Floating High-Rise in Singapore.

Was I the only one excited by this being the first step towards a Jetson's home?

Unfortunately, stupid ideas in architecture are nothing new. The way-too-admired Frank Lloyd Wright (a designer more than an architect, as real arcitects have to pay attention to structural engineering) left a legacy of form-over-function creations that today require constant upkeep, maintenance, and re-engineering to keep from collapsing upon themselves. "Falling(down)water" is but a single example of these... Not a great record for structures mostly still under 100 years old. Compare with the dome of the 15th century Cathedral Florence designed by Brunelleschi and then let me know who the *real* architect was.

Doing things for style alone that compromise ultimate durability of the structure is the work of a poor architect. Without knowing more about this apartment complex, it's a bit difficult to blast it that badly... yet. It does look like it might fall into that camp, though.

Right, and if yuo look in the shadows of Rainer Tower, you'll see a patch of green surrounded by sky-blue fence, created by Robert Irwin. It's a brilliant piece that brings some human scale to the Rainer monstrosity.

btw, when Rainer was built, the same sentiment was driving it that droves these other absurd designs - i.e. a need to be chic, "cool", "different", "edgy", etc. It was a poor design then, and it still is. The beauty of the human spirit is that it can adapt to poor design, and begin to take it as second nature.

If anything, crap like Rainer and the Singapore concept are paeans to the human spirit; proof that we can adapt to almost any pile of crap that egomainiacs plop in our midst.

There's a building in downtown Seattle that seems similar in concept (with the building on top of a narrow "pedestal" base), although not nearly as radical in design. It's called the Rainier Tower, and it's been there since 1977. A picture can be found at the link below:

http://www-world.cac.washington.edu/admin/reo/images/metro/rainier.jpg

The building isn't built yet, it's a design... So yeah it is photoshop (or w/e they used).