FICTIONAL FRIDAY: THE GRIFFIN'S CAVE

From my favourite live action version of the classic Alice in Wonderland, a strange and beautiful little scene, set in a piece of gravity- and proportion-defying classical architecture, in the form of a cave. (No point in going to richardland.com, by the way.)

WES AND MATILDA

Today, while sitting at the desk in our classroom with my brilliant fellow student Matilda, who makes the world's most beautiful ink drawings, I suddenly felt like I was part of a Wes Anderson film. It may have had something to do with the amount of symmetry, an element which he uses a lot in his movies. At one point, I felt I was Bill Murray, but now I'm much better, thank you very much.

MOVING THE PASSIVE HOUSE

Earlier today, I passed while this installation was being removed from one of the public places in the centre of Bergen. It's a passive house (basically a very energy efficient kind of building) that has been exhibited for some time now, and a few weeks ago, I went with my friend Vegar, who is also an architecture student, to see it. There is a huge debate about passive houses in Norway these days, because, although they spend very little energy, they are also very high-tech, and the techo-optimists and the eco-architects do not agree as to whether the quality of air inside a passive house is good enough.

This one is very small, but was fully equipped, and thus still interesting to see. However, the design was awful, with a door and the inside walls made out of a sort of cardboard (which can be really cool, but in this case was used for) imitating wood, and cheap, ugly moulding. Also, the air inside smelled of fart. Needless to say, we were not quite convinced, and I can't say I'll be missing it.

EVENING SCHOOLYARD

I had actually forgotten how good I feel when spending my nights at school.

FICTIONAL FRIDAY: THE HOBBIT

For all lovers of fantasy architecture: This will be great. Get ready to return to pointed arches in Lórien, grass-covered walls and round doors in the Shire, lighweight Art Nouveau in Rivendell and heavy underground Dwarf walls of solid stone. I simply can't wait.