Rolex Learning Center, and the future of architecture exhibitions

I visited an exhibition entitled "Architectural Environments for Tomorrow" held at the Museum of Modern Art Tokyo. Co-curators of the exhibition are the Prizker prize-winner Japanese architect duo SANAA.

The exhibition begins with a model of the Rolex Learning Center, designed by SANAA, and ends with a short, looping 3D movie entitled "If Buildings Could Talk" by Wim Wenders, which features the Rolex Learning Center. There are a few other interesting installations by other architects and artists (the boundary between architecture and art is increasingly blurred these days), but at the end of the day, the whole idea of this exhibition seems to be symbolized by this SANAA creation.

The Center, located in the campus of Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, is a future of the college building. Three things characterize the building, all of which enhance the academic and learning environment. First, it is a one-floor building with no wall separating rooms. You can easily spot where your buddies are. In an academic environment, the exchange of information and opinions out of casual meetings is often quite important a trigger for coming up with (and triaging) new ideas. If your friends, colleagues, and acquaintances hide in a room, upstairs, or downstairs, this won't happen. I myself experience a tall wall between different floors in an academic building, both in London and in Stockholm. It is really tall. Trust me.

The second feature of the building is light. Floor-to-ceiling glass windows separate the inside and the outside of the building throughout. There are several circular "courtyards" which allows the sunlight to flow in to the area far away from the outline of the building. The wavy building structure allows the light and the shade created by the sunlight to change over time in a day not in an obvious way.

Finally, the hills. The floor of the building is a rolling field. There are gradual, organic slopes up and down. It is like a park. And in a park, people often go up on the hill and sit down there to get relaxed with the vantage point view. The hill slope also helps people to lie down in a natural way. With the light flowing in and the distance view thanks to the open-plan one-floor structure, the inside of the building can play a role of a park with hills.

What's important in studying is taking a break from time to time. Hard-working is important, but breakthrough ideas often occur to people's mind when they feel relaxed after hard-working. Very few academic buildings can provide researchers and students with this relaxing atmosphere. The Rolex Learning Center just does that.

Now, everything I just wrote here is what I noticed by watching the Wim Wenders's 3D movie of the Center, by sitting close to the screen on the floor with low-height sofas to lie down against, so that I feel like I were actually inside the building. (The movie does show students lying down on low-height sofas placed on those slopes.) The Learning Center's model that I saw at the beginning of the exhibition didn't really help me understand SANAA's design concept this way. Here I saw the future of the exhibition on architecture. Understanding architecture (or space design in general) without actually visiting it is essentially impossible. Most exhibitions on architecture face this problem. With 3D movies, this eternal issue can be resolved as Wim Wenders successfully did.

Zollverein

 

 Kokerei Cafe, recommended for lunch if you visit Zollverein. They serve "typical coal miner meals" in an excellent way for an affordable price.

It's perhaps not a particularly new idea to convert the former industrial complex into something cultural. Beijing has the 798 Art District; Toronto has the Distillery District; Berlin has the Berghain nightclub (by far the best nightclub that I've ever been to). But Essen's Zollverein former coal mine industrial complex, particularly the Kokerei (coking plant) designed by Fritz Schupp (the 4th and 5th photos above), is probably the most aesthetic. It's worth a visit if you happen to be around the Ruhr district of Germany.

Cologne Cathedral

The Gothic architectural design, I learned, appears at its best if it's used for a very tall building. The Cologne Cathedral already looks magnificent from the outside, but the real beauty is inside. Soaring, rather thin pillars that are absorbed into the pointed arches on the high ceiling creates a kind of space that contemporary architecture cannot replicate.

Climbing the south tower (for 2.50 euro) is worthwhile not because of the view from the top (which is obstructed by the 2-meter high wire netting) but because of the views through windows on the way up. You don't often look down on a modern city landscape through the Gothic windows, do you?

And I'm surprised to see some contemporary art that's part of the cathedral. Gerhard Richter's contemporary counterpart of the stained glass window is only subtly out of place and somehow in place:

Among those stained glass windows, I love these:

Expo MRT Station

Designed by Foster and Partners.

Expo station is the first stop on the MRT line (Singapore's metro) from Changi Airport. To appreciate the architecture, you do need to get off the train. With your heavy suitcase, it's a bit burdensome. On the other hand, traveling all the way from the city center (about 30 minutes) to see this Sir Norman Foster's creation may not be worthwhile unless you are a Foster fan.

Assyafaah Mosque

(Clockwise from top left: the front facade; the prayer room; the view from the entrance hall towards the prayer room with a praying boy standing)

Fourteen percent of Singaporeans are Muslim Malays. As a result, you frequently encounter mosques throughout the city (often next to Hindu and/or Buddhist temples). Assyfaah Mosque (pictured above) is probably the most innovative among those.

The mosque is located in the northern part of Singapore, off the beaten track for tourists. Take the MRT North South Line (the red route on the Singaporean metro map) and get off at Sembawang station. Walk a bit to the east from the station and turn left to go up along Canberra Road. After a five minute walk, the Road starts curving towards right. The back facade of the mosque will then appear on your left. (As of December 2009, Google Map's location for the mosque is 250 meters off, by the way.)

The arabesque front facade may attract the most attention, but personally, the beauty of this mosque lies in the prayer hall. After taking off your shoes and walking through a rather low-ceiling entrance hall, a vertically spacious room appears with an inward-sloping pitch-white wall inscribed with Arabic letters as if they were part of contemporary minimalist furniture design. The space creates a tranquil atmosphere, letting visitors remember that Islam is a tolerant religion. As a non-Muslim, I still feel comfortable to stay inside the mosque for a while.

Although in front of the building rises a stand-alone brown spire with the crescent moon and star symbol, there is neither a minaret in the traditional form nor a dome. People in Switzerland may be happy with this mosque.

The mosque is designed by Forum Architects from Singapore. Who talks about lack of creativity among Singaporeans?

Stalinist apartment blocks on Karl-Marx-Allee

Along Karl-Marx-Alle, formerly known as Stalin-Allee, stand a series of socialist apartment blocks built in the early 1950s by the East Germany government as an after-war reconstruction effort. Modernist straight lines decorated with classical details, the style known as Stalinist architecture, appear luxurious to me. Get off at Strausberger Platz U-bahn station (on Line U5) and walk to the east, to enjoy the idealism of early-day communist Germany.

Fernsehturm, Berlin's icon

Berlin's answer to the Effel Tower in Paris is Fernsehturm (TV Tower). When I saw it in a photo before arriving in Berlin, I didn't really understand why it has become Berlin's icon.



Once I'm walking around the city, I understand why. Its view is simply ubiquitous. Almost anywhere in Berlin you will notice its presence.



Even Berlin's other landmarks such as Brandenburger Tor and Berliner Dom are haunted by the TV Tower.


The more I see the tower's futuristic design, the more I feel affinity to it.

Although it was erected by the atheist communist government in 1969, the cross appears on the ball when it's sunny (known as Pope's Revenge).


West Berlin failed to produce such a landmark. Although the West won the Cold War, the East scored in this respect.

Oslo Opera House

I visited Oslo University to present my research. Before dinner with people there, I had some time to explore the city. I headed to the critically acclaimed Oslo Opera House.

It is an impressive piece of architecture. Since its roof is a slope from the ground level, visitors can walk up on the rooftop. As you are walking around, the view of the Opera House keeps changing continuously, because its shape is essentially a cluster of straight lines very few of which are in parallel. What's more, the surface texture of white tiles differs from part to part, creating some nuances in the color of the white roof. It's a photographer's paradise because there is a myriad of ways of framing the view of the building along with the sky and/or the sea.



Inside the building (including the rest room) is equally impressive. For the first time ever, I saw a concert hall where waiting for the show to start can be fun (or even more enjoyable than the show). No photo for the interior because I failed to do justice to its stylishly pleasant atmosphere.