yara Aboud
student
WIZO
Israel
Architecture
With a macro perspective there is a lot of free space in the middle. Also most of the construction does not exceed 6-8 floors which gives the city a special… more
2 March 2022
INSPIRELI AWARDS, JURY SUPERVISION
Project: University complex, Bratislava, Slovakia by Yara Abaud, Israel
Dear Yara,
Please find below my Architect’s comments:
Your proposal is very impressive, unconventional and well presented. Congratulations, you deserve a distinction!
The Conceptual model is well-balanced, octagonal composition of subtraction and addition, solid & void; positive & negative, yin & yang. Excellent! The resulting articulated structure is outstanding with its irregular grid and the play of solid & void, light and deep shadows and is a worthy example of a Constructivist study.
The Building (pros) is an impressive structure on its own and has the size and form for a unique landmark but (cons) its functional benefit to the university is doubtful. You have created a sky-scraper (100m high) which dominates a city of medium-rise buildings of 6-8 floors. It is not connecting to the landscape (as you claim). It appears as a gigantic abstract structure as if air-dropped at night by aliens.
What was the objective of the project: to upgrade the university or to turn it into a tourist attraction or to create a monument of the architect’s big ego?
I suggest that we go back to the basics and recall the Universal principles of Architecture (as defined by Vitruvius, BC): Firmitas, Utilitas, and Venustas. Meaning that any good building should be Strong, Functional and Beautiful. If one of one of these features is deficient or absent, Architecture fails. For example a building, devoid of function, becomes a structure or a sculpture or just a ‘folly’. Like the structures created by Bernard Tschumi in the 1980s, at the Parc de la Villette, in Paris.
From Town planning point of view ‘city landmarks’ can be either buildings or monuments or structures, as long as they serve a purpose as ‘focal points’ or ‘beacons’. Such as the famous landmark of Paris, the Eiffel Tower (324m high), was built as temporary steel structure for the World Expo 1889, but became the Symbol of Paris (after many years of ‘love-hate’ relationship with Parisians).
We will continue using the grand city of Paris as a 'case-study'.
Other famous symbols of Paris (and most prominent landmarks) are located along the historical axis from the Louvre along Avenue des Champs-Elysees and beyond, which are:
The Arc de Triomphe (50m high), commissioned by Napoleon and built in 1836, is a grand monument and focal point on Place de L’Etoile.
And farther out (5km to the NW, across the river Seine) is the Grande Arche de la Defense, built in 1989 at a height of 110m, which serves as a ‘gateway’ to the high-rise business district of La Defense. Hence called ‘Tete Defense’ or ‘the Head’. Also called “the Cube", I call it 'the Square Arc'. It is a powerful symbol and a unique landmark (marks the end of the Imperial city and the beginning of the Modern one). But it’s also a functional building.
That is what Great Architecture is about.
Peter Plachkov, M.Arch