Dior

If you’re drawn to over-priced luxury you’ll love the Dior flagship store designed by Pritzker prize winners SANAA. If you’re interested in architecture that delivers a spatial experience in a beautifully designed package, you’ll probably be somewhat disappointed. As far as beautiful packages go, the building certainly delivers. Unfortunately, a quick wander inside reveals yet ...

Encapsulate

Kisho Kurokawa‘s Capsule Tower, located in the Ginza District in Tokyo defies gravity on many levels. In terms of physical gravity, it’s attached rather precariously to a support core that frankly appears to the untrained eye somewhat under-engineered. Another ode to the building’s persistance is its ability to push back redevelopment efforts in what is ...

Big In Japan

After many years of dreaming to visit Japan I had the good fortune of visiting for the first time this past October. In addition to constantly experimenting with the fine food on offer I took every chance I could get to visit renowned buildings that have been an inspiration over the years. I have many ...

Seattle

It’s been over 5 years since I last went to Seattle – the Seattle Central Library by OMA/Rem Koolhaas continues to feel very contemporary. It was also literally swarming with patrons, and appeared to be a very popular place for the general public to congregate. Truly an icon of a building…

Portugal And Back

I was recently back in Portugal to visit my family, and had the chance to visit some projects that have been on my radar for a while now. The range and diversity of architectural practice coming out of this small country continues to be a valuable resource for me, and seeing these buildings in person ...

Magic Trick

OMA

Packing District

So Close

Clouds With Chance

Animal City

One of the unexpected treats of moving to California is witnessing first hand the amazing abundance of interactions that occurs between urban environments and wildlife. From the sea lions at San Francisco’s fisherman’s wharf, to the occasional sighting of coyotes on hiking trails located right near the Golden Gate Bridge, the usual urban animal encounters ...

Sutro

Aquarius

Babylon

On Hubris

Mid Term

Mid term goals: stay afloat, build up while there is downtime, look for the right job even when these are scarce, produce daily, stay mentally active, engage, keep focused, don’t stagnate. Long term

Mercy

My father worked for many years as a welder, one of thousands of workers at the Port of Durban, South Africa’s busiest harbour. I remember he would take the family there on Sunday drives, and as a child I would look out the window and stare at the massive cranes, or the moored container ships, ...

Passing By

Warehouse Of Memories

Sitting on a train, speeding past derelict warehouses, music in my ear, on the way to an airport, bags packed to the brim, thinking about the hassle of security, cursing the fact that I didn’t have time for a proper breakfast and will need to rely on Starbucks coffee and pastries to stock up against ...

Stacked

The economics of parking in Manhattan offers fascinating insights into land use in dense urban environments. With monthly parking rates in some neighborhoods rivaling average studio apartment rentals in most other major US cities, the tension between owning a car and using mass transit takes on a particular resonance in New York. Hence the rise ...

Cacophony

Contemporary New York is all about the shiny skyscrapers, the sanitized Times Square and the glitz of Madison Avenue. Wandering around for a few days, I came across myriad examples of the New York I love; the jumbled juxtaposition of shapes, colours, forms and materials that I still believe reflects more of the city’s character ...

30-Something

On the 30-something floor of a New York Tribeca district apartment building, inhabited by a 30-something couple, a few shorts blocks away from Ground Zero, there was a cold sting on my face as I took this photo. It dawned on me that there aren’t too many apartment buildings that tall in Manhattan, and even rarer, ones ...

Cubism

Daniel Libeskind’s Contemporary Jewish Museum, located in the heart of the budding gallery district of Yerba Buena in downtown San Francisco, has enjoyed a remarkably smooth transition into the urban fabric. In a city that tends to be relatively conservative when it comes to architecture on the edge of mainstream design, the museum has not ...

No Sleep ‘Til Brooklyn

Brooklyn’s elevated train tracks, part of the New York subway system, fascinates me. Like triumphant herds, the thundering trains pop out the underbelly of Manhattan to strut their rumbling stuff, dominating people and buildings alike. The resulting structure, clad in a mysterious black finish, defines an underworld of storage facilities, parking lots and an eclectic collection of ...

Damned, They Are

Dams have come under ever increasing scrutiny; critics routinely weigh in with arguments about the negative environmental impacts of such endeavours. These include premature silting, altered erosion patterns up and downstream, and the interruption of animal migration with its subsequent damage to ecosystems. Closer to home, the debate over one of San Francisco’s major sources ...

Up.Down.

Noah Should Have Been An Architect

Part of an ongoing series of images of Noah Purifoy’s work, I expect to regularly post examples of this artist’s fascinating collection of sculptures and architecture made out of found debris. I’m certain that had he had the opportunity to train as an architect he would have produced more interesting work than 99% of the ...

Eiffel’s Apprentice’s Elevator

Designed by Raul Mesnier de Ponsard, apprentice to that other engineer Gustave Eiffel, the Santa Justa Elevator located in the heart of downtown Lisbon continues the fine tradition of moving lazy or delayed commuters from point A to point B. It’s rather slow, and the persistent line of tourists means that you wait for a ...

The High Line, Again

The High Line is well published, and overly exposed at this point. After visiting it myself I was intrigued by how it intersects buildings along its route, something which was not quite so obvious to me in all the reporting about what now has quickly become a New York City icon. This large Modernism-inspired building ...

Bridge Surfing

Another week, another bout of inclement weather in Northern California. Despite the persistent rain, San Francisco fortunately has hardy residents who are always willing to make lemonade out of lemons. .