The
terms "high-tech" and its counterpart "light-weight" were
introduced by the Archigram group as basic concepts
in their 1961 premier publication devoted to "Neo-Futurist" images.
The American futurist Buckminster Fuller suggested covering mid-town Manhattan with a geodesic
dome thus stimulating interest in lightweight mega-structures. Reyner Banhams book "Theory
and Design in the First Machine Age," published in 1960, catalyzed an
entire school of design, as evidenced in highly computerized and technologically
advanced Japanese architecture.
Designed
in the 1970s by Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano, the Pompidou Center
in Paris, with
its excessive use of steel infrastructure, electromechanical systems, exposed
stainless steel joints and large expanses of glass, was an architectural parody
of the term "progress." However, the highly publicized project opened
the way to market-oriented, gimmick-based architecture that proudly challenges
the technological deficiencies of the old. Ironically, many overlook the fact
that "innovative" elements such as these have long been in use:
nineteenth century train terminals, the amazing iron and glass construction of
the Crystal Palace
designed by Joseph Paxton for the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London,
and the Eiffel Tower
that has dominated Paris
since 1889. In
other words, since the advent of reinforced concrete and the industrial use of
cast iron in large span structures in the mid-nineteenth century, the major
breakthroughs in building have occurred mainly in the computerization of the
planning stages and, to a lesser degree, in the control of the building
materials manufacturing process.
Nowadays,
the term high-tech is most closely associated with the achievements of
computerized technology and its miniaturization of elements, speed and memory
– all unrelated to the slow and arduous process of building most commonly
construed as "low-tech" or, rarely, as "good-tech". Thus,
the possibility of placing the term high-tech at the center of an architectural
conception is quite limited. Though the two structures presented below are not
typically high-tech, computerization is realized in their architectural
conception. The first remains indifferent to extreme changes,
the other exhibits a strong kinship between the mantle and its content.
Exhibition and Conference Center,
Tel Aviv Exhibition
Gardens
The
exhibition center is a huge and empty stage required to display a variety of
settings: water sprinklers in a "blooming garden," heavy-duty trucks
dangling from the ceiling, or packaging machines operating at full capacity.
Although building materials such as textile membranes, steel columns and other
technological details, address the building brief only conceptually, the
column-free main hall is a flexible space easily adaptable into a performance
hall seating 5,000.
The air-conditioning and
electrical ducts are exposed beneath the ceiling, while other systems are
placed throughout the parking level beneath. The light structure reveals its
construction elements - steel beams, aluminum and glass panels – and allows
all systems to link to infrastructure throughout the hall, creating a
"building machine" reflecting its function.
The
idea is reversed at the parking level, where the exposed infrastructure systems
combine with the vehicular circulation system to transform
"function" into "ornament".
Architect: Moshe Atzmon Architects.
HaAretz
Printing Facilities, Tel Itzhak
Although
printing technology is not necessarily associated with miniaturization,
significant advances have been made in the automation, speed and accuracy of
the production process. The vast web presses for newspaper production have the
bulk of a four story building, yet their operation and control is fully
automated. Completed in 1998, the first stage of Haaretz
building contained two rotation machines and one quality press. The production
process included paper supply, printing and binding, and distribution. Thus the
building was divided into three main sections: a central hall housing the rotation
machines, with paper storage at one end and a packaging and distribution
section at the other end.
After
three years of operation, a third printing press was required and the north
section of the lot was extended parallel to the storage facade and entry ways.
The new area gave the architects the opportunity to open up the opaque
structure and thus reflect the activity within.
The
use of transparent construction elements is hardly new. For more than a
generation structural glazing, ‘spiders’ and three-dimensional
space frames have been in use, often at the cost of energy loss in places with
warm climates. In this case, the transparent northern facade has only improved
penetration of filtered natural light, saving costs on artificial lighting.
Budget and space constraints caused the structure to be wrapped around the
interior machinery with a tolerance of less than a meter. Since the
relationship between ‘housing’ and ‘housed’ has been
reduced to a minimum, the extension granted the architects the opportunity to
create a metaphoric conception in the industrial context. The two are so
tightly spaced that it is difficult to determine where the building ends and
the machine begins. In this context, a creative solution was used to cool the
machines: creation of an air curtain descending along the glass wall in place
of the typical air-conditioning ducts. Service rooms, usually located at the
periphery of the structure, are now stacked one upon the other, adjacent to the
press.
"Opening
the box" also reflects metaphorically the publishers intention to
broadcast its ideological "transparency."
Architects: Schocken
Architects
Project Architect: Jeremy Kargon.
