A Saturday of discovery!
As I sit here watching a bit of Premier League football after breakfast, a quick post to provide an idea for a Saturday if you happen to be in the Netherlands…
The Institute of Sound & Vision in Hilversum is an architecturally stunning building, both on the outside and the inside, as captured in this image. Striking colors and angles make this a sight to behold!
Additionally, the exhibits are always thought, ear and eye provoking making this a wonderful visit.
Carrying the load might not make one happy!
One of the main squares in Brno is Náměstí Svobody (Freedom Square). When you visit Brno, you really shouldn’t miss this triangular square, the shape of which was determined by the confluence of ancient trade routes and a stream (that happened to be the city sewer back then).
Every time I visit, there is one building that really catches my eye, because of its striking ornamentation…
The building is called the House of the Four Giants and hails from 1902; it was designed by Alois Prastorger and Germano Wanderley. This solid looking building’s facade show Four Giant figures who appear to be carrying the weight of the entire building. None of the four seem happy about this.
More impressions from walking through Vesturbær
In this second installment (cf. part 1) of our walk around one of the neighborhoods in Reykjavik, I’d like to share a couple of impressions of the mixture of architecture in the small area that we explored. The area where we wandered around is the Old West Side, Vesturbær.
This section is the earliest area of Reykjavik to be settled, starting around 1800. When walking through the area, one of the things that stands out is that the older structures are slowly being surrounded by newer architecture that rises up around these houses and looms over them.
Hlíðarhús (sign on the structure) were small farms in the Reykjavik area, which stood near the current Vesturbær; Vesturbær used to take its name from them, when it was called Hlíðarhústastigur. This particular house stands surrounded by concrete edifices, and an inspiring mural art work.
The Vesturbær area is definitely upscale, and sought-after in the real estate market. There are several foreign missions sprinkled across the neighborhood, which still has its regular feel as well.
With real estate at a premium, space utilization should be optimized. The people that live here understand how to do that, as a balcony is a good spot to put the bicycle.
The overall layout of Vesturbær is somewhat haphazard, as the turn of the 20th century didn’t include a lot of city planning, as Reykjavik was expanding. It does make for a cozy neighborhood feeling, as houses might be tucked in great spots and you get to know your neighbors!
This more modern-looking house had found a perfect spot in the Vesturbær neighborhood. Even here it is evident that much thought was given to how to best fit in the space afforded.
As we walked up and down streets throughout the area, I couldn’t help but get a sense of the old town charm that exists here.
It’s amazing to think that streets like this one are a mere 5 minutes’ walk away from hyper-modern structures, such as the Harpa Concert Hall and Meeting Space…
More about that in the next installment!
Colossal arches make the rounds
The WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge has the theme of Rounded. The first entry that I put together for this challenge was from Nature, so why not one that is man-made this time?
There is a lot of structures that are rounded, as the arch is one of the quintessential load-distribution mechanisms in architecture. The arch spans a large area by resolving downward forces into compressive stresses along its curved shape. The first arches appeared in the 2nd millennium BCE in Mesopotamia and were perfected by the Romans to build structures that still stand across the ages.
Take a look back into history with the set of arches on display here…
The Colosseum has withstood both time and earthquakes (and pollution) to still stand proud in the 21st century!
Have a wonderful day!
Open air location
Last week’s location was the Markthal in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, which is a stunning piece of architecture and high on my list of remommended places to go to when visiting Rotterdam.
Today, we go to a much older location, which I think will be identified by at least some of my readers.
This location is rife with mystical energy and a stunning piece of old architecture. Where are we?
Enjoy!
This shot was captured with a Canon EOS 5D Mk III using an EF 24-104mm f/4L lens. Exposure settings were at 1/60 second at f/11 and 400 ISO.
Straight lines abound!
As I’m in the middle of reorganizing all my image storage onto a pair of Drobo arrays, this week’s mystery place (this wasn’t a slide), is a day later than usual. Hopefully, the suspense did not cause you any undue stress, so here’s this week’s puzzler…
This is a rather interesting looking building that is of a very particular architectural style. If there are any among my readers who are architects, they will recognize the architecture, and, likely, name the architect.
Good luck!!
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