Isn't it funny how the Leaning Tower of Pisa would surely not be world famous at all if it had started leaning during construction due to insufficient foundation work?
I guess this tells us that when it comes to being noticed, originality is more important than perfection.
Of course if you'd asked the original architect and church leaders, they may not have been so pleased, at the time. :)
Bert chimed in:
Funny coincidence, just yesterday I was listening to an interview of Frank Gehry, the father of many modern architectural works guaranteed to be noticed.
I gotta say, that's a f***ing cool building. It has been very, very difficult and expensive to build, but I'd definitely pay a premium to live in it.Interestingly, though, how some of the comments on the video's page claim that he is more of a sculptor than an architect. That he sacrifices function to form, that the buildings don't work well for those working in them.
Of course making excellent form or function, takes great skill. Making excellent form and function is exceedingly rare.
16 comments:
Funny coincidence, just yesterday I was listening to an
interview of Frank Gehry, the father of many modern architectural works guaranteed to be noticed.
But where on Earth (or in the 5th Dimension) will you ever find furniture that fits into the rooms of such a building?
Anybody knows the directions to Wonderland? Young Nemo, perhaps? Mr Pan in the green pants? Miss Dorothy Gail?
Actually it did start to lean during construction. The angle on top floors changes as they tried to correct the lean, which began almost straight away. It's quite subtle, but the tower is in fact bent like a banana. There were also some significant gaps during building starting in the late 12th Century and going on for about 175 years if I remember correctly.
A lot of the lean as we see it today is the result of later attempts to correct the lean. In many ways it's truly remarkable that it survives to this day (especially that it survived the Second World War, unlike the monastery at Monte Casino). Makes you wonder how many structures built in the last fifty years will still be standing in 700 years?
"It's quite subtle, but the tower is in fact bent like a banana."
Ach, ya, der classic tower/phallic symbol thing. Interesting dat in dis case, it was so openly assumed, mit der banana shape.
I read an article about the several modern projects to save the tower from leaning more and eventually falling. The one I liked most was very original and creative: build an identical-looking twin tower facing it, leaning the other way, on a well-designed foundation... then using that second tower for support, by linking the two with arcades in the same style as the towers! The flying-buttress method: simple, efficient, elegant.
Granted, it would have been a major visual change, but I felt it amounted to completing that work of art while fully respecting its original style.
And it's better than the kryptonite-inspired evil method in the classic Superman III...
Pascal,
Wouldn't the boldness of the original idea be lost if the tower no longer appeared to defy gravity (and common sense)?
I'm all with you, Bert... if it WAS the original idea.
The thing is, nobody intended to build a leaning tower, they just did a poor engineering study of the ground beneath and the thing started to lose balance.
Also, there's this "minor problem" that now the leaning is becoming unsustainable. If left unchecked, Gravity will soon win.
There IS no perfect project. That darned leaning is what made the tower famous. But it's about to destroy it. I likes the idea of the identical twin tower leaning the other way and providing support for its older sister. It has something poetic in it. Plus, it's designed as much more stable than, for instance, stretching a cable pulled by a counterweight, or such stuff. A twin tower feels like a tribute to the original. Like a mirror recognition from the Third Millenium.
Just my own assessment on a salvation project I liked from the lot.
Also, it seems to be much less costly in the end, to build normally, instead of trying to inject more concrete under God knows how many tons of stone tower. Thesse palliatives have cost fortunes already, and for dubious results.
Everybody is welcome to PITCH in regarding other possible solutions.
From Wikipedia:
"On 7 January 1990, after over two decades of work on the subject, the tower was closed to the public. While the tower was closed, the bells were removed to relieve some weight, and cables were cinched around the third level and anchored several hundred meters away. Apartments and houses in the path of the tower were vacated for safety. The final solution to prevent the collapse of the tower was to slightly straighten the tower to a safer angle, by removing 38 m3 of soil from underneath the raised end. Through this, the tower was straightened by 18 inches (45 centimeters), returning to the exact position that it occupied in 1838. After a decade of corrective reconstruction and stabilization efforts, the tower was reopened to the public on December 15, 2001, and has been declared stable for at least another 300 years."
It seems that my info was slightly dated then, and today the tower is saved without being modified. Bellissimo! I am so happy, now I'm-a gonna build a leaning tower of pizzas, and eat-a them all-a to celebrate!
Darn, I was going to suggest that sheathe it in an invisible layer of mono-molecular diamond.
You too are very slightly dated, Captain. Mr A.C. Clarke recently stated that his "space elevator" was likely to be built in real life with carbon nanotubes, which are very close to mono-molecular diamond filaments.
Still, I gotta hand it to you, a gossamer diamond stocking would've been mighty cool for the old lady.
:-)
Maybe some day we'll be watching nanomachines playing a robotic match of Fullereneball...
Or is it too ambitious? Am I fullerene of it?
P.S.: Shouldn't that comment have read: "Yarn, I was going to suggest that they sheathe it"?
Speaking of space elevator, did you know that this year's competition raised the bar to 1 km? Read all about it here.
I gotta say, that's a f***ing cool building. It has been very, very difficult and expensive to build, but I'd definitely pay a premium to live in it.
It looks like something in the process of being sucked into a wormhole. Or a building after an earthquake. Ask yourself, when it comes to art, what would be considered worthy of preserving? Not this.
" what would be considered worthy of preserving? Not this."
Definitely not if it's being sucked into a wormhole. I'd rather save my handsome self from getting turned into taffy, thank you very much!
It strikes me as being weirdness for its own sake and doesn't hold up very well. It's cool at first, but gets old quickly.
It definitely gets ODD quickly. :-)
I can imagine the neighbors suing the architect claiming they're getting neck strain from viewing this all the time.
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