ARCHITECTURAL WORLD

The Blue Planet  Location : Kastrup Client : The Blue Planet Building foundation ( Realdonia , Knud H Φjgaards Fond , Tarnby Kommune ) Architect : 3XN Project Date : 2008 Status : Ongoing  Completion Date : 2013  Project Floor space : 9000 Sq.M. Cost : 85,000,000 Euros. Function : Aquirium. The blue planet, the new aquarium designed by 3XN, will be a key attraction in Φ resund . Its shape is inspired by a 3D-whirlpool. Walls and roof form a continuum creating a wave-like profile. Its sinuous convexity follows the undulating landscape, tailing off to disappear underground. The design deliberately intends to build visitors expectations about whats inside. They will have the sensation of being swept up bya vortex and transported to an underwater world. The feeling of being in a different universe starts right from the entrance hall for the glazed roof is also the bottom of an enormous fish tank. The sky and sunrays filter through th...

Japanese Psyche Throughout this ordeal, foreign media have pointed out how civil Japanese people are even when faced with a great difficulty. In Tokyo that evening, people, deprived of the usual commuter transportation, walked home helping each other. Stores and restaurants offered free food and beverages. In shelters, people would line up to receive food, they respect the rules established by the self-organized governing body, and share chores and duties to run the place smoothly. Stores and gas stations offer whatever they have in stock at regular prices, never attempting to take advantage of shortage. When an octogenarian was rescued with her grandson after having been trapped in the tsunami destroyed and debris covered house for 9 days, she said to the rescuer “thank you and I am sorry for taking up your time.” There have been some petty thefts in stores vacated by storekeepers as reported in Sendai. But there has been no wide-spread plunder or violence in any part of the ...

Logistics and Impact on Economy The initial shocks destroyed some bridges, roadways, and railways, halting the distribution network of the Tohoku Region including Sendai, a city of one million people. The coastal communities north of Sendai are separated from the population centers along the spine of flat land in the middle of Honshu Island with mountains, and, thus, were rather difficult to reach even before March 11th. Then the destruction of accesses made the logistics an acute problem in the coastal region, where relief materials were needed the most. The quakes and tsunamis also put more than a handful of oil refineries along the Pacific coast out of business, at least initially. This threw the fuel (heating oil as well as gasoline) distribution off balance in the eastern half of Japan including the Tokyo region. These compounded problems made the logistics of rescue and relief activities very difficult. (See more on this below.) The Tohoku Region also has many advanced te...

Life in Shelters and Isolated Communities As of today, there are still 170,000 people living in shelters, and countless more in communities that escaped the tsunamis or radiation contamination, but still in physically damaged areas within Tohoku. Right after the earthquakes and tsunamis, people spent the night in temples, government offices, etc., but eventually they were received at designated shelters, which, in many cases were school buildings and gymnasiums, housing anywhere from 50 to 1,000 evacuees. Some simple provisions requiring only small added costs can make them more functional and comfortable for emergency uses. 1) Heat: Because the shelters are not built for residential use, heat source is often inadequate or non-existent. Compounded with the fuel distribution blockage, many shelters lack heat in the sub-zero weather. There was a story of a bio-fuel venture company offering a special boiler, which provides hot water that may be circulated through hoses placed arou...

Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plants – Restoration Efforts After the building envelope of units 1 and 3 were breached, they realized that the spent-fuel pools were problematic; white steam-like clouds hovered above these units. In order to counter the possible situation where the water may be evaporating and the fuel rods exposed to environment, they (TEPCO and government) attempted first to use helicopters to pour sea water from above. Self Defense Forces (SDF) helicopters did this job a few times, but the radiation level was so high above these units that they could not come too low and the water was dispersed in the wind. TEPCO’s own fire-fighting squad tried to use their equipment to shoot water from ground with some success. Eventually the US military offered their fire engines, too. Then Tokyo Municipal Gov’t’s fire department with fire engines for tall buildings joined the group. They have not only the water shooting capability for tall buildings, but also some equipment to ...

Mechanics of Earthquakes On March 11th, at 2:46PM, three giant earthquakes occurred along the edges of the tectonic plates at the ocean bottom on the Pacific coast off the Tohoku (literally meaning “northeast”) Region. Initially it was assumed that there was one big earthquake, but with the analysis of seismic movements, scientists confirmed that there were indeed three gigantic earthquakes occurring in tandem within six minutes of each other, destroying the earth crust in the length of approximately 500 km (310 miles) in length and 200 km in width, similar to the earthquakes off Sumatra in December 2004. The monstrous tremor continued for more than 5 minutes in many locations, which was unprecedented, with a combined magnitude of 9.0. It moved, for example, Oshika Peninsula to the east of Sendai by 5.3m (17’4”) to east-southeast and sank it by 1.2m (47”); and the shift in the land mass increased the oscillation of the earth’s rotational axis by 17cm (6.7 inches) and made the day ...

Antonio da Sangallo, born in Florence in 1485, was the nephew of two da Sangallo architects, Giuliano and Antonio the Elder. He trained under their tutelage before arriving in Rome in approximately 1503. Although obviously influenced by his uncles, his architecture proved to adhere to the classicism of the High Renaissance. da Sangallo designed numerous architectural projects throughout his life, such as the interior of Capella Paolina in the Vatican, Palazzo Palma-Baldassini, Rome, in 1520, Palazzo Sacchetti, Rome, begun in 1542, and Palazzo Baldassini, which evokes the architecture of ancient Rome with its massive masonry. After a period as Raphael’s assistant, in 1539 he became the chief architect for St. Peter’s and supplied designs for the alteration of Bramante’s plan (Musgrove, 1987). Although not executed, his plan advocated altering the Greek plan into a more traditional cathedral plan, considering liturgical requirements. For many years he was employed as a military enginee...

A prominent architect of the high Renaissance in Rome, Baldassare Peruzzi’s approach was influenced by the work of Bramante and Raphael. His peers respected him for his revival of the art of stage design, and for his expertise in the art of perspective drawing. Peruzzi arrived in Rome in 1503 from Siena. He began as a painter under Pinturicchio, and was commissioned in 1509 by the Sienese banker Agostino Chigi to design the Palace Farnesina. The palazzo reflects his strong sense of proportion and his interest in the principles of mathematics as set down by Alberti. Different in plan than other Roman palaces of the time, Villa Farnesina has two wings flanking a central loggia, containing frescos by Raphael. Much of Peruzzi’s experience was obtained in the Vatican Workshop assisting Donato Bramante, and, later, collaborating with Raphael until 1527 when he fled to Siena precipitated by the Sack of Rome. Bramante had envisioned a rebuilding of St. Peter’s based on a Greek cross plan, an...

It is impossible to discuss a history of architectural sketches without an example from Leonardo da Vinci, whose numerous sketchbooks reveal the genius of an architect, painter, sculptor, and inventor. Although he built or finished very little architectural work, he proposed designs for domed, centrally planned churches, fortifications, numerous mechanical inventions, and buildings in various scales from chapels to palaces to cities. At an early age he started in the workshop of painter Andrea del Verrochio. Throughout his career, Leonardo worked as a military engineer in Milan, in his own studio in Florence, and later in his life, on projects for King Louis XII in France. It was in Amboise, France, where he died in 1519. His works that remain include extensive sketchbooks, some sculpture, and paintings such as the Mona Lisa, Virgin of the Rocks and the fresco The Last Supper in San Maria delle Grazie, Milan. A consummate observer, Leonardo took an empirical approach to satisfy his ...

Bramante was one of the first of the great High Renaissance architects, influencing numerous prominent architects of Rome such as Peruzzi and Sangallo. He is best known for reviving the architecture of classical antiquity, which had begun with the works of Alberti (Allsopp, 1959). Vasari reported that Bramante spent much of his time studying and sketching the buildings in Rome (Vasari, 1907). Born Donato di Angelo di Anthonio da Urbino/Pascuccio, it is speculated that he studied with Piero della Francesca and/or Andrea Mantegna. His first notable building was S. Maria Presso S. Satiro in Milan. In Rome, some of Bramante’s most celebrated and influential projects were for Pope Julius at the Vatican, where he designed the Cortile di S. Damaso and the Cortile del Belvedere. With an interest in centrally planned churches similar to Leonardo, he also designed a Greek cross plan for St. Peter’s with a vast central dome. His expressive building of the classical tradition was the T...