bjarke ingels of big gave a presentation at helsinki design week the other evening, above is a picture from that presentation (here are the rest).

below is a video of his pecha kucha speech a few hours later.

previousily: 2004: a post about plot.dk

recently on bbc four there was a two part documentary called “magnetic north” in which jonathan meades travelled from northern france to finland.

whilst in finland he talks a bit about the local architecture:

contrasting that of alvar aalto (above) to the national romantic style of saarinen, sonck etc. (below)

aaltos buildings have always left me feeling cold - for me there is very little to enjoy about them (except when taking pictures at night time (1) (2)). they were, of course, a product of their time - reacting against what came before them. the national romantic style of a century ago came from a reaction too - part reactive, part proactive to their times.

the show is on youtube at the moment in multiple parts.

walking around sydhavnen last week in copenhagen i saw a little bit of dutch architectural/urban planning influence on the shape of the city. the dutch architect sjoerd soeters helped on the masterplan for the area. (here is the link on the website of arkitema architects who co-authored the masterplan)

this week oma were announced as the winners of the bryghusprojektet (the brewery site project) in the centre of copenhagen. lots of pictures available here

or for me, page 125.

from lewism.org i get tagged.

1. pick up the nearset book (of at least 123 pages).
2. open the book on page 123.
3. find the fifth sentance.
4. post the next three sentences.
5. tag five people.

the book closest to me is a book on tokyo. called “tokyo: city and architecture” by livio sacchi.

page 123 is chapter notes, page 124 is an image and the excerpt from page 125 is as follows:

“in 1914 his (referring to frank lloyd wright) taliesin buildings burned down,with the well-known, dramatic implications for the architect’s private and personal life. the celebrated studio-home was gradually reconstructed and its plan certainly recalls the imperial villa of katsura, near kyoto, built with the supervision of the theosophist kobori ensho in the early 17th century, a sublime summa of classical japanese architecture and garden art.”

a note to myself is written on the inner sleeve - telling me where i got it (dublin) that i hoped it would be a good book. back then tokyo seemed a very far away place and it still does. one day.

an astounding video for a proposal for a new mosque in the islands brygge region of copenhagen by the bjarke ingels group (big) architects office can be seen here on this page.