older and the purpose of the shields long-since forgotten, that someone would restyle the exterior and remove them, creating this problem again.
Re: (Score:3)
Been watching old movies [imdb.com] lately?
Re: (Score:2)
Don't forget buildings in context (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Really there's no excuse (Score:2)
Wind tunnel test (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Old joke:
A building designed by an architect might fall down, but a building designed by an engineer should be torn down.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I'm not sure that would pay off. You'd need to model the nearby city-scape for a wind tunnel as well, since its not just one building but a combination of buildings that typically cause problems. Also, it is very hard to reproduce the variations in wind that we see in nature. Wind tunnels generally have a steady flow in one direction.
Re: (Score:2)
I am not sure of this, but about 10 years ago I saw a show about Toronto, all buildings over 100 feet tall have to have some sort of wind test on a scale model showing what happens to the surrounding area.
Not to mention falling ice from skyscrapers (Score:2)
Speaking of Toronto, here in Canada we have this thing called "winter". Snow falls, sticks to buildings, turns to ice, and eventually falls off. This can be dangerous... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/ame... [bbc.co.uk]
Re: (Score:1)
Not true here. This tall building stands pretty much alone amongst low buildings. It's an effect of the building itself, not of a group of buildings.
Re: (Score:1)
I live in Leeds and know the building mentioned in the article. In this case it's not just the building itself but the shape of the building combined with neighboring buildings which produces the wind tunnel effect. While this certainly should have been caught it's not as simple as putting a model in a wind tunnel, you'd have to model the surrounding area and prevailing winds in detail to predict the result.
Re: (Score:2)
There is the State University of New York at Albany example.
The design for the campus was designed by an architect to be used in a Desert location rumors have it in Saudi Arabia or Phoenix Arizona. It was designed to Chanel the winds to keep the campus cool for those hot Desert days.
However SUNY Albany to save tax payer money out and bought those designs, and put them in Upstate NY. Where the bulk of the school year is during the Cold winter months, thus giving the campus a bitter cold windchill in winter
Re: (Score:2)
One day an architectural genius will come form there and fix it.
Campuses should be a collection of problems for the students to think about. Not some idealized place where students can think all the problems are solved and all that's left is navel gazing.
Re:The Death Ray Hotel (Score:4, Informative)
The architect designed in a solution to the death ray before the 'walkie talkie' was built.
The builders cut costs and didn't add the sunshades, so blame the builders and planning authority.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
If omitting something that's largely cosmetic turns the building in to a death-ray, then the design of the building is fundamentally flawed.
By definition, the sunshades can not be largely cosmetic if they have this impact. It's like blaming building heat loss in winter after removing the largely cosmetic facade.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
The only really structural part is the tenants belief in the building.
How about preventing KA? (Score:2)
What kind of modeling software do these guys use? On any high dollar project, I can't believe there isn't some serious CAD going on. The CAD programs should have packages that address these issues. Some of them will be unusual and it'll be a learning process; but nobody should build a car-melting building the second time.
Re: (Score:3)
RTFA - the architect behind the "Death Ray" building designed in measures to prevent the problem. Idiot cost-cutters removed them during the build.
Re:How about preventing KA? (Score:5, Insightful)
Sunshields would be a workaround and not a PREVENTION.
Prevention starts at the problem source, which is a curved, reflective surface. Making the curve non-parabolic or pointing the aperture north would have been prevention. But sunshades are rather acknowleding the problem and working around it. (Usually adding more complexity and points of failure, but that's another story)
Yes, sometimes you have to use workarounds, maybe the source of the problem might be the solution to an even bigger problem, or the new problem isn't big enough to warrant fundamental design changes, but still that's not prevention.
Re: (Score:1)
Sunshields would be a workaround and not a PREVENTION.
Prevention starts at the problem source, which is a curved, reflective surface. Making the curve non-parabolic or pointing the aperture north would have been prevention. But sunshades are rather acknowleding the problem and working around it. (Usually adding more complexity and points of failure, but that's another story)
Yes, sometimes you have to use workarounds, maybe the source of the problem might be the solution to an even bigger problem, or the new
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Does it occur to you that software isn't the answer to everything?
Yes.
Use the force (Score:3, Funny)
Maybe they can add on wind turbine to harvest this free energy?
Re: (Score:2)
Why don't they just put another building in the way? Maybe one designed to channel the wind up?
Re: (Score:2)
Why don't they just put another building in the way? Maybe one designed to channel the wind up?
For the daily mini-tornado.
Similar (Score:2, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
The 'Walkie Talkie' AKA 'Solar Death Ray' was mentioned in the article as another example of an unanticipated danger in architecture.
Re: (Score:2)
It was anticipated by the architect, but the builders decided to skip the 'death-ray-stopper' addition to the building to save money.
Raises an interesting question - should planning authorities be partly responsible for allowing dangerous buildings of this nature?
Re: (Score:3)
This article reminds me of another English building with a concave mirror in it, that actually melted plastic parts of cars parked on the wrong spot at the wrong time by concentrating sunlight on it. http://geekologie.com/2013/09/ [geekologie.com]...
I think it's fine. Just put a "no parking" sign in the affected spots. Only entitled wankers in BMWs would use the spot and then they get their cars melted.
I'm OK with that.
Re:Similar (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Chanting crowd: WHAT DO WE WANT?
Chanting crowd: TIME TRAVEL!
Chanting crowd: WHEN DO WE WANT IT?
Chanting crowd: THAT'S IRRELEVANT!
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I was thinking "pick up and deliveries only". It takes more than a few minutes to melt a car, so might as well get some use out of the spot.
Re: (Score:2)
Not similar. The SAME.
It reminds you of that building because that's the building the summary is referring to.
Wind turbine array (Score:4, Interesting)
Why not instead of baffles construct an array of wind turbines to take the energy out the wind? Fix the deadly gales problem and power the building at the same time.
Re: (Score:2)
1) very dangerous 2) very noisy 3) extremely expensive 4) unbelievably inefficient 5) plain stupid
6)enviromentalist think its a great idea
Local politicians just found their perfect solution
Re:Wind turbine array (Score:4, Interesting)
Because it's gusty, and wind turbines need steady wind.
Re: (Score:2)
Why not instead of baffles construct an array of wind turbines to take the energy out the wind? Fix the deadly gales problem and power the building at the same time.
Yes, you could provide power for the death ray when the sun isn't shining.
Tear It Down (Score:2)
Other incidents have left a person with a torn liver and internal bleeding, and cuts requiring 11 stitches, as well as a buggy containing a three-month-old child being whisked out into the road by a sharp gust. Last year the council ruled that the surrounding roads must be closed when the wind reaches speeds of 45mph, but problems have continued.
The problem is that the government is not attaching enough cost to these kinds of mistakes, so they happen over and over again. If the building had to be torn dow
Re: (Score:3)
> If the building had to be torn down then the cost / loss would be so high that developers would never make mistakes like this again
Yes, and if we had the death penalty for theft, there'd be no more mugging!
Re: (Score:2)
If the building had to be torn down then the cost / loss would be so high that developers would never make mistakes like this again
Yes, and if we had the death penalty for theft, there'd be no more mugging!
Nah - Everybody knows that petty theft should be punished by cutting the thief's hand off. What kind of crazy extremist are you?!
Re: (Score:2)
Well I hate to play devil's advocate for the law but, there is a major difference between duhvelopers and muggers.
Muggers tend to work alone or with an accomplice with little whereas Duhvelopers are actually organized groups with policies, rules, and procedures. Muggers don't sit down before they go out for the evening and come up with a business plan; they don't tend to get anyone to insure their project either.
You don't even need to make duhvelopers care. You need to make insurance companies care, then th
Re: (Score:2)
You mean tort law alone doesn't solve all of the worlds problems?
Flying cars (Score:3)
Well, people keep asking for their flying cars, and now that they got them, thanks to that building in Leeds, they're upset?
Re: (Score:2)
Mind you, it's certainly desirable to stuy other forms of cleavage...
Re: (Score:2)
The horizon on water isn't actually straight. But you can bet it's where the idea came from.
Architects. (Score:2)
Obligatory Monty Python Sketch (Score:2)
Monty Python predicted this, they also predicted how to fix this problem, that video is left as an exercise for the reader to find.
The Architect [youtube.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Hah. Crazy chit, mon.
better idea (Score:1)
2. hire engineers
Architecture kills Art at Dallas Nasher (Score:1)
* How to Destroy a James Turrell [hyperallergic.com]
* The Towering Inferno: How Museum Tower threatens the Nasher Sculpture Center and the Woodall Rodgers roofdeck park, two of the most prized assets of the cityâ(TM)s vaunted Arts District. [dmagazine.com]
Yes, architects are noticing - the D Magazine article got a partial reprint here:
* Controversy Surrounds Dallas' Museum Tower [texasarchitects.org]
Re: (Score:2)
Holding an architect responsible for such an unforeseeable event is unfair.
Plenty of other examples - my favourite (Score:2)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G... [wikipedia.org]
Inwards-facing ramps turned the 100M-square arch into a massive venturi, sweeping people off their feet, off the top of the plaza and then flinging therm down a conveniently-placed steep flight of hard stone stairs.
Genius.
Cue hastly rethink with a nasty plastic "roof" inside the arch to slow the wind...a little.
Works with sound, too. (Score:3)
I heard a story about another "killer building" near Chicago. (Haven't checked the claims for truth - just repeating it as I heard it.)
Seems there was this nice commercial builing next to O'Hare Airport. Curved walls, lots of lawn, nice walkway up to the door in the middle. Great view through the space over the airport runways.
There was this one spot on the walkway where more than one person was found unconscious or dead of apparent heart failure. There were enough that somebody looked into the coincidences.
Turns out the building's curve was parabolic and it faced a runway. If you happened to be at the focus when a jet taking off crossed the axis, the building concentrated the sound of the engines on you...