Zaha Hadid’s firm always makes a powerful statement at the Venice Biennale of Architecture. This year, developmental models based on the work of German architect, Frei Otto, helped to explain a few of the inspirations for her fluid structural forms.
This work is meaningless and without substance–it is form for form’s sake without the impetus of functional purpose except as a sculptural covering. It is exterior effect for show, and the embedded energy used to make these concrete structures is environmentally destructive and an odious danger to human life. Are there no voices to protest such superficial and tawdry use of form for effect’s sake? The continued seduction of the global public with fanciful form hides the lethal destruction that architecture creates throughout the world. 45% of the world’s pollution comes from buildings and such fanciful design does nothing to acknowledge and address our dire situation. In fact, such design promotes the continued destruction of our planet because it hides behind a façade of undulating shape and playful form. “Nothing is as it seems”–Nicolo Machiavelli–
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This work is meaningless and without substance–it is form for form’s sake without the impetus of functional purpose except as a sculptural covering. It is exterior effect for show, and the embedded energy used to make these concrete structures is environmentally destructive and an odious danger to human life. Are there no voices to protest such superficial and tawdry use of form for effect’s sake? The continued seduction of the global public with fanciful form hides the lethal destruction that architecture creates throughout the world. 45% of the world’s pollution comes from buildings and such fanciful design does nothing to acknowledge and address our dire situation. In fact, such design promotes the continued destruction of our planet because it hides behind a façade of undulating shape and playful form. “Nothing is as it seems”–Nicolo Machiavelli–