Sunday, September 09, 2007

Massive maths campus

I've arrived in Cambridge and am amazed by the maths campus they've built called the Centre for Mathematical Sciences.

The Newton Institute is in the upper left corner of this picture (the whole campus is devoted to mathematical sciences):



As a lover of modern architecture I was in heaven when I saw this crazy place! Where have all the teletubbies gone? ;-)





Walking through Trinity College past Newton's old residence was also quite a thrill :-)
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6 comments:

  1. Steve Sailer4:10 AM

    Not really into traditional architecture, are they, over in Cambridge? Looks like a set from "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow."

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  2. Anonymous1:11 PM

    Glad someone loves modern architecture. Industrial uglification is what it looks like to me.

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  3. Anonymous7:25 PM

    Steve-

    I hope you also appreciate two aspects of their effective & efficient key-card system which I discovered while there.

    The first: Working late in the library at the Newton Institute my last night there I learned that yes, my card does cease to work precisely at midnight the last day of the conference.

    Second: Students have no access to even the buildings in which their professors have their offices. Interpret as you will...

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  4. Seth8:12 PM

    "Students have no access to even the buildings in which their professors have their offices. Interpret as you will..."

    Students: bug!
    Faculty: feature!

    And as long as they keep the nice old buildings, it's no tragedy to have some "clever" new ones. Some future generation will choose whether to replace them.

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  5. Unknown2:30 PM

    "Industrial uglification": good term! The flowers looked weirdly out of place, as if tacked on....
    The Lorentz Institute in Leiden is also a massive glass and steel building one could easily get lost in.

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  6. Anonymous1:23 PM

    "And as long as they keep the nice old buildings, it's no tragedy to have some "clever" new ones. Some future generation will choose whether to replace them."

    This is a wonderful comment which perfectly sums up the modernist architect. No building is valuable in any aesthetic or spiritual sense. No building is designed to express value or human sentiment, shape or feature. It is simply cleverness or "quirkiness". It hasn't been done before, it's new, so it must be good.

    And if someone knocks it down in the future? Then hey, no great loss. We'll think of something original. Maybe something made completely of titanium steel, or iron.

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