Monday, September 28, 2009

Friday shoot out::Nanyang Technological University School of Art, Media and design Building.











http://mytownshootout.blogspot.com/
A PHOTO STUDY OF A BUILDING
by Gordon

We lived in Singapore for sixteen years, and during which time, they built a lot of buildings. The http://www.sljindia.com/e-Folder/Roof%20Garden/SLJ%20Impex%20-%20Case%20Study%20NTU%20Nanyang%20-%20Roof%20Garden.pdf building created a lot of talk.

We saw the construction of this five storey building from the clearing of trees and grass in the valley at the corner of Nanyang Avenue Road to this unusual structure. Environmental sustainability was the "in" word, and I had heard of rooftop gardens on high rise buildings.

It was touted to be an energy saving building you can walk up to the roof. This building looks like two claws of a giant crab and the roof top was paved with grass. To an an engineer, it was a nightmare as they would have to design the building so it won't leak. To the feng shui practitioner, the building isn't very auspicious. It looked like a giant "arm chair". the traditional shape of the grave of a Chinese grave, thousands of which are located at the Chua Chu Kang cemetary not too far away.

We climbed up this building, before it was completed, we went into the building and into the lecture halls. Within the claws, the walls are made of glass and one can look down at the fountains below.

How green is thishttp://www.inhabitat.com/2008/01/23/amazing-green-roof-art-school-in-singapore/ I don't know, I left for New Zealand by them. I took these photos when I revisited NTU in July 2009.

14 comments:

Unknown said...

Cool building Ann, never saw a grass slope before.

No lah, where got time to watch soap operas...when I pencen maybe soon.

I do love those nyonya kebayas..though I think I need to lose more than 10kgs before I could fit into a nice one :P

Reader Wil said...

Ann, what a fantastic and beautiful building! You know the Norwegians have been using grass roofs for more than 1000 years, and it´s a cheap and effective way to insulate houses against the cold in winter and the heat in summer. The only problem is you have to tend the grass roof very well and therefore the buildings couldn´t be too high.

Mary said...

Impressive building. Your pictures are great.

Heather said...

I really like the way that they've landscaped this...not a usual find here in VT.

kate sweeten said...

That's an awesome building...I love that the grass slopes up on the sides like that.

Gordon said...

Ann, thanks for a great tour. The commentary intrigued me. The credit for this assignment goes to Ginge. She chose the subject.

Carrie said...

Wow - that is so cool! It almost looks like an optical illusion.

GingerV said...

what a great add for a school of archetecture. I think it the coolest I am going to flag it for Jen.

Town Blogger Team said...

Yikes Ann, I did see this, because I noticed it was early...sorry! DUH is what I should be saying, LOL!

Bagman and Butler said...

What lines? What curves? Who mows those grassy slopes anyway?

RedLan said...

You amazed me of your photos of Nanyang Technology University School of Art building. Obviously it is really Media and design building or school of arts because of the perfect art design! I love it!

Anonymous said...

Ann, you did an absolutely fabulous job at capturing how cool this building is. I loved how you used the lines of the building to drive your photo composition.

Beautiful!

J9 said...

That's a great design idea - and I hope it saves energy how it is supposed to.

Unknown said...

very cool building! I love how green and lush that area looks.