Herzog and De Meuron unveiled a design for the old Police Station in HK. If you're asking where's the project in this photo, I'm thinking the same thing.



______

Architecture as casino/ eco-architecture.

My boss gave me the day off today after I worked the whole weekend. The project has been dragging on well past the contract, and this deadline was a final push to satisfy the client.

The office manager, who I speak mainly French to, calls such projects as "l'architecture comme casino." Architectural design can be like gambling.. you never know how the client will respond. Best case is that they'll love it. At worst, they'll use your 1:1000 model as kindling for their fireplace.

I don't blame my firm. It's a fact of life in design and the result of scant communication with the client. As long as the designer and client are two different human beings, there is a tendency for disagreement. But to say that architecture is the same as playing craps kind of illegitimizes the whole profession.

_____

There's still all this talk about ecodesign. It's here to stay. But, at the end of the day, architecture could never be eco-friendly. Sometimes, architecture is most eco-friendly if nothing is built at all. Like some of the projects I've worked on in the past.
_____