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Lucasfilm Unveils "Sandcrawler" Singapore Office
An anonymous reader writes "The massive, slow moving Sandcrawlers from George Lucas' Star Wars films inspired the form of Lucasfilm's new regional headquarters in Singapore. Designed by Aedas, the Sandcrawler Building will house a 100 seat theater, Lucasfilm Singapore offices, a public podium and other employee spaces. Neither rusty nor slow moving in this case, the glassy and streamlined building will combine a high performance facade with lush gardens and foliage that spills over terraces, resulting in a highly efficient commercial space. With construction already underway, we can look forward to this real life Star Wars manifestation sometime in 2012."
Or some random chome chunk form a 1950's buick
either way, grats just what the world needs, another monstrosity of an ugly building
The sand crawler we all know so well was dirty, weather-worn and perhaps extemporised. In the circumstances methinks they should have gone with a shiny Naboo-inspired design.
If God forks the Universe every time you roll a die, he'd better have a damned good memory.
it says right there in the article, he needs a theater for his ego, its not as strong in the east
Just out of curiosity, why gum is illegal there?
English is not my first language. Corrections and suggestions are welcome.
Comparing the most expensive hotel in the world to a local Walmart may tend to distort the "nicer looking" scale. =)
-- IANAL, this isn't legal advice, and definitely isn't legal advice for you. Also, Squee!
That's not really true. Had you been around thousands of years ago to see what are now Greek ruins they would have been quite the sight. Unfortunately, due to whether and deterioration you don't get to see the bright colors that were original.
The main difference is that the temples in SE Asia relied more upon detail carved into the rock than treatments applied to the building materials.
I guess you've never been to downtown Paris. Or Prague. Or Antwerp. Or Stockholm. Or lots of other places in Europe.
Furthermore, "Asia" covers a lot of ground. Pick a random city in Vietnam or Pakistan or China and you'll find plenty of the usual hellish concrete boxes. Cherrypicking Singapore is a bit silly.
Because it's a small country and they need to keep it clean. They don't administer canings for possession of gum though, but the penalty for sticking gum anywhere other than in a trash can is pretty harsh.
I wish we could get a lot more strict about that here, because it's nasty coming across somebody's ABC gum because they were too lazy to throw it away.
If memory serves, the sandcrawlers were the mobile headquarters for the Jawas, a smelly little species known for their skill in picking over and/or stealing the detritus of more advanced civilizations, bodging it up just enough to get it moving off the sales lot under its own power, and then skipping town.
This seems like an eminently appropriate architectural allusion for the 'late-Lucas' period of Lucasfilms' work...
There's a whole wikipedia article on it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chewing_gum_ban_in_Singapore
So, how long till a special edition Star Wars re-release has sandcrawlers that look like that?
"None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton
I just hope they return to making movies that look half as good as the building.
Although, what I really mean is writing and acting half as good as the building looks. But that wouldn't have been as smooth an opening line.
Meh. In Asia, but also in Europe, public spaces tend to look a lot better than in the USA, where they mostly look rather shabby. But moderns buildings in Asia are just as crap as in Europe and the USA, whereas in old buildings on all continents you will find attention to beauty and detail. I did not find buildings in Asia to be all that nicer.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
Comparing the most expensive hotel in the world to a local Walmart may tend to distort the "nicer looking" scale. =)
Agreed. I couldn't afford a pair of socks from that hotel.
Exercise a little google-fu and check out the Best Buy corporate HQ near the Minneapolis/St Paul airport... When they built that it seemed so appropriate and in line with their corporate attitude that they'd be headquartered in a bunch of sandcrawlers. We try to avoid buying from them but if we're running out of options, somebody in the family will always say "well, in the last resort we could go look what the Jawas have got... "
I had a
Thank you. I'll be stealing that.
While I agree with most of your post, IMHO what really bothers most Star Wars fans is not the prequels, but the crap he pulled with the release of the "Special Edition" and the DVDs. He took great movies and filled them with CGI nonsense. Come on. An extended dance sequence in Episode VI with a freaking toad stripper? WTF Lucas??
hahaha! oh man, they really do look like a bunch of sandcrawlers.
Too accurate for Chinese people, only imperial storm troopers are so precise.
If your wife cooks you an amazing steak and gives you an amazing blow job, appreciate that she did that. Don't hate her because she didn't give you steak and lobster and a threesome the night after that.
No, but if the night after she promises to give you steak and lobster but instead serves you a turd sandwich, and the threesome is you and two big burly guys (and you're not into that) then you will complain.
i have to agree. their people, dying of cancer, take it so much more gracefully. they dont shout in the streets like those people in syria or tunisia. they just shut up and die, so admirable.
I completely agree with this. The SW eps. 1-3 were clearly made for children. Unfortunately, all we have heard about them around here is the child-like whining of the Star Wars fanboy losers. They hit their target clearly, and Lucas is laughing all the way to the bank, because even the fanboy rage is still publicity for him
The problem isn't that he didn't make another great movie.
The problem is he took that great movie and manipulated it again and again.
To use your analogy, he cooked us dinner and took us around the block. And now he's retelling us that same story night after night with new fabrications such as changing the steak to salmon and making us believe that we blew him instead.
Living on past accomplishments is one thing. Dwelling on them and reminding us frequently how great it was that ONE time. Not so great.
Star Pirates
"Neither rusty nor slow moving in this case, the glassy and streamlined building will combine a high performance facade with lush gardens and foliage that spills over terraces, resulting in a highly efficient commercial space. "
WTF is a high performance facade?
Probably a creative person who is a native of Singapore?
Larry Ellison is following suit by making his headquarters shaped like the Death Star. Coincidentally, it's aimed at Google.
Table-ized A.I.
...everyone has to walk single-file in and around the building...to hide their numbers.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Right next to the Dulles airport in Virginia there is the CIT Building that has a similar look. Address is 2214 Rock Hill Road, Herndon, VA 20170.
Great talk about this type of Architecture http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnq1SvmZUYU
Sandcrawler was rusty box on tracks. Building is horseshoe shaped and sits on poles. If building looks like sandcrawler to journalist, he/she should stop smoking that stuff or pass it to others. Two or three ground floors missing. Public podium available 24/7 for bombing and you don't have to dig anything to put explosives under the building. Interesting design. I hope they don't have earthquakes or terrorists in Singapore.
"Living on past accomplishments is one thing. Dwelling on them and reminding us frequently how great it was that ONE time. Not so great."
Yeah I agree. But that's what fanboys are doing to themselves, not what Lucas is doing to them.
Appreciate what you get in life. Raising your standards to ridiculous heights and flogging a dead horse is the fanboy's problem, not Lucas's
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
If you consider the glass-as-slow-moving-fluid concept.
My kids were bored by them. They weren't made for kids. They were made for chumps... and seeing as I went to the theater and watched them and own them now, I guess I'm one of those chumps.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
I know exactly the buildings you're thinking of - just off 494/Penn in Richfield.
Weirdly enough, I was thinking of another Twin Cities building that my friends had dubbed 'The Sandcrawler': McNamara Alumni Center at University of Minnesota.
The only surefire protection against Microsoft infections is abstinence. - The Onion
They're bullshit artists, they get turds polished up real nice. I guess PR are the Jawas of the corporate world.
Twinstiq, game news
Asia is in general much nicer looking than western world. They put a lot of thought on how things look, even to the finest detail, and have done so for centuries.
Actually, the reason they look nice is because they are simply NEW. The west is is still using 100 year old infrastructure. But a much larger percentage of some Asian cities are the result of rapid growth, with most of the large buildings being built post 1960s.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
dont like it, then dont go there
why are you getting all up in arms about something that doesnt effect you? and if it does effect you why are you pissing and moaning here, get off your ass and do something about it
Clearly you haven't traveled much in the West.
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
Let alone a whole building? Managing the cheap labor for their merchandizing?
And I have the video to prove it.
Undetectable Steganography? Yep, there's an app fo
This looks like the antithesis to a sandcrawler.
From TFA: "the space, which will be overgrown with foliage, will be a respite from the heat and the sun and cooler than surrounding areas."
Which will be warmer because of the heat and the sun reflected from the shiny building...
I just assumed this office was in charge of ways to further fuck up future releases of the original trilogy.
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." ~Thomas Jefferson
Even Hamill could invoke gravitas without behaving like a spoiled adolescent. Ponder the final confrontation between Luke and Vader in RotJ, and then look at Christensen's sheer lack of chops in Anakin's final battle against Obiwan. Hamill was no Shakespearean actor, I'll grant you, but he was a helluva lot better than Christensen. Even with good dialogue, Christensen would have sucked. Hamill, at least, was watchable even with stuck with some of Lucas's infamously badly written lines.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
I seem to recall that in Singapore the official penalty for chewing gum on the subway is a police-administered beating. Keeping things looking nice is easy when you can flog people with truncheons for messing it up.
What's the penalty for bleeding on the sidewalk? Two beatings?
You are not a brain: http://books.google.com/books?id=2oV61CeDx-YC
If chewing gum is outlawed, then only outlaws will chew gum.
Well, at least they won't be able to walk at the same time.
You are not a brain: http://books.google.com/books?id=2oV61CeDx-YC
well seems to me in Singapure they give up some personal freedoms and get clean streets. In US they give up some personal freedoms and get... (definitely not clean streets)
"Neither you nor the United States gets to define right and wrong across the planet."
We absolutely do. I'm sick of this morals are relative nonsense. There are absolute rights and absolute wrongs in this world. For example it is wrong to kill an unarmed and innocent man, woman or child and no sovereign authority on this Earth will change that. No religion can say otherwise. It is wrong. Perhaps we can afford a little leeway to gum, but don't you dare say that we can't judge other countries or groups for their internal policies. We can and in some instances (ex: Somalia), we should.
It's a fine, not beating. Gum is illegal according to laws anyway (and don't start about it. Their country, their laws).
Gee, I thought gun-control laws were contentious enough... now gum-control laws?
"Oh no... he found the
Singapore is basically a city state. They are an island on the end of the Malaysian peninsula. Due to the high costs of living, a lot of the population commutes in and out from Malaysia. Imagine somewhere like Manhattan existing as it's own internationally recognized country.
From experience after World War II, the Singaporeans know that things can do downhill fast if they don't keep a tight grip on living standards - last time they let them slip, the place became a den for drugs and crime. They only recovered by allowing the army to take over law and order. As a result, they have all these rules, regulations and punishments.
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
But it would have nothing to do with Lucasfilm or their new office.
Yet, somehow, there's no fine for discussing whatever the hell we want.
Grammar nazis are to this community what excrements are to gold.
So George is following the trend of fucking over American workers, so he can hire overseas slaves.
Thanks George. American Graffiti... fucko
George Lucas is joining the walmart trend of fucking over American workers.
If you don't like it, start your own country and make chopsticks illegal.
If you mod me down the terrorists will have won
Singapore is a corporate tax haven and has the least corrupt government on earth.
If you mod me down the terrorists will have won
I seem to recall that in Singapore the official penalty for chewing gum on the subway is a police-administered beating. Keeping things looking nice is easy when you can flog people with truncheons for messing it up.
Yes. And if they didn't have the law for chewing gums on the subway (and penalty is not the beating, of course), Singapore would look like Dhaka. Right?
Maybe you should get a passport and get out of whatever shithole you live in. There is a whole world out there, and it's not working according to your misconceptions...
If killing an "unarmed and innocent man, woman or child" is an absolute wrong, I'm curious how you feel about any military operation that may have civilian casualties. If it's truly an "absolute wrong", then there is no justification in taking any action that will lead to it happening. So, how do you feel about, for example, the war in Iraq?
Yeah, Singapore is a beautiful place, I went there earlier in the year and my basis for comparison is New Zealand. They aren't really a 'democracy' but the country runs like clockwork and puts the West to shame.
mediocrity rules, man
No Wheels?
:T:R:A:N:S:
My guess is that it will be a renderfarm, datacenter and graphic design office. Singapore is targeting to be the new go to place for CG drones and game development.
Starbucks, Harbuckle of Breath.
Consider this:
A caning followed by a short stay in jail may be among the more reasonable forms of punishment that actually has the ability to prevent people from committing future offenses. It leaves scars that are visible in your underwear or speedos, does not physically impede you from living your life, does not dump you inside crime academy to learn the ropes and find contacts within the underworld. Or maybe you have some better suggestion of what to do with minor offenders?
Starbucks, Harbuckle of Breath.
Can't you do anything original anymore? Are you such a living dead zombie that you have to base EVERYTHING you do on a nearly fourty year old movie that effectively ended your career?
The American who was caned willfully violated their laws. Nobody forced him to vandalize buildings.
Last time I was working in Singapore I went out for the evening and without thinking bought a doughnut to eat on the train going home. Bad idea. Two police officers with automatic weapons approached me on the train station platform and told me in no uncertain terms to put the doughnut away. I did as I was told.
I like to compare Singapore with Penang. Both are Malayian islands with a lot of industry. In Penang pretty much anything goes which might be good for business but there is little public transport and hardly any footpaths so most people get around by bike or car. I like many places in Malaysia but I can't stand Penang. Singapore is boring but have to say that it is the place to look for a job.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
because this way the cops only have to keep gum with them if they want to randomly punish someone.
Um no. If the Singapore cops wanted to randomly punish someone (and from experience I don't believe they do) then they would just fucking do it. No mucking around with entrapment. The real, direct deal. Its kind of the way business is done there. One day at work a co-worker interviewed an engineer. He was hoping the guy would leave his current job and start with us in the same week.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
In Soviet Russia gum chews you!
Quite true.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Malaysia was dirty too... and it took them 3 months to repair an incredibly dangerous broken drain cover across the street from "Times Square" - their fanciest shopping complex roller-coaster and all. I put a frick'n dead tree in the hole to warn others.
Three months? Thats bloody fast for Malaysia. I could believe thirty years.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
This seems like an eminently appropriate architectural allusion for the 'late-Lucas' period of Lucasfilms' work...
It's telling that the inspiration for this building is an idea over 35 years old. And it came from the mind of Ralph McQuarrie, not Lucas.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
I have to agree, the absolute worst, however, is when money is poured into "renovation" which involves using modern workers (painters, carpenters, other tradespeople) and modern materials (particle board, mdf, paint and plywood, and especially concrete/ mortar). the results are garish, heinous and shocking. Modern renovations of Chinese temples are a travesty.
A close friend, a Chinese Taoist abbot, has taken the temple where he lives and done very little to it. He works on it himself, in his free time, with almost nothing in funds he uses what was used originally, local materials. The result is organic, original and a true presentation of what a working temple was and should be today. It is really lovely and almost empty of visitors, which was one of his goals. It is a temple after all, not a tourist attraction.
Subversion of spatial scale luxury decoration ideas.
They get a few very rich and powerful people.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
What's the old joke about trains running on time again?
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Yeah, that's a joke about New York.
mediocrity rules, man
I'd so much rather be caned then spend even 1 night inside a incarceration institution of any sort in the US.
The eternal struggle of good vs. evil begins within one's self.