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.

SOLID EARTH

Solid Earth from PassitOn on Vimeo.

A little film about a woman who loves to build houses out of earth. Almost too cute, but very appealing, at least to me.

SAND CASTLE

On my second visit to the city of Mombasa, last week, I decided it was time to build a sand castle again, as I hadn't done it in more than ten years. It's always interesting to explore typologies, and at least in Norway, it seems to me that almost any building that has a tower and isn't made of wood, will sooner or later be called a castle. Nothing more needed? What is a castle, really?

I chose to make mine with a few central towers, some smaller ones around it, and originally, a courtyard surrounded by even more towers. However, the sea soon started devouring the courtyard, and by the time I started taking pictures, more than half of it was gone.

In the technique I use, you need to dig a hole in the sand until you reach the water level. The sand you already dug out, is used to make the underlying structure, be it cone-shaped, long and flat, with a circular or square courtyard, or others. You then take a handful of the sand-water mixture, and let it slide between your fingers to form towers, walls, openings and whatever you want. This technique gives the rounded shapes, and Wikipedia describes it as "dribbling" or making "drip castles".

If you build it too close to either the sea or your little man-made lake, parts of the structure will soon begin to fall. Adapt and fix as you go along.

And, finally, realise it when it's time to abandon your creation and let it return to nature.

THE ANT, THE ROCK AND THE KING

While I was sitting and reading the newspaper at sunset today, I befriended an ant. The ant lived in a rock in the middle of the city. Do you see the ant? (Click on the picture to see a bigger version.)

There are a few steps in the rock. The ant is very small, but he's still able to climb them; maybe because he has six legs.

The rock stands here, in the middle of a big pile of gravel. I wonder how the ant got there in the first place, and if he ever will leave it. Amazing, really; it seems life is everywhere. On the top of the rock is a king and his horse, but they're both made of bronze, so I don't think they bother the ant very much.

NEW PARK AT TULLINLOKKA

In the middle of Oslo there's a parking space called Tullinløkka. (An interesting and elaborate article about Tullinløkka, unfortunately in Norwegian, can be found here.) A former playground for children and other sports enthusiasts, bicycle riding ground, gatherings pace for demonstrations, the city council has been trying to get something built there for more than a hundred years, but to no success. However, after what seems like a hundred competitions, suggesting among others museums with green spaces on their roofs, classicistic buildings with columns and multi-storey car parks, someone has suddenly made a decision to build a "temporary" park at Tullinløkka. There are also rumours that a 22nd July memorial will be placed in time. The picture shows small parts of the National Gallery to the left, the Historical Museum to the right and the main building of the University of Oslo in the middle.  As of now, I'm following the building of the park from my living room window, and will probably be updating with more pictures after a while.

PS. The temporary petrol station at Tullinløkka stayed there for 56 years.

ADDING TO AN ADDITION

Works surprisingly well surprisingly often.

Building(s) with sod roofs at Maihaugen open air museum in Lillehammer, Norway.

MELANCHOLIA

I went to see Lars von Trier's Melancholia at the cinema yesterday, and it is hereby strongly recommended. Engaging story, amazing actors, beautiful pictures, thorough elegance.

NICE BRICKS

Sounds a bit dirty, doesn't it? It's not, though. I just found this picture on my computer today:

If you go very close up to the main entrance of the Norwegian Parliament building, Stortinget, and then look straight up, it looks more or less like this. I like the bricks; still looking good after 145 years in service.

GOTTA LOVE THOSE HEAVY BRICK WALLS

This is the Littlejohn Memorial Chapel at Scotch College, Melbourne. Love at first sight. (Online, that is. I've never been there in real life.) The building was completed in 1937, but I've not been able to find out who the architect was. Picture from Wikipedia.

SUNFLOWERS AND SOCIALISM

1st May 2010, more or less known as the International Worker's Day, was celebrated in Bergen with a huge demonstration with red flags and great speeches, as is the tradition. One thing was new, though. As the first of what is hoped to be many similar events, the freshly started Bergen Guild of Guerilla Gardeners planted their first sunflowers in selected parts of the city, here and there with a company of poppy seeds and apple seedlings. This kind of action could be seen as a practical socialism of sorts, where people reclaim public land that isn't being used (kinda like the Diggers in 17th century England) to practice sustainable and progressive urban agriculture, enabling them to grow their own organic food close to their homes; or you could just see it as a way of making cities more beautiful and humane places of living. I guess I see it as both.

Photo by Anso

CATENARY ARCH

This is a picture from a Musgum village in Cameroon. These buildings are built entirely out of earth in the ideal mathematical form to bear a maximum weight with minimal material, the catenary arch.

"Catenary" is Latin for "chain", and the exact method of creating this form, is to hang a chain from two points to create a U-shape of sorts, then make a drawing of the curve, and turn it upside down to make an arch. The Catalonian architect Antoni Gaudí, famous for his characteristic organic architecture, especially the cathedral La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, applied catenary arches widely, and used the technique of hanging strings and chains to create the designs for vaults, roofs and ceilings in his buildings.

I doubt these people are using the same technique, but the result is a catenary arch nonetheless. I think they may be using the principle of the corbel arch, which I've blogged about before, and that uses corbelling to create arches that are sometimes very reminiscent of the catenary arch.

Attention should also be paid to the surface of the buildings. Apart from being beautiful ornaments, the shapes covering them also function as a sort of stairs and platforms to stand on when climbing to the top of the buildings, and help leading rainwater away from the surface. More about these buildings at designboom.com.

By the way, tomorrow I'm travelling with my boyfriend to London, my favourite city! There will we pictures, I promise.