Buckminster Fuller

He demanded you ask yourself “how big can I think?” Meanwhile he was only 5 foot 1, cross-eyed, with one leg shorter than the other, was latterly deaf, and declared himself of “low-average” intelligence.

If we do more with less, our resources are adequate to take care of everybody. All political systems are founded on the premise the opposite is true.’ So began Bucky in his interview with Playboy in 1972. As usual it runs to many pages, but the kernel is right there. So, in telling us that we were running spaceship earth backwards, was he right? (...)

Bucky’s critique of specialisation was not intended to deny our talents as top darts players or pole dancers; blinkered mediocrity is better understood by avaricious bankers, politicians and ambitious academics; the first being a business we should have grown out of, the second a phoney diversion and the third a contradiction in terms. To avoid oblivion man would improve his thinking, abandoning stooge-like religion, treasure, art, culture and much else besides. Sunrise and sunset would be replaced by ‘sunsight’ and ‘suneclipse’ and even ‘up’ and ‘down’ were controversial.

Firmly believing a home was not a house (and perhaps not in homes at all) and with declarations such as: ‘If humans pass their cosmic exam as local Universe problem solvers and continue on the planet in to the twenty-first century, there will be no thoughts whatsoever of earning a living. There will be no thought of, or even such words as business competition, money or lies for such phenomena will be historically extinct’, Bucky became popular with the more adventurous hippies.

However, he was simultaneously wildly unpopular with the more politicised strain, those who saw him as a capitalist provider of military ordinance to Vietnam. Bucky said he had never designed the domes with military purpose in mind, but it certainly helped to pay the bills. (...)

Academics are shy of him. As Leonardo da Vinci crossed with Charles Lindbergh, Bucky attracts enthusiasts, romantic technocrats and children. But at least in a frontier-prone era of burgeoning futurians, Bucky was almost unique in saying that if we took to his synergetics seriously we would not end up mining rocks for food or seeing out our days on Aldebaran II. (...)

The Architectural Review

Marina Bay Sands, Singapore, Liberty Place

Project Description:

Liberty Place is not a singular tower form but a rich interplay of three slender architectural forms inspired by the unique qualities of this wonderful Sydney city site. The development unites public, corporate and hospitality architecture into a cohesive environment. It is an amalgamation of five sites comprising of a Premium Grade forty-four storey commercial tower, a penthouse apartment, a heritage-listed building (Legion House) and a three storey office and retail building (167 Castlereagh street). Liberty Place occupies a prominent site in Sydney’s Central Business Districts, with dual frontages to 161 Castlereagh street and 242 Pitt street. Collectively, it is an articulate assemblage of elements (ground plane, street walls, tower elements and landscape). The architectural forms create a dynamic public space and reinvigorates a previously run down mid-city area.
ANZ tower with its distinctive sinuous form and striking glass-walled facade has seamlessly redefined the city skyline. The skyline of Sydney is an integral part of the city’s identity. The tower has become an iconic reference point, with a rooftop feature thats dramatically captures and breaks the light. This layered silvery tower gently turning towards the Harbour and terminating in an arch of louvres, makes a dramatic contribution to this great city skyline.
The commercial tower provides 57,000sqm of Premium Grade NLA with efficient floor plates with access to outstanding views for occupants. ANZ Tower has achieved a 6 Star Green Star Design (Design V2) from the Green Building Council of Australia. Significant energy savings are achieved through the use of efficient light fittings, low temperature VAV air conditioning with perimeter active chilled beam technology. The building also features two gas fired cogeneration units to minimise its carbon footprint.
The base of the tower invites the energy of the city into the development, consisting of a retail and dining precinct, public open spaces, a sunlit plaza and pedestrian lane way connecting Castlereagh Street and Pitt Street. The light-filled pedestrian lane way provides a unique ground plane and entry into the commercial tower.
The Castlereagh street frontage features the heritage-listed building Legion House, originally constructed in 1902 by the YWCA and operated as a women’s hostel and outreach service for 60 years. Legion House is heritage listed and protected due to its social significance. Consideration of the site’s rich history led to the authentic juxtaposition of new and heritage elements.
Restoring and redeveloping Legion House enhanced its overall utility and environmental performance. With a 6-Star Green Star- Office v3 Design rating, the six-storey ‘Autonomous Zero Carbon Life Cycle Building’ generates renewable electricity on site resulting in zero net carbon emissions. Receiving little sun or wind, Legion House receives its energy from a process called biomass gasification. This technology converts biomass (plant sourced) materials to a combustible gas that generates electricity. Whilst traditional gasification plants utilise standard wood chips or briquettes (made from compressed waste sawdust), Legion House can use the commercial paper waste generated from the adjacent office tower through shredding and compressing this waste to form paper briquettes (which can be used in the gasification plant). Essentially, this means Legion House creates its own renewable electricity on site resulting in zero net carbon emissions and is disconnected from the electricity grid with any surplus power created by its independent system (to be supplied to the storey commercial office tower on the site).
Legion House incorporates three retail tenancies to the ground floor, and has been extended with two new office floors and a western extension providing additional office space. The lift and stair case have been located external to the building in an elegantly detailed, curved glass enclosure to minimise the heritage impact while creating visual interest and a new laneway entry.
In addition to energy efficiency, Legion House has been designed to be water balanced. This means that in a year of typical Sydney rainfall, all the amenity and operational water needs of the building will be met through rain captured on the roof. This is achieved through the use of advanced water conservation technology, high efficiency fixtures, vacuum toilets and the use of high quality rainwater recycling.
Collectively, Liberty Place is not only celebrates the public domain, but embodies significant architectural and environmental innovation. The development successfully balances urbanism, heritage and sustainability considerations with commercial requirements to create a rich and considered architectural expression.

® Francis-Jones Morehen Thorp

World Architecture Festival

Gone Girl

© FINCHER, David, Gone Girl, 2014