architecture, face & facade, and: "hey architects"...

the new photo friday theme is "Architecture". such a vast theme - where to start here? i started to browse files, and then arrived in Paris, in this moment that crosses from old to new architecture - and when you look closely, in the reflection you see a  building crane:



and a second moment from Paris. again, a mix of old and new, and also a play with the concepts of house facade and face:



*

The future of architecture?
The theme of architecture, without knowing that it is upcoming, it also developed in my photo blog in the last days, and following the architecture tag there, i arrived at archithoughts architecture blog that linked to this interesting article: "Hey architects, the future of architecture is not about you" by Andy Schellenbaum, about a new energy in architecture:

"In the last few years, people have started to shake the pillars architecture sits on, building their own weird little houses, crowdfunding their own architectural projects, and using buildings to solve small-scale problems. Architecture started gurgling up from the grasses; non-architects began building community centers in Haiti and apartments made of garbage Dumpsters in New York. These projects are not blessed by the powers that be in the architectural world, but they’re happening anyway...."
(the article belongs to Verge Hack Week)

More architecture moments...
...from around the world: at photo friday
...in the photo blog: once upon a day

design museum "red dot"

trying to find the space and time for mini-trips and museum visits - that's what i started in January and each time, i was glad for it. so when i was Essen city earlier this month, for a meet-up, i remembered that there is a design museum not far from there: the "Red Dot Museum". i noticed it last year already, and this time, made time to go there.

the museum is part of an old mining complex which now is turned into offices and museums. here's how it looks from outside (and here's more about the area: comic coal metropolis)

and here's an inside view, 

this is a part of the permanent exhibition 

the thing is, the architecture and the "steam noir" touch of the mining time dominates each space in the museum, which is interesting, but also distracting. and from sheer size, the objects on display are sometimes rather small compared to the halls and elements from the mining past:  

altogether, the museum felt fascinating, a bit overwhelming, and also a bit weird and unsorted (how to design exhibitions …. ?). but it was good to have this extra time. and the question “what is good design” of course relates to so many layers of our days, especially when it comes to the different elements of design, the combination of form and function, of look and usability

a part of the exhibition also focused on "communication design": 

and this was my favourite spot: the white sculpture resembles a paper/note tree.
it is created as a symbol for communication:

Previous museum trips

• museum trip 4: JR in Baden-Baden (street art, history + a road trip)
• museum trip 3: space / art / territories 
• museum trip 2: old stones & a square museum 
• museum trip 1: art, selfie + the first exhibition: Baumeister
• more museum trips 

Hundertwasser + long(ing)

the new issue of 52/250 is up - the theme this time: long distance.

my contribution to it is a poem, long(ing), which happens to have turned into the starting piece for the issue. which is a first time. right above it, the issue artwork: "Ode to Hundertwasser" by Jana Heise, who lives in New Zealand. it made me think of the Hundertwasser-house in the next town, so i browsed files, and then played with the image, to enhance the structures.

an unedited version of the image is up earlier in this blog, it also includes a clue to the meaning of "hundertwasserhaus"

city tree

architecture meets
______________tree meets
______________________ sky
on the way __________________________________home
.

birchoakmaple

today was about .. wood. i accompanied a friend to check out possible wooden floor options. she has a wooden floor in her living room already - only that it's covered with carpet that dates back to the time when carpets were THE THING to have. and everyone went and bought carpet, to lay it on floors and stairways. like it had happened here, too. and oh my, i wished they hadn't used all the glue back then.

still, i didn't realize that i actually was partly lucky with the glued-on carpet here: once the carpet was unpeeled again, and the floor polished, it came out really beautiful. (it's the one in the picture above). and even the one and other flaw and spot are fitting, and telling of its history.

"wooden floors usually easily last 60-80 years," the woman in the floor shop told us. which matched with mine. only that in my friend's case, the workers who laid the floor messed up the grounding. she had 2 craftsmen come and check it. both adviced to remove it. "so i need a new floor", she told the shop woman.

the shop woman showed us around: from oak to cherry, from birch to maple. all this wood. all those trees it came from, as far as Canada. a whole forest, there, in the shop. but yes, it looks great, natural. "the new systems, you don't have to glue them," the woman continued. "they are laid 'schwimmend' ('swimming') and thus can be easily maintained."
"they aren't fixed?" i wondered.
"no, they aren't fixed. which also is a benefit when you decide to renovate again - the average usage time is around 20 years, and then you might want another colour."

gross, i thought. all those floors that are meant to last for almost a century, laid, then thrown out again, in average cycles of 20 years. and oddly clicking into this: the large section of brand-new old-looking floors.

i wonder what the real-old floor here would think if it knew of all this.
~

hundertwasserhaus

and here it is: the photo of the hundertwasser-haus near here - it's the one in 'Plochingen'. the one thing about it that always leaves me a bit puzzled is the supermarket that is part of the house, and occupies a huge chunk of the ground floor. its corporate design feels like the antipode to the hundertwasser concept.

but in some way, it is fitting, kind of following Maslow's pyramid of needs: basic needs like food on the ground floor. and moving up, you reach the peak experiences - in this case, the golden spheres, which can be seen from afar - and right now get a good polish, to shine further.

----
PS - a tiny clue to german language:
in german, nouns can be constructed by combing 2 nouns to a new one. like in the architect's chosen full name: "Friedensreich Regentag Dunkelbunt Hundertwasser" - literally: "peaceland rainday darklymulticoloured hundredwater". and "haus" = "house", thus "Hundertwasserhaus" = "hundred water house".
~

kodakmoment

Klein
Kleinstadt
Kleinstadtstraße
Kleinstadtstraßensonne
Kleinstadtstraßensonnenfoto

smalltownstreetsunpicture
smalltownstreetsun
smalltownstreet
smalltown
small

and just some steps away from this sun:
a 'Hundertwasserhaus' (hundredwaterhouse).

p.s.: hundredwaterhousepicture to follow.
~

cubism

cubistic cactus moment.

romanix was here

today came with a good surprises: on my way back from buying a new pair of garden scissors, i stopped at a place i have noticed a couple of times, but never took the time to visit - a small ruin on top of a hill.

the thing i couldn't see from below: there is more to those bricks. a stone pillar, some stone statues, and other ancient findings are placed there, in this park named "Römerpark" - roman park.

funny to think that once, romans roamed this place, with swords and horses, talking latin and all.

le corbusier

there's a storm coming. which almost let me postpone the plan to drive to the corbusier house today. but then, i was in Stuttgart anyway. so i went to this place that is a showcase of modern architecture.

the name of it: Weissenhofsiedlung. it was built in 1927. and is still standing. and is still.. looking modern. the corbusier house is part of it, and open to public, with the interior reconstructed, colours, closets, beds, washbasins and all.

here's more: Weissenhofsiedlung / Le Corbusier
and for a walk inside, try this: walk-in exhibit

Abstract City

webpage of the day:

Abstract City - I Lego N.Y.
NY Times artist blog

the things a handful of lego stones + some imagination can do.

cubes

photo of the day: world of cubes, 11:58, Stadthalle