I wanted to share with you one of my favourite Parisian facades. Its on Rue Rollin, just off Rue du Cardinal Lemoine. I think the image speaks for itself, need i say more? It is also not far from the Arénes de Lutéce, an ancient Roman amphitheatre discovered in the late 1800’s, well worth a visit.
exhibition currently on at the ICA is an exhibition on Peter Hujar: 70’s – 80’s photographer who captured new york in its grittier days…
a few snaps from a short trip to porto, our wonderful guide ana showed us all the sights. we mainly saw work from eduardo souto de moura and alvaro siza (visited their offices, designed by siza)…. francesinhas and beautiful portuguese treats filled in the gaps, with the highlight being ana’s mum’s whole baked fish, completely encrusted in salt… view the rest of the album here.
boa nova tea house by alvaro siza
leca swimming pools by alvaro siza
museu serralves by alvaro siza
A few exciting things that are going on around London at the moment….. You only have a few days left to catch the Matthew Barney exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery, which is thought provoking if not a little absurd (we like that), careful of the smelly prawns…mmm…. while you are there check out the serpentine pavilion, this year by Olafur Eliasson and Kjetil Thorsen (snohetta). Hyde park is also stunning at the moment, oranges, yellows and reds fill the trees and cover the ground. A trip along southbank is a must with lots going on, aside from the Tate (Louise Bourgoeis and Shibboleth), there is a great exhibition at the hayward gallery, titled ‘the painting of modern life’. A plethera of other free events (music, theatre, dance etc) are on along Southbank at the moment too….make the most of our few last sunny (fresh) days.
on a recent trip france i had the fortune to visit mont saint michel. one of the seven forgotten wonders of the medieval world ?!? the island has been inhabited for around 1500 years, its residents are known as montois. mont saint michel is situated in the Gaul region (for all you asterix fans) right on the border between normandy and brittany. following the exit of the romans in 460 AD the island became a monastery whose beginnings are colourfully described by this wikipedia quote:
“Before the construction of the first monastic establishment in the 8th century, the island was called Mont Tombe. According to legend, the archangel Michael appeared to St. Aubert, bishop of Avranches, in 708 and instructed him to build a church on the rocky islet. Aubert repeatedly ignored the angel’s instruction, until Michael burned a hole in the bishop’s skull with his finger.” cool. to see some more if my pictures click here.
some of the beautiful leadlight windows throughout the monastery, each with different patterns
the beautifully dynamic plan of the island and monastery by the late eugene emmanuel viollet-le-duc
some photos from a recent trip to tromso, at the top of norway right on the arctic circle. Incredible landscape, skiing, architecture (a very calatravaesque looking library..that used to be a cinema) and hospitality. thanks amy and martin for having us. enjoy the pics…. here
and they have a really cool bridge:
that has an uncanny similarity to another bridge some of you from the polar opposite side of the globe (hobart) may know well:
a magical book of spells? a coffin? glimpsed for a fleeting moment as it breached the surface of the river thames.
I have uploaded some photos from my trip in germany last year. Starting with dusseldorf, koln, heidelberg, stuttgart and munich then moving on to dresden, dessau and berlin.
After an action packed few days in Tokyo i move from Klein Dytham, The beautiful off form concrete Asusa House to Kyoto: Ando’s art garden, the Kyoto Imperial Palace, Kinkaku-Ji, Kiyomezu Deru, Ryoanji (incredible), The Shugakuin Imperial villa…. then back to Yokohama for some FOA….. enjoy
It seems like everyone is jumping onboard the facebook phenomenon. After recieving about 10 invites to join i finally submitted and signed up and to extend the virtual network that is the world wide web i will now load albums onto my facebook site and point to them with links in here. For a start i have loaded up a series of images in japan……. we begin with Ando, then meander our way through Ito, Herzog + De Meuron, Sejima, Renzo, Miyakawa and Corb.
