oh, London! Pt. 3

some pictures from our friends J and P's wedding reception
at 6 st chad's place, a quiet space with perfect light
in a tiny back alley just a few steps from busy king's cross station.

later that night there was music and dance, and a few tears
when J held a lovely speech, sounding all british (he's german) and grown-up.

these are the last pictures from our London trip in april,
although we had almost a complete other day before we left.
I must have been busy just looking at familiar streets
and talking to familiar faces, I think.

oh, London! Pt. 2

more London pictures, this time all of them taken at the Barbican's recently re-designed foodhall.

the Barbican is one of my favorite places in London,
it's an inner city oasis, a perfect spot for a break.
I really liked the new design of the foodhall by SHH, especially the different uses of light bulbs.

you can see more pictures of the Barbican (and read more about my love for it) in this post.

oh, London! Pt. 1

finally, some pictures from our trip to London back at the beginning of April.
it was my first time there since I moved away in july of 2009,
and it was truly wonderful to be back.

we saw a lot of our London friends and colleagues,
and many friends from university that came to our friend's wedding.

it is amazing how a few years of not seeing each other is forgotten in an instant,
it felt like we had never been away.
especially after having moved to a new city at the beginning of the year
it was really nice to see some old friends, I've missed that a lot lately.

London felt so familiar, we had great weather,
and I think a part of my heart will always remain there.

1 the scolt head on englefield rd. used to be our local. this is where we had our wedding party for our friends in march 2009.
2 lamps in the vintage furniture shop on essex rd
3 my favorite tree around the corner from our old apartment
4 the fishmonger on essex rd.
5-7 brunch at mood for food, another favorite on essex rd.
8 steps on northchurch rd.

goodbye London

so this is the very last picture I took in London.
It's not very London-specific but it looks so summery
and reminds me of my last time in Hyde Park.

back in time: london

on my penultimate day in London two weeks ago I went to see this year's Serpentine Pavilion
by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of SANAA (who I love).

I really liked the pavilion. it's not a big loud design statement,
it creates a quiet place between the trees that is protected from the sun,
but it still makes you interact with it, and walk around it and look at from all different angles.

abney park

I found abney park last saturday while wandering around stoke newington.
it fit my mood perfectly, being a bit confused after leaving my job on friday, and about to leave London.

Germany is very nice so far, the weather is great and I'm being fed home cooked food and home made cakes all the time.
I caught a pretty bad cold somewhere on the way here, but that's a good excuse to take lots of naps in the sun.
I've been pretty lazy about taking any pictures, which is a shame but also very relaxing!

I'm going to Hamburg this afternoon to see some friends
and look forward to going to Berlin on Friday.
It's so nice not to be at work!

rain and sun, sun and rain

the weather has been truly english in the last few weeks, every day we have a bit of every season.
the weather forecast has been mostly useless and as random as the weather itself.

the pictures above were taken on my way home the other night,
luckily that time it poured with rain while I was on the bus
and not, as twice last week, on the bike.

tomorrow's my last day at work already. I'm happy and sad at the same time.
I don't always love my job, but I'll miss my colleagues a lot.
I'm very much looking forward to a time of less responsibilities
(at least less that involve deadlines, and buildings).

I'm sure I'll be posting some images from germany next week.
until then I wish you a lovely weekend!

yellow

interesting front gardens on my way home the other night.

good news: my pentax ME does not seem to have shutter problems after all.
I had been so worried after about 1/3 of each of the last 5 films had been extremely underexposed.
so on friday I decided to be brave and give it another try after a change of batteries and some cleaning
and it seems to be alright. I'm very happy.
I had forgotten how small + light the pentax is compared to my new digital SLR!

at work

so this is the reason I'm still in London.

I've been working on the refurbishment of this little mews house for a year now.
it was supposed to be finished four weeks ago.
and will not be 100% finished when I leave at the end of this coming week.

I am mostly happy about how things turned out.
there are a few things I would have done differently if it had been my own.
it can be very hard to watch the client make (in my opinion) terrible choices.
but once you realize that it's just your own ego, and that the client will be very happy, it's easier to get over it.

I'm only showing some of the bits I like here, no pictures of 70s-looking (very expensive) tiling
in the bathrooms or remote-controlled fireplaces.

it's amazing to go to site every week and see things turn out how you imagined them to be.
I have learnt so much doing this, it was the first time I have seen one of my projects being built.

but now it feels right to move on.

things I'll miss (05)

if I had to name just one favourite place in London, I think it would be the Barbican.

every time I go I am still in awe that a structure like this was really built.
at least from today's point of view, and after having dealt with the british planning system myself for two years,
it seems incredible that a vision like this could have been made reality.

the architects, Chamberlin, Powell and Bon, were comparatively young at the time
and had only built one other project before (the Golden Lane Estate just north of the Barbican).

the Barbican is a great place to be (even if concrete does not happen to be your favourite material):
you can go see the exhibition, films, concerts.
you can sit in the courtyard by the lake for lunch, coffee, drinks or dinner and watch the ducks.
you can wander around, three storeys above street level, and imagine how it would be to live in one of the flats.
you can sit on the tables or sofas just outside the great hall and listen to the concert that's going on inside,
and buy a drink from one of the bars. but nobody will tell you to go away if you don't.

I do love concrete, and the strength of these massive forms overwhelms me
and makes my knees feel shaky for a moment every time I go (and I go a lot).
You can feel the architects' vision in every step you take. I think that's what good architecture is all about.


the images above are my favorite ones, but you can see a lot more, including some from the inside, here.