Cities and suburbs architecture

CHANGING THE BLOG PLATFORM

2011-06-01T17:38:00.000-07:00

KRAKOW - ST.MARY'S BASILICA - KOŚCIÓŁ MARIACKI

2011-05-30T15:49:00.000-07:00

Located in North - East corner of Krakow's medieval square, is a symbol of city's history, and one of the most precious monuments in old town centre.

The church has been built in 13-th century in gothic era after the first romanesque church had been destroyed by Turkish invaders.

The three naves have been rised , the main, middle one which was the tallest and one smaller nave to each side of it, with half circular chapels, main oltar at the end, and two different height towers to the front of the building.

We can see lots of little long windows with pointed/lancet arches, so popular in central europe at those times.

The main body of the building has been made of red, local manufactured brick, with many stone surrounds, stone or brick window heads and sills, the two towers have been covered with the spires, each in different style.

The taller tower has been designed on a square plan, then, in the end it turns into octagonal, on the other side, shorter tower is square in plan , with the size getting gradually smaller aproaching the top.
After few centuries the octagonal in plan lobby has been added in a baroque style with neo- gothic stone pinacles.

To the side of basilica you can see the massive, vertical windows with stone surrounds and subdivided to few stone moulions ended with another internal lancet arches ,oculuses and cusps, and all windows have been decorated with the stained glass.

At the external side of the brick walls we can see the brick buttress piers between the windows, with set offs, without flying butress in this case but with pinacles with crockets and finials.

If you want to find out more about gothic architecture commonelements, please see a fantastic blog:
http://gothiceraarchitecture.blogspot.com/2010/08/new-techniques-lasting-looks.html

LONDON - LONDON EYE - SOUTH BANK OF THAMES RIVER

2011-05-29T04:50:00.000-07:00

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EDF Energy London Eye - formaly opened by Tony Blair in 1999 - for many people, one of the biggest tourist attraction of London after the Buckingham Palace and the rumours about the royal scandals but there are also some more critical opinions like of Sir Richard Rogers, who basically said that from architectural point of view London gained nothing but another symbol and another structure to climb on and lookback down it , just like Eiffel Tower in Paris - form my point of view that is not fair.

The weel has been designed by architectural team which consisted of : Frank Anatole, Nic Bailey, Steven Chilton, Malcolm Cook, Mark Sparrowhawk, Julia Barfield , David Marks.

Located on the south bank of London, opposite the London Parliament and Big Ben tower, the structure is generating 3.5 happy customers every year.

The tallest ferris weel in Europe, with 32 stell and reinforced glass capsules (symbolizing each borough of London), which are air conditoned and spin very slowly around the big weel/loop

It is unforgetable experience to see the town from such a height, and I am sure sir Richard Rogers would definitely change his mind if he ever had a chance to experience this feeling.

By the way designed by him building, O2 Arena - Millenium Dome is giving the city one function only , (apart from the commercial one), is providing a concert hall for the city , and that is just enogh for me, and many others.

LONDON - THAMES RIVER MOVABLE FLOOD BARRIER

2011-05-26T14:45:00.000-07:00

It is clear for averyone and has been known for many years that the famous british river is very vurnerable to flooding and storm surges coming from the Atlantic Ocean.

The solution to that problem was to invent a sort of tame, barrier which would span accross the River and block the excessive flow of water.The construction of the structure has been mainly completed in 1982.
It consists of a seven piers resambling the shells or a form of a swiveled half bodies of ships embeded in a renforced concrete base, and anchored deep at the river bed.

Between the piers we can see the horizontal laid cylinders being the actual gates, and the steel, yellow painted mechanical arms, operating the opening and closing the gates.

Althogh the construction was created almost 20 years ago, it has undoubtly a remarkably contemporary character.

The designing company Rendel, Palmer and Tritton used a very expressive shapes to form the overal look of the piers, and finished it with a very shiny metal which even from a further distance distinguishes from the scenery.

Really fascinating construction and it's unusual appearance draws many tourists' attention and is another very good reason to visit this area of London .
For me at least as sexy as the painting Birth of Venus by Sandro Boticelli ;-)

DUBLIN - BRIDGE ON LIFFEY RIVER- SANTIAGO CALATRAVA

2011-05-25T15:37:00.000-07:00

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Let me introduce you a very absorbing bridge located in the centre of Dublin, called after James Joyce, designed by Santiago Calatrava.

The bridge was opened in 2003, structure is designed as tied- arch bridge, 30 m wide and 40 m long, and is connecting the South and the North side of Dublin.

We can see that functionally it has been divided into one, middle passage for a vehicular traffic, and two pedestrian walkways on both side of the bridge.

On each side, between pedestrian and vehicular traffic, there is a special area excluded for people who want to stop and admire the Liffey River.

The designer used basically only three materials for it's construction; glass , concrete and steel.

You can distinguish nice details of stainless strained steel cables/wire ropes stretching from the top of the arch to the bottom support- the structure has no support below the deck of the bridge whatsoever .
Personally I really like the way of designing the steel and glazed balustrade, and it's connection to the existing retaining wall.
The architect, structural engineer S.Calatrava , here again did very well and I think he prooved that no architecture is to small for the good designer.
The building looks esspecially charming when illuminated by night.

ROME - ANCIENT PANTHEON

2011-05-24T16:56:00.000-07:00

The buidling located in the centre of Rome, is a glamorous example of ancient temples.

Edifice has been built by Marcus Agrippa, roman general and statesman , and originally has been dedicated to all ancient roman gods .

In the begining the building was surrounded by many gods sculptures and had a stepped approach with the pediment.

The temple is circular in plan, consists of three ranks of grey granite Corinthian columns which support a triangular stone portico/porch (originally there were two of them), pronaos (columnade leading to the entrance ) and a main chamber of a temple which is a rotonda that houses a nishes, apses and the oltars of the cult figures.

In the next centuries after conversion the temple into a catholic church, the gods figures were replaced by figures and thombes of the catholic saints, popes, great artists like Rafaell Santi, or music composer Corelli.

One of the most impressive things about the building is it's interiour with roman concrete dome, oculus - the only sorce of direct light in the temple and lovely square coffers around the dome as well as the constructiion of the dome itself which thickness variess from 6.4 m at the base of the dome to 1.2m at the top .

No wonder why it is one of the most popular monuments in Rome for many centuries until today.

One more thing : when visitng that great edifice do not forgett about a lovely obelisk located outside, in front of the building, which was a very thoughtfull idea in terms of a composition of a square housing the Temple.

ROME - COLOSSEUM- COLISEUM

2011-05-23T12:42:00.000-07:00

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This time I am going to present the slightly older, but still impressive building, the largest ever amphiteatre built in Roman Empire.
Located in the heart of Rome, to the east of the Roman Forum.It was constructed in 80 AD and until today is a wonderfull example of almost perfect, undoubtly beautyful architecture, transcendent patern for future thousands of stadiums.

The builders used all their knowledge and put a maximum effort to make sure that every element of the edifice was to ceasars standards and as technologicaly advanced as nowhere in the world, at those days.

They used a very steady travertine stone which gives the building a yellowish hue, the half collumns and pillars were all in roman architectural style, following : roman doric, roman ionic, roman corinthian which seems to be the perfect solution giing the lightness and an illusion as if the building was rising to the sky.

Very popular those days in rome but how greatly practical and functional use of the roman arches,vaults, which were able to add some bigger openings to the really massive walls and on the other hand it was an excellent way of making the built more stylish, and more decorative.

They proposed almost impossible as for those time capacity of the building ,and the building was capable of seating 50 000 spectactors.
The ideal way of a drainage, superb design of a stage with it's lots of facilities for the performers, and a spotless outlook for the audience.
Today it's condition is slightly deteriorated but the structure is still considered as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

Here you will find out more about the Colosseum

PARIS- CINEMATHEQUE BUILDING

2011-05-22T02:21:00.000-07:00

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This lovely building was designed by one of the most famous architects in the world, Frank.O.Ghery - Ghery Partners.

Located in Paris, on 51 Rue de Bercy the building is facing the front elevation to Park De Bercy, which is still admired by architects, urban designers and landscapers.

The edifice is called by it's designer " The dancer raising her tutu".
Now is a centre of a cinematography and a very popular place of visit of parisiens.

When you see it for the first time , it strikes you that you can easily tell who created it .

Very common for Frank Ghery use of concrete masses to build the structure with a lot of bends and curvatures.The architects idea is usually to make a building look like in the move, often likes to refer to dance, plays with his strcuture like if it was a "Lego" toy building bricks.

He also uses very different types of metal cladding , but not in this case where everything was kept clear and pure, like poored concrete.

The architect is often called de- constructivist for his very bold and unstopable use of almost impossible to build structures and for creating a dramatic, very expressive, emotional and breath taking atmospere, and suspension in time.

Frank Ghery was also a father of serpentine's gallery exhibition pavilion in London in 2008.

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LONDON - ENFIELD

2011-05-17T11:58:00.000-07:00

A residential building in North London.
Todays special.- The building has been freshly constructed.

No google and no other searching engine can find this building in any directory bacause the pictures have been taken in our architectural office and not published so far.

You can see the building is very, very simple but you can not deny it has that something that x factor that
defines good architecture.

The entrance fronton resambles th Grand arch in Paris, but here you can see it in a much softer incarnation, and the architect did not commit a suiside.

The architect who I know personally, wanted to introduce to the building as little ornament as possible .
To sum up, it was a quick project, not much effort put to it but the effect is really tremendous.
Well done, Mr.N ;-)

KRAKOW - OLD TOWN CENTRE

2011-05-16T12:01:00.000-07:00

This very cost effective and very expressive building has been built a couple of years ago and designed by one of the most popular and influential architects in Poland, Krzystof Ingarden, who graduated from the architecture university in Tokyo, Japan.

This building is a very slender, completely not invasive architecture which had to be made this way for its very noble location in the middle of the historic city Krakow.

For some people it was quite a controversial, for some it is a fine building in a perfect location.
It is designed as only a few meters wide extention to the adjoining, historic building.

I think many people needed an information centre like this, that is a nice arhcitecture and caters the tourist's needs perfectly.

DUBLIN - ATHLUMNEY VILLAS STREET

2011-05-14T06:41:00.000-07:00

Another building located within the Ranelagh Street in Dublin.
One can see curved shapes of main body of the building, a lot of a concrete used for a construction, almost brutalistic, pure and very minimalistic character of the building.

Really interesting shape as for the building ; reminds me of a snail shell, under which there is a small horizinatal window located.

Looking at the building from front, we can see how nicely the concrete block is curved , and ended with a vertical slender window which runs to the ceiling and then the opening is continued within the concrete balcony balustrade.

The built is very weired , and definitely unusual, and in my personal opinion deserves to figure in my very objective list of interesting architecture of cities and suburbs.

DUBLIN - RANELAGH STREET- CLOSER TOWARDS THE CITY

2011-05-14T06:34:00.000-07:00

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Another building woth of our attention, located only few hundred meeters away from the preliminary school , on the same street.
Flat aluminium roofs, nice and smooth finish of a render and a very cubistic shapes.
The building consists of many parts that prefectly play together giving the very contemporary character.
Obviously the same material scheme as for the other building has been used: timber, smooth sand cement render, and a natural stone.
Big openings, colouristic contrast between the building parts, effect of "looking at the opening through another opening". Very interesting manipulation with blocks of building , makes the whole design fresh and unusualy beautyfull and sometimes I wished I had designed this building.That about sums up my relation to the building.

PRAGUE - RASINOVO STREET

2011-05-13T18:02:00.000-07:00

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Located on Rasinovo Street, in the hart of Prague, along the river side building designed by
Milunic and Gehry.

Office building, has been called a "dancing house" as to many people it resambles the dancing person, in a move.The officebuilding has been divided into two parts tenderly embracing each other.

Interesting details of windows projecting over the external wall and the collumns bearing the load of a whole structure at the ground floor level .

An absolute must see item for visitors in Prague, even for those not having interest in architecture.

DUBLIN, RICHMOND PLACE

2011-05-13T17:11:00.000-07:00

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The single family residential buidling located in Dublin, on the corner of Richmond Place and Mount Pleasant Ave Upper.

Another very interesting building made of a nice, very common in the area type of brick.
Very popular recently big openings with timber frame and cladded openable panels, with asymetric vertical bars within the window frame.

Huge opening to the loundge along the boundary wall makes a really fantastic impression, dominates the whole ground floor, and provides more than sufficient amount of a daylight.

Personally I also like the fact that all windows and doors frames are flushed with the external wall which makes the building more simple almost minimalistic.
The idea of making one of the building's walls a boundary wall, was a really briliant thought.
To sum up I can say that you have to see it to find out how the small architecture can be also interesting and desirable.

DUBLIN, RANELAGH STREET- PRELIMINARY SCHOOL

2011-05-13T16:07:00.000-07:00

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Dublin - Very interesting place to live in, especially in the end of the last decade .
I was one of those lucky ones to live there for a few years and experience the unbelievable possibilities of having big money invested in building process.
Very often buildings were constructed of very good quality, and well finished materials, also you could notice an interesting trend in architecture and design generally to use materials of natural origin, more often then it was happening in previous years.
The presented building is a preliminary school located in Dublin, on Ranelagh Street .

It is kept in a small , very human scale and one can feel a freshness of ideas and a friendly enviroment very the priority to the designer.

Thanks to the use of natural materials, timber framed windows and doors, timber cladding, natural stone, smothed and polished concrete panels, lead flashings and roof coverings make the building looking contemporary and give it a very noble character.

The attention to details and thoughtfull and fresh use of composition , calls for a special appreciation.