Focus on the city: forget the building-Does Sydney have a soul?

摘要

CITIES are a complex agglomeration of buildings, infrastructure and green networks. The building, as the constituent part of the city, provides a layered history that mirrors circumstance and is the physical embodiment of an era. The building is also inherently linked to its context and often comes to define the city itself. The Eiffel Tower without the context of Paris makes no sense, nor does the Flatiron Building when not bound by the particular slicing diagonal geometry of Broadway, NYC intersecting the regular grid of Avenue and Street. The city defines the building. One would not exist without the other. Closer to home, the beauty and timeliness of Utzon's Sydney Opera House lie in its unique response to the sparkling water of the harbour and its majestic headland setting.