PAIRS 22 - HOUSING & PUB

The Sekyra Flowers housing project recently published by Studio Libeskind has many of the eccentric characteristics of the Ettamogah pub: see - https://www.dezeen.com/2025/10/21/sekyra-flowers-daniel-libeskind-housing-prague/ and Ettamogah Pub - Wikipedia https://share.google/JwsU1ev8hTR2jI3oJ.

Sekyra Flowers Housing Project, Prague.

The Jewish Museum, Berlin.

One wonders if Daniel Libeskind finds himself burdened with the expectations generated by the project that made his reputation - The Jewish Museum in Berlin. This special project presented what was described as street map diagrams sprawled, gouged and scratched across a tortured, angular mass expressive of its subject's terrible trauma; but have these transformative shapes and massings now become a decorative style; a recognisable Libeskind motif? Why might the glass observation deck on the Boerentoren skyscraper in Antwerp require such patterning? – see: https://www.dezeen.com/2025/06/24/studio-libeskind-boerentoren-updated-plans-antwerp/.Why is the Fan d'Issy, a mixed use building in Paris, so profiled? – see: https://www.dezeen.com/2025/03/03/fan-dissy-studio-libeskind-paris-green-wall/. Why might the housing blocks in Prague be deformed?

The Jewish Museum, Berlin.

Glass Observation Deck, Boerentoren Skyscraper, Antwerp.

Fan d'Issy, A Mixed Use Building, Paris.

The Ettamogah pub is an expressive cartoon image generated by Ken Maynard as a quirky sketch to background his humorous illustrations published in the Australasian Post. One can liken it to the exaggerations in the classic 'hot rod' sketches that seem to have become the car designers' inspiration rather than merely remaining a diagrammatical emphasis for the comic book reader's expressive enjoyment: WOW!

Sekyra Flowers Housing Project, Prague.

Likewise, we can now see the pub sketch in actual built form in four places across Australia in an effort to create a desirable tourist attraction in the same vein of such absurd, unusual things as The Big Pineapple and all the other 'Big' things spread across the country yearning for attention. A prawn, an oyster, a bull, a ram, an apple, etc. all wait to perform their unabashed amazements for the eyes' entertainment. The logic seems to be that the boredom of everyday existence can be broken by differently unusual things, if only for a short period. John Gloag once described a twisted, skewed, half-timbered Medieval façade as being "interesting for about three minutes." One thinks of Gehry's Bilbao Guggenheim in the same manner, being created with much the same intent: to attract tourists to town. It has been so successful with this ploy that nearly every city, town, and village in the world wants its 'Gehry Guggenheim.'

Bilbao Guggenheim.

While the deformities in the two projects - the housing and the pub - bring the other to mind, one has to ask about the intentions of such skewed variations in the housing scheme. The pub is clear about its origins and ambitions; one is waiting to discover those behind the Libeskind project. Might it be the maintenance of a reputation gained by an architect who did unusually expressive contortions for the Jewish Museum to create Brand Libeskind, just as we have Brand Gehry and Brand Hadid? Surely the distortions are not merely for 'comic book-like' expressive wonderment labelled 'Libeskin'?

"He's the chap who designed the startling Jewish Museum in Berlin?"

"Oh! Him: mmm. Still doing it eh?"

Fan d'Issy, A Mixed Use Building, Paris.

Sekyra Flowers Housing Project, Prague.

Libeskind is reported as saying:

"Sekyra Flowers will be both an architectural contribution to Prague's current renaissance and my personal tribute to this magical city," said Libeskind.

"Rising at the heart of the new Rohan City district, the towers represent one of the most ambitious and exciting urban projects I have ever designed. Their foundations are rooted in a deep ethical and philosophical commitment  – the very essence of why I practice architecture," Libeskind continued.

"For me, it is not only about shaping buildings, but about creating a living environment that embodies openness, community and a forward-looking vision – values that have guided my work from the very beginning."

Alas, we still have no idea why the buildings are so distorted.

Studio Libeskind expands on matters with the statement:

Situated near Prague's historic Old Town and the Vltava River, the four buildings at Sekyra Flowers will have varying geometric forms clad in reflective, metallic tiles.

Renders show staggered, angular rooflines, some of which will be topped with green roofs to "evoke the impression of blossoms opening in bloom", according to Studio Libeskind.

Blooming blossoms have a different integrity and scale, with the buildings potentially becoming comical in their own floral way - something like the Big Sunflowers?