The New Verse

Architects the world over are penning exemplary poetry by way of their creations. We raise a toast to global design maestros and their surreal, sometimes naturally affable, structures.

By Shruti Tomar · Jan 2014 · 2 min read

The Paläon Research Centre in Schöningen, Germany — Courtesy Holzer Kobler Architekturen

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The architects world over are penning exemplary poetry by way of their creations and we are getting to witness them. We raise a toast to global design maestros and their commendable, sometimes surreal, sometimes naturally affable, structures.

A mirror for nature

Angles, reflective glass, sharp vertices and massive in size. No, it’s not a 100-storey building on 5th Avenue but a three-storey structure right in the centre of meadows, forests and the wonderful archaeological discoveries of Schöningen, Germany. Holzer-Kobler, a Berlin-Zurich based architectural firm constructed Paläon Research Centre as an ode to the 300,000-year-old fossils found in the surroundings. The entire structure is reflective and blends into the background, mirroring the lush landscape beautifully. A 17m foyer slices this building into two parts, with one side housing a laboratory, while the other has galleries, an interactive lab and a café. A whopping £13 million and 36 months completed this work of art.

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Arturo Tedeschi’s Cloudbridge between two mountains — Courtesy Arturo Tedeschi

Stairway to heaven

The journey to get someplace should never be linear and boring. It should be a surreal experience, as though one is drifting on a cloud, don’t you think? Arturo Tedeschi’s Cloudbridge creates an exceptional passage between two mountains with an airy, cloudlike structure. Webbed and far from linear, the Cloudbridge, when seen from a distance, seems to be floating in the air with the other clouds. Edgy architecture, refined engineering and a whole lot of maths seems to have gone into this creation. Tedeschi simplifies it by drawing an analogy of placing ingredients in a blender with specific quantities and combinations, pushing the start button and voila! A ‘shake’ emerges. Well, push that start button more often, Tedeschi, because this is phenomenal!

A Morph, one of William Bondin’s mobile reconfigurable polyhedra — Courtesy William Bondin

Dancing with metal

Imagine this— you’re ambling along nonchalantly in a park, and a metallic jungle-gym like structure suddenly takes on life and starts crawling or even prancing around you! That time is as close as 2015, if all goes as per Malta-based architect William Bondin’s plan. In the making are mischievous, receptive architectural marvels called Morphs (Mobile Reconfigurable Polyhedra) that react to you and their surroundings almost like a human being. The concept behind Morphs is the parametric design trend that allows structures to play with surrounding natural light and temperature. These edifices will be seen in public spaces where you could take off your shoes and dance with them!