Emojis tend to elicit fairly strong reactions from people. Many people love to use the small ideograms while texting and emailing like modern day hieroglyphics. Others experience a visceral hatred any time they see one of the little buggers.
This dichotomy is best exemplified via a teaser trailer for The Emoji Movie. On one hand, the movie studio felt secure enough in the general public’s love of emojis to invest money in a feature film. But on the other hand, the trailer has received over 78,000 dislikes (compared to just 8,000 likes) on YouTube since its release.
Regardless of what the prevailing opinion of the general public may be, one architecture firm decided to take emojis out of the digital world and incorporate 22 of them into the design of one of its building’s façades.
Photo courtesy Bart van Hoek, Attika Architekten.
The red brick structure, which resides in the Dutch city of Amersfoort, has horizontal bands of white concrete acting as floor demarcations. At each intersection where the brick and the concrete meet a small decorative circle is stamped in the concrete. On the side of the building that faces the town square, these concrete circles become emojis.
The building is a mix of ground floor retail and residential units and is part of the second phase of a larger mixed-use development. The second phase creates a more fully-fledged mall and adds more shops, restaurants, and apartments to connect to the shopping center that already exists.
Photo courtesy Bart van Hoek, Attika Architekten.
A 150-year-old oak tree acts as the development’s centerpiece and gives it its name: “Plein Rond De Eik,” which translates to Place Around the Oak. A car-free town square helps to keep the public space as pedestrian friendly as possible. A 21,500-sf grocery store, a library, and a school are included in the development.
While the emojis may cause some passersby to groan and shake their heads, the emojis will also act as a visual timestamp; the architects hope the feature will be a unique reminder of the time period the structure was built in.
For more images and information, click here.
Image courtesy Bart van Hoek, Attika Architekten.
Related Stories
| Dec 17, 2010
Toronto church converted for condos and shopping
Reserve Properties is transforming a 20th-century church into Bellefair Kew Beach Residences, a residential/retail complex in The Beach neighborhood of Toronto. Local architecture firm RAWdesign adapted the late Gothic-style church into a five-story condominium with 23 one- and two-bedroom units, including two-story penthouse suites. Six three-story townhouses also will be incorporated. The project will afford residents views of nearby Kew Gardens and Lake Ontario. One façade of the church was updated for retail shops.
| Dec 2, 2010
GKV Architects wins best guest room design award for Park Hyatt Istanbul
Gerner Kronick + Valcarcel, Architects, PC won the prestigious Gold Key Award for Excellence in Hospitality Design for best guest room, Park Hyatt Macka Palas, Istanbul, Turkey. Park Hyatt Maçka Palace marries historic and exotic elements with modern and luxurious, creating a unique space perpetuating Istanbul’s current culture. In addition to the façade restoration, GKV Architects designed 85 guestrooms, five penthouse suites, an ultra-hip rooftop bar, and a first-of-its-kind for Istanbul – a steakhouse, for the luxury hotel.
| Nov 16, 2010
CityCenter’s new Harmon Hotel targeted for demolition
MGM Resorts officials want to demolish the unopened 27-story Harmon Hotel—one of the main components of its brand new $8.5 billion CityCenter development in Las Vegas. In 2008, inspectors found structural work on the Harmon didn’t match building plans submitted to the county, with construction issues focused on improperly placed steel reinforcing bar. In January 2009, MGM scrapped the building’s 200 condo units on the upper floors and stopped the tower at 27 stories, focusing on the Harmon having just 400 hotel rooms. With the Lord Norman Foster-designed building mired in litigation, construction has since been halted on the interior, and the blue-glass tower is essentially a 27-story empty shell.
| Nov 3, 2010
Rotating atriums give Riyadh’s first Hilton an unusual twist
Goettsch Partners, in collaboration with Omrania & Associates (architect of record) and David Wrenn Interiors (interior designer), is serving as design architect for the five-star, 900-key Hilton Riyadh.
| Oct 6, 2010
From grocery store to culinary school
A former West Philadelphia supermarket is moving up the food chain, transitioning from grocery store to the Center for Culinary Enterprise, a business culinary training school.
| Sep 30, 2010
Luxury hotels lead industry in green accommodations
Results from the American Hotel & Lodging Association’s 2010 Lodging Survey showed that luxury and upper-upscale hotels are most likely to feature green amenities and earn green certifications. Results were tallied from 8,800 respondents, for a very respectable 18% response rate. Questions focused on 14 green-related categories, including allergy-free rooms, water-saving programs, energy management systems, recycling programs, green certification, and green renovation.
| Sep 13, 2010
Conquering a Mountain of Construction Challenges
Brutal winter weather, shortages of materials, escalating costs, occasional visits from the local bear population-all these were joys this Building Team experienced working a new resort high up in the Sierra Nevada.
| Aug 11, 2010
Accor North America launches green hotel pilot program
Accor North America, a division of Accor Hospitality, has announced that it will pilot the Green Key Eco-Rating Program within its portfolio in the United States in 2010. Green Key is the first program of its kind to rank, certify and inspect hotels and resorts based on their commitment to sustainable "green" practices; the Accor North America pilot will involve 20 properties.
| Aug 11, 2010
CTBUH changes height criteria; Burj Dubai height increases, others decrease
The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH)—the international body that arbitrates on tall building height and determines the title of “The World’s Tallest Building”—has announced a change to its height criteria, as a reflection of recent developments with several super-tall buildings.
