I have always been fascinated by buildings, structures and in particular bridges and the older the structure, the more I think, ”How did they do that?”, and generally the answer is the same, a lot of hard work, paper drawings and blood, sweat and tears with a big dose of vision.
Modern structures require vision, planning and all the rest already mentioned; but the creativeness of architects today is mind blowing.
What can be produced with materials that the likes of Sir Charles Barry ( Architect for the London houses of parliament) or even Sir Norman FosterReichstag Dome, Berlin can only dream of at the time.
Today's modern cities are a network of skyscrapers and tall buildings all wanting to be unique and different from the next using materials that we haven’t heard of and making a statement for the next 100 -200 years. The sustainable buildings that can withstand gigantic earthquakes or are made from eco-friendly products and have a low carbon footprint, the future of the building is changing and evolving again.
The way we see buildings has changed and the more iconic and strange the structure, the more people come to see it a few examples of this are, The Shard, designed by the Italian architect Renzo Pian. 30 St Mary Axe, informally known as The Gherkin, by Norman Foster and Ken Shuttleworth are now huge tourist attractions in London, these modern buildings settled in among the old buildings from every century.
Closer to home Auckland sky tower featured in 95% of all Auckland skyline images, most locals will not know that the architect is Craig Craig Moller Ltd is a local New Zealand company and Fletcher buildings built the tower, which still is the largest man-made a structure in Australasia. And with new buildings being built the skyline of this city is changing forever currently in the Auckland region over 90 cranes are working on new fascinating modern structures.
Next time you are out in a major city, look around and look up at a new perspective, because next time it may have changed.
Change is happening all over the world, and as a photographer, this gives us great opportunities to capture that ever-changing city landscape.