# The Architecure Apprecation thread (AAT)



## Daemoniac

Beginning to really appreciate some major architecture these days, so i decided to start a thread to see what everyone else likes in their buildings too  Im a huge fan of old Gothic style cathedrals, industrial areas, and generally interesting designs.

Also have a thing for churches in general. Im not 'religious' in any way, but there is something about a beautiful church, theres so much fork gone into them and they are just beautiful.






*The Church of Halligrimur* in Iceland.





*Milan Cathedral* in Italy





*Borgund Stave church* in Norway





*Sagrada Familia* in Spain





*St. Basil's Cathedral*in Russia





*Las Lajas Cathedral* in Colombia





*WTF?* 





*Cologne Cathedral*in Germany (Probably my favorite  Its incredible)
And more of this one:


















Must visit Germany 





That big building in Dubai. Looks like something out of a 'futuristic' building from some old as NES game 

So, what are some of your favorite buildings?


----------



## vontetzianos

I LOVE architecture. I'm really into old Norse architecture like the one you've posted





It just looks really different.





The Sagrada Familia in spain is also really up there. Pretty much anything by Gaudi is awesome.









I also love old Germanic castles, but then my father is German, so I'm biased.






Nice idea for a thread


----------



## Daemoniac

Castles always get me, i _have_ to visit Europe to see some, especially German and Scottish ones  Just incredible...


----------



## Scar Symmetry

good thread idea dude


----------



## vontetzianos

Scar Symmetry said:


>


 

Where exactly is this? Its quite an amazing location.


----------



## Scar Symmetry

it's Las Lajas Cathedral in Narino, Colombia.

here's some more pics of it:


----------



## Daemoniac

Scar Symmetry said:


> it's Las Lajas Cathedral in Narino, Colombia.
> 
> here's some more pics of it:



Definitely a beautiful building, absolutely. Though, i still prefer the early/middle gothic era churches and cathedrals  Theres just so much more work gone into them (artistically).

Fantastic building though,.


----------



## budda

Great thread idea! I believe one of my buddies got to see castles when he went to scottland(?) with his dad years ago.

I'll find something to contribute, i promise lol


----------



## Daemoniac

^ That would have been awesome. There are a whole load of Scottish castles id like to see, the tought of seeing a giant crag of rock with a ruined castle sitting on top, and the rolling grey mist and grey/green hills is just incredible


----------



## vontetzianos

I'm also quite fond of Frank Geary's designs:


----------



## budda

I was looking up pictures of ruins for a tattoo idea, i'll post some in a bit.


----------



## vampiregenocide

I'll use this oppotunity to post some of my architectural photographs lol


The Big Ben clock tower in London obviously 




St. Mark's Cathedral in Venice.






Chrysler Building, NYC.


----------



## TimothyLeary

great pictures! make me want to be in those places!! 

put moar!!!!


----------



## Zak1233

i was doing a project for my product design class where we had to create a kitchen utensil and try to incoorparate architecture into it, so i based mine on japanese architecture, some japanese architecture is really out there, though i always love simplistic styles too.


----------



## Daemoniac

Wow, awesome stuff coming up!


----------



## Scar Symmetry

I've been to venice 











Moscow is sick too:


----------



## Daemoniac

I wish i could find some pics of the Palace Versailles. I found some, but_ nothing_ of the entire palace (end to end)... its fucking massive, and one of the most incredible buildings ever  Beautiful stuff.


----------



## liamh

I'm really into japenese architecture:
The golden pavillion in kyoto:
Is there anything that japenese dont own at?


----------



## Daemoniac

Yeah, Japan does have some truly epic architecture. Great stuff.


----------



## lefty robb

this is near my house, I love it, its totally metal, I mean, come on, its full of nothing but medieval weaponry. 

I actually studied this building for architecture in one of my college art classes, I could like LIVE in this building.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higgins_Armory


----------



## budda




----------



## TimothyLeary

where is that? it's beautiful!


----------



## MFB

vontetzianos said:


>



This is the same castle that my brother proposed to his girlfriend at when he was stationed in German


----------



## budda

that's so picturesque in that shot!

tim, i dunno - googled "castle ruins" IIRC


----------



## lefty robb

budda said:


> tim, i dunno - googled "castle ruins" IIRC




I don't think its a castle though, looks more like Aztec or Mayan ruins in South America.


----------



## budda

it probably was "jungle ruins" now that i think about it.

its damn hard to find an image you have in your head on google images


----------



## Daemoniac

I hear you there.. although you type "cathedral" into it, and i find all the ones im thinking of  Or, alternatively, search for lists of that kind of place (ie: ealrly gothic cathedral) on Google, and then when you find the name of one, search for it in Google Images


----------



## budda

well my problem is that i have a very specific image i want to find, and i dont know if it even exists lol.

if i could draw better, i'd do a proper sketch of my tattoo idea. since I can't draw very well, I gave my artist a very crude picture of what I want lol. Not 100&#37; sure i'm going to get it yet, i dunno..

back to architecture!


----------



## Daemoniac

Ok, well, to be fair i suppose you cant have an Architecture thread without mentioning Venice  Some of it im not a big fan of, _but_ some of the buildings are just incredible


----------



## Scar Symmetry

Demoniac said:


> Ok, well, to be fair i suppose you cant have an Architecture thread without mentioning Venice



umm... page 2?


----------



## vontetzianos

The Millau bridge in France (probably not considered "architecture" but an amazing structure):





Burj Al-Arab hotel in Dubai:


----------



## Daemoniac

Scar Symmetry said:


> umm... page 2?


 
:architecturefail: 

Whoops


----------



## budda

i love the reflection in the 2nd pic of the 3 you posted, mischa - looks really cool in a surrealist sort of way, kind of.

and for the record, some of us have their forums set to 30 replies/page - so this is page 2 for me, and mine will be the 3rd post in it  lol


----------



## Daemoniac

Cheers  Yeah, it looks like the world, and then some underworld-like thing coming up from below. Beautiful looking place


----------



## Scar Symmetry

the Burj Al-Arab is sweeeeet. the Burj Dubai will look awesome when it's finished too. Architecture is so frigging metal! 

they've started making plans for a building that is 1/3 taller than the Burj Dubai, which is called the Al Burj (they really know how to pick names huh ) AKA the Nakheel Tower. here is what it will look like at night time:






and here's a scale:


----------



## Daemoniac

^ I fucking _love_ the second building in on the "tall buildings" pic... To me, it looks _exactly_ like what 'futuristic' buildings looked like in old NES games  I fucking LOVE it


----------



## Scar Symmetry

yeah that's the Burj Dubai dude, and when it's finished it will be the world's tallest building, until the one on it's left overtakes it.


----------



## vontetzianos

Dubai has some awesome looking buildings, and there are soooo many more on the way. When I visited there pretty much every building was a construction site.


----------



## Daemoniac

Totally agree. While id love to visit, im really not sure i will... just generally a lack of interest in visiting, except on a stopover to... somewhere


----------



## Zepp88

It is astounding how much fork is put into these buildings.




Also, I agree, I love great architecture


----------



## Daemoniac

There is nothing like walking up to a building of exceptional beauty, or one that gives you the absolute creeps... its like the ultimate symbol of man, and history. Its what we live in, and what (mostly) reflects the times. Very interesting as much as anything 

Also, going back to what someone said a couple of pages ago: Japanese Architecture... their castles are incredible 











Then theres all the Gothic era stuff which is simply incerdible... the amount of detail in it is enough to inspire anyone :


----------



## Scar Symmetry

Demoniac said:


> its like the ultimate symbol of man, and history. Its what we live in, and what (mostly) reflects the times.



yeah I often think about that, they display the pinnacle of mankind's acheivements of any given era. even with buildings being built in my town I still stare in awe at how we can make something so precise and beautiful.

architecture is a key example of what seperates us from animals; our appreciation of aesthetics.


----------



## vontetzianos

Demoniac said:


> There is nothing like walking up to a building of exceptional beauty, or one that gives you the absolute creeps... its like the ultimate symbol of man, and history. Its what we live in, and what (mostly) reflects the times. Very interesting as much as anything
> 
> Also, going back to what someone said a couple of pages ago: Japanese Architecture... their castles are incredible
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Then theres all the Gothic era stuff which is simply incerdible... the amount of detail in it is enough to inspire anyone :


 
Gothic architecture wins hard. Not only is it beautiful but it was also revolutionary. Many new concepts of building came about during the Gothic era.


----------



## Daemoniac

I know, it was absolutely fabulous. The flying buttresses are by far one of my favorite inventions of the architectural world.... the detail was incredible, the materials were amazing, and the actual designs of the building themselves (the layouts etc..) were fucking beautiful...

Take the Milan cathedral for example.


----------



## Pauly

The cathedral in Palma is nice, I have some pics of it (I'm no photographer though):






































Also I'm a closet supertall skyscraper geek, so I'll post a few of my favourites, there's just something about megastructures that fascinates me:

Shard in London, currently a hole in the ground but it'll be finished in time for the Olympics. Will be the UK's tallest building and first 300m/1000ft+ building. Hooray!











London Bridge Quarter.........The Shard.........London Bridge Place


Kingdom Tower - Jeddah, just a proposal at the moment, but along with Nakheel Harbour Tower would compete for the first 1000m+ building in the world:















Chicago Spire, sadly this is on hold due to the recession.  Foundations and basement done, but just a huge circular hole in the ground at the moment. Hope it gets built:


















Burj Dubai obviously, topped out, opening 09/09/09!









Shanghai Tower, excavation has begun, going next to the rather nice International Finance Centre next to it:














Nakheel Harbour Tower, on hold:

















Russia Tower, Moscow...on hold:




Twice the height of the Shard! 





One Dubai, Jumeirah Gardens, various buildings, this was the centrepiece all on hold.


















Looking forward to the rebuilding of the WTC too, some nice buildings and the memorial's pretty cool. Currently under contruction, slowly but surely.



















There's actually loads more but I haven't got time haha, gotta go!

Also the Burj Dubai is 818m metres tall and merrrrr at most things being on hold.


----------



## RenegadeDave

I build buildings, so my appreciation for architecture is somewhat tainted. A lot of these designs have huge gaping holes that it's on the "means and methods" of the contractor to make them work. Granted I've never got to work on a project that could be described as any sort of monument, maybe the caliber of architect is different.


----------



## Daemoniac

^ You'd hope they'd be using the very best contractors they could find... i mean, if they arent...


----------



## D-EJ915

Wow some great stuff in this thread  When I was in Germany the first time we visited a lot of churches and they were awesome, the Kölner Dom is awesome, went up into the higher areas on it, wow some scary shit lol it's like you're about to fall off in some places. Der Reichstag looks awesome at night as well.

There's a lot of awesome architecture in India as well like these 2 places:

Safdarjung's Tomb - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mahabodhi Temple - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


----------



## Daemoniac

^ Indian Architecture is mighty impressive too. I have to say though, i like the Russian buildings, mixing the style of Middle Eastern architecture with the colour and vibrance of Asia and Europe


----------



## Xiphos68

Dude, That iceland Church is out of this world!


----------



## Daemoniac

Yeah, its pretty incredible. It looks _exactly_ like something you'd expect out of iceland tho


----------



## Scar Symmetry

goddamnit I love buildings!


----------



## Daemoniac

^  +100


----------



## Scar Symmetry

I need moar! someone post something epic


----------



## vontetzianos

Scar Symmetry said:


> I need moar! someone post something epic


 
Alright. THE most epic ceiling I've seen: the Cathedral ceiling at Westminster Abbey in the UK


----------



## Daemoniac

The Sistine Chapel;


----------



## xXxPriestessxXx

The Seattle Public Library is one of my favorite buildings because it is just strange looking.  



























And also this because it is awesome.


----------



## Scar Symmetry

feast your eyes on these Castles:

The Potala Palace, Tibet





Mont Saint-Michel, France





Matsumoto Castle, Japan





Hunyad Castle, Romania





Lowenburg Castle, Germany





Prague Castle, guess where?





enjoy


----------



## Daemoniac

^  Great stuff dude.


----------



## Scar Symmetry

I thought you might like those


----------



## Daemoniac

Potala palace is fucking incredible. So is Mont Saint Michel...


----------



## Scar Symmetry

tell me about it man, they are so epic that it hurts my brain


----------



## Daemoniac

Scotland = castle win.


----------



## vontetzianos

scotland has some epic castles.


----------



## Daemoniac

Yeah it really does. Scotland for castles, France for Palaces, and Germany for cathedrals


----------



## Scar Symmetry

Torosay Castle, Isle of Mull:
















Talisay Ruins, Phillipines:
















Ayuthaya Ruins, Thailand:


----------



## MrRedRaider

Im currently in grad school for architecture, so my answer to this thread will never be perfect. Just too much out there for me to post. Lets go..

Trutec building, studied it in my construction class recently. Very insteresting facade.












Salk Institute by Louis Kahn, legendary architect of the modern era.







Also by Kahn, the Kimbell Art Museum (which I have been to, probably 3 yrs ago)












Morphosis.. one of my favorite firms. Very futuristic in their materiality and just the way the spaces are created. Would love to visit one of their buildings.

















Another Morphosis, Uni of Cincinnati












Again, Chiba Golf Club, model, one of my classes used it as inspiration for our designs







Sendai Mediatheque, another fav of mine, by Toyo Ito. Love the structural tubes, they run all of the infrastructure through those things!






















Sauerbruch and Hutton, amazing German architects, they came and did a lecture at our university a few years back. Did a research project on this bldg,






Another of theirs-











K, enough for now. May do a v2 if this stuff blows up your skirts. Not the old gothic and medieval cathedrals everyone is posting, but come on


----------



## Daemoniac

^ Epic post dude. I do love modern architecture too, i just dont know any of the names of the buildings  Great stuff, thanks are definitely due


----------



## daemon barbeque

Sultanahmet mosque/Istanbul 





The Strasbourg Cathedral









Giza


----------



## Daemoniac




----------



## vontetzianos

How can we forget the Sydney Opera House.


----------



## Daemoniac

^ It looks like a bunch of clams having an orgy  I was never a big fan of it, but it is certainly an impressive architectural feat


----------



## daemon barbeque

Goths would be the best spaceship designers!


----------



## D-EJ915

University of Cincinnati definitely has some interesting variety in the architechture of the buildings, they all look different  the engineering building looks like a factory


----------



## thebhef

Santiago Calatrava


----------



## Arteriorrhexis

Sorry if any of it has been posted already.


----------

