More Problems

A day to myself and I find myself watching motorsport. This time the drags. Just like the other day the buildings that were being shown in the back ground reflected an image of utilitarianism. Easily readable; offices located above for track officials, rooms below for drivers, event organizers and marshals with no real architectural inclination for where or what this building was. It was just industrial, place less, faceless.

Here was a location in which fossil fuels were being burnt at an amazing rate, something along the lines of 20 litres of high octane fuel in less then 11 seconds. Yet the building behind did nothing to minimise its own impacts or that of the event that was taking place in front of it. I did however see a water tank…..but that hardly makes up for what was occurring.

So if the average person is starting to think heavier on their impacts on the planet and how they can minimise it, How long will it take for the motor sport industry to follow and will they?

First Ideas

Watching a preview of the V8 Supercar race in Yas, Abu Dhabi, I noticed that the building.

The pit lane facility is huge. Its so big that the track at time goes through the building. I asked myself if this was an appropriate use of the site. Was this building the way things were going to look in the future, and I'm hopefully right when I say that it will mostly likely not.

 

 

The flashy exterior of this building may be an artistic interpretation of Islamic art, traditional architecture and a modern concept of movement and speed according to Asymptote Architecture, but I fail to see how this building relates to the site, the ideas behind motor racing and the people the have a passion for motor sport.

The buildings acted upon functionality and lacked any sense of character, identity and a form that does not reflected the sport that was being undertaken.

We, as architects in training, are taught to read and respond to the built environment to gain a better understand of how we, as human exist. Our job is to define the way in which people, the user, interact within, outside and around the building, then use this information to refine a design into a pragmatic figure that is a reflection of the users needs. So can I understand this building?

The answer is no.