Outrage over plans for Korean buildings identical to burning Twin Towers

[unreal.livejournal.com]

Outrage over plans for Korean buildings identical to burning Twin Towers... and the architects claim they didn't notice

• Dutch architects reveal plans for apartment towers in Seoul, South Korea
• But they incredibly appear to look like World Trade Center exploding on 9/11
• Company MVRDV says it didn't 'see resemblance during the design process'

This does not appear to be a sick joke. Architects have designed a pair of apartment towers in South Korea that are unbelievably reminiscent of the 9/11 attacks on New York's World Trade Centre.
These incredible pictures show how Dutch architecture firm MVRDV somehow managed to design the eerie 260-metre and 300-metre towers next to each other, connected by a ‘pixelated cloud’.
And in a good contender for quote of the year, a company statement insists they did not ‘see the resemblance during the design process’ for the buildings - due to be completed in Seoul in 2015.






The luxury residential towers have been named ‘The Cloud’, with one reaching 260 metres or 54 floors and the other covering 60 floors over 300 metres. The total surface area is 128,000 sq metres.
The ‘cloud' is housed in a 10-floor tall structure positioned halfway up the structures, and the towers feature a fitness studio, pools, restaurants, cafes and a conference centre.

'MVRDV regrets deeply any connotations The Cloud projects evokes (sic) regarding 9/11,’ a statement on the company’s website said, as it tries to stem the outrage it has already caused.
‘It was not our intention to create an image resembling the attacks nor did we see the resemblance during the design process. We sincerely apologise to anyone whose feelings we have hurt.’


At night: The luxury residential towers have been named 'The Cloud', with one reaching 260 metres or 54 floors and the other housing 60 floors in 300 metres - and a total surface area of 128,000 sq metres

A statement on the company's Facebook page added: 'A real media storm has started and we receive (sic) threatening emails and calls of angry people calling us Al Qaeda lovers or worse.'

The company said the Korean press did not report any resemblance to 9/11 and instead 'hailed the project as a great innovation'. 'Basically the negative connotations came from the USA,' it added.
What makes this even more incredible is how nobody at the firm spotted the resemblance to the Twin Towers. The 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon killed almost 3,000 people.
MVRDV is an award-winning firm based in Rotterdam set up in 1993. It was featured in the New York


Seoul space: The 'cloud' in the middle is a 10-floor tall structure positioned halfway up the structures, and the towers feature a fitness studio, pools, restaurants, cafes and a conference centre

And in what could be seen as a contradiction to the company’s statement, MVRDV spokesman Jan Knikker told Dutch-language newspaper Algemeen Dagblad that the link to 9/11 has in fact been made.

'I must admit that we also thought of September 11, 2001,' he says, in a translation of an article on Friday from Dutch to English. 'But it is not intended association with the attacks.'
In an interesting development it has been revealed ‘The Cloud’ will be built in the ‘Youngsan Dream Hub’, which is in part designed by the man behind the new World Trade Center complex.
Daniel Libeskind also presented a plan for a revamped lower Manhattan after 9/11 - which is closely resembled by the new buildings by MVRDV, reported by the International Business Times.

Source: dailymail

Comments

[gumiho.livejournal.com]

that is really eerie. the inside of the 'cloud' looks cool though.

[nijigirl-us.livejournal.com]

They should make some glass floors in that 'cloud' area. Like the CN Tower in Toronto.

[soft-daisy.livejournal.com]

I only see it in the first picture. From the other pictures, it looks like an interesting design

[pamuya.livejournal.com]

wouldnt have noticed but then again i bet if i was in NYC at the time i would have made the connection

[laeryn.livejournal.com]

That's a really interesting building D: I like it. Somehow awkward, yet really cool (what am I? Five?).

And, uhm, I think the reason it's seen as similar to the WTC is the fact that they are twin towers (which actually they aren't, since one's taller than the other). Idk, I wouldn't have made a connection if I hadn't read the title, tbh.

[loverboy.livejournal.com]

I guess if you're American it might be easy to see, but people need to realize that the concept and imagery meant to evoke from that building design isn't related at all to the attacks.

[morgenderper.livejournal.com]

Might end up scary hanging on top of those clouds. But the design is interesting and it looks really good from the inside.

[morgenderper.livejournal.com]

Also looking at the windows makes me think of Tetris, I love it

[morgenderper.livejournal.com]

The 9/11 cloud were higher though

[bitter-sweet05.livejournal.com]

... because everything has to be related to the United States...

That's actually kind of awesome-looking.

[umetraehi.livejournal.com]

no everything doesnt have to be but that looks very similar to be. While I think the threatening email and name calling is unnecessary I can't honesty believe they never thought this might have been a problem or criticism of the project.

[megasourwarhead.livejournal.com]

Im from NY and they showed this on the news last night. They showed ppl the picture and it pissed off every New Yorker they interviewed. Interestingly enough, the 2 tourists that were asked about it said it reminded them of clouds. Clouds had never even crossed my mind before they mentioned it, all I saw were exploding buildings, it's def an image burned in our brains :(

[mizukigirl.livejournal.com]

Me too. :(

[ilu.livejournal.com]

I suppose they could modify the design if it's causing this much of a shitstorm? As an American, I can definitely see the resemblance in the first picture...

[loverboy.livejournal.com]

But how could they modify the design?

[rylee900.livejournal.com]

To me it looks like clouds,but I do understand that the image of what happened in New York that day...would stay with someone forever.

[jeit91.livejournal.com]

not really, but then kind of in one of the pics.
i like the design tho

[allthingsgood.livejournal.com]

i don't feel anything towards the buildings but as a new yorker, i can't not see the burning towers D:

[umetraehi.livejournal.com]

I can see they wanted to be inavative and try and make something different which I honestly would have probably found incredibly interesting if 9/11 never happened. But just looking athe drawings is giving me the chills and making me uncomfortable

[uniqlos.livejournal.com]

it does look really cool tho. i think the similarity is pretty glaring in the first pic but on the others it looks fine, i guess it depends on the angle of the shot.

[love-keiko.livejournal.com]

wow...this is pretty cool looking!

[angela-derp-otp.livejournal.com]

Not everyone is american to begin with, so for instance when I first saw the pictures a few days ago in a blog the first thought in my mind wasn't the 9/11 attacks, I thought about lego and clouds. Is impossible for the people who lived the 9/11 attacks to not find a co-relation but the truth is not everything is made to resemble american happenings tbh.

The design blog were I first saw the pictures show snippets of articles were the designers of the building deny it has anything to do with 9/11 and that it was a concept developed based in the investors ideas of a "building in a cloud"

Once i get home I'm going to link it here if people want to read something less biased.

[umetraehi.livejournal.com]

that would be awesome. I know that they never had any intention of invoking that image but to me it is unnerving the similarities the images draws for me having gone through that. The hate they are getting for it is out of control but I think its fair that its getting criticized for it.

[jjongiyu.livejournal.com]

Looking at the first picture it does show some comparison to the 9/11 indecent but from other views it looks like a "cloud", and knowing that it wasn't suppose to resemblance the attack I find nothing wrong with the structure. It all depends on the angle of the shot. Not saying they should actually keep it this way, if they could do some modifications like taking away the cloud and just have the two buildings connect in the middle or add another "cloud" without the structure weakening.
Even though it does remind many of the attack the structure is quite interesting, but I would never want to work in the "loud" area. I would be hugging the walls, and distancing myself away from the windows - heights aren't my thing.

[jjongiyu.livejournal.com]

-.-" cloud*

[xshinebrighterx.livejournal.com]

It looks like an awesome building tbh, but I agree it would be scary as hell to be in one of the offices/apartments inside the cloud.

The USA or whoever is bitching about this should realize that not everything is about them, and I really don't think it was the architecs intention to make them resemble the WTC

[itskimbitches.livejournal.com]

not everybody victimized in 9/11 is american...what do you say to them?

why are you making this about america? why doesn't everyone see the bigger picture?

[froggster.livejournal.com]

Yeaaaaah, no. Ignoring the ~outrage~ because it's ridiculous. How dare they make tall buildings.

That aside. You should all look up MVRDV. They have tons of awesome and weird designs.

oh the irony

[itskimbitches.livejournal.com]

ppl don't always see the same thing

[rawfudge.livejournal.com]

If I saw it before reading this article, I probably wouldn't have noticed the similarity... But seeing it with this article, I definitely do see the relationship.
It looks pretty cool from the inside though.

[sadistic-dance.livejournal.com]

I really see it in the first picture but not the other ones. Still it's unsettling to me.

[adropofcitrus.livejournal.com]

that's a really fucking cool design