Hasta La Ideas

In this week’s comments update, plans for a pair of skyscrapers caused a debate on the merits of the stacked-box aesthetic.

Stacking up: Büro Ole Scheeren‘s plan for Barclay Village in Vancouver, which will be formed from irregularly stacked glass boxes, caused readers to question the merits of stacking volumes into a tower.

“Jenga on the mind?” asked Hikoo.

A disappointed Tyrannosaurus lamented: “I’d hoped we’d moved on from the jumbled stack of boxes style by now.”

Howard Cosell defended the design: “Jumbled? I think they are rather neatly stacked. But you can change my mind if you can give me a much better alternative?”

A particularly frustrated Karl Diskin had a different issue with the project: “This infuriating doublespeak use of the word ‘village’ in relation to skyscrapers needs to end. The idea that a skyscraper whose facade is articulated as an assemblage of smaller volumes can thus be described as a village is an entirely erroneous one.”

The other commenters were impressed by the strength of Karl Diskin’s reaction to the word village.

What do you think of the proposed Barclay Village? Join the discussion ›

Loud and proud: ahead of London’s Pride parade that took place at the weekend, Dezeen took a look at nine LGBT+ design projects including a rainbow font and a sex toy for gender-transitioning men. However, not all readers were impressed.

“Just plain embarrassing. I’m gay, always have been – I don’t need labels or victimhood status, I am not and have never been marginalised,” said Vuillard.

Chris Becket agreed: “I have never been marginalised either, and my achievements have been in direct proportion to my merits, no more but no less than what I deserve.”

Susan, however, felt that some commenters were lacking empathy and understanding for marginalised people saying: “The comments so far reads like a conversation from a middle school locker room.”

Other commenters took a less political view, including E.May who was disappointed about the price of one of the items featured:



Should Pride be all encompassing? Join the discussion ›

Missed the target: readers were cynical about news that China has developed a stealth laser weapon capable of burning the flesh of targets 800 metres away.

Mirqus felt the story was “classic Chinese clickbait – show a fake prototype and let global scientists prove you wrong, only to then mass-produce their solutions.”

Bill CanoJr also cast doubt on the design saying “it’s possible, but not ready for combat use.”

Even if the gun is put into production Karol B doubted its usefulness as a weapon, stating “it would be quite easy to make an armour to protect from that laser light.”

Others, were more convinced by the design with Jam questioning why the laser gun has only just been developed: “About time, am I right?”

One reader had a suggestion for what the gun could be used for.

Is the rifle Chinese clickbait? Join the discussion ›

Big idea: readers were amused by a crowd-funding campaign launched by BIG architects’ Bjarke Ingels and Jakob Lange to install a huge, inflatable mirrored sphere, called The Orb, at this year’s Burning Man festival.

Knownquantity felt that: “Bjarke needs to get more in tune with the steampunk vibes of Burning Man.”

By the same token, FuriousB sarcastically commented that: “The diagram illustrating that a sphere is a scale model of the earth is pure genius. Thank god we have Bjarke to make these deep connections for us.”

“At least it’s not concave otherwise it would set things on fire.” retorted Mcmlxix, whilst a baffled Threefloatingorbs asked: “Where’s the giant shark jumping over the orb?”

On a slightly different note, Spadestick offered a new name for the festival:



What do you think of The Orb? Join the discussion ›

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