Zeitgeist (Diet Coke Pt. 2)

The above building is the Museum of Art at SNU. It was designed by the famous starchitect Rem Koohaas. It was finished in 2006. Some people love his work while others criticize him being a cynic, as his style seems to discount any sense of cultural identity but rather encourage globalization and the growing consensus of capitalism. Personally, I think the museum represents the current state and cultural identity of modern Seoul quite well and don't see a problem, at least not with this work. Plus, I believe he's one of the best architects at site analysis.

Here's the rest of the first batch of photos I took around Seoul Nat'l University. My lab building is actually included in one of them! Oh, and you'll also see a black Porsche 911 Carrera in one of them too. That car's as much 'mine' in the sense of the lab building is mine.

When you think of universities and architecture, universities are the frontier zeitgeist for experimental architecture. MIT's Baker House by Alvar Aalto and Simmons Hall by Steven Holl, Cooper Union's New Academic Building by Thom Mayne, University of Toronto's Leslie L. Dan Pharmacy Building by Norman Foster, Cornell's Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art by I.M. Pei, and the list goes on. Not all projects are successful, however big or small. And not all get the publicity or the appreciation they deserve or don't deserve but the point is that universities are the perfect grounds for expanding the boundaries for any sorts of academia, including architecture. Heck, that is one of the founding features and the definition of a university. But you don't find much of that here at SNU, at least architecturally. For most part, the buildings at SNU are stale. Large portion of them are rugged with either brick or concrete facades, with only few recent buildings enclosed within glass walls. And even those seem contextually misplaced amongst all other International Movement styles. However, I know few cool spaces and routes around the campus though.

On a side note, the Dongdaemun Design Park is well under its way. It was designed by Zaha Hadid, another starchitect. Personally, I have serious doubts about the level of maintenance they'll have to keep up with for the new building. But I've never even seen any of her previous works so I'll keep my opinions to myself until I see it in first hand. Or until I can disbelieve my disbelief.

I think I'm getting worse and worse at this photography hobby as time passes. Either that or I'm developing higher and higher expectations for myself. Here is the higher resolution slideshow for those interested.