Monday, November 19, 2007

Against the verticality of the needle.

I have asked the students if they know about the Olympics that were held in 1976 in Montreal.  They've always respond that they don't.  It seems that the organizers of the 2008 Beijing Olympic games haven't heard either. 

Seablogger makes this comment about this article about a building in Beijing being constructed for CCTV to coincide with the 2008 Olympics.  This project that seeks to be "against the verticality of the needle ... and the principle of hierarchy" is meant to be a radical social statement. "  The building is to be

a "loop folded in space" -- two towers sloped together and joined by a gravity-defying canopy equivalent to 80 storeys in height.

Talk of canopy and towers reminds me of the retractable canopy roof on Montreal's Olympic Stadium that never worked as planned. 

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