Pattern Recognition 6 (double dose)
This week’s patterns come from a different source - my friend Lauren Bebry. After discussing my obsession for patterns with her, she practically burst at the seams to share her own pattern photography.
Recently, she had discovered the overwhelming number of patterns present in the urban environment. Thus, armed with a camera, she captured her journey through the streets, subways, parks, and architecture of Europe on a vacation through Rome, Florence, Capri, and Berlin. From this collection of photographs, I have culled the sixth installment of Pattern Recognition. In line with her enthusiasm, however, I decided to share a double dose of pattern porn.
Let your eyes feast…
Current State of Innovation… Say What?
Disclaimer: If you are a resident of Indiana, an employee of HKS, or a lover of faux-traditional architecture, I apologize. What you are about to read may be offensive.
Yesterday, the news feed at WAN released a description and images of the new Indianapolis Colts stadium by HKS. It claims a level of sophistication, responsiveness to historical models, and integrates positively into the urban fabric.
I’m going to call that a stretch. What I saw looked like the centerpiece of a new shopping center.
[Image: Recently completed Lucas Oil Stadium for the Indianapolis Colts. Courtesy of WAN.]
Light is the Theme: Kimbell Art Museum
My trip to the Kimbell Art Museum was perhaps the first time I visited a work of architecture that I consider a masterpiece. It is timeless, elegant, beautiful, and a feat of structural engineering.
[Image: Louis Kahn inside the auditorium of the Kimbell Art Museum. Scanned from Light is the Theme.]
Of all buildings I have visited, I consider the Kimbell Art Museum ideal to begin a series entitled, Light is the Theme, which has less to do with the book of the same name. For me, this visit was a pure reflection of Louis Kahn’s gift with light and his firm belief in the power and importance of natural light.
No space, architecturally, is a space unless it has natural light.
As part of architecture as experience, and following the introduction, this post serves as part two of the series, Light is the Theme. It will be followed by the National Museum of Roman Art, by Rafael Moneo, and the de Young Museum by Herzog and de Meuron - respectively.
East Village, Then and Now
When I moved to New York, my first apartment was in the East Village. More specifically, I was in Alphabet City at 10 St. and Ave. B, one block north of Tompkins Square Park. This neighborhood in many ways formed my first impressions of the city and street life in New York. To many, however, it comes as a shock that I chose this neighborhood. Those with knowledge of the city in decades past remember the grit that is part of a NY Times article today - East Village, Before the Gentry.
[Image: Satellite image of East Village, centered on Tompkins Square Park. Courtesy of Google Maps.]
The article serves as an interesting point of reflection for the experience of two residents, 20 years apart.
Read the rest of this entry »
Urban Diversion 2.0
The International Center of Photography (ICP) is currently running an exhibition on recent photography and video from Japan called Heavy Light. Although the exhibit is incredible, it was not all within my taste. I did see one piece by Naoya Hatakeyama, however, that made it worth the admission alone. Perhaps this is more telling of my obsession with patterns and cities.
[Image: 70 prints make up Naoya Hatakeyama’s piece, Untitled 1989-2001. Courtesy of La Galerie.]
Excuse the low quality image, it was all I could find on the internet of the whole piece. I did find some detail images, however.
Loading ...
