Over the past week we’ve mainly looked at classical columns. But over the past century they’ve evolved into a myriad of shapes and forms which sometimes seem ready to take flight rather than stay grounded.
Oscar Niemeyer’s columns make me think of birds in flight. And the peacock-patterned columns of Mumbai Airport’s Terminal 2 turn it into a 20th century palace.
Mumbai International Airport, Terminal 2
But modern columns aren’t always glorious - sometimes they’re hilarious.
American architect Philip Johnson mocked the classical obsession with columns in his design for a Town Hall in Disney Town Celebration, Florida.
Philip Johnson, Town Hall, Celebration, Florida
And Japanese architect Kengo Kuma turned the column back into a building in this Mazda showroom design in Tokyo.
This weekend, become a designer and create your own futuristic versions of columns.
Structural Columns
Forget technical limitations. If you could design any shape of column, what would you come up with?
How would you design a building or structure with columns?
What do you think the columns of the future will look like?
You can sketch, draw or even create a small model of your columns of the future.
Columns as Canvas
If you were given Trajan’s column, but blank, how would you decorate it?
What stories would you tell? And how would you place them?
Would you stick with the spiral? Or do you prefer a different pattern?
Advertising Columns
As the old advertising columns are being demolished there is clearly room for new design here.
Can you think of a modern advertising column that would both add value to the environment and pay for itself through advertising?
Enjoy designing your own columns this weekend, and do share your creations on Twitter or Instagram, using the hashtag #kramerseye.