Questioning the 'communality' of mega-structures

For 40 years, they dominated the Lower Manhattan skyline, but today, the buildings are conspicuous by their absence.

The two man-made pools at the site of New York's World Trade Center (WTC) remind us of the twin towers that once soared above.

What did these mega-structures signify?

Since olden times, human beings across the globe have built mega-structures, edifices borne of a variety of "powers."

Firstly, we have political "power." The construction of giant structures was a way for rulers of the day to display their authority. Examples include Egypt's Pyramids, the Palace of Versailles in France and Osaka Castle.

Divine or religious "power" has also given rise to many mega-structures, such as Saint Peter's Basilica in Vatican City and the Great Buddha Hall at Todaiji temple, Nara. The list also includes Gothic cathedrals, whose architecture reaches toward the heavens. While projecting the power of God and his earthly representatives, these structures also engender a sense of sublimity that facilitates encounters with the sacred.

To look up at one of these buildings is to experience a sense of primitive awe; to look down from one a sense of exaltation. The direction of these gazes reveals the contours of "power."

The 20th century saw the appearance of the high-rise building as a reflection of economic "power." During the 1920s and 1930s, the construction of the Empire State Building and so on saw a city of skyscrapers sprouting up in New York's Manhattan district.

Structures from this era were adorned in the Art Deco style, as seen in the Chrysler Building, but the World Trade Center, completed in the early 1970s, took the form of plain, rectangular structures. As the perfect example of a colorless, transparent modernist space, the WTC epitomized the economic rationality of the superpower that built it. This building, so symbolic of its era, was destroyed by terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001.

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Though people have continued to build mega-structures and skyscrapers from the 1980s onwards, these buildings have often been the target of criticism.

The rise of the postmodernist movement, with its critique of modernist ideas, lies behind this criticism, as does the continually harsh economic climate. The profusion of skyscrapers springing up across China and the Middle East also appear, at least to Western eyes, as nothing more than foreign copies of Manhattan. There are also environmental concerns about the energy needed to cool buildings located in the desert.

Though mega-structures may seem passe, there are still architects willing to engage with them.

Take Holland's Rem Koolhaas, one of architecture's leading polemicists. Koolhaas, known for his work on the new Beijing headquarters of China Central Television (CCTV), is an exponent of the idea of "bigness." For Koolhaas, the era of capitalist expansion has ushered in an age of giant multifunctional structures that transcend the traditional notions of architecture.

One example is the Koolhaas-designed "Congrexpo" in Lille, France, a 300-meter long oval structure containing a concert hall, meeting rooms and exhibition spaces. For Koolhaas, the coexistence of multiple functions under one roof gives birth to new and unprecedented possibilities.

Hiroshi Hara has also worked on huge landmark buildings, such as Osaka's Umeda Sky Building, JR Kyoto Train Station and Sapporo Dome. He has also outlined ideas for a building that is 500 meters by 500 m by 500 m in size.

For Hara, mega-structures are still relevant from two different standpoints.

For a start, as populations explode across the developing world, there is the problem of the relentless conversion of farmlands and forests into land for housing. For Hara, the construction of taller and bigger buildings should be discussed as a potential solution.

Hara has also thought deeply about the way human beings congregate.

"In an age where we can contact people across the world through the Internet, social groupings can come in a variety of sizes," says Hara. "Who can deny that gatherings of 50,000 to 100,000 people are just as possible in the real world?"

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On a more everyday level, shopping malls with giant sales floors can also be labeled mega-structures, where people come and go among every kind of store or amusement. Are these structures designed for citizens and users? Or are they places for capital to make profits?

Who or what are these mega-structures for? Questions now need to be asked about the role of public spaces and the communality of architecture.

It won't be long before Tokyo's Sky Tree opens its doors to the public. Though containing no space for large gatherings, the building has, for some reason, caught the public's imagination in a big way. Perhaps one reason is the transient sense of togetherness people feel when they look at the tower, knowing that others are gazing at it too.

When imagining the ethereal presence of a mega-structure looking out over the metropolis from a height of 600 meters, we can perceive the placid communality of the collective gaze.