Height Envy: Skyhouse
This building caught my eye on Treehugger, but it turns out they got it from Architectnophilia. This building has an hidden wind turbine! How cool is that? Then it seems the design of the building it self reminds me of a propeller. Was each tower designed aerodynamically to create an air foil? So who designed this building?
I was led to the architectural firm, Marks Barfield, of London. When I was reading about this ambitious building I noticed:
“Learning from the mistakes of the past Skyhouse…”
What did the other building look like? [below and left via Skyscrapernews]
Actually, the building above could be addendum number three. Even so, they didn’t sway too far from the original idea. But what were the mistakes? From what I can tell, they added another “leaf or foil” to add additional units. The other obvious difference, and I am guessing an improvement, would be the addition of the wind turbine. The original design also had two-story interior gardens (the seven sections). I don’t think they got rid of all the gardens but instead moved them to the top of the towers on the revised Skyhouse. The last revision from reading the article on Skyscrapernews was they reduced the number of floors.
Let’s talk more about the design. The “foil or leaf” design of each tower is never really explained. In order to get the explanation you need to look at the other projects that Mark Barfield have designed. That brings us to The Cut Tower [pictured below via Marks Barfield]. This building has the same shape that makes up the three towers of the Skyhouse. The explanation for this:
“The eye shape plan creates a dramatic landmark building that maximizes river views to the north while maintaining a slender profile in the east and west, reducing over shadowing and downward wind movement to street level.”
This must also be when they realize the real potential “power” of their design for Skyhouse.
The last thing I wanted to point out about this project is that this project was started without an owner. Marks Barfield started looking for a solution to the housing problem without ultimately knowing whether or not they would be paid (assumption made from reading the article on skyscrapernews.). That makes the architecture firm of Marks Barfield just as ambitious as the projects they design.
What did I miss? Tell me if you know anything about this project. I want to be sure to find out if this project gets an owner and is being built.
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POSTED IN: Architects, Tall Buildings
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