FICTIONAL FRIDAY: TRIGAN CITY

From left: King, Architect, Other Guy. Credits: Probably Don Lawrence

While looking for a desk chair at a flea market last Sunday, I stumbled upon a comic book which I'd never heard of before. However, it contained pictures of fantastic cities, dams blowing up and futuristic technologies mixed with ancient and diverse artistic references, so I paid a few kroner for it, and brought it home.

Turns out, this was the first story of the infamous(/famous?) sci-fi/historical fantasy comic book series called The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire, which enjoyed a long life considering its genre, continuously published between 1966 and 1982. There's actually a rather large focus on architecture and cities in the series, and the architect Peric is one of its main characters. The imaginations of writer Mike Butterworth and artist Don Lawrence should probably share the credits for the interesting concepts.

The Trigan City is, like many other visual elements of the series, a fantasy on Ancient Roman features. White stone, columns (columns, columns), pediments and round arches are recognisable parts of Roman classicism, whereas onion domes, spires and other features of medieval architecture pierce the horizon and prevent monotony.

SNOW IN FLORIDA

Perhaps you know this very well, but there is a place called Celebration, a small town in Florida, built by the Walt Disney Company. An early example of New Urbanism put into practice, the people in this town seem to be living (that's right, they live there for real) on the very edge of reality as we know it. The idea of letting it snow in Florida is rather surreal by itself, but accompanied by music and voices seeming to come from nowhere in particular, it's beyond weird, seen with my European eyes.

And on the other hand: What if this works for the people who live there? Celebration is a walkable town, and people make real friendships there, just by passing each other by on porches or the sidewalks. At least it's an alternative to suburban sprawl, isn't it? And what are the alternatives? How much "real" traditional urbanism is there in the US?

I'd never live in Celebration, but perhaps we'll have to let fantasy play a bigger part in architecture when dealing with the need for reshaping society to meet the ecological crisis ahead. Is Celebration a definite answer? Absolutely not. Is it an interesting question? I would say yes.

FICTIONAL FRIDAY: RIGEL VII

So, thanks to Netflix I've started  watching the original Star Trek-series, here represented by the Orient-inspired (Jerusalem meets Lhasa) Riegel VII. I'm rather amazed, but as George Takei (who by the way was very hot back then) would say: Oh myyy!

PUMPKIN TUNNEL

Picture credit: Pinterest, I think

Today in outdoor architecture: A super cool tunnel made of steel and living pumpkin plants. The colour, the contrast between the geometry of the steel and the organic shapes of the plants, and the amazing filtering of the light all come together to make this an unusual and interesting space. Would love to put one of these in my garden, or even in the grounds of a school or public building.

WE BUILT THIS CITY

In my overwhelming contempt for suburbia, I sometimes forget how cool it can be to be a young child there.

FICTIONAL FRIDAY: SORIA MORIA CASTLE

Soria Moria Castle, by Theodor Kittelsen. Wikimedia Commons.           

Finally, time for another painting! It's been a while, and this time I've chosen one where architectural forms are just hinted at, instead of being worked out in detail. I still find it to be an alluring and beautiful picture, which evokes many images in my mind.

The fairytale of Soria Moria Castle is one of the most poular Norwegian folk tales, and has triggered the imagination of artists through generations, especially since its publication as a part of Asbørnsen and Moe's collections of folk tales in the mid-19th century. Read the entire story here.

PS. Although the story doesn't involve any dwarves, it's supposed to be the source of Tolkien's name for Moria, the dwarf-kingdom of Middle-earth. Do not trust this information.

TARKHANY

Picture by Wikicommons

At the time when I started this blog, I wrote a few posts about the wonderful wooden architecture of Russia. Large manor houses, churches and villages are all part of a great tradition which is not well-known in the West, but includes both very classical buildings, and those inspired by vernacular architecture.

Rear view. Picture by Wikicommons.

The example of the day is the elegant and charming estate of Tarkhany, which was constructed around 1800 in the region of Penza Oblast, in Western Russia. Currently a working museum, the manor house and the surroundings were originally a family residence, containing such necessities as a church, fish ponds, fruit gardens, a domed garden pavilion, avuenues of lime trees, several cottages for the workers, and a mausoleum.

Tarkhany garden pavilion. Picture by worldwalk.info

Pavilion dome detail. Picture by worldwalk.info

Tarkhany was also the home of the famous Russian poet Lermontov, and the museum still contains many of his belongings in the period furnished rooms of the houses.

Cottage at Tarkhany. Picture by worldwalk.info

I want a porch like this one. Picture by Wikicommons

 

GROCERS' APARTMENTS or HOW TO LOOK FLIRTY AMONGST TIMBER FRAME BUILDINGS

As I hinted earlier, I recently went to Hamburg. One of the greatest places I visited, was also one of the smallest, a tiny street inside a complex called the Grocers' Apartments.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

On a tiny plot, this group of 17th century timber frame houses creates a world of its own, twisting and leaning and bending in all directions.

(Add some curly hair, oxfordesque attire and a hand on the chin, and you've accomplished what you wanted to, more or less.)

LEAF CEILING

This amazing ceiling made of linden trees can be found at Blindernveien in Oslo, and creates a room as good as any.

The technique is called pollarding in English, and is an excellent way of renewing trees.

FICTIONAL FRIDAY: MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY

I somehow stumbled upon the Norwegian version of Wikipedia's article about Medieval philosophy earlier today. This is the complete set of illustrations. Weird stuff.

FICTIONAL FRIDAY: PARALLEL UNIVERSE SWEDEN

Somewhere, in a not-too-different world, you'll find this slightly absurd house, standing somewhere in the Swedish countryside. Why does it look the way it does? How did it come to be that way? It's great, like something that has grown naturally over time, but I'm not very sure how it would seem in real life.

Anyway, be sure to visit the brilliant webpage of artist Simon Stålenhag for more of this strange and captivating vision.

MYSTERIOUS COURTYARD

Isn't this the most wonderful backyard you've seen in a while? Not very classical, but very welcoming and charming, in some inexplicable way. The picture was taken earlier this summer in Grønland, Oslo, by a friend of mine who lives in one of the buildings surrounding it.

I'm not quite sure what the white, fog-cottonish stuff is, but Lina seems to believe it's pollen. I think it might be poplar seeds, but I'm not sure. Looks cool, though, don't you think?

TALL WINDOWS

 Can you resist something this large and comforting, with almost human proportions? I didn't think so.

Photo from Berlin city hall by Stephaniè Jade-Mariè Piasdòttir Kjærstad

FICTIONAL FRIDAY: GWEN'S CARROLLESQUE GARDEN

One of the coolest gardens I know, quite clearly inspired by Lewis Carlloll's Alice in Wonderland, a book which I was very fascinated and confused by in my childhood, and still love.

PINK CHURCH

I don't always go to church on Sundays, but when I do, it's a pink church.

I really wish that was true.

Chesme church by architect Yury Felten in St. Petersburg, Russia. Picture credits: Wikimedia Commons (where it was the picture of the day today/yesterday, depending on where in the world you are).

VISUAL STRUCTURE FILM

Almost three years ago, I wrote a short post explaining about our particular academic discipline at BAS, called visual structure. Today, I was made aware of this video, showing an assignment usually done in Decembre first year, where uniformly coloured geometric shapes are given a contrasting treatment of different colours in non-geometric patches. The idea is that you should be curious to find out what the next side of the shape looks like, so that you'll be intrigued to look all the way around it. Quite charming video, and I think it expresses this concept clearly.

INSIDE THE TOWER

Happy new year! The world didn't end this time, either. The above picture was taken by yours truly in September, in a strange room behind the clocks of the tower of Nykirken ("The New Church") in Bergen:

I like how things sometimes are much more weird than we believe them to be.

FICTIONAL FRIDAY: LIFE ON MARS?

For reasons unknown, I've been listening quite a lot to this amazing song lately. However, as it has the the most boring music video in the history of the planet Earth (with no architeture whatsoever, except for a white void which I'm sure Le Corbusier would have loved), I'm throwing in a couple of pictures with designs for a Martian city, made by the brilliant visual artist Thomas Denmark:

THOMAS AND THE GOAT WILLOWS

My former classmate Thomas is the definition of sympathetic, and a rather clever tree-bender. At the beginning of our secound year, we joined forces in attacking a couple of goat willows with our braiding abilities and our sharp scissors, creating, as you can see, something looks like a rather nice tree, out of what used to be just a mess.

Last week, we followed up by not only re-pruning the first trees, but also making sense of several other bushy things of the kind which keep popping up around our school. I completely forgot to do a before-shot, but above, the reader may see what it looked like afterwards. Another shot below, with the sunset, Thomas, yours truly and the tree, in that order.

To find out more about creative bending, braiding an dpruning of living trees, check out Ivan Hicks' book Tricks with trees, of which I own a much-loved copy.

EVENING SCHOOLYARD

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