Fascinating seeing these images from such diverse parts of the world over at Wired. Would be great to compare to more organically developed cities. It also reminds me of a book I once had where all the great public spaces were drawn at the same scale in a figure ground style diagram. Must remember which book it’s in. The example of Washington DC shown below was my favourite, although I was surprised Barcelona’s Cerda grid didn’t make an appearance.
…or video as some people might call it.
A conversation yesterday with Jim reminded me of this video by Tim Crocker which still completely blows me away with it’s quality, composition and the new ideas that are shown in it – it’s two years old and still seems fresh.
A lot of video of Architecture seems to be fairly poorly produced with utlra wide shots, lots of third point of perspective and wonky buildings, too many pans, dolly shots, focus pulls etc – all of which distract from the narrative surrounding the Architecture in my opinion. Essentially there seems to be a lack of subtlety which most successful Architectural photography creates. In this video a series of frames are created which would be powerful architectural shots alone, but then the frames come alive with movement from the people and the play of light on the buildings and trees in the frame. The Architecture then seems to form the backdrop to the life contained within, having created a pleasant public space for this activity to take place.
It appears that Pedro Kok is also fairly handy with Architectural video – tip of the hat to Dave Morris for the link.
I found Ben’s work after following him on Twitter for the last few years. I really enjoy his work, which at first glance appears to be medium format due to the tonal qualities and square format along with architectural ‘verticals, vertical’ style which is very much reminiscent of the work of Sander Meisner. As with Meisner a lot of his photos appear in my favourites page on Flickr. Intriguingly though he is using a compact digital camera and making corrections after in Photoshop. This by no means diminishes the quality of his images though.
Ben could be accused of being obsessed with dark, gloomy or dull spaces. For me the images are more about finding beauty in the every day or the mundane that surrounds us. The consistency of his work is incredible, something I’ve completely failed at with my Flickr. I’ve added a few of my recent favourite images below but you should definitely spend some time going through his photo stream.
A recent shot taken at the office which I’ve just got round to editing properly. I’m working hard to improve my post processing workflow at the moment and pretty pleased with how this one has turned out. A lot more work is needed but I think it’s worth it. The roof beams are set to falls, but the shot is square on – honest.
Details of this ruined island off the coast of Japan have been doing the rounds recently due to it’s inclusion in the latest James Bond film, Skyfall. Apparently the actual film was shot at Pinewood but the wider opening scenes of the island were shot on location.
Although I’ve often posted about photos showing urban decay or “ruin porn”* before I have slight problem with the glorification of the subject matter. However I’m posting this as the short documentary offers a moving account of someone returning to the island after growing up as a child there as well as it being such an unusual context.
*Not my phrase or choice of words.
I kind of used to like LinkedIn. It was interesting to see who is now working where from University, what your old boss is up to, as well as where former colleagues had ended up and their positions. It was also quite useful to see how some of the connections in the Architecture industry work, reinforcing the fact that every Architect in London knows everyone by no more than two degrees of separation (or so it seems at times). It was also useful for seeing people’s profiles before and after events and then following up on something you’d talked about. I had even got some photography work through it too.
I use the past context to describe it because then at some point it stopped being a professional network and became a wannabe Facebook clone and started doing this bullshit kind of stuff below.
As someone who prides himself on professionalism this stinks. It’s cheap and nasty and kills it as a platform of any real value to me. Lets also not forget the recent “endorse someone” feature.
Mike Smith has been endorsed for Microsoft Word…
It’s at this point that I really do fear for the future of the human race.
Having just got back from a visit to Northern Ireland it seems like a good time to start planning the next. Usually we fly into Belfast or Derry and then go to either Portstewart or Donegal. However I think on the next trip we might hang around a little before going to see family. There seems to be a sudden flurry of excellent new projects reaching completion over there which we’d both love to see.
Top of the list has to be the new MAC in Belfast by Hall McKnight.
Images © Christian Richters
Then whilst still in Belfast it’s almost certainly worth seeing the Sterling Shortlisted Lyric Theatre by O’Donnell & Tuomey. I’ve been a fan of their work for years since meeting them on a field trip to Dublin in 2000 during my degree.
Images © Dennis Gilbert
Then West to Derry to see An Gaelaras, again by O’Donnell & Tuomey.
Image © Dennis Gilbert
After that and catching up with Emma’s dad then I think it’ll be time to drive North to Portstewart and then on to the Giant’s Causeway visitor centre by Heneghan and Peng. The last time we were there it the white shed was no where near as good as this! Then I think that’ll be enough architecture and it’ll be time for a Guinness and a glass of Bushmills.
Images © Hufton & Crow
Updated: My friend Matthew emailed me with a map of all the projects worth visiting which is well worth looking at if you’re planning a trip.
I’m pleased to announce that I will be running a series of LinkedIn training courses this Autumn. The course lasts all day and cost £1000 per delegate including lunch and refreshments. The outline of the day is as follows:
9.00 am – Coffee, networking and name badges.
10.00 am – Turning our computers on.
11.30 am – Break for coffee.
12.00 am – Open web browsers and navigate to LinkedIn dot com.
1.00 pm – Break for lunch.
2.00 pm – Login to website.
3.00 pm – Create account.
4.00 pm – Add picture to account.
5.00 pm – Recap of the course and certificates issued.
Delegates will be expected to bring their own social skills and common sense.
THIS COURSE IS NOW FULL.
