Sculpture as Architecture, Architecture as Sculpture
Photo sourced from Carbone Metal Fabricator Inc
Liana Aleksanyan is a designer and project manager at Meander Studio. She shares her thoughts on the Seaport redevelopment:
Shortly after the Thanksgiving holiday break, I took a short visit into Boston’s Seaport District and found myself to be pleasantly surprised with all the new construction that’s surfaced in the past year. Something that specifically caught my eye was this apartment tower along the Harbor Walk at 50 Liberty Drive. We often are taught in education and practice that architecture and structure inherently work together, but rarely do we see structure as an ornamental sculptural piece on its own. It is evident that this building is partly supported by this organic aluminum mass, though, physics and its utilitarian aspects aside, the autonomy of this sculptural element brings about the debate around structure as sculpture. Not only that but a structural element that is typically designed with linear planes is being challenged through organic form. Twentieth century Spanish architect Antonio Gaudi once said “There are no straight lines or sharp corners in nature. Therefore, buildings must have no straight lines or sharp corners”.