Cloud Tower's or 911 Mockery?

[ScaryMonster]

http://media.smh.com.au/property/domain/spectacle-of-korean-towers-too-close-to-911-2835715.html

"A South Korean developer says it will not alter the design of a twin-tower project despite complaints in the United States that it mimics the explosions at New York's World Trade Centre in 2001.

The towers, one with 54 floors and the other with 60, are designed by Dutch architects MVRDV and will be built at the entrance to Seoul’s redeveloped Yongsan business district by 2016.

The towers will be connected midway up by a cloud-shaped bridging section that will house amenities including sky lounges, a swimming pool and restaurants.

ut families of victims of the 9/11 attacks see a marked resemblance between the project known as The Cloud and the clouds of debris that billowed from the World Trade Centre after hijacked airliners ploughed into the towers.

"Allegations that it [the design] was inspired by the 9/11 attacks are groundless," said White Paik, spokesman for the Yongsan Development Corporation.

"There will be no revision or change in our project," he said, adding that construction would begin in January 2013 as scheduled.

MVRDV said it "regrets deeply" any painful connotations.

"It was not our intention to create an image resembling the attacks nor did we see the resemblance during the design process," it said in a statement on its website.

"We sincerely apologise to anyone whose feelings we have hurt," it added.

Jim Riches, a retired New York deputy fire chief whose son was killed on 9/11, said he did not believe the architects."

"It looks just like the towers imploding," the New York Daily News quoted him as saying. "I think they’re trying to sensationalise it. It’s a cheap way to get publicity.” From SMH

I think they look cool, but what's the consensus?

 

[Asguard]

So? why should they change it? Its no different from the idiots who wanted the name of the two towers films renamed because they OBVIOUSLY referred to the twin towers in spite of the fact that its the name of the book which was written around the time of WW2

 

[Pincho Paxton]

"Allegations that it [the design] was inspired by the 9/11 attacks are groundless," said White Paik, spokesman for the Yongsan Development Corporation.

Are they blind!

Obviously it must have been inspired by the twin towers, if it was a psychological connection then surely the drawings passed around the room would have connected with somebody?

However...

Even though there is an obvious connection, is it insulting?

I think it is not insulting.

 

[GeoffP]

How is it a mockery? Were they snickering when they presented the idea? Or perhaps they were funded by a snickering agency of some kind.

 

[ScaryMonster]

Looking at that building without the reference of 911, I'd say it was reminiscent of early 20th century expressionist architecture.
The cloud part is kind of like the prototypical dwelling units at the Montreal Expo of 1967 designed by Moshe Safdie. Since then his designs have gone from 'metabolist' to post modern to expressionist.

And there's Erich Kettelhut's designs for the city in Metropolis; like his idea of the city as a kind of "organism," of "the city of the future" as "a system of focal points that is, in panorama, the very fabric of space. Or so he says.

But bad taste being what it is, it seems that your kids toy boxes need more scrutiny than Korean Skyscrapers.

 

[fedr808]

That troll worked so hard its kinda funny.

+1 for the internet.

 

[ScaryMonster]

That troll worked so hard its kinda funny.

+1 for the internet.

It's and interesting point, because the context of the Lego 911 scene was not an attempt to troll at all by the builder.
You'll notice that it's on a table with a display card in front of it. The actual context of this image is a competition where kids built scenes out of Lego that recreated key historical events.

It poses the question, how far removed from 911 does one have to be for it to be non emotive. When represented stylistically either unintentionally or in the case of the Lego blocks intentionally?