“The one who knows all the answers has
not been asked all the questions.
Confucius
Contemporary
architecture presents a unique set of challenges — it must shelter its
occupants, fulfill countless functions, address various contexts, be of its
time, and express the positions of its many authors and collaborators.
Buildings today are intrinsically hybrid; hybridity is an imminent condition of
contemporaneity. The ambition, however, is not to make a hybrid building
respond to numerous, often contradictory objectives but to discover genuine and
exciting ways to communicate with the world. What critical questions should be
raised to find that not merely
reflect on our fast-transforming environment but guide us through it and meaningfully? “Imagine
Having a Relationship with a Building!” offers diverse possibilities through
six original visions.
New York-based architect and educator Winka Dubbeldam led the design and construction of a
transformative project in Hangzhou, China — Gongshu Canal Sports Park, one of the main
components of Hangzhou 2022, the Asian Games. The complex is a hybrid on an urban scale —
seven major buildings incorporated into a huge public park. The project merges with nature,
which is envisioned to be an integral part of the city. In her work, the architect explores such
innovative possibilities as designing organic buildings and adding human-like qualities to them.
She ponders, “Imagine buildings that breathe, get hot, and sweat!”
"IMAGINE BUILDINGS THAT BREATHE, GET HOT, AND SWEAT! I TRY TO ADD HUMAN-LIKE
QUALITIES TO BUILDINGS."
"I LOVE IT WHEN PEOPLE CREATE AN EMOTIONAL BOND WITH THE BUILDINGS THEY
LIVE IN."
Philip F. Yuan from Shanghai, a leading figure in parametric architecture, integrates his
Radisson Collection Resort Nanjing into the Nanjing Garden Expo Park. The parametrically
designed building is built into the abandoned mining area on the outskirts of Nanjing. The
hybridity here is explored in the way the building was designed. The architect calls the process
"human-machine collaboration." The building’s guest rooms, reception lobby, public health care,
catering, entertainment areas, and the landscape around it are all connected in non-linear,
organic, precise, and intelligent ways.
"A NEW BEAUTY COMES FROM A COLLABORATION BETWEEN HUMANS AND MACHINES."
"I WORK WITH MACHINES TO KNOW THEIR LIMITS. THAT HELPS ME TO PUSH MY
IMAGINATION."
Francisco Gonzalez Pulido’s project, the Riyadh World Expo 2030, raises many fundamental
issues, including whether it is sustainable to continue building such ambitious undertakings as
world fairs at all. In his proposal, he is more concerned with the use of the site after the Expo.
His project is literally a hybrid between buildings and the earth. The architect focuses on ecology,
culture, and how the buildings he is proposing can be utilized after the event; he even imagines
them to be packed and sent overseas. Yet, the ultimate purpose he sees in his architecture is to
achieve the utmost simplicity. He insists, “I want to build lighter.”
"I WANT TO BUILD LIGHTER."
"FORGET ABOUT THE SKYLINE; THE ACTUAL EXPERIENCE IS ON THE GROUND. IMAGINE
IF OUR CITIES WERE LESS OF A FORTRESS!"
Dimitri Shapakidze and Irakli Abashidze are now completing their unusually complex project in
their home city, Tbilisi. Lechkombinati, a healing facility, is a true hybrid — a ground-up hospital
with an adaptive reuse art museum, all integrated into a public park. The partners like using
opposites, contrasts, and counterforces in their projects to achieve something spontaneous and
radical. They work with materials and forms that strangely fit and yet attract. It is that resistance,
the spark, that bonds and fuses things almost in a welding-like process. After all, it is not an
incident that their practice is referred to as a laboratory.
"ARCHITECTURE IS FOND OF GADGETS, AND GADGETS ARE FOND OF ARCHITECTURE."
"WE BELIEVE IN QUANTUM SUPERPOSITION: THINGS CAN BE ON AND OFF
SIMULTANEOUSLY."
Mumbai architect and CEPT University’s dean in Ahmedabad, Sameep Padora, just completed
his Hampi Art Labs in Vijayanagar, Karnataka, in the southwest of India. It is a hybrid both in
terms of its program — an amalgam of artists’ workshops, residences, a gallery, and café — and
fluid form, a tribute to the nearby river; the building is literally sculpted out of soil, stone, and
climbable landscape, and reinforced by steel. The architect’s research-based projects combine
local and alternative materials, traditional construction techniques, and modern sensibilities. He is
not interested in stylistic continuity in architecture. He looks for opportunities that each project
presents. He insists, “Everything needs to be tested. My design strategy is to doubt everything.”
"WE WANTED TO TURN THE ENTIRE BUILDING AND ITS SITE INTO A CANVAS FOR
ARTISTS."
"I LIKE A MOMENT WHEN THE GROUND, THE LANDSCAPE, THE ROOF, AND THE SKY
COME TOGETHER IN SUCH AN INCREDIBLE JUXTAPOSITION THAT IT FEELS ALMOST
MAGICAL."
In his EDGE Suedkreuz (South Cross) Berlin office complex, architect and drafter Sergei
Tchoban focused on this building’s sustainability, materiality, and connectivity. He utilized hybrid
timber construction to achieve lightness. The complex is the largest free-standing wood-hybrid
building in Germany and one of the largest in Europe. The overall weight was reduced by 40
percent; it resulted in a 40 percent reduction in energy consumption and carbon footprint. The
building’s heart is in its atrium. Its four wooden giant mushroom-like structures are interlinked with
stairs and platforms to provide informal meeting points. The architect designs his buildings
intuitively through drawing. He asserts, “I let my hand be free to see where it will take me.”
"ARCHITECTURE IS ABOUT IMPROVING COMMUNICATION."
"I DREAM THROUGH SKETCHES."
