Flying Circus: The Architects Sketch

Big Buildings: Germans Plan Colossal New Great Pyramid

from Gizmodo by Charlie White

Giving new meaning to the phrase "we will bury you," a group of Germans has decided to build a new Great Pyramid that's ten times the size and more than twice the height of the original at nearly 2000 feet tall. A group of German builders has gotten together with Dutch architect Rem Koolhaus for a huge project that aims to build a communal tomb for anyone, not just pharoahs.

They've somehow scraped up a few Euros for the idea, but no one is saying just how much money they've put together or how much this colossus will eventually cost. They are planning to take 30 years to build this monster, but we're thinking their size estimates of the structure are overly optimistic.

Check out that Sizemodo illustration above, comparing the proposed Great Pyramid with those that have come before. We're especially amused by the inclusion of the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas.

There's a business plan involved, too. These pyramid builders actually plan to make money building the giant structure, charging people $960 for each burial spot. The trick is, they'll start with a very small structure, and as burial spots are added, they plan to build out the pyramid to its final gigantic size. Optimistic, indeed. Have any of these people ever heard of cremation?

There's already been a feasibility study that says it's possible to build such a pyramid, but we're just wondering how much design it really takes to put together the timeless shape that buried the pharaohs of Egypt millennia ago. Most importantly, who will want to have his or her body transported to Germany for such a burial? By 30 years from now, it'll probably be cheaper to have your ashes shot into space, anyway. [Great Pyramid, via CNET]

Gadgets: Chinese Build Piano, Violin Shaped Buildings to Stereotypical Chinese Kids' Horror

from Gizmodo by Jason Chen

There's not much detail on why this Huainan building was built in the shape of a violin and a piano, but our guess is it's to shame every little Chinese kid into taking up the two stereotypical instruments they play: the piano and the violin. Of course, their instruments aren't made of glass and aren't 100 feet tall, but these weigh just as much as the real ones do on those little kids' souls. We can still taste the tears. [Ce via Spluch]

Jean Nouvel.com

Jean Nouvel's site is full of all his projects. They are all easily catagorized between: Location, time and type of project. Most projects also have wonderful cad drawings of their sections and plans. See it HERE.

From Troy to Hove - Brad Pitt's new career

Actor obsessed with architecture to work on £250m project

Richard Jinman
Friday May 27, 2005
The Guardian

Sea, sand, skyscrapers... Brad Pitt with Frank Gehry (photograph: Howard Pasamanick/AP), and the design for the Hove seafront

As an actor, Brad Pitt tried to breach the walls of Troy. In real life, the Hollywood star wants to reshape Hove as a member of the design team behind one of Britain's most daring architectural projects.

Pitt, the 41-year-old star of movies such as Fight Club, Ocean's Eleven and Troy, is designing a restaurant and a penthouse as part of architect Frank Gehry's controversial £250m redevelopment of the Hove seafront. The actor is not a qualified designer; he studied journalism at the University of Missouri before embarking on a film career. But in interviews he has often talked about his passion for architecture and the work of leading practitioners such as Gehry and Rem Koolhaas.

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Pitt and 76-year old Gehry met in 2001 and have become close friends. The actor has even taken time out from the movies to study computer-aided design during an "informal apprenticeship" at the Canadian-born architect's Los Angeles offices.

In an interview with Vanity Fair last year Pitt said: "I'm really into architecture, structure and design. Give me anything and I'll design it. I'm a bit nutty with it." Pitt added: "I've got a few men I respect very much and one would be Frank Gehry. He said to me, 'If you know where it's going, it's not worth doing.' That's become like a mantra for me. That's the life of the artist."

Pitt is expected to travel to Hove in August, when the planning application for Gehry's project is submitted, or later this year when it is considered by the city council. There are even rumours the actor may buy the luxury duplex penthouse he is helping to design.

Josh Arghiros, joint managing director of Karis Holdings, the company that is developing the King Alfred site, said: "Brad is looking for a place to live in Britain and it may well be that he'll take one of the flats in Brighton. I haven't got a clue what style he'll go for. I understand from Frank that Brad's design aspirations coincide with Frank's aspirations for the project. I understand he has really good taste."

Mr Arghiros conceded Pitt's involvement had generated some welcome publicity for the project, but denied it was the equivalent of a celebrity endorsement.

"We've known about this for two years - it has only just come out because Frank has talked about it," he said. "We could have exploited it if we were being cynical about it. But he [Pitt] is genuinely excited about the project - it has captured his imagination. Everyone wants to be part of it because it's so bloody brilliant."

A spokesman for Brighton and Hove city council said it would welcome the Hollywood star if he did buy one of the penthouses and took up residence in the East Sussex city. He would be in good company - Hove's celebrity residents include Paul McCartney and DJ Fatboy Slim.

Outraged

Gehry's iconoclastic designs include the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and Maggie's Centre, a cancer daycare centre, in Dundee. But his bold plans for the King Alfred site - a 1930s sports centre on Hove's seafront - have outraged some residents since his company was chosen to redevelop it in 2003.

Gehry's initial design was centred on four 120-metre towers that are supposed to resemble crumpled Victorian dresses. The development also includes a £26m sports centre and more than 700 flats.

The height of the towers was reduced after protests from residents and only two are now proposed. But their radical sculptural design, described by one critic as "transvestites caught in a gale", remains unchanged.

The council spokesman said it was hopeful Pitt's involvement might broaden interest in the King Alfred redevelopment.

"Many people know about Frank Gehry as an architect and many more will know about Brad Pitt the actor," he said. "So it will bring the project and our ambitions to a wider audience."

Pitt made his public debut as a designer in March last year when he appeared with Gehry at a Los Angeles architectural forum. He was introduced as part of Gehry's "dream team", a consortium that was preparing an £800m plan to transform part of downtown LA. Pitt is believed to be advising Gehry on cinema, sports hall and restaurant designs.

Pitt's new role may be part of a wider trend among Hollywood actors who used to turn to the stage or rock'n'roll as an antidote to Tinsletown's superficiality. Earlier this week Star Wars actor Hayden Christensen revealed he was considering giving up acting for architecture.

"I don't find Hollywood interesting, so I'm thinking about studying architecture instead," Christensen said. "A film is a product and as an actor you can only sell it if you sell yourself."

Stars with style

Brad Pitt

Born
Shawnee, Oklahoma, US

Age
41

Career highlights
Johnny Suede, Fight Club, Ocean's 11

Career lowlights
Seven Years in Tibet, Meet Joe Black

Why he matters
'He combines the matinee idol looks of Gary Cooper with the sex symbol loveliness of Marilyn Monroe'

Frank Gehry

Born
Toronto, Canada

Age
76

Career highlights
Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao; Walt Disney concert hall, Los Angeles

Career lowlights
Experience Music Project, Seattle

Why he matters
'One of the most prominent contemporary American architects with his open, curvilinear, diverse and sometimes playful west coast style'.

Useful links
Brighton and Hove city council
Frank Gehry's Pritzker prize page
Gehry Partners

7.5-Tonne Bridge Made of Cardboard Tubes

A temporary bridge made of 281 cardboard tubes has been erected over a river in Southern France. Weighing 7.5 tonnes, it can hold up to 20 people at a time. It is just half a mile from the Pont du Gard, an old Roman stone bridge, and was designed by Shigeru Ban, a Japanese architect known for his both grandiose and humble paper constructions, as you can see in the gallery. The technical details make it even more stunning.

Paper Architecture

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Each tube is four inches in diameter and 0.46 inches thick. The steps are recycled paper and plastic, and the foundations sand-filled wooden boxes. It was built by 24 French and 3 Japanese architecture students over the course of a month, and will be on show for six weeks before being dismantled ahead of the rainy season.

The structure, which connects one of the banks of the Gardon with a sandy islet that sits mid-river, was tested for resistance by rolling balloons filled with one-and-a-half tonnes of water over it. "It is a very interesting contrast, the Roman stone bridge and the paper bridge," said Ban, who made his name making temporary emergency structures for disaster victims. "Paper too can be permanent, can be strong and lasting. We need to get rid of these prejudices." [France24 via Boing Boing]