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Fantastic Architecture (Pics)

Saveloy

08:27 / 11.12.03

Buildings that make you jump up and down and go "woo hoo!", "Good Lord!", "dang!" etc etc. Comments nice, but not essential.

I would like to kick off with:

The Mosque at Djenne, in Mali

Man alive!

Ethan Hawke

11:54 / 11.12.03

Tadao Ando's The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (Texas!)

Goodness Gracious Meme

23:56 / 11.12.03

Sorry, no good at posting pics, and this hasn't been built yet, but i think the plans for FOA's BBC Music Box building look absolutely fab.

Oh, and I always will love, (not strictly architecture, but wonderful space/built environemnt) the Qutab Minar, Delhi.

Red Cross Iodized Salt

01:53 / 12.12.03

I pass by 570 Lexington Avenue every morning on my way to work. It's definitely one of my favorite NYC buildings. It has these really cool mirrored windows on the ground floor that are bordered by fists with bolts of electricity coming out of them.

The top of the building is even cooler: the spires look like a nest of thorns. This is similar to the view from the 35th floor of the building I work in...

At night, the spires are lit from inside. When it's raining the light seems to reach out of the building.

Red Cross Iodized Salt

01:56 / 12.12.03

This is cool...apparently the spires on 570 Lex are supposed to be an allegory of "wireless communication".

Ethan Hawke

01:59 / 12.12.03

That BBC project looks like a giant Eames laminated plywood chair. Nice.

570 Lexington is really nice, Red Cross. I should really take an architectural tour of NYC some day. I've done it in cities I've visited but never here.

yawn - thing's buddy

14:08 / 12.12.03

bbc building, proposed by foreign office architectects, is supposed to resemble film being fed through s projector.

red cross - 570 lex - thanks for bring that to my attention.

Saveloy

15:29 / 21.10.04

This puts a big grin on my face:

The Kunsthaus Graz in Austria, designed by Spacelab Cook-Fournier, two ex-members of Archigram (the architectural firm famous for designing walking cities and other - so far - unbuildable projects).

I love the fact that all the critics I've seen or heard talking about it so far have responded with glee, and like it simply because it looks facking brilliant. Apparently it's doubtful whether or not it will work very well as an actual art gallery, being a bit dark and gloomy inside, but is ideal for all this video art that the kids are going mad for.

phrankphutta

04:43 / 22.10.04

Oakley International Headquarters!

No star here laces

04:47 / 22.10.04

The Petronas towers in Kuala Lumpur. They're straight out of Lang's Metropolis, and at night they're all lit up in multiple colours like a huge ray gun.

The Crystal Palace a great feat of early Victorian engineering...

Jack Vincennes

21:11 / 22.10.04

I still like the Museum of Scotland -

-not the best picture as the weather in it is obviously horrible, but the stone looks amazing in the sun. My liking of it is possibly also influenced by the fact that I was going to Edinburgh a lot when it was being built, so was curious about what it was going to look like when it was finshed.

at the scarwash

02:35 / 26.10.04

the Menil Collection building by Renzo Piano in Houston is one of my favorite works in any medium. It's hard to find pictures that convey why, as--for me--its greatness is pendant upon its qualities of interaction with the environment and with its inhabitants. Also, I think that it is one of the most ideal gallery spaces I've ever seen. The architecture and the arrangement of the light presents a space that allows curators to really allow the works of art to enter freely into dialogue with the viewer and each other, without the exhibition space itself intruding to the extent that other buildings do. But anyway, here are a few images.

Ariadne

16:19 / 26.10.04

The Scottish Parliament
Controversial, over budget - but I love it. I ride past it on my way home every day and it always cheers me up.

Sekhmet

19:24 / 26.10.04

The Baha'i Temple in Chicago is pretty impressive in a surreal way. A bit baroque, but terribly interesting.

Bed Head

01:42 / 27.10.04

Ah, I think I may have gushed about this place before. Sorry, Barbelith. The Sage Centre, Gateshead: like a ginormous silver beetle asleep by the river. Like an airbrushed Roger Dean album cover, except, astonishingly, real. I’m definitely planning to go and see some overblown prog-rock, the first suitable band that plays this venue. When it’s finished, that is, because it’s still being built. But, ooooh, just look:

grant

21:06 / 27.10.04

On that Houston Menil Park thing, I've always been more fond of the nearby Rothko Chapel. No photographs do it justice.

King of Town

01:43 / 28.10.04

Almost all LDS temples have fabulous architecture. A couple of my favorites:

San Diego, California:

Manti, Utah:

If you visit a temple, the grounds are always so peaceful and everyone there is so nice. wonderful place for meditating.

at the scarwash

19:52 / 28.10.04

grant--I think that the Rothko Chapel is beautiful, but only on the inside. I'm not at all fond of it's exterior, and the broken obelisk thing in the reflecting pool out front is, in my opinion, laughable. But the inside is magnificent. Gorgeous use of natural light.

TeN

19:17 / 01.11.04

I took a field trip to the FDR memorial in 8th grade, and it still sitcks in my mind as a spectacular piece of architecture.

and of course, anything by Wright.

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