SNARK-ITECTURE: A Dutch firm designed these towers for Seoul, South Korea, claiming it didn’t see the resemblance to New York’s Twin Towers (above). (Artist’s rendition)
SNARK-ITECTURE: A Dutch firm designed these towers for Seoul, South Korea, claiming it didn’t see the resemblance to New York’s Twin Towers. (
)
In a spectacular case of architectural tastelessness, the designers of a pair of South Korean skyscrapers came up with a blueprint that makes them look like the burning World Trade Center towers.
The Dutch architectural firm MVRDV has been targeted with angry phone calls and e-mails for drafting a design that critics say is more appropriate for “an al Qaeda headquarters.”
The Rotterdam-based company’s plan for the two towers in Seoul features what it called a “pixelated cloud” of 10 expanding floors that connects the two buildings at around the 27th floor.
But the cloud recalls the horrifying images from Sept. 11, 2001, of the disintegrating north and south towers of the trade center.
The firm said it was “highly surprised” that anyone made the connection.
“It was not our intention to create an image resembling the attacks,” it said in an apology on Facebook. “Nor did we see the resemblance during the design process.”
Critics weren’t buying that.
“What the hell were these architects thinking?” read one headline posted on the tech blog Gizmodo Australia.
To make matters worse, one MVRDV official, Jan Knikker, was quoted telling the Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad, “I have to admit that we also thought of the 9/11 attacks.”
There was no word on whether the Korean towers, scheduled for completion by 2015, would be built as designed.
The Weekly Standard magazine said the architects “could hardly have not thought of the 9/11 attacks.”
The reason is that the residential towers will be constructed at the entrance of Seoul’s Yongsan Dream Hub.
The hub is a business complex designed by Daniel Libeskind, who is perhaps best known for working out the original master plan for the redevelopment of the World Trade Center site. In fact, the Seoul complex closely resembles Libeskind’s Manhattan master plan, the Weekly Standard said.
The “pixelated cloud” design first surfaced on the Web site of Dezeen magazine and touched off a firestorm of criticism.
“This is like 9/11 freeze-framed,” one commenter posted. “What a bad idea.”
“They’re either sick or ignorant,” another said of the architects. “This design is offensive.”