The cheese grater, the pineapple, the pine cone, the blue tongue, the mothership and even the air filter, are all names that have been bestowed up the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI) designed by Woods Bagot.
Already in its short life, the SAHMRI has many nicknames, so Architecture & Design decided to look at other buildings which have also had a moniker assigned to them.
Here are the eight:
One - The Beehive
The Beehive is the common name for the Executive Wing of New Zealand’s parliament buildings. The original concept was designed by Scottish architect Basil Spence in 1964. It got its name due to looking like a beehive.
Image: Wikipedia.org
Two - The Gherkin
The Gherkin or 30 St Mary Axe in London was previously known as the Swiss Re Building. It was designed by Norman Foster and Arup, and was completed in 2003. It got its name due to its highly unorthodox layout and appearance.
Image: www.illusioncreative.co.uk
Three - The Cheesegrater
Not even completed, but 122 Leadenhall St has already been dubbed the Cheesegrater because of its distinctive wedge shape. Only a few blocks away from the Gherkin, the Cheesegrater is due for completion in May 2014. It was designed by British architect Richard Rogers.
Image: theleadenhallbuilding.com
Four - The Walkie Talkie
Staying in London, the Walkie Talkie building aka 20 Fenchurch St was designed by architect Rafael Vinoly. Once again, this building has been bestowed its name due to its distinctive shape. It is still currently under construction, due for completion in April 2014, but it is already making headlines around the world because of the wee bit of mayhem it has caused.
Image: forum.skyscraperpage.com
Five - The shard
This 87-storey skyscraper is known as The Shard, but also the Shard of Glass, Shard London Bridge and formerly London Bridge Tower. It is currently the tallest building in the European Union and was designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano. Piano’s design was met with criticism from English Heritage, which claimed the building would be “a shard of glass through the heart of historic London”, thus its name was born. It helps it also looks like a shard of glass.
Image: cntraveler.com
Six - The Big Pants
Big Pants or the China Central Television building was designed by Rem Koolhaas and Ole Scheeren. It consists of two slanting towers, joined by sections on the ground and two horizontal sections at the top.
Image: architectweekly.com
Seven - The Bird's Nest
Beijing National Stadium has been dubbed the Bird’s Nest. It was designed by Herzog & de Meuron with Ai Weiwei and the China Architectural Design & Research Group for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. The design team wanted a stadium that would be porous while also being a collective building and public vessel. They studied Chinese ceramics, which eventually brought them to the ‘nest scheme’, which ultimately led to its name of the Bird’s Nest.
Image: Wikipedia.org
Eight - (We'll leave this one up to you)
Controversially, Zaha Hadids’s design for the Al Wakrah stadium in Qatar for the 2022 FIFA World Cup has been singled out for a nickname due to what some see as its resemblance to part of the female anatomy.
Image: dezeen.com
