Much later after taking this photograph in Liege, Belgium, I thought about the ephemeral state of certain skylines. As we can read on Wikipedia:
A skyline is the artificial horizon that a city’s overall structure creates. Skylines serve as a kind of fingerprint of a city, as no two skylines are alike.
Or to put a focus on the micro aspect of the skyline (on a street basis), we cite the Oxford English Dictionnary:
Skylines are “the outline or silhouette of a building or number of buildings or other objects seen against the sky.
This Belgian example is a common presentation. several kind of buildings form a non linear shape according to their specific need. A garage needs a big entrance.
For better visualization of the skyline a find edge filter has been applied in Photoshop.
There are also decorative issues with some parts having that only function. In our article about Cayeux sur Mer the aspect of the Casino “skyline” illustrates nicely this decorative function. The design of the façade has been subject to some research. “So why focus on the facade?” asks Richard Longstreth in his book on the subject1 before giving an answer:
Several related factors explain the choice. Between the early 19th and the mid-20th centuries, most commercial buildings were designed to be seen from the front. From the exterior, it is the facade that gives commercial architecture its distinctive qualities and distinguishes one building from the next.
But a walk in newer parts of cities show us that today we need an uniform skyline. Each building needs to respect the general height of x floors to fit into the general view and to avoid wasting precious ground area. Geneva, an always overcrowded city (and where our headquarter resides), is trying to overcome its housing problem by leveling the skyline.
Urbanists are still interested in the skyline as part of the macro architecture of the city but less from a street by street level. The liking of this development is another story2.
location: Liege, Belgium
time: 17/03/2011
Psychogeography (Chtcheglov): useful
fleur cérébrale: hémisphère droite