Reflecting on class

In the past 8 weeks, as I have written this blog, I have found out many great things. To all those who checked out my blog I say, “Thanks,” but this doesn’t mean it is over. As I keep discovering the achievements of architecture in the world I will keep posting on here. I learned that by having a greater audience other than just the teacher or the fellow classmates, I have put more effort in trying to make this blog a more exceptional piece of writing. The greater audience and knowing that this will stay here for me to keep developing it makes me feel accomplished and want to keep going with the project. Just because the class might be over, does not mean the project ends here.

Visual Assignment

The Burj Al Arab is a sail-shaped hotel in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. The sail shape of the building tells us that the winds of the world are pushing Dubai, which is why Dubai is one of the most architecturally advanced cities in the world, it has mixed various types of architecture and the culture of many people to build the “City of the Future”, as it has become known. When one sees the size of the Burj Al Arab, one must feel overwhelmed (pathos) at seeing how big it is. The Burj Al Arab is the world’s second tallest hotel that has been completed. The Burj Al Arab has become the symbol for Dubai, just like Sydney has the Opera House, or Paris has the Eiffel Tower, now Dubai has its symbol, the Burj Al Arab, giving the people of Dubai something that represents them (mythos).

The Burj Al Arab is also the world’s only seven (7) star hotel and has one of the highest located tennis courts. One might think, “Is that safe?” The tennis court is at about 250 meters in the air. But yes, the court has a net that goes around its base in case either tennis balls or, hopefully this will never happen, people. So when people see this net, they lose their fear of being there and feel safer knowing there is something that will catch them if they happen to fall. The island on which the hotel is built on is also very safe, before the hotel was built, the foundation laid out for it consisted of 230 concrete columns that were driven into the sand, each is 40 meters (about 130 feet) long. If more people that go there knew this, they would feel safer when in the building, they will trust the structure (ethos).

Another building that might play with one’s emotions is the Ryugyong Hotel, in North Korea, which has never been completed and was recently started to be worked upon in the year 2009. When one looks at this building, one might think that it is the headquarters of some alien life form that has taken over Earth (pathos), messing with our feelings and making us feel scared of being dominated. The shape was never used before, it is like a broken triangle, which also somewhat resembles a pyramid, a shape of power. The building was planned to be a hotel, but it was never completed and construction stopped during 1992, just before the building was complete. Most of the structure exists, except for all the glass and furniture inside. And since the shape of the Ryugyong Hotel is almost the same as a pyramid, it will surely not fall over and stood by itself without any maintenance for 16 years (ethos).

Burj Al Arab. (2010, April 30). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 18:18, April 30, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Burj_Al_Arab&oldid=359256922

Burj Al Arab (n.d.) Retrieved April 29, 2010, from World Wide Web. http://petruccieurotrash.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/burj-al-arab.jpg

Ryugyong Hotel (n.d.) Retrieved April 30, 2010, from World Wide Web. http://maochan.files.wordpress.com/2007/05/ryugyong-hotel.jpg

Palm Jumeirah

Last week I said I would show something very big and fascinating to you guys, so this week I will show you the Palm Jumeirah in Dubai. The Palm, a manmade island in the shape of a palm-tree, is one of the three to be built within the next couple years, and the first to be completed. It is now one of the largest manmade land reclamation projects ever made. This project has literally changed the world. It changed the geography of Earth. The Palm Jumeirah is big enough that it can be seen from space, and putting the shape of a palm tree in the world map.

Building the Palm shaped island took US$12.3 billion, one of the most expensive construction projects ever. Construction took about 7 to 8 years. Construction of the island began on June of 2001 and by October of 2007 some real estate was already being sold on the island, while some construction still went on. Construction ended completely by late 2009. In total, 28 hotels were built on the island, one of them being the Atlantis Resort, the biggest on the island. The Atlantis is an enormous 1,539-room resort with a water theme-park that is about 6 square miles big. The residential part of the island, on the fronds of the palm, contains homes that range from 8.5 to 30 million AED (US$2.3million to US$8.2million). Most of these houses are owned by celebrities, such as David Beckham (Milan soccer team player) or wealthy businessmen/women.

I believe that as an architect, the person who designed the island and saw it rise from the bottom of the ocean, that I would be very happy with the results of the construction. The job of constructing took only 8 years, and that is with everything built on the island (hotels, houses, highways, and monorail tracks). The island is basically a floating city and is the smallest of three to be built. The largest of the palms to be built will be so big that it is estimated that it might be able to house over five hundred thousand people. Dubai is considered to be the basis for what the city of the future might look like, with the tallest skyscrapers most complex architecture and manmade palm-shaped islands.


The Atlantis. (n.d.) Retrieved April 21, 2010 from World Wide Web. http://cultblogforsheilasnblokes.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/the-atlantis.jpg.

Murphy, L (2009, January) Atlantis rising. Live Design. Retrieved March 18, 2010, from Associates Programs Source database.

Palm Jumeirah (n.d.) Retrieved April 21, 2010, from World Wide Web. http://realestate.theemiratesnetwork.com/developments/dubai/palm_islands/images/palm_jumeirah.jpg.

Taipei 101

Last week we talked about the tallest building in the world today (c. 2010), but what was the tallest building in the world before that? The answer is the Taipei 101 (c. 2004), located in Taipei, Taiwan, and it serves as the Financial Center of Taiwan. The Taipei 101 though, does not only serve for financial offices, it also has observation decks, a mall, and restaurants. The Taipei 101 is a symbol of architecture for the people of the eastern Asian continent, the style of the building resembles ancient architecture of the area. The Taipei 101 only held the record of “World’s Tallest Building” for five years.

The Taipei 101 Mall, is located at the foot of the Taipei 101 (see picture below) which makes it look very small when it stands close to such a big structure, but the Mall has 6 floors to it. The first is mainly a food court. With the following ones having different things such as clothing, perfumes, and other things people shop for. Though I couldn’t find a good picture of the stores at the mall, I did visit its website and found out that there are McDonald’s, KFCs, Subways, and even 7-Eleven, and all this is just the shared values in the Food Court area. They also share some stores that sell certain brands that you might find here in the United States. For example they have Gucci, Armani, ck Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Chanel stores. All these brands you may find if you go to a mall here in the United States, so I found out that the there are many things we share with the Japanese, but the one thing I couldn’t find was a Starbucks.

During the duration of this project, I keep finding great architectural structures that have been built within the last decade, and this is making me think, “Should I change majors?” This project has changed my mind about my future as an engineer, and I am starting to believe that architecture is also an option. Being able to work on such an icon of architecture must bring great feelings to the architects when the structure is complete. So next week, I will bring to you one of the most fascinating and largest manmade structures, I’m pretty sure the designer of that was very happy upon completion.

Floor Guide (n.d.) Taipei 101 Mall. Retrieved April 16, 2010, from World Wide Web. http://www.taipei-101.com.tw/MALL/en/guide/guide.aspx?floor=B1

Forbys Taipei (n.d.) Retrieved from World Wide Web, April 15, 2010. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/eb/Forbys_Taipei_101.jpg

Mall (n.d.) Retrieved April 16, 2010, from the World Wide Web. http://img.skitch.com/20091222-nm41dewms6exsx3n4iein2gt8u.jpg

Taipei 101. (2003, March). Popular Science. Retrieved March 18, 2010, from Associates Programs Source database.

The World's Tallest Building

Last week we talked about one of the oldest buildings, the Pantheon, but this week I am going to show you one of the newest buildings, and also the tallest, which was opened on January 1^st, 2010. This building is the Burj Khalifa, in Dubai. The Burj Khalifa measures over 2,000 feet (2,716 feet), making it the largest manmade structure ever. The people of Dubai may have been impressed by the Burj Khalifa for the first couple months, but by now the people of Dubai are accustomed to seeing great architecture in their city.

I sometime in the future want to visit a structure of such grandeur, but any day, it can be outdone by any other building, such as the one that they are planning on building in Dubai, which is going to be even bigger that the Burj Khalifa. The Burj Khalifa is open to the public on the observation deck on the 124^th floor, but the tickets are expensive, ranging from $27 to $100 depending the time you buy them. Knowing what the tallest building in the world is, I ask myself, what was the tallest building before this one, and that is what I will show next week, the Taipei 101 in Taipei, Taiwan.

Burj Khalifa(n.d.) Real estate expedition. Retrieved April 8, 2010, from http://www.realestateexpedition.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/BurjKhalifaTheTallestBuildingintheWorld.jpg.

Post, N. (2010, January 18) Dubai supertower is ‘supercensored’. Engineering News Record. Retreived March 18, 2010, from the Associates Programs Source database.

The Pantheon

The Pantheon is one of the oldest standing structures today, and it still is the structure with the largest concrete dome. The Pantheon sits in the middle of the Old City, a section of Rome that is similar to walking into a time machine. On the Piazza della Rotonda, the location of the Pantheon, many shops and cafes fill the sidewalks and the roads, which are closed to vehicles, are filled with people walking, mopeds, and carriages carrying tourists. It was built during the time when Rome was changing from the Late Republic to the Early Empire (27BC-476AD). The Pantheon has the largest concrete dome in the world, you might think there are bigger ones, but in modern architecture domes and most concrete structures are built with reinforced concrete, concrete with reinforcement metal bars (rebars). The dome of the Pantheon is forty- three and a third meters high and wide, with an oculus (Latin word for eye) that measures 9 meters in diameter.

So to conclude this post, you might say that the Pantheon is one of the oldest structures in the world that still hold a record, and not only that, but also hold the Piazza della Rotonda together by being the central masterpiece in the Area. And though I have not been to Rome to visit myself, I still think that it deserves some respect for still being standing after two thousand long and hard years. One day in the future I would like to visit the world’s tallest building, which is located in Dubai, and is also the topic for my next post, something newer and more modern than the Pantheon.

Duvelle, C. and Rosi, M. (n.d.)The Pantheon, Rome’s Other Symbol. UNESCO Courier. March 16,

2010. Academic Search Complete.

The Pantheon (n.d) Valencia Stone. Retrieved April 1st, 2010. http://www.valenciastonesarasota.com/images/roman_pantheon.jpg

What is Architecture?

So, as you may have seen the title of the blog, I will be writing about architecture and its impact on the world. But first, let me tell you what architecture is. Architecture may be any structure that is manmade, such as a building or even a bridge. Architecture has been around since man has been around, when the cavemen built their shelters, they were making a form of architecture. Architecture is sometimes also thought of as anything that is manmade, such as spoons, and computers, but mostly, it is thought of as structures that are manmade and have served a purpose or are simply pleasing to the eye. Architecture is sometimes used as a medium for art. Sculptures are sometimes structures that people do not live in, but they may be monuments of a city, like the Washington Monument. So architecture we could say, that is anything manmade that has some sort of impact on the place where we live and/or something we see in our surroundings.


Arch Drawing Plans (n.d.) Retrieved March 18, 2010, from http://www.accessconstruction.co.uk/pages/gallery.php