Architect rebel Will Alsop has presented his latest treatment to revitalise a large section of English northern town Middlesborough. The theme appears to be focused on consumerism and popular culture. The proposal recommends the overhaul of dockland area called Middlehaven with new buildings that look like familiar products such as a cinema in the form of a blue Rubik’s cube, an office block nicknamed ‘Marge Simpson’s hair’ and also a primary school in the shape of a giant spelling block!
He also envisions for the £500m scheme conical apartment blocks which are supposed to resemble Prada skirts; several bottle-shaped office blocks; a proposed Digital Media Museum in the form of a Space Invader; and a hotel shaped like the children’s marble game, Kerplunk.
Some critics have described his style as “object plonking” rather than town building but PSFK can’t wait. We’ve even bought our train tickets on British Rail: setting off this evening and arriving sometime in 2006!
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New Yorkers involved in the trend-world of adaptive reuse architecture might be interested to see the winning High Line redesign:
http://www.thehighline.org/design/fieldop.html
It seems like the winners ignore the opportunity to continue the High Line’s presence as a wild garden in the sky and instead have the “vision” to create a mini-Times Square/mall in the Meatpacking District. This will of course bring even more tourist traffic to wash all of local businesses and character out of the already-beseiged neighborhood. However, the picture with the reddish plants does strike me as very attractive.
The NY Times featured a toothless write up of the design today:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/12/arts/design/12high.html
Miss Representation goes one better with a meta-review:
http://www.missrepresentation.com/archives/000332.html
August 12th, 2004 at 1:47 pm