Modern architecture. Modern architecture City Hall in Bilbao
Architects, engineers and builders are increasingly inclined to be friends with nature, rather than measure strength with it.
Bahrain World Trade Center (Manama, Bahrain, 2008)
The world's first skyscraper with wind turbines in its design created by a British multinational company Atkins. Two 240-meter, 50-story sail-shaped towers are connected by three bridges, into which wind turbines with a diameter of 29 meters are integrated. The turbines are oriented towards the Persian Gulf, where the wind blows most often. The design of the towers is such that in the interval between them the air flow accelerates, and this gives maximum load to the turbines. As a result, the building is 15% self-sufficient in electricity.
Walt Disney Concert Hall ( Los Angeles, USA, 2003)
The work of the largest American deconstructionist architect Frank Gehry (who is also the author of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao) resembles an intricate paper boat with many sails. It’s not surprising - the architect was fond of sailing. Most of the external walls are made of stainless steel. At first, residents of nearby houses and drivers complained of blinding sun glare. To soften the effect, the walls were subjected to special polishing. Inside is a 2,252-seat hall with excellent acoustics and an organ whose facade design rhymes with the building: pipes stick out in all directions. |
Agora Theater ( Lelystad, Netherlands, 2007)
The multi-faceted design by Dutch architect Adrian Goese resembles a spaceship on the outside and a kaleidoscope on the inside. The outer edges play with gold, the inner edges are painted in different colors and give rise to optical illusions. The creators of the cultural center are sure that theater is a space beyond reality and everyday life. |
Museum of Islamic Art ( Doha, Qatar, 2008)
Museum of Islamic Art settled in a park on an artificial island. The building is like a pyramid made from children's blocks, but with arches and windows. This is how the Chinese-American architect Bei Yuming interpreted the traditional motifs of Islamic architecture.
The Shard ( London, UK, 2012)
"Shard" - an 87-story glass pyramid with an observation deck on the roof. Inside there are residential premises, offices, a hotel and restaurants. Italian architect Renzo Piano embodied in the project the idea of a “vertical city” where people can live, work and relax.
Seattle Central Library ( Seattle, USA, 2004)
central Library from the outside it looks like a picturesque pile of glass platforms covered in a steel mesh. Inside there is a multifunctional space of 11 floors connected by ramps and escalators. No stairs.
Beijing National Stadium ( Beijing, China, 2008)
National Stadium, popularly called the “bird’s nest”, was built to host the 2008 Summer Olympics. The concrete bowl is surrounded by interlocking metal beams that are supported by 24 columns. The roof is made of transparent material and protects from rain and sun. The stadium's capacity is 91 thousand people.
Harpa Concert Hall ( Reykjavik, Iceland, 2011)
The steel frame of a giant “iceberg in the ocean” is covered, like scales, with multi-colored tinted glass panels - mostly green, but also blue, turquoise, and beige. As intended, they reflect the city, sky, and harbor. This building is like a monument on the border between land and sea, nature and art. |
Metropol Parasol ( Seville, Spain, 2011)
The largest wooden structure in the world scattered “hats” throughout the old city center. The project by German architect Jürgen Mayer-Hermann, called the Metropol Umbrella, is actually a structure of six “umbrellas” that look more like alien fantasy mushrooms. The author was also inspired by the vaults of the Seville Cathedral and the ficus trees in the nearby Cristo de Burgos Square. “Under the Umbrella” houses an archeology museum, a market and a restaurant. Along the winding walkways you can reach the roof. |
L'Agora, Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciencies ( Valencia, Spain, 2009)
The work of the Valencian Santiago Calatrava, a representative of biotech (neo-organic movement in architecture), resembles in shape clasped palms with intertwined fingers and at the same time folded wings. Since construction began, the parabolic-shaped building has been criticized by many for being impractical, but it has proven suitable for hosting events ranging from tennis tournaments to Fashion Week. The multifunctional facility has taken its rightful place in the City of Arts and Sciences next to the planetarium in the shape of a giant eye and the oceanarium in the shape of a water lily. |
Aldar Headquarters Building ( Abu Dhabi, UAE, 2010)
“The Coin Building” is another name for the headquarters of a construction company. Aldar . By designing a structure that resembles a 110-meter-high coin standing on its edge, the architects sought to express the idea of sustainability, unity, and rationality. They were guided by the principle of the golden ratio and were inspired by the pentagram of the occultist Heinrich Cornelius (the figure of a man inside a circle). |
Mercedes-Benz Welt ( Stuttgart, Germany, 2006)
At the heart of the design Museum Mercedes-Benz - the “cloverleaf” concept - three overlapping circles with an offset center. Inside, too, everything is not simple: three exhibition floors flow into each other according to the “double helix” principle. The museum houses about 700 cars.
Galaxy Soho ( Beijing, China, 2012)
Shopping and entertainment center- the work of a British woman of Iraqi origin, Zaha Hadid. The architect was inspired by the view of the rice terraces. Hence the layers-floors of four rounded buildings with smooth transitions between them - not a single corner anywhere.
Marina Bay Sands ( Singapore, 2010)
Architect Moshe Safdie says he took inspiration from a deck of cards. The result was three skyscrapers under a common roof-terrace, which in turn resembled a curved boat. The “boat” has a 150-meter swimming pool, a restaurant and a park with trees. In the evenings there is a laser show on the roof.
Photo: Getty Images / Fotobank.com, Age Fotostock, View / Russian Look, Getty Images / Fotobank.com, Shutterstock, Getty Images / Fotobank.com (x3), Age Fotostock / Russian Look (x2), Age Fotostock / Russian Look , Look, Robert Harding / Diomedia (x2); Age Fotostock, View / Russian Look
Dear Konrad Karlovyh! It is in no way impossible to engage in such a complex tailoring art as measuring out 7/7 of a city historical pattern alone. And pressing matters distract me with their number and importance. Therefore, I am publishing on these pages an article by the Kaliningrad architect Oleg Vasyutin, my longtime co-author, who in this case acts solo.
He analyzes the architectural situation in Kaliningrad and the region from the beginning of the Soviet period until the economic crisis of 2008. As we know, after the crisis a new economic reality began in our country, and we looked differently at many processes, including in architecture...
Here is his 2/7, the first part.
KALININGRAD – KONIGSBERG:
architecture of the Soviet and post-Soviet periods
(end of first half
XX- StartXXIcenturies)
Oleg Vasyutin
With the post-war With the geopolitical reorganization of Europe and the appearance of the “Kaliningrad theme” on the map of Europe more than half a century ago, a new stage in the history of architecture of this “place” began. The basis for its development was a unique precedent in modern history, the formal expression of which is as follows: one ethnic culture exists in the material and historical culture of another ethnic group, uses and adapts it to the extent possible for its needs.
As a result of an artificial, volitional change in the city’s previous status in 1946, all of its previous city traditions, including professional ones, simultaneously changed. The regional cultural vector has also changed: the Western European artistic and construction culture was replaced by the Soviet-Russian one, which consistently led to a change in the entire regional mentality, aesthetic priorities, value preferences, worldview, including the perception of “place”.
The clearly expressed utilitarian form of attitude towards the city in the first post-war years does not allow us to speak fully about the architecture and urban planning of this time. Dismantling, clearing, basic arrangement and adaptation absorbed the main labor and economic resource. The adaptive nature of this stage in architecture and urban planning was mainly associated, on the one hand, with awareness and adaptation to the unknown scale of the city, and on the other, with constant “discoveries” and surprise caused by the exotic quality of the remaining architectural plasticity and forms of “alien” material culture .
This period begins with the theme of “trophy city”, with the realization that “someone else’s” is already becoming “ours”. The subsequent architectural and urban colonization of the city led to various forms of relations between such categories as own/alien, native/hostile, creation/destruction, old/new, past/future.
The first conscious systematic plan for the restoration and reconstruction of a city destroyed by the war was developed in 1949, and even then the ideological vector was chosen for the construction of a new Soviet city, in which the memory of the centuries-old pre-war history of the “place” would be gradually erased.
At the end of the 40s, in the destroyed urban landscape of the post-war old city, the need to create a new representative architectural and urban form was already acutely felt. For this reason, in the partially preserved northwestern part of the city, an urban planning unit was allocated - Mira Avenue (Stalingradsky Avenue), where large and noticeable objects were located: a theater, a zoo, the building of the future Moscow Hotel, a stadium, a park. Their concentration in one place and preservation made it possible, at relatively low cost and in a short time, to create a local quality of the urban environment among the urban landscape destroyed by the war. Dominance during this periodStalinist neoclassicismdetermined the stylistic nature of the work on the reconstruction of Mira Avenue. As is known, the classical tradition does not imply peaked roofs, therefore, during the reconstruction of German buildings, their rafter structures were replaced with flatter ones, thereby giving rise to a change in the character of the old urban buildings.
The new architectural and stylistic “make-up” of old buildings, according to the plan, was supposed to hide as much as possible the features of “foreign” German architecture and create a Soviet monumental pomp, so characteristic of the spirit of the 50s.
The landmark and culminating object of this time is undoubtedly the very high-quality building of the Drama Theater, which, together with the restored portico of the Fleet Headquarters, formed a stylistic and environmental composition of the Corinthian and Ionic orders and, thus, established a new tradition of classicism in this area.
During the reconstruction of Mira Avenue, Stalinist neoclassicism marked such buildings and structures as the colonnade of the main entrance and the fence of the Baltika stadium, slightly reminiscent in typology of the fence of the Summer Garden in St. Petersburg. During the reconstruction, the entrance pavilions to the zoo also received their own neoclassical propylaine system with additional zoosculptural forms and new architectural plasticity. The buildings standing next to the Zarya cinema are also examples of monumental decorations that created a rather interesting and valuable environment for Kaliningrad, which still makes this area of the city the most attractive.
The architectural scenario of neoclassicism, developed along Mira Avenue to K. Marx Street, also covering an entire block complex of residential buildings, ends with the monumental building of the Fishermen's House of Culture (now the Kaliningrad Regional Musical Theater), built in Soviet times, which also has all the features of an orderly neoclassical culture − foundations of value preferences of architecture of the Stalin era.
| Entrance portico of the DKR |
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| Entrance to the zoo |
In this context, the fate of the Königsberg stock exchange is noteworthy (for a long time the Palace of Culture of Sailors was located here, currently the Regional Center for Youth Culture). Apparently, neoclassicism - the architectural style in which it was built - helped the building survive in the “time of troubles”, since even in its dilapidated state it was fully consistent with the Soviet architectural ideology at that time, successfully waited for restoration, and during the reconstruction it retained everything its features, losing only the coats of arms on the shields of the sculpted lions at the main entrance.
 |
| Exchange, now DKM |
However, the very next general plans, developed in the 60s, provided for a complete rejection of the historically established planning structure of the city that had been established over many centuries. All-Union architectural competitions held in 1964 and 1974 presented models of new planning solutions. As a result, an ideological stance was adopted to ignore the entire previous architectural and urban civilization of the city, which, in the process of further restoration, led to a complete change in the structure, character, scale and image of the city. It was then that a political decision was made to build a completely different city on the site of old Königsberg - new socialist Kaliningrad.
In the history of Russian architecture of the twentieth century, the laws of spatial and temporal development of the city have repeatedly experienced significant changes, but the most radical of them occurred in the second half of the 1950s.
As a rule, the famous report of N.S. is associated with the 50s. Khrushchev at the 20th Congress of the CPSU with the exposure of the Stalinist period, indicating a change in political course. However, the first step towards the de-Stalinization of Soviet society was taken two years earlier, when Khrushchev sharply criticized one of the main components of Stalin's legacy - socialist realism in architecture. The speech, delivered on December 7, 1954 at the All-Union Meeting of Builders, was perhaps one of the most important manifestos of modern architecture of that time.
The change of eras is usually expressed by a change of signs. Applying this to architecture, Stalin’s academic “historicism” was already perceived as an eclectic and inherently false phenomenon. After the publication of the truth of previous years, concepts such as sincerity, openness, and truthfulness acquire special significance for society. Khrushchev's architecture had to become different - counter-historical, and it had to become “new”. This explains the phenomena of the time when the implementation of the abstract concept of “novelty” becomes the goal: “new residential areas”, “new types of apartments, public buildings”, “new service systems”, “new element of settlement”, “new construction technologies and materials” . All this was ultimately aimed at creating a “new city”, fundamentally different from the historical one, at implementing a model of a new world, not connected with the past, aimed only at the mythological future.
With the choice of a cultural vector to combat excesses in architecture and the transition to mass industrial prefabricated housing construction, a socio-economic experiment in architecture began, which established the dictatorship of standardization and standard construction. They, in turn, predetermined new principles for the formation of the city, according to which the “typology of form” should correspond to the “typology of life”.
The ensemble architecture of streets and squares is being replaced by a one-time total spatial development of territories, which, moreover, does not imply further development over time. Buildings with a rational layout formed microdistricts, which in turn formed cities, which then merged into territorial production complexes (TPCs). An ideally rational building inside a “new socialist city”, fundamentally different from existing historical prototypes, becomes an architectural and urban planning program for a very dramatic period that began in the late 50s and, with some transformations, continues to this day.
Thus, the formation of “new architecture”, which took place “from above”, was one of the tools of a new social utopia - building communism in a short time. The painful revaluation of values that took place during this period in the architectural environment leveled the quality level of the profession, which had already completely reoriented itself to servicing the construction complex. And the academic art of architecture itself acquired a new quality, becoming an integral element of construction.
The direction that was subsequently defined "Soviet modernism", from the very beginning became a hostage of the rapidly growing construction industry, focused on the production of prefabricated elements in factory conditions. Therefore, post-Stalinist modernism is more a type of construction than a style or method, and least of all a worldview. It was not what was meant by modernism in the West. Only its formal-technological side was transferred to Soviet modernism from Western modernism, while modernism in the civilizational sense - as a general cultural paradigm - did not exist in Russia.
With the clearing of the ruined area and the expansion of Leninsky Prospekt, the first stage of mass standard construction in Kaliningrad began.
The first Khrushchev buildings, built of brick along Leninsky Prospect, Zhitomirskaya and Teatralnaya even before the introduction of industrial prefabricated technologies, still had classical divisions, tectonically breaking down into a base, a wall plane and a cornice. But, being a rational product of industrialization from unified standard prefabricated elements, “Khrushchev” announces its new aesthetics of “honest” seam, which is accentuated and turns into the main, unique decorative technique, which will be present in all subsequent standard series.
The entire Leninsky Prospekt is designed in a single key, the representativeness and figurative integrity of which are based on a common five-story horizontal building line. The center of the city’s construction activity is also moving here, where the architectural culture of Leningrad leaves its interesting mark. Thus, in the complex of residential buildings built with his participation with a courtyard setback along Leninsky Prospekt and with window proportions rare for that time, an actively developed cornice line and arched passages, the well-known symbolic signs of St. Petersburg are imprinted, which logically denoted Kaliningrad’s belonging to the northwestern cultural region of the country.
During this period, with the increase in the capacity of house-building plants, two main technological directions are identified in the implementation of the housing program of prefabricated housing construction: large-panel construction and large-block construction. Such housing, which became widespread in the mid-50s, subsequently became almost the only form of settlement in the Soviet Union.
Urban planning and architecture are becoming horizontal-spatial. Only with this principle of development was it possible to materialize the poetic metaphors of the era: “open, free layout of areas”, “freely flowing internal spaces of buildings”, “openness of compositions”, etc.
Architecture becomes “truthful”. The structures and functions of the structure are revealed as much as possible. The enclosing walls that interfere with this are replaced with continuous glazing. The key concept of this time is rationalism, so the utilitarian becomes an aesthetic category. Conciseness and simplicity of solutions become important when expressiveness is achieved through the proportional construction of geometric shapes, which are subordinate elements of a single whole.
The equally important concept of “dynamism,” semantically associated with “movement in time” (in this case, towards communism), gives the buildings a new ideology. In urban planning, this is primarily the alternating rhythm of identical buildings. Examples of such a solution are development along Minskaya, General Galitsky, Bibliotechnaya streets, but this principle is most clearly expressed in the development of Sergeeva Street. In building architecture, this is the degree of “openness” of a structure. The interpenetration of spaces, their counter-movement becomes a characteristic, iconic component of the style.
4. All architectural and construction activities of the 60s can be divided into two directions: the mass, prefabricated housing construction of standard buildings and the beginning of the construction of new samples of representative buildings. The representation of this period is contained in a term that very accurately deciphers the architectural quest of those years -"pavilion" : from the pavilion of the Rossiya cinema and the bus station building to the pavilion of built-in cafes and shops. The very concept of “pavilion” carries the main features of the architecture of the 60s - human scale, romantic openness, laconic simplicity, lightness, elegance. It is no coincidence that the USSR pavilions at international exhibitions became one of the main symbols of the era. It is from the aesthetics of the pavilion that such a symbolic and innovative professional event for its time as the “open-plan principle” grows. The already mentioned building of the Rossiya cinema (now defunct) was precisely the main representative of the architectural and artistic views of the 60s. “Pavilionism” is present in almost all large objects of that time, and in subsequent years. In this context, we can mention the Atlantic and Rus restaurants, the North Station pavilion and the Yunost Sports Palace.
A further, peculiar development of the “pavilion” took place in the 70s, when the aesthetics of the wall surface gradually began to return to architecture, the plastered planes of which, using light and shadow, increasingly participated in the formation of the geometry of the volumes of buildings and in solving their architectural image. The architecture of the new university building on Sovetsky Prospekt and the television studio on Nizhny Lake, the Moskovsky supermarket and the Children's World are built on this principle. With the addition of volumes of even greater brutality to the composition, the Oktyabr cinema and concert hall acquires its characteristic architectural image.
This trend subsequently leads to the return of vertical and horizontal divisions in the architecture of buildings. Already in the 80s, the planes were divided into a vertical rhythm of simplified non-tectonic pilasters. The decorative technique - which is repeated in the House of Trade Unions on Sergeeva Street, the building of the Regional Prosecutor's Office on Gorky Street - is not of a regional nature, as it is in line with the general aesthetic principles and concepts of USSR architecture, imitating Western models of that time.
| The building of the cinema "Russia" |
The 70s and 80s represent a further development, or rather a mutation, of the Soviet history of prefabricated housing construction. With the improvement of construction technology, the emergence of new, improved projects of standard series of residential buildings, the main plastic technique of which is the alternation of plane and vertical groups of loggias, the development of territories in urban planning ideology continues"microdistrict". At this time, such self-sufficient new residential areas as the South and North are being intensively built up, where, with the enlargement of the planning module, such a traditional concept as a street completely disappears, turning into the direction of a road, highway and remaining only in names.
The microdistrict, as a model of a “new way of life” and a product of scientific and technical calculation of the necessary living environment, the basis of which is the utmost rationalism of social efficiency, becomes the main active element in the formation of the urban environment of the new Kaliningrad. According to the system of urban planning standards and the rules for its development, on the one hand, a certain capacity of the residential building complex is provided, and on the other hand, a multi-stage infrastructure for their maintenance - shops, children's and educational institutions, social and cultural services, recreation, sports, as well as various internal public spaces.
5. In 1971, a rather important event took place to consolidate the future fate of Kaliningrad: the Helsinki Convention on the invariability of the post-war borders of European states was adopted. As a result, the status of Kaliningrad is finally confirmed, and architectural and urban planning activities in the city take on a more intense and confident character.
The 70s and 80s saw the peak of construction activity; for the first time in post-war history, the city began to grow upward. The first eight- and twelve-story residential buildings appear. Two main urban development diameters of the city are clearly distinguished - Leninsky Prospekt and Moskovsky Prospekt, the representative function of which is enhanced by structures and transport infrastructure facilities - a new overpass bridge, six-lane highways, two-level interchanges.
“Road”, “movement” are the most capacious, romantically colored symbols of that time. Moving in space means moving in time. The basis of urban planning is the principle of continuous automobile traffic, which is fully implemented in the central highways of the city and further on the ring road.
After the disappearance of the last remains of the Royal Castle in 1968-1969, buildings appeared that completely changed the scale and image of the city. Large-sized standard residential blocks-plates were placed between Shevchenko Street and Moskovsky Prospekt, General Karbyshev Embankment and Solnechny Boulevard on Oktyabrsky Island, on Staropregolskaya Embankment near the Sailors' Palace of Culture, and the failed rhythm of high-rise buildings along Portovaya Street pumped up the composition of the isolation of a huge open space measuring almost 100 hectares downtown. In this way, the parameters of the new image of Kaliningrad were established.
| View from the Wooden (Wood) Bridge: Moskovsky department store |
I would like to dwell on the building of the Kaliningrad Hotel, which closes the South-North axis and the prospect of the trestle bridge, being at a key compositional point, which also regulates the East-West direction. This is, perhaps, one of the few striking works, distinguished by high urban planning and architectural quality of proportional structure and co-scale divisions, which were later, unfortunately, lost as a result of the European renovation makeover in 2000.
“Kaliningradgrazhdanproekt”, a building also standing in this row of architectural levels, demonstrates to us the time-tested power of truth and purity of Bauhaus concepts, albeit in a somewhat simplified form. In addition, such a rare concept for our city as “sense of place” applies to it.
But the apotheosis of the 70s-80s is undoubtedly the most significant architectural event in Kaliningrad - the House of Soviets - the brutalism of Brezhnev's stagnation and the result of the 1974 architectural competition. A monumental image that, in theory, should have eclipsed the image of the Royal Castle still remaining in memory, and in terms of the heaviness of the architectural mass, the force of impact, the building density and the compositional combinatorics of elements, at a minimum, it would not be inferior. By the way, some compositional themes and elements of the previous architectural “castle” form were transferred to the new building and received their own new interpretation.
Thus, the internal horizontal courtyard of the castle turned into an open internal vertical courtyard - the space of the new building, and the previous, historically tested quadrangular shape was reflected in the quadrangle of the House of Soviets. The fixation of the corners of the castle with towers with horizontal fortress connections at one time responded by fixing the corners of the new building with elevator shafts with horizontal connections - transitions between them. And the exposed structural elements of the western castle wing - buttresses - were reflected in the vertical rhythm of the lower supporting elements of the House of Soviets. The landing grid of this new Soviet structure also corresponds to the cardinal orientation of the former Royal Castle.
The main semantic change occurred in the natural force attraction of the new architectural mass - the symbolic shift of the “zero” coordinate point of the House of Soviets, which can be expressed by the aphorism “away from Berlin and closer to Moscow.”
6. Among the processes that took place in the professional environment of the 70-80s, one should highlight the emergence, or rather the return, of romanticization in the architectural profession. We owe this to a large extent, on the one hand, to some of the achievements of the Soviet Union in the field of architecture and urban planning, and on the other, to the massive appearance of foreign professional periodicals (architectural magazines) and monographs on Western architecture, which demonstrated the high level of the art of architecture in Western countries. Under these conditions, the regional-cultural vector of professional architecture is established in neighboring Lithuania and Poland, where the concept of “regionality” in architectural quality by that time has already become decisive.
In this context, it is worth highlighting the buildings of “red brick” architecture along the streets of 9 April, Pionerskaya - Litovsky Val in the area of Vasilevsky Square, and along Moskovsky Prospekt - Kopernik Street. In the same semantic row is the unique Olsztyn restaurant, where the appearance of roof tiles and skylights can be considered an architectural event, which also demonstrates the result of positive professional cooperation between Kaliningrad and its Polish neighbors.
By the mid-70s, the inhumanity of most modern construction and architectural implementations became obvious to both professionals and society as a whole, and a steadily negative attitude towards them gradually began to form. Gradually, the awareness of the losses associated with the city’s self-identification comes. And the shortage of individual, author’s design, already acutely felt at that time, together with subconscious nostalgic notes about the loss of the regional specificity of the city, brings to life such a forgotten phenomenon as reconstruction-restoration. We owe this phenomenon the restoration, preservation and adaptation for new functions of the historical buildings of the old city that miraculously survived at that time. The Catholic Church of the Holy Family is being reconstructed for the Kaliningrad Philharmonic. The Evangelical Church in Memory of Queen Louise is undergoing a major reconstruction, which takes on the function of a puppet theater. A rare monument has been restored XIII century - the Juditten Church, which, having changed its confessional affiliation, became the Orthodox St. Nicholas Cathedral.
| Formerly the Juditten Church, now St. Nicholas Cathedral |
| Puppet theater, building of the former Queen Louise's church |
Former city fortifications are also beginning to gain a “second wind.” After the reconstruction of the Don tower into the Amber Museum and the Rossgarten Gate for the establishment of the Sun Stone restaurant in them, the possible adaptation of the historical and architectural forms of Königsberg for the new Kaliningrad becomes quite obvious. From historical experience it is known that the “alien” frightens and is rejected only at the moment of the first superficial contact, then the adaptation mechanism always operates. This also applies to architectural forms, which, being very unusual for another culture, can, nevertheless, be quite easily accepted and adapted after appropriate reconsecration, renaming and rethinking. Therefore, it is not so much the external signs of the form that are of primary importance, but rather its symbolic content.
Rossgarten Gate
In this regard, the case of restoration of a building for the Historical and Art Museum is indicative. Once the concert hall (Stadthalle) KöNigsberg, the building stood destroyed after the war until the early 80s, when it attracted the attention of the authorities. In accordance with the results of the examination, restoration of the structure was considered difficult and impractical. Nevertheless, through an effort of will, it was recreated.
These examples demonstrate the beginning of changes in the late 70s, associated with the movement towards historicism in the creation of the urban environment, with interest in regional identity, in the distinctive specificity of the local architectural language, which continued in the subsequent 80s.
The modern building of the administration of Kaliningrad (formerly the municipality of Königsberg) was also restored in due time with the acquisition of a new architectural quality. Thus, the developed entrance canopy was a kind of reflection of the entrance portals of the North Station and Technical University buildings. One can note some professional continuity of such a compositional solution for this particular place.
Back in the 60s, two leaders and two main directions in all architectural and design activities of the city and region emerged for the design and technical maintenance of the entire construction complex. Along with Kaliningradgrazhdanproekt, which was directly involved in the “new city”, serving mainly the mass housing industry, gradually gaining more and more experience in multi-storey construction and the development of new territories, Zhilkommunproekt was created. This structure was essentially concerned with the “old city”; its main task was to develop solutions for the reconstruction and adaptation of pre-war buildings. This specialization also allowed us to accumulate some experience related directly to contact with the old historical building culture of the city.
Being “large-scale,” the Soviet architectural and urban planning culture of “open spaces” required correspondingly large-scale recreational and landscaping work. Therefore, this topic has been particularly emphasized throughout recent history in the process of forming the environment of a socialist city. Urban planners have achieved particular success in organizing new central public and recreational areas of the city, where open green parterres are of decisive importance. The most striking example of this solution is the island of Kneiphof, once densely built up, but now transformed into an open central green space of the city with a sculpture park. The areas of the embankments of the Pregolya River in the area of Moskovsky Prospekt and the Yunost Sports Palace complement and further strengthen the current status of this territory as the central green core of the city.
The landscape of the Lower Pond, also freed from pre-war buildings and transferred to the rank of recreation with naked relief and water surface, also received its open landscape motifs based on the typology of the “English landscape park”.
In the system of the entire urban development, the improvement of the three main public squares of Kaliningrad stood out. Thus, the complex of Victory Square with a park and monuments to V.I. Lenin and “Motherland”, the square in front of the South Station with the monument to M.I. Kalinin and the improvement of the new Central Square on the foundations of the Royal Castle have the same cultural, aesthetic and ideological content, being the result of large-scale design and planning work of the Soviet period.
Since the times of the USSR, high-rise buildings in Russia have been considered buildings with a height of more than 75 m or more than 25 floors. In other countries, the term “high-rise building” usually means a building with a height of 35 to 100 m; buildings above 100 m (in the USA and Europe - above 150 m) are considered skyscrapers. However, experts from the Council on Tall Buildings and the Urban Environment believe that it is impossible to give a clear definition of the concept of “high-rise building”, although in general cases a building of 14 floors or about 50 m in height can be considered as such. High-rise buildings can have different purposes: to be hotels, offices , residential buildings, educational buildings. Most often, high-rise buildings are multifunctional: in addition to premises for their main purpose, they house parking lots, shops, offices, cinemas, etc.
The misconception that the first skyscrapers appeared in America with the invention of elevators is very common. However, the achievements of engineering were secondary to the motives for the emergence of high-rise buildings. The main reason was the extremely rapidly growing demand. Numerous banks and companies sought to strengthen their image by creating the most visible and impressive buildings, and the way to stand out with a high-rise dominant became especially popular. Chicago, being the financial and industrial center of America, had significant resources, and the fire that happened in 1871 literally cleared construction sites for new buildings. It was during this period that the masters of the famous “Chicago school”, led by Louis Sullivan, developed the principles of rationalistic construction of buildings. At the same time, the American approach to high-rise construction was formed, where next to one skyscraper only another skyscraper would look organic. The confluence of almost random circumstances that formed this principle was very soon in demand in New York, where the issues of the status and image of companies were supplemented by the utilitarian shortage and high cost of land, on the one hand, and the rocky base of Manhattan Island, which made it possible to significantly increase the load on the soil , - with another.
With the development of new tasks in the architecture of high-rise buildings, new requirements for technologies and materials have appeared. In the first brick skyscrapers, the load-bearing structures were the walls themselves, so the height of the structure could be greater than the length of the facade by a maximum of 2-2.5 times. In the 1880s, houses gradually appeared in Chicago, equipped with the latest technology of their time. The most notable of them are the Home Insurance Building (1885) with a full elevator system and the Monadnock Building (1891) with electricity and even telephones. But very soon it becomes obvious that the construction of buildings above the 50-meter mark requires the use of other materials and structures, since brick monstrously thickens the walls in the lower parts of the buildings. (In the same Monadnock Building they reached two meters in width.) By the mid-1890s, cast iron frame systems became the norm in the construction of high-rise buildings. Moreover, the choice of material was more likely caused by the fashion for it in the Art Nouveau era than by real strength characteristics. Later, with the beginning of the use of steel frames, there was a qualitative leap in the upward movement of all American architecture.
The true heyday of high-rise construction in America occurred in the first third of the twentieth century. The use of reinforced concrete at the very beginning of the century made it possible to create new skyscrapers, many of which remain beautiful and original structures to this day. Improving the structural system of buildings allowed architects to place windows and openings on facades more freely, because the walls no longer carried the main loads. This made it possible to develop new standards for insolation of buildings and gave the buildings of that time greater lightness and sophistication.
New York has been actively built up with high-rise buildings since the beginning of the twentieth century. Having started at the end of the last century with the possession of the tallest building in the world - the Park Row Building (1899, height - 119 m) - the city on the island is acquiring more and more new silhouette dominants. In 1908, the Singer Corporation Tower rose here, and in 1913, the Woolworth Building. Interestingly, the steel frames used in skyscrapers were faced with brick not only for aesthetic reasons, but also for greater fire safety.
The abundance of thoughtful details in the decoration of the facades gave the new skyscrapers special respectability and luxury. However, few had a real opportunity to appreciate these beauties, and most of the delights were not visible from the street. Therefore, general compositional techniques for dividing facades into large components began to become increasingly important, and the characteristic silhouette of each tower turned out to be more important than the skillfully executed details on the upper floors. As a result of changes in construction practice, in 1916 in the United States, for the first time in the world, norms and regulations for the construction of high-rise buildings were introduced, containing specific instructions on the regulation of the relationship between the height of the building and the required distance from neighboring buildings. In addition, according to the same insolation requirements, a stepwise system of decreasing building volumes was recognized as the most acceptable for skyscrapers.
For a long time, the palm was held by the 242-meter skyscraper by architect Gus Gilbert, built by order of multimillionaire Frank Woolworth and named after him. It was not until 1930 that the Chrysler building was able to break the previously set record. To achieve this goal, the skyscraper's architect, William Van Allen, had to resort to a number of tricks. At the same time as his creation, the Bank of Manhattan office was being built nearby, the creators of which also wanted to set a high-altitude record. Therefore, the design of the Chrysler building, and especially its height, had to be kept in the strictest confidence for a long time. As a result, the secret helped Van Allen get ahead of his competitors, and for a short time his high-rise became an unattainable ideal. However, the 319-meter mark set by the Chrysler skyscraper remained uncrossed for only a few months. Already in 1931, the construction of the famous New York skyscraper Empire State Building was completed. The 102 floors of this house rose above New York to a height of 391 meters. In the early 50s, a television antenna was installed on the roof of the skyscraper. Thanks to her, the building grew a little more and until the seventies remained the tallest in the world.
After World War II, skyscrapers began to take on modern shape. Architectural forms are becoming simpler and more concise - Gothic elements, so popular in the first half of the century, are giving way to “pure geometry”. Buildings increasingly resemble huge cubes and parallelepipeds from a textbook on stereometry. The Lakeshore Drive skyscrapers in Chicago and Seagram in New York, built in the early fifties according to the design of the famous architect Mies, are considered classics of this genre. These houses became objects of imitation for a long time. At the same time, skyscrapers are no longer exclusively multi-story offices; shopping centers, cinemas, restaurants, shops and other infrastructure facilities appear in them.
In the seventies, high-rise buildings around the world received a new impetus for growth: the now infamous twin towers were erected in New York. These were the first office buildings to cross the 400-meter threshold. However, this high-altitude record was short-lived. Already in 1973, the 443-meter-high Sears Tower skyscraper was built in Chicago.
In the second half of the twentieth century, skyscrapers gradually conquered the world. In many ways, the impetus for such rapid development was the war, which wiped out dozens of cities from the face of the earth. Some settlements had to simply be rebuilt, since most of the pre-war structures could not be restored. High-rise buildings were erected very actively in Germany. Frankfurt am Main, the country's financial capital, is often compared to New York or Chicago due to its large number of skyscrapers. The Soviet Union also reacted favorably to the construction of high-rise buildings. In the USSR, the projects of the first high-rise buildings were developed before the war, but they were not implemented then. After the victory in the Great Patriotic War, Stalin returned to plans to build high-rise buildings in the capital. Then the project of the famous Stalinist skyscrapers was born. When creating them, the architects actively used American experience. Perhaps this is why Moscow skyscrapers so closely resemble their overseas counterparts, built before the war during the period of fascination with Gothic delights. The capital's high-rise buildings became a symbol of Soviet-style luxury, forming among USSR citizens an idea of what luxury housing should be like.
Ferrari World- the largest closed thematic object in the world. Its length reaches 700 m, total area - 176 thousand sq.m. Located in Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates).
Burj Dubai- the world's tallest structure, designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. Located in Dubai (UAE). At the official opening ceremony, it was renamed Burj Khalifa in honor of Sheikh and at the same time President of the UAE Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan.
- In his best! The project was presented by Kobi Karp. Construction is planned on Watson Island (USA, Miami). The announcement of the project states that this tower, which has a height of 975 meters, will be able to easily remove the crown from Dubai. According to official data, the 160-storey eco-city of Miapolis will be more than 183 meters higher than the famous Dubai giant Burj Khalifa. The building will include countless entertainment and residential spaces.
The Cleveland Clinic is the Lowe Ruvo Center for Brain Health. Original name - . The unusual building is located in Las Vegas (USA). The author of the project is Frank Gehry. The project consists of two blocks and is estimated at $100 million. The research center is located in one wing, and the patient rooms are in the other.
- skyscraper-waterfall, “Sunny City” tower. It is being built for the 2016 Olympics, which will be held in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). The project was developed by the famous Swiss bureau RAFAA Architecture and Design. It pledges to become the "eighth wonder of the world." The tower's function is to provide clean electricity to the nearby Olympic Village along with the multimillion-dollar city. Moreover, at an altitude of 105 meters, Solar City Tower will house cafes and shops. An observation deck will be equipped on the roof where you can admire the panorama of Rio de Janeiro along with the prostrate bottomless ocean. For lovers of extreme recreation, there is a platform for bungee jumping.
- house designed by Senosiain Arquitectos bureau. Located in Mexico. Built in bio-architecture style at the request of a young couple. The house has, thanks to which young people with two children now live in a fabulous “underwater kingdom”.
- one of the most luxurious hotels in the world, which was built in Singapore (South-East Asia). The hotel houses the largest casino in the world, worth about eight billion dollars. Marina Bay Sands consists of three vertical towers, which in turn are connected by an amusement park in the shape of a ship. The park ship extends 340 meters in length and can accommodate 3,900 guests. The project is being implemented by Las Vegas Sands.
- National Museum located in Abu Dhabi (UAE). The museum project was created by the Foster + Partners bureau and is dedicated to the President of the United Arab Emirates, as a historical monument dedicated to the socio-economic changes, the initiator of which is considered to be Zayed bin Sultan Al Nayyan himself - the sheikh and the President of the UAE rolled into one.
- the most extreme observation deck in the world, which is located on Mount Osterfelderkopf (Alpspitz, Germany). The AlpspiX site offers breathtaking views. A kilometer altitude, two mutually intersecting steel beams, the feeling of free flight over an abyss...
Although the observation deck was built not so long ago - in October 2010, nevertheless, over these few years tourists have fallen in love with it and even became a kind of Mecca for lovers of extreme sensations.
located in Dubai (UAE). Meydan City is a development project by Meydan Group LLC, the area of which reaches 18.6 million square meters. The project consists of a horse racing complex, a hotel and a number of premises for entertainment events.
The unusual modern architecture, designed by the SAMOO design studio, is an eco-project of the South Korean National Institute of Ecology. The territorial area is 33 thousand square meters. The architectural structure honorably bears the title of the country's nerve center.
Chicago Spire- project of the famous architect Santiago Calatrava (Chicago, USA). The height of the skyscraper reaches 609 meters (150 floors). The Chicago Spire is shaped like a drill and contains 1,193 apartments, which feature three-meter ceilings and floor-to-ceiling windows.
Eco-roof project for a market located in Seoul (South Korea). Developers: Samoo Architects & Engineers. The goal of the project is to eliminate unpleasant odors and constant noise created by cars scurrying past.
- underground station (London, UK).
- TV tower, which is located in the city of Guangzhou (PRC). The height of Canton is 610 meters. To date, this is a record height among television towers. The record-breaking tower broke the record of the tallest CN tower (Toronto, Canada).
- an energy passage made in the best traditions of modern world architecture. The project, located in the Italian city of Perugia, was developed by the Coop Himmelb(l)au bureau. What you see here is not just a fancy roof that shades the city's famous pedestrian street, but also an energy turbine powered by the sun and wind.
is a center of contemporary art. This gigantic building was designed by the famous architect, a woman whose work is revered in all countries of the world. Location: Cagliari, Italian region of Sardinia.
- an architectural project by the Dynamic Architecture team, presented in the form of a rotating tower (Dubai, UAE).
The central office of the famous giant automobile manufacturing company BMW, which is located in Munich (Germany). The authors of the project are the team of the Coop Himmelb(l)au bureau.
- gallery located in the administrative center of Edmonton (Canada). The project was created by Randall Stout Architects.
Bella Sky Hotel- a designer hotel that embodies original modern architecture. Located in Copenhagen (Denmark). The tilt of the towers of the largest hotel in Scandinavia is 15 degrees. Note: Just imagine, the famous leaning tower of Pisa leaned 3.97 degrees.
- Hamburg Philharmonic (Germany), project by Herzog & de Meuron. The building, built on the banks of the Elbe, includes 3 concert halls, a hotel, 45 apartments and a public area called the Plaza. The latter is located at a height of 37 meters above the water. 360° panoramic view.
From year to year, leading architectural bureaus delight us with such bright and multifaceted projects. I think it's like this modern architecture on a global scale brings you only positive emotions, but not the other way around. Of course, there is something to envy when peering at these unusual architectural masterpieces of our time and the near future. Be that as it may, the project bureau team wishes you inspired architectural and design ideas and, of course, their implementation!
The phrase “architecture of Spain” quite naturally evokes in most people the image of Barcelona with its outstanding masterpieces from the great Catalan architect Antonio Gaudi. However, modern Spain is a country with amazing architecture, which is in no way inferior to other developed countries.
Our review presents 25 outstanding examples of modern architecture in Spain.
1. Museo ABC Museum of Drawing and Illustration in Madrid
The Museum of Drawing and Illustration in Madrid is the most modern in Spain. The ABC Museum consists of small cafes, shops, restoration rooms and two exhibition halls, which display a rich collection of works of all kinds of fine art, sculpture, animation and graphic design. In addition to exhibitions, the museum hosts various cultural events, educational master classes and courses.
2. BF House in Castellon
The amazing BF House, located on a hill in the city of Castiglion, is an excellent example of the competent organization of space that promotes the most comfortable living. BF House is a huge slab resting on 3 V-shaped metal supports that bear the weight of the entire building. One of the most important principles laid down by the authors in this project was the maximum brightening of the interiors due to glass walls.
3. Agbar Tower skyscraper in Barcelona
Skyscraper Agbar Tower in Barcelona at night
Built in 2004, the modern skyscraper Agbar Tower is the creation of a famous French architect. Jean Nouvel. The shape of the building and the design of the facade are designed to embody the water element of Spain and the outlines of Mount Montserrat, located in Catalonia. The facade of the building amazes with the variety of color schemes, which are achieved using multi-colored metal panels with 4,000 lighting devices. These elements form complex color combinations, which creates a “pixelated” effect. However, from a distance, all the pixels merge, and Agbar Tower seems to shimmer with all the colors of the rainbow.
The 38-storey building has become one of the most important symbols of the new Barcelona.
4. Alamillo pedestrian bridge in Seville
Famous masterpiece from the Spaniard Santiago Calatrava, the Alamillo pedestrian bridge, was built in 1992 in Seville. The uniqueness of the 200-meter sheet laid through is that its weight is supported by only one support and 13 stretched steel cables. At night, the bridge, painted entirely white, takes on a very picturesque coloration.
5. Basque Culinary Arts Center in Gipuzkoa
The modern culinary arts center complex was built in 2011 in the city of Guipuzcoa. The architecture of this object, which cannot leave indifferent even the most distant person from architecture, is formed with the help of curved surfaces randomly located on top of each other.
The building includes premises for training students of culinary institutes, lecture halls, cafes, shops and even its own mini-farm. It is worth noting that the Culinary Arts Center was nominated for the Plataforma Arquitectura award as the best architectural object of 2011, but took an honorable third place.
6. Multifunctional sports arena "Bilbao Arena" in Bilbao
Opened in 2010, the multifunctional sports arena in Bilbao is one of the most environmentally friendly in the world. This sports facility mainly hosts basketball matches, but recently it has increasingly hosted music concerts and various cultural events. Also on the territory of the arena there are gyms and a swimming pool.
7. Villa "Home for Life" in Palma de Mallorca
Villa "House for Life", the architecture of which has no analogues in the world, was built in 2009 in the main resort city of Spain, Palma de Mallorca. The house consists of two buildings - rectangular in plan and curved. The first contains a living room, bedrooms, guest rooms and a kitchen-dining room, and the second contains an office and a home theater. The residential group also includes a stunningly beautiful swimming pool, connected to the main area by a decorative staircase.
8. Bilbao City Hall
The unusually shaped modern building of the Bilbao City Hall was built in the city center. According to its purpose, this masterpiece of deconstructivism from IMB Architects is supposed to replace the old Bilbao Town Hall, built back in the 90s of the 20th century. The building contains exhibition halls, cafes, restaurants, meeting rooms, offices and conference rooms.
9. Forum building in Barcelona
The Forum building was designed by a Swiss tandem of architects Herzog&de Meuron and was built specifically for the Forum of Cultures in the capital of Catalonia in 2004.
In plan, this avant-garde building is an equilateral triangle with sides of 180 meters and a height of 25 meters. Of particular interest are the building's facades with curved glass panels stretching the entire height of the complex. This stunning building plays a vital role in shaping the image of modern Barcelona.
10. Architectural complex "City of Arts and Sciences" in Valencia
Opera theatre
Science Museum
IMAX cinema, planetarium and laser theater
"City of Arts and Sciences" is a stunning architectural complex of five buildings that are located on the drained bed of the Turia River in the resort city of Valencia. The idea and general concept of the complex belongs to the legendary architect, born in this city, Santiago Calatrave. The implementation of such a large-scale project lasted from 1996 to 2005.
The City of Arts and Sciences complex includes an opera house, an IMAX cinema, a planetarium, a garden gallery, a science museum and an outdoor oceanographic park. This ensemble is one of the most striking and extraordinary masterpieces of modern architecture in both Spain and the whole world.
11. Business complex "4 towers" in Madrid
The "4 Towers" business complex includes the 4 tallest buildings in Spain: the 225-meter "Space Tower", the 236-meter "Sasir-Vallehermoso" tower, the 249-meter "Baron Norman Foster Glass Tower" and, finally, the tallest, 250-meter tower "Caja Madrid".
All 4 buildings were erected in the Spanish capital between 1999 and 2005. The square, surrounded by these giants, has become the center of attraction for both citizens and businessmen from all over the world making business visits to the capital of the Kingdom of Spain.
12. Residential complex Edificio Mirador in Madrid
The Edificio Mirador residential complex, 63 meters high (21 floors), stands out from the background of standard buildings with a huge central opening, which is a kind of public balcony with a stunningly beautiful garden and enchanting views of the local surroundings. Also, the huge hole has a security function - in the event of a terrorist attack, the blast wave will pass through the huge hole.
13. Headquarters of the natural gas processing company Gas Natural in Barcelona
Located in the La Barceloneta area with predominant low-rise buildings, the tower fits very harmoniously into the surrounding landscape. The main feature of this glass giant is its strongly protruding consoles. They increase the usable area of the building and form its unique appearance. It is worth recognizing that most people have an extremely ambiguous attitude towards this skyscraper.
14. Palace of Congresses and Kursaal Auditorium in San Sebastian
The architectural complex of buildings, located in the city of San Sebastian, consists of two huge prisms - a large auditorium, as well as multi-purpose and exhibition halls.
The Palace of Congresses was built according to the design of a Spaniard Rafael Moneo and opened in 1999. The concert hall, which seats about 2 thousand spectators, also serves as the venue for the largest international film festival. At different levels of the architectural ensemble there are open terraces with stunning views of Zurriola beach and the mouth of the Urumea River.
15. Metropol Parasol complex in Seville
The incredible Metropol Parasol complex, located in the medieval part of Seville, is the world's largest architectural structure made of wood.
This large-scale facility includes a farmers market, several restaurants and bars, and an archaeological museum, which displays real archaeological excavations. The main feature of Metropol Parasol are the pedestrian paths and observation decks on the roof, which offer stunning panoramic views of the capital of Andalusia.
16. Museum of Contemporary Art of Castilla in Leon
The Museum of Contemporary Art of Castilla was built in 2005 in León. The main goal of this cultural institution is the constant replenishment and storage of works of art created no earlier than 1992.
The museum received an international vocation and was even noted by the American edition of The New York Times as “one of the most amazing and daring museums that has radically changed the modern face of Castile.” Of course, this museum is considered the main attraction of Leon.
17. Oscar Niemeyer Cultural Center in Aviles
The construction of a huge cultural center, combining all kinds of exhibition pavilions, an observation platform, a music center, a theater stage, cinema halls, dance floors and much more, was completed in 2010. The author of the project was a Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer.
With the advent of this large multifunctional complex, the main industrial city of the autonomous province of Asturias has turned into a real cultural center, attracting hundreds of tourists from all over the world.
18. Hotel Porta Fira in Barcelona
The spectacular tower of the Porta Fira hotel, located in the capital of Catalonia, was designed by a famous Japanese architect Toyo Ito and built in 2009.
Tourists and local residents are amazed by the organic shape of the tower and the incredible texture of its facades, which is a consequence of the use of red aluminum pipes. It is these metal elements that give the hotel walls the effect of vibration and serve as blinds. The Porta Fira tower is considered one of the main masterpieces of deconstructivism in the world.
19. Hotel Puerta America in Madrid
The Puerta America Hotel, located in the capital of Spain, is a completely unprecedented phenomenon in the history of architecture, because 19 famous architects from all over the world simultaneously took part in its creation, literally dividing the entire hotel complex among themselves by floor. Among those who took part in such an unusual experiment - Zaha Hadid, Norman Foster, Jean Nouvel, David Chipperfield, Arata Isozaki and many others.
20. Twin Towers "Gateway of Europe" in Madrid
Construction of Spain's second tallest building, a complex of two identical 114-meter towers in Madrid, was completed in 1994. These skyscrapers, tilted towards each other at an angle of 15°, are the world's first tilted skyscrapers.
21. Hospital named after King Juan Carlos of Spain in Madrid
Hospital built in 2012 in the town of Mostoles (Autonomous Community of Madrid - Ed.)- the first medical institution in Spain named after the king. Author of the project Rafael de La Joza presented to the public a new type of hospital, based on three basic principles: maximum efficiency, light and silence.
The hospital complex consists of two small towers located on a rectangular stylobate (common ground floor - Ed.). There are atriums on most floors (open spaces inside the building - Ed.). Movement inside the hospital is carried out through circular galleries and elevators. In fact, the stylobate plays the role of a hospital, and the small towers are a clinic.
22. Tenerife Auditorium Opera House in Tenerife
One of Spain's most recognizable buildings, the Tenerife Auditorium is the result of a creative process Santiago Calatrava. Construction of one of the most significant and famous works of modern architecture was completed in 2003.
The scale of this building is simply amazing - the roof alone reaches 100 meters in length and weighs about 350 tons. The theater building includes two halls - an organ hall (1,616 seats) and a chamber hall (424 seats). It is curious that you can enter the theater from two sides. Tenerife Auditorium also provides its visitors with the opportunity to spend time in harmony with nature on special terraces with sea views.
23. Student dormitory-residential building in Gandia
A unique facility, located in a small town near Valencia, serves two purposes at once: it is a dormitory for students of the local university and social housing. The complex includes 102 units for young students, 40 apartments for retirees and a community center. One of the most important principles when creating this hostel was the organization of public spaces that help improve communication and interaction between residents.
24. Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao is a huge exhibition space of stone, glass and titanium, following the contours of the Nervión River. Since the design and construction of this huge complex in Bilbao received little press coverage, the opening of the building in 1997 caused an explosion of delight among both the local population and true art connoisseurs. It was this incredible building that was erected by its author, the American architect Frank Gehry, to the rank of great architects of our time.
25. Olympic Pavilion "Fish" in Barcelona
Unique golden fish sculpture - another Spanish masterpiece Fank Gehry, built on the coast of Barcelona specifically for the 1992 Olympic Games. This structure of gilded steel mesh, glass and stone at one time became a real technological breakthrough in the field of architecture. It is interesting to note that when creating a model of the future pavilion, Gehry used a 3D aircraft modeling program for the first time.