Andy Song
This blog post will be about the Miami Design District, a high-end open area shopping centre in Miami that I visited over the winter break. Although this doesn't seem like the best place in Miami to go for architecture, I did end up learning a few things after walking about the streets for half a day.
Refurbishment/Revival
The piece "Urban Jam" by Clavel Arquitectos (shown above), directly across the street from the Miami Institute of Contemporary Art, highlights how refurbishments of building facades in the Design District have brought the area back to life. Two large parking garages, one for the Institute of Contemporary Art and another for general use, conceal their plain, unappealing ventilation ducts and parking levels with unique designs like these car shells. Refurbishments are great for three reasons: they revitalize the area, they save costs of rebuilding, and they preserve the history and culture of the old buildings.
The image to the right depicts the general use parking garage (sadly not from the best angle). The left side of the garage has been refurbished with a solid white hexagonal design, with cutouts of the pattern aligning with each level of the parking garage so light can pass in. The front of the garage has a more abstract refurbishment; upon closer inspection, it is filled with densely-packed folded-out strips of the gold-coloured plate. This design doesn't impede on the building's function, allowing air to come in and out of the vents behind.
The images below depict the parking garage for the Institute of Contemporary Art, which has been refurbished in a more extravagant fashion. There are three sections of the garage, each commissioned by a different artist. The contrast between the different styles goes parallels the contemporary art museum for which the garage is designated.
Emphasis on Greenery
Throughout the entire Design District, there was greenery everywhere; trees lined the sidewalks, aquatic plants were incorporated into benches, some buildings had trees growing on top or plants lining their sides, and specially constructed blocks of stone with trees growing on top. On of the biggest functions of the trees in the Design District is to provide shade from the glaring Miami sun. For example, in the open square of the Palm Court (where architect Richard Buckminster Fuller's Fly's Eye Dome is featured), there are tall palm trees spaced out as shown below:
Bonus: The Fly's Eye Dome is not just a decoration, but an entrance to the Palm Court Garage. It lets light pass through but also stops rain from coming in.
I also thought the Louis Vuitton Men's building was interesting because of how its design allowed for it to co-exist with the wider-spread trees on the sidewalk. As can be seen below, the building has a unique geometric facade that extends out a bit into the sidewalk, but indents where there are trees. This design preserves the natural life around it while also looking impressive at the same time.
Other Interesting Features
The sculpture shown to the left is of the Swiss-French architect, Le Corbusier. He was a leading figure of the modernist architectural movement, working closely together with the Bauhaus movement and other modernist pioneers. Modernism is a style of architecture based on the principle of "form follows function". I really like this style because I think the simplicity of modernist architecture is in itself already beautiful; the combination between solid white and different modernist architectural materials creates a sense of stability and smoothness.
Another cool feature of the buildings in the Design District is their designs mostly tend to reflect the products of the brand. For example, Bulgari has an exterior design with a golden colour scheme -- cased in glass -- to reflect that it's a jewelry brand. On the other hand, Dior, a female fashion brand, has a smooth milky white exterior with flashy brooch-like decorations.
If
Commentaires