Contemporary art wrapped in itself

June 9, 2007 9:02 PM

The Cagliari Contemporary Arts Centre is a work in progress: "The vital metaphor governing the museum becomes clear within the phasing plans: as with living organisms, the growth of the museum will be self-regulated. It will happen naturally when the conditions of a mature balance between the economic atmosphere and philanthropic and cultural environment are reached." More from architect Zaha Hadid.
posted by Burhanistan (10 comments total)

You want to see a hot architect, check out Terunobu Fujimori.
posted by vronsky at 9:49 PM on June 9, 2007

Wow. It's like they built a whole museum inside my nasal passages!
posted by katillathehun at 11:13 PM on June 9, 2007

Hey vronsky your favorite architect sucks, OK. Here is a little more background on Zaha Hadid, Iraqi born, and the first woman to win the Pritzker Prize for Architecture in its 26 year history.
posted by adamvasco at 2:24 AM on June 10, 2007

Vronsky, your favorite architect doesn't suck, he's supercool. But that still doesn't take away from the fact that Hadid's architecture is also pushing some serious boundaries in both form and construction, and that her passage from pure theory-flogging dreamer to institutional corporate darling sell-out hasn't been fascinating. She has so few built works for someone we seem to take for granted; I like the Cagliari center because its lightness and relationship to the sky is the polar opposite from BMW plant in Germany, all heaviness and mass. All props to Europe for building her work; we USians just wouldn't invest the money in something like that.

(But that article about Fujimori was nigh unreadable.)
posted by DenOfSizer at 3:16 AM on June 10, 2007 [1 favorite]

Wow. It's like they built a whole museum inside my nasal passages!

true, but cool anyway--i wonder tho, how work will be shown inside without any flat walls.

I still like Calatrava better. : >
posted by amberglow at 6:27 AM on June 10, 2007

Fujimori's stuff looks like knockoffs of that Mockbee/Rural Studio stuff (which i love).
posted by amberglow at 6:29 AM on June 10, 2007

Why must pretty things also come with all the silly words? The buildings are a delight. The baffle gab makes me angry.
posted by srboisvert at 7:23 AM on June 10, 2007

Thanks, Burhanistan, great links.

And thanks vronsky, I didn't know Fujimori.

I don't see why we should like one great architect "better" than the other. It's not like our cities were overbuilt with great buildings. All I can see is that the overwhelming majority of buildings are done without a great architect and it shows. Just another fucking tower, just another fucking suburban blandness.

If and when my neighborhood has a dozen buildings as strong as any from Gehry, Hadid, Calatrava, Nouvel, Herzog & Demeuron, Foster, Fujimori, etc., I may have an opinion about which ones I like "better". Meanwhile, I am just delighted each time one of there work is built.
posted by bru at 7:56 AM on June 10, 2007

their work
posted by bru at 7:59 AM on June 10, 2007

Observer profile of Zaha Hadid.
posted by adamvasco at 1:00 AM on June 25, 2007