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We all know that buildings don't always turn out like the renderings. Last-minute changes and real-life materials can all cause discrepancies between the vision and reality of a project. In our weekly Flash Forward Friday feature, we take a look at how different projects stack up.
Among the tallest buildings on the Anatolian side of Istanbul, Allianz Tower proudly stands 40 storeys above the streets of the historic Turkish city. Proposed in 2011, the 186-metre-tall skyscraper became the country's first LEED Platinum highrise when it was completed three years later. This headquarters for a multinational financial services company mostly maintained its original vision throughout the design and construction processes, birthing a new defining landmark for Turkey's most populous city.
Artist's impressions of the development showed a crystalline and chiseled tower enveloped in high-performance curtain wall with golden accents providing an additional aesthetic pop to the exterior. FXFOWLE was the lead architect of the project, and they sought inspiration from Ottoman geometric motifs and the fertile landscapes of the region. The tower's erupting prism-like form particularly takes cues from the rugged geography of Cappadocia in Central Turkey, which is widely known for its cone-shaped rock formations. In the pursuance of optimum solar control, the building's massing rotates approximately 33 degrees, with the patterned scrim reducing heat load. These golden embellishments also serve as global cultural references, evoking the work of French fashion designer Paco Rabanne and eliciting images of Austrian painter Gustav Klimt's 'The Kiss.'
A trifecta of strategically placed sky gardens serve as thermal buffers between the interior and exterior and functionally provide amenity spaces for tenants. The sky garden at the very top, which contains a wood conference pod, is sheltered within the faceted glass crown of the tower. These green areas moderate the verticality and sense of enclosure that skyscrapers tend to display.
The completed project closely matches the renderings that were released prior to construction. The golden scrim, perhaps more vivid in reality than artistically depicted, provides an eye-catching architectural contrast to the glazing in behind. One visible omission from the illustrations was the grouping of rectilinear cutouts near the apex of the building, which appear to be for mechanical ventilation. Their presence is overtly advertised by an abrupt halt in the facade's stippled ornamentation, which continues beside and above the screens. Beyond that, the project faithfully executed a massing and skin that stimulates cultural imagery, becoming a highly visible obelisk that marks the entrance to the city from the east.
We will return next Friday with another comparison!
