seattle: st. ignacius

steven holl's chapel of st. ignacius is a very beautiful space.
my pictures of the exterior didn't turn out, but you can see some nice ones here.

seattle: public library (2)

seattle: public library (1)

OMA's seattle public library.

haus le corbusier, inside

haus le corbusier

I keep admiring Marion's, Mary's, Narumi's and Kristina's pictures of Le Corbusier buildings.

Stuttgart is very lucky to have it's own Corbusier house as part of the Weissenhofsiedlung.
I took pictures of it about a year ago, and for some reason never shared them here until now.

more salk institute, 10.2010

salk institute, 12.2012

on our last day in california we went to see Louis Kahn's Salk Institute in La Jolla.

it is one of the most beautiful man-made places I have ever seen.

Lisboa, parque das nações

top:
Álvaro Siza's absolutely amazing, super thin hanging concrete roof, built for Expo 98.
I really liked the combination of different colors of tiles and concrete.
Siza is one of my all-time favorite architects. I posted about some of his buildings before: here and here.

bottom:
Santiago Calatrava's Oriente station, also for Expo 98

como in blues and grays

I'm always torn between showing complete stories or situations
(including images that are not beautiful themselves, but maybe show a beautiful setting)
and showing only the images that I truly like (if by themselves or grouped with other images).

I feel there is a difference between images that remind you of a beautiful setting
(because when you look at them you remember how you felt when you were there)
and images that are truly beautiful themselves (for me these are often the ones that
perfectly portray the atmosphere of the original setting, or even an ideal and slightly abstract version of it).

In this case I chose to not show you lake Como as the sun went down.
the setting was very beautiful in person, but in comparison looks so disappointing in my pictures.

so this is Como without the lake (but in matching tones):
1 the duomo
2, 3, 4 giuseppe terragni's casa del fascio*
4 the hotel facing the lake
5 very impressive pipe details

I really liked Como with its narrow streets and squares, the surrounding hills and the lake.
we only spent about two hours there, but I would love to some day come back for a little longer.


* it was impossible to get a good shot of the main elevation. here are some great ones though.

adjaye on lomo

I have always admired david adjaye's work
and there is actually one of his houses
not far from where we live.
We passed it on our bikes one hot day this summer
and luckily I had my lomo with its wide angle-lens with me.

I love the alternating matte wood and glossy glass panels,
and the way the sky and the surroundings
are reflected in the glass.

27/31 + lincoln center

on saturday we took a guided tour of lincoln center.
it was very interesting, I had no idea how many great buildings are part of it.

sadly, photography wasn't allowed inside any of them,
and it was very cold, which is why I didn't take very many of the outside.
I'll have to go back sometime soon.