Dancing in Context

I’m in Prague! It feels wonderful to finally be here. Where to go and look first?!

On our way to the hotel last night, my mom spotted the Frank Gehry building – The Dancing Building aka The Fred and Ginger Building (it looks as if Fred is pulling Ginger close as they dance).

I’ve seen this building many times on the Internet, so I have been anxiously waiting to see it in person.

This afternoon I was accompanied with an architecture classmate of mine, Alyssa, and my mom, to see this building.

How should an urban building fit into its surroundings (context)?

Designing a building by itself is great, but how will that building look with other buildings around it?

Most people would agree that a building should be unique for its particular site. I agree with this statement because the context influences that building design.

Prague is great in terms of its wide streets and has a friendly relationship between store/restaurant and street. Buildings are up against the street, but do not overwhelm the experience of walking on the sidewalks. Even cars do not seem as intrusive as they are back in Charlotte/Raleigh.

One thing I noticed of the buildings today, is that even if their facades are different in terms of style or color, the windows still remain to be rectangular and simple. Nothing curved, nothing that stands out too much.

Frank Gehry seems to have pushed the limit of what glass can and should do in Prague.

This is the approach I had today of the Fred and Ginger Building (see it? end of street on left).

It definitely catches ones eyes because of the amount of glass that it has and its unique shape.  No other building juts outward like the Fred and Ginger building does.

I believe that when analyzing a site’s context, there are some important things you should respond to in your design, and others that can be ignored.

To me, Frank Gehry did not respond to the street like he should have, since the street/building relationship is extremely important in Prague. He has huge columns in this, what appears to be, random layout that blocks the openness of the sidewalk.

The side of the building facing the river, however, responds well to the context. Here he matches the window relationship and layout that the other buildings have.

Overall, I would like this building better if the columns were not on the street corner in such an overpowering way.

This semester I will be studying urban design. This is extremely important for architects to know the relationship to other buildings in proximity to it, to the city it resides in, and the masterful response the building's form generates, since most of the buildings that are designed by architects are at a public scale. I think Prague is the perfect place to study and appreciate the relationship between what is built and open spaces such as streets, sidewalks, and parks.

I can’t wait to immerse myself in all the information that Prague has to teach me!  I will be seeing this building and other contemporary ones throughout the semester.  Let’s see if my critical analysis changes over my time here. I will revisit it often to see.