Well, you can heat or cool just about anything if you throw enough air and money at it but, your friend is right - it will be hard to do and terribly expensive to maintain. Without being too detailed, let me just say that there are devices that are a standard part of commercial heating/cooling systems that regulate (vary) the volume of air to individual parts of any floor or building - properly balanced they can maintain even temperatures throughout a builing. They require computer monitoring and sophisticated controls.
Architects trying to be avant guarde, but somehow chic. Seems somehow to be an odd juxtaposition. Beautiful well preserved squares with ultra modern constructions thrown in. But then the Eiffel Tower was hated and considered an eye sore at first. How about that Picasso horse in Chicago. It would look horrible painted but it works works like it is. Unlike the exploding chicken in Tampa that Glenn mentioned. Would send a picture of it, but can't figure out how to do it.
a 300-meter-high phallic symbol in a town center must have been about equally offending 110 years ago
Yet 110 years from now, tourists from around the world will still come to Paris to visit the Eiffel Tower--I doubt many tourists will come to Prague for the octopus.
Well, if everything vertical and cyllindricaly shaped (in this case quite remotely) reminds some people of phallus, that is their problem. But the new national library does not remind people of a phlegm, it actually does look like phlegm (shape, colour,...).
The difference is, that everything vertical and cylindrically shaped does not necessarily have to be a phallus. The trunk of a tree, for example. Or a stalagmite. Or the lamp on my night table. Or a bottle. A flacon. A bone. A rolled parchment. So... those who see in all those things phallic symbols should probably contact their personal psychoanalyst. But I cannot think of anything phlegm shaped and phlegm coloured that would not be phlegm. Except of the new national library.
The problem with that is Sigmund Freud is the father of psycho-analogy and EVERYTHING reminded him of phallus, included his sick ideas of his mother! Perhaps they'd be better off seeing a Catholic priest! :wink:
Ouch! Bad, Katka (but very funny ). Of course, at least you didn't say they'd be better off becoming Catholic priests. :shock:
omg i've never imagined i was able to start a freudian flamewar on the net. ok, maybe the phallus comment was a bit too much, what i meant to say was that the construction of the library hasn't even started, and people are already complaining about it, i say wait 30 - 40 years and you'll be proud of prague because of it, i'll bet my boots.
yes, but these days you will hear "bet your booty" more. booty was old slang for pirate's treasure and is used today as a synonym for butt (as in you bet your a*s) sayings like this tend to get all mixed around I still think the "octopus" is weird.
Oh the "octopus" problem . I understand the arguments referring to our limited objectivity . Yes, this building may be first of the many . Hell , it may be even a whole new architectonic style . But that doesn´t change anything about that it´s ugly , impractical , expensive and "maybe" product of manipulated contest (not sure about the latest point , I´ve skimmed the news pretty quicly ). And it is going to be payed from tax payers pocket. Since when we are so bl*ody rich to afford some weird architectonic experiment as this giantic spit of phlegm ? Oh , that was funny but it´s time to get to the point . Have you seen the other finalist in the contest ? Some of them are truly beatuful. Or maybe , just maybe I´ve been twisted by socialistic realism so much that I can´t recognise the "true beauty" of our little spit. Unfortunately I´am just a one man , so I have little hope that something will be done. Out of sheer curiosity , what do you say about these ? : Two of the final seven concepts I like. The Black Diamond - Dannish Royal Library Christiansbro That is what I imagine when someone starts talking about modern architecture . I must add that I love the Dannish style
I had never heard it but I immediate thought it must have come from the Old West (America). It sounded like something a cowboy might say. Perhaps they use it in Texas. :wink:
Same here. I heard it all the time in Houston. Less often in Austin, but then again, Austin is much less Texan than Houston is.
I don't know if you have all picked up that there is now some doubt over the future of the Blob. Yesterday's news is that they are certainly re-thinking the location if not the design itself. www.praguemonitor.com/en/189/prague_new ... f_the_Blob