Yew Trees

I have been revisiting some of my earlier work this week and found this image of my Winchester project as part of Horizon Scanning module in the MSc. Architectural Technology and Design. This was the first project where I really stared to see how effective contour modeling can be for sites with complex topography.

Vitra Design Museum

This post relates to a trip I took at the start of the year but have only found the time to post it onto the blog this weekend. In January I visited the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein and was overwhelmed by the architectural petri dish created by Vitra. 

The most iconic buildings on the site are Frank Gehry’s Vitra Design Museum, Zaha Hadid’s fire station and the more recent VitraHaus by Herzog and De Meuron. I didn’t realise until the night before the trip that the campus was home to Tadao Ando’s first building outside of Japan which unexpectedly became the highlight of my trip.

Ando’s use of axis and approach is at its most powerful at the Vitra Campus. A path guides you around Gehry’s buildings to view its deconstrutivism from every aspect and to reveal the subtle concrete wall of Ando’s building. The proportions of the building used the consistent ratios of 2:1 and its scale is distinctly human in all elements.

An exhibition about Alvar Aalto and his works in product design and architecture called “Second Nature” was on when we visited the museum. The exhibition made the visitor realise the scale of work produced by Aalto and the implications it had on design worldwide. The exhibition was split into four sections concerning his early work, his relationship with art, extent of his furniture designs and finally his international architectural ascent.    

Source: http://www.design-museum.de/en/exhibitions/detailseiten/aalto.html

I would highly recommend visiting the campus as it is somewhat rare to view such a quantity of buildings by notable architects within such close proximity to one another. 

The Observatory: 'A Place To Look In - A Place To Look Out'

The SPUD Group have been posting some excellent photos of "The Observatory" competition winning entry over the last few days. It would be a lie if I said that there are no feelings of jealousy when looking at the completed project, however, I do think the result is fantastic, atmospheric and a great place for artists to do their work. 

Congratulations to the winning team and the SPUD Group for making projects like this happen.

Taken from the "The Observatory" Facebook page

Taken from the "The Observatory" Facebook page

New Years in Iceland

I welcomed in the New Year of 2015 in Iceland and found the landscape and architecture of the country awe-inspiring and magical.

The main architectural attraction of Reykjavik is Hallgrímskirkja, a Lutheran church standing at 73 meters tall by architect Guðjón Samúelsson.

Hallgrímskirkja Church 

The viewing platform at the top is the perfect place to watch the late winter sunrise or early winter sunset of Iceland. Its the perfect place for an areal view of the diverse and colourful architectural typologies below.

View from Viewing Platform 

One of my favourite images was an unexpected one of an isolated toilet block located in Thingvellir. It sat above a fracture where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates meet and we got there at twilight during a heavy snow storm.

Photo by Paul Colfer

The image below is just one of a 1000 photos I took of the Icelandic landscape.

Photo by Paul Colfer