Arquitectura Viva 78


Issue 79-80 VII-X 2001 € 21.04	Contents 11 September. Two commercial airplanes sequestered by suicide pilots crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in the morning of 11 September, causing the collapse of the skyscrapers and devastating the spectacular urban profile of the island of Manhattan. If the 20th century was symbolically brought to a close with the fall of the Berlin wall on 9 November 1989, the 21st begins with the brutal destruction in the very heart of New York of a landmark of economic power and technical supremacy.	Sumario Luis Fernández-Galiano Seven Days of September The Pillars of the Sky Our Glass Park «I am a New Yorker» Yamasaki redux Manhattan tomorrow
Issue 79-80 VII-X 2001 € 21.04	Cover Story Memorandums of the Catastrophe. A shared feeling links the chronicles written from the United States: the horror of tragedy can only be compared to the perplexed grief left behind by emptiness.	Architecture Francesc Torres Cynthia Davidson Cathy Lang Ho Carlos Jiménez
	The Fragility of a Colossus. Very tall buildings combine technological challenges and symbolic ambitions, which are discussed here in the light of the vulnerability shown by two of the planet’s highest towers.	Ricardo Aroca Julio Martínez Calzón David Cohn Iñaki Ábalos
	A Landmark in Ruins. A recurring motif in cinema, literature and the arts, the skyscraper has been an ambiguous icon of the Modern times which after the attack upon the World Trade Center takes on a new meaning as ruin.	Jean-Louis Cohen Joan Ockman Roberto Segre Juan Antonio Ramírez
	Views and Reviews WTC, 1962-1976. Illustrated with images of the period, the author’s account of the circumstances surrounding the project and the construction of the World Trade Center reflects a peculiar moment of office architecture.	Art / Culture Minoru Yamasaki WTC, the Urban Decisions Minoru Yamasaki WTC, Project and Construction
	The American Office. Between representative headquarters and anonymous containers, the history of the American office is also that of the evolution of a building type and the transformation of work practices.	D. Albrecht y C. Broikos The Face of American Business Thomas Hine Office Intrigues
	Urban Monuments. The Mémoires of Haussmann and The Arcades Project of Walter Benjamin are two monumental works which, by illuminating a Paris capital of the 19th century, shed light on the urban dilemmas of the 21st.	Focho's Cartoon Minoru Yamasaki Various Authors Books
	Recent Projects Three Corporate Headquarters. The Savings Bank of Granada trusts its institutional visibility to a large atrium; the Madrid headquarters of the urban furniture company Decaux will occupy a remodelled factory of the sixties; and the offices in the center of Madrid of the financial entity Morgan Stanley Dean Witter take up a sober container with a transparent facade.	Technique / Design Alberto Campo Baeza Saving Banks, Granada Carlos Ferrater Decaux Headquarters, Madrid Gabriel Allende MSDW Offices, Madrid
	To close, a graphic summary of the events following the attack: the strike of the United States against the Taliban regime of Afghanistan with the support of almost the entire world; the cholera of Islamic fundamentalism side by side the predicament of the Afghan population defenseless before the bombings; and the terror of Americans faced with a new threat called anthrax.	Products Cladding, Chairs, Iron Fittings English Summary 11 de septiembre Luis Fernández-Galiano An Epilog in Images
	Luis Fernández-Galiano 11 September
	Premonitions Flight simulator and rap cover: a computer game available on the net which played at crashing a Boeing 767 against the World Trade Center and the image – later withdrawn by the record label – of Party Music, the fourth LP of The Coup, prefigure the aerial attack upon the Twin Towers.
	Prologues In the first days of September, the Norwegian freighter Tampa unsuccessfully tries to disembark in Australia or Indonesia 400 Afghan castaways: globalization does not benefit the forlorn. The week of the attack, The Economist argues with Naomi Klein about the universe of logos.
	Protagonists After 11 September, the Saudi Osama bin Laden becomes the most popular Islamic leader since Nasser: a new Saladin reminiscent of the Prophet in his warlike piety. The architectural victim of his theatrical terror was the World Trade Center of Minoru Yamasaki, an almond-eyed American.
	Parallels The irruption of violence in the city of skyscrapers transforms lipsticks into bullets. The Manhattan light towers bring to mind Speer’s Cathedral of Light in Nuremberg’s Zeppelinfeld, and warn about the totalitarian risks in a society nurtured by the unanimous fervor of Wagnerian spectacle.