Rem Koolhaas, Oma & Joshua Ramus. Seattle Public Library

map: 1000 4th Ave, Seattle, Washington, USA

:::THE FACT

- a grand staircase transformed into an open auditorium, its side aisles form a stairway that descends to the 4th avenue entrance floor
- The books are placed along a “book spiral,” on a continuous four-story ramp

:::THE QUOTE

"It's a very specific culture here, (...) There is a very highly developed common sensibility and a highly developed sense of solidarity between the rich and the poor. I think it's the only part of America where the rich are angst-ridden and want to do good. It is also a culture where many people have been involved in the digital world. What connects everyone is a dedication to reason and to reasoning, and I think that enabled us to do the project and explains the way it turned out." Rem Koolhaas

:::THE CRITIC

"The rap on modernism is that it comes in just two flavors-the cold perfection of Mies or a cacophonous experimentalism that often seems more about fashion than architecture. The Seattle Public Library points to a third way, a new maturity" read more by Lynn Becker

Coop Himmelb(l)au. Musée des Confluences.

map : Quai Perrache, 69002 Lyon, France

Quotes & Facts

- "In the same way the future Musée des Confluences in Lyon is defined through the convergence of two currents, its architecture is characterised by the merging of two entities that are given urban stature with a local, regional and supra-regional significance, thus contributing to the self esteem of the city of Lyon within the regional boundaries of France."Coop Himmelb(l)au

- The crystal rising towards the side of the town is conceived as an urban forum and entrance hall for visitors

Frank Gehry. Guggenheim Abu Dhabi

map: Saadiyat Island, Cultural District, United Arab Emirates
or
map: Saadiyat Cultural District

Quotes & Facts:

- "The site itself, virtually on the water or close to the water on all sides, in a desert landscape with the beautiful sea and the light quality of the place suggested some of the direction.” —Frank Gehry

- The building site also serves as a manmade breakwater configured to protect the island’s pristine north beach zone

- it's the largest museum in a series of cultural institutions planned as part of the Saadiyat Cultural District

- Tadao Ando, Hadid, Nouvel and Foster projects in same island.

Jean Nouvel. Louvre Abu Dhabi

map : Saadiyat Island, Cultural District, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
or
map : Saadiyat district map

QUOTES & FACTS:

- This micro-city requires a micro-climate that would give the visitor a feeling of entering a different world. The building is covered with a large dome, a form common to all civilisations.
This one is made of a web of different patterns interlaced into a translucent ceiling which lets a diffuse, magical light come through in the best tradition of great Arabian architecture.
Water is given a crucial role, both in reflecting every part of the building and acting as a psyche, and in creating, with a little help from the wind, a comfortable micro- climate that will give visitors a feeling of entering a different world.” J.Nouvel
- “Abu Dhabi’s ultimate goal in creating the Louvre Abu Dhabi, and indeed the entire Saadiyat Island Cultural District, is to build a platform for deeper and more meaningful exchange among people from our own region and from all parts of the globe,”. Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates.
- a 24,000 sq m complex of pavilions, plazas, alleyways and canals 'evoking the image of a city floating on the sea'. Hovering over the complex will be a form inspired by traditional Arabic architecture: a vast, shallow, perforated dome—some 180 metres in diameter.
- It will feature artworks loaned from several top French museums, including the Louvre, the Musée d'Orsay, le Centre Pompidou, the Musée de Quai Branly and the Musée Guimet.