When is a blob more than a Maya rendering?

As Bucky Fuller once said, "When I am working on a problem I never think about beauty. I only think about how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong."

The problem with a lot of 'blobitechture' is that, despite being interesting from an academic and process standpoint, more often than not the resulting forms neither solve problems or are beautiful. Here are two examples of 'blobby' structures that buck(y) the trend: drop dead gorgeous and functional.



Looking something like bird's nest or a giant blood cell strapped to the earth with a complex network of rope, Herzog+DeMueron's competition entry for the Beijing Olympic Stadium was selected by an evaluation panel this May. Check out high-res drawings of all the "superexcellent schemes" here.

(un)Plug is a tower to be built in the La Defense area of Paris. It was designed by Fran�ois Roche and commissioned by the research department of the French Public Electricity Company, to develop a building that takes maximum advantage of solar energy. In his projects, Fran�ois Roche attempts to refrain from radically modifying the territory, seeking a form of dialogue with it. He is currently undertaking a critical experiment with new warping technologies to prompt architectural "scenarios" of cartographic distorsion, substitution, and genetic territorial mutations. See and read more about Roche's work here.

[Thanks to Paul Hemsworth for the links.]