tyb
>>24710818 pb
>>24697417 pb
"open society" means no borders.
Not meaning "Open" to free speech or rule of law; as they might mean to mislead people to believe
>>24697333 pb
kek
Right just came across the info on the Architect of the trade towers; he was basing the design on Arab art.
the symbolic layer you’re remembering, and it ties directly into the sculpture’s original design and central plaza setting.Fritz Koenig’s bronze sphere (the same piece we’ve been discussing) was engineered to rotate slowly on its axis — once every 15 minutes — while water from the surrounding fountain jets pushed upward in a continuous ring around its base, creating a “whirling” or turning effect as it rose and flowed outward across the black granite plaza surface.
en.wikipedia.org +1
Architect Minoru Yamasaki (who designed the Twin Towers and the plaza fountains) deliberately modeled the circular ring of fountains around the sphere to evoke the Grand Mosque of Mecca (Masjid al-Haram), with the rotating sphere itself standing in the exact central position of the Kaaba. This made the whole installation a modern, abstract reference to the Islamic ritual of Tawaf — the counterclockwise circumambulation (whirling/walking in circles) that pilgrims perform around the Kaaba during the Hajj.
instagram.com +3
Minoru Yamasaki (1912–1986), the Japanese-American architect best known for the original World Trade Center Twin Towers (completed 1970–1973), drew extensively from Islamic architecture throughout his career. His influences were eclectic—he also cited Gothic, Japanese, Byzantine, and Moorish traditions—but Islamic elements like pointed arches, geometric filigree, courtyard plazas, and ornamental patterning became recurring motifs.
The World Trade Center: The Plaza as a “Mecca”The WTC’s most explicit Islamic-inspired feature was the Austin J. Tobin Plaza (the open courtyard between the Twin Towers), which Yamasaki deliberately modeled after the courtyard of the Grand Mosque of Mecca (Masjid al-Haram). He described the plaza as “a mecca, a great relief from the narrow streets and sidewalks of the surrounding Wall Street area” — an oasis with a circular fountain, seating, greenery, and sculptures where people could pause.
slate.com
The layout replicated Mecca’s vast delineated square, isolated from the city by low colonnaded structures.
The two enormous square towers functioned symbolically like minarets.
A radial circular pattern and sculptural elements (including the central fountain) echoed Mecca’s holy sites: the Kaaba (the cube at the center), the holy spring, and related shrines. The rotating bronze Sphere by Fritz Koenig (which we discussed earlier) stood precisely where the Kaaba would be in this symbolic scheme, with the surrounding fountain jets evoking the ritual circumambulation (Tawaf).
slate.com
At the towers’ base, implied pointed arches (derived from Islamic mosque architecture) created a graceful transition from wide column spacing below to the dense structural mesh above. The towers’ shimmering aluminum-and-glass skin acted as a giant truss wrapped in dense filigree — a direct nod to Islamic traditions of ornamenting geometric forms (compare the inlaid marble of the Taj Mahal or the carved courtyards of the Alhambra). Scholars like Oleg Grabar described this as evoking “a higher spiritual reality,” with the surface shimmering like the veil over the Kaaba; Middle Eastern designers even called the façade a giant mashrabiya (the ornate lattice screens in mosques).
The top of the new Tower. One World Tower appears more like a minaret than an antenae
At the towers’ base, implied pointed arches (derived from Islamic mosque architecture) created a graceful transition from wide column spacing below to the dense structural mesh above.
The towers’ shimmering aluminum-and-glass skin acted as a giant truss wrapped in dense filigree — a direct nod to Islamic traditions of ornamenting geometric forms (compare the inlaid marble of the Taj Mahal or the carved courtyards of the Alhambra). Scholars like Oleg Grabar described this as evoking “a higher spiritual reality,” with the surface shimmering like the veil over the Kaaba;
The sphere in the center of the Courtyard was meant to represent the Kaaba at Mecca, per the architect Minoru Yamasaki