Digits
Architecture
Around the world, architecture has
been responsible for some wise words,
light-speed lifts and perplexing pipes.
Ascott Living builds up the numbers
2-8
The rate for England’s
strange ‘window tax’, instituted in
1696 by King William III to raise
money. The tax, which lasted
for 156 years, was the origin of
the term ‘daylight robbery’.
It took 424 years to
complete the Strasbourg
Cathedral in France.
For over four centuries,
it was considered the
tallest building in the
world – and one of the
most beautiful. Author
Victor Hugo called
its spire, “a veritable
tiara of stone” and the
building “a gigantic
and delicate marvel.”
more odd architectural
taxes in the UK
• 1794-1850 brick tax.
• 1712-1836 wallpaper tax.
• 1662-1689 hearth tax.
metres
Height of Kuala Lumpur’s
Petronas Towers, the world’s
tallest twin structure.
The Petronas
Towers play a
glittering part
in Entrapment,
the 1999 heist
movie starring
Sean Connery
and Catherine
Zeta-Jones,
when the pair of
thieves plot to
steal US$8 billion
from a bank in
the skyscraper.
3
insightful
quotes about
architecture
“The mother art is architecture.
Without an architecture of
our own we have no soul
of our own civilization.”
12.5
Frank Lloyd Wright
“Good buildings come from
good people, and all problems
are solved by good design.”
metres per second
When it is completed
in 2018, Saudi Arabia’s
Kingdom Tower will be the
world’s tallest building,
at over one kilometre
high. It will also feature
the world’s fastest lifts.
3
451.9
1015-1439
shillings
3
2
odd ingredients are rubbed
into the Sydney Opera
House to keep its concrete
and bronze looking sleek:
olive oil and baking powder.
Stephen Gardiner
“The frightening thought that
what you draw may become a
building makes for reasoned lines.”
Saul Steinberg
buildings and
their nicknames
60
20 Fenchurch Street, London:
now known as ‘Walkie Scorchie’
after it reflected sunlight so
intensely it melted cars.
Esplanade Theatres, Singapore:
studded with a spiky façade, locals
took to dubbing the theatres ‘the
durian’, a prickly local fruit.
06 Ascott LIVING
Illustrations: Gavin Goo
Bank of Asia Tower, Bangkok:
dubbed ‘the Robot Building’ due to
its similarity to an old-fashioned
robot (including bulbous eyes).
kilometres
of huge, pink pipes snake through
the centre of Berlin. Thousands
of baffled tourists and visitors
alike wonder what they are for.
Built on a swamp, Berlin’s ground
is soggy and waterlogged — the
pipes pump groundwater that
threatens to destabilize buildings
into canals. And why are the
pipes pink? When the pipes were
installed over two decades ago,
the installers asked a psycholog