Koolhaas and metabolist movement Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Koolhaas and metabolist movement - Essay Example architecture's most-reproduced forms and structures: the giraffe-legged Villa dall'Ava in suburban Paris, one of the greatest buildings of the late twentieth century, and the stupendous fishnet-steel-and-glass-covered Seattle Public Library, which opened in 2004. Some of his best works in Europe are the master plan and Grand Palais for Lille, France which is his largest realized urban planning project; a residence in Bordeaux, France; the Educatorium, a multifunction building for Utrecht University in the Netherlands; and the Kunsthal, providing exhibition space, a restaurant and auditoriums in Rotterdam. The Bordeaux house is one of his most important works and was named as Best Design of 1998 by Time magazine. It was designed to fill the needs of a couple whose old house was problematic to the old man as had been confined to a wheel chair due to an accident. Koolhaas proposed a home in three parts with the lowest part having a series of caverns carved out from the hill. While the top part is divided into spaces for the couple, and spaces for their children. The middle part is an invisible glass room that is a vertically moving platform functioning as an elevator allowing the old man access to all levels. In the 1950s, the Japanese Metabolists proposed giant mega-structures as an answer to the ever-growing problem of overcrowding in their cities. These architects came up with innovative designs of floating cities and giant prefabricated "plug-in" living cells that could be inserted into skyscrapers. But due to the scale and reality constraints Metabolist vision could not be realized completely. They regarded the city as an organic process that featured some of the innovative concepts such as marine civilization, artificial terrain, and metabolic cycle.... Koolhaas was fond of the "Megastructure" concept. This is basically a large size building or plan meant for urban improvement. His company OMA applied Megastructure for its designs for a vast complex of shops, housing, and offices, together with a railway station, in Lille, France or Lille Masterplan.Metabolists used the concept of the natural flows of air, water, and people in cities. They conceptualized biomorphic mega structures capturing and materializing urban flows. In 1961, Kenzo Tange’s studio proposed a plan for Tokyo Bay that clearly illustrates the principles of metabolism. The project comprised of a spine, or trunk, and an array of branches and leaves that together formed a clear tree-like structure. In the same year, Kurokawa produced a series of utopian projects inspired by biological forms and a process of growth representing that of living cells. At the same period, Isosaki developed his project â€Å"City in the Air† as a system of urban intersections a nd interconnections in the air, providing a grand structure supported by infrastructural trunks, like a forest of trees. Each trunk affords commercial and residential plugins like those found in Peter Cook’s â€Å"Plug-in City†. Metabolist architecture shows a tilt towards the evolutive, and irreversible, development of cities. Their projects were inspired by the natural movements of air, water, corporeal fluids and plants, but had a very formal and functional conception of urbanism.

Leadership based on a video 12 angry men Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Leadership based on a video 12 angry men - Essay Example At one instance where he got agitated he offered his own position to another jury member which shows his weakness. He did not portrayed any of the attributes that a leader might have practiced. He was not the most intelligent in the room neither was he extrovert or conscientious. He was bound by the rules and norms followed by a jury foreman and he kept on reminding jury members of them although he never used his influence to strictly enforce them. His pause when the architect did not favor the guilty verdict in the beginning shows that he was hesitant and was only a follower of popular opinion. Furthermore there were no inherent leadership qualities that would separate him from other jury members as a result his idea of conducted a secret ballot in the beginning was shot down and he was referred to as a â€Å"kid† by Juror # 10. After seeing the movie it is felt that there was a very insignificant role played by the jury foreman as he relinquished his responsibility to lead t he group and losses his composure. After losing his composure he was only fulfilling the demands of the Jurors, for example taking a vote or asking the guard for exhibits (12 Angry Men, 1997). Q2. How was the behavioral leadership theory depicted in the movie? Provide at least three examples from the movie to support your argument. The movie has substantial content that supports behavioral leadership theory, leadership can be learned and is not a born trait (Carpenter et al., 2010). It is observed in the movie that during the course of time most jurors show courage and learn to accept both fact based information and humanistic elements (Carpenter et al., 2010). Initially most of the Juror’s appeared convinced of guilty verdict and to a certain extent biased but as the discussions progressed they change themselves and learned to stand up for what they believed and distanced themselves from biasness. The foremost example is Juror # 9, the nice old man who agrees with the majori ty initially but later on his confidence, courage and ability to understand and present both fact and human based elements convinces other jury members, something presented in the behavioral theories as Laissez-faire style of leadership. His keen observation related to wearing the glasses proved sufficient to convince Juror 4 who was till then adamantly supporting the guilty verdict. Similarly the African American Juror, who grew up in slums was very shy as he abstains from commenting and stayed silent in the beginning although later on he stands up for who he was and using his experience he brought forward his arguments about the murder weapon (knife) and how they are usually applied. The third example was Juror # 7, the sports fan who had no interest what so ever in the case as he wanted to get over with it so he can go to the baseball match. Later on as facts are revealed to him he shows interest and changes his behavior as a sarcastic member of the group to an accepting member w ho supported the truth by removing his perceptual bias towards the accused teenager. It is a fact that all the men in that room learned and grew that day, fighting their personal prejudices, bias, indifference, anger, cultural difference, fears and bad experiences to reach a fair judgment but all due to Juror