STUMP HOUSE

To live in a stump house! How wonderful is this? From the Jim Linderman collection, who also published a book of arcane americana, with this picture and many others.

FLAMING BRICK WALLS

What can shadows do to buildings? Here's one example. A brick wall, simple on the verge of being boring, suddenly looks almost like it's burning, just from the shadow of some nearby trees. The photo was taken in a student village where the office is currently doing some redesign work.

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?

FICTIONAL FRIDAY: ROW-THOUGH RESTAURANT

Did they have this in the olden days? Can we plase have it now? I'm making notes for the watery city I'll be building in the future, and this definitely part of it. Have a nice weekend!

COMPLEX BUILDING

Today was the start of our mini-diploma: the complex building course. Over the next three months, the class will be exploring, investigating and finally redesigning parts of Haukalnd University Hospital in Bergen, Norway. This is the concept sketch I presented:

Wish me luck!

MY FAIR LADY/LONDON BRIDGE

"You disgrace to the noble architecture of these columns!" - Henry Higgins in George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, the play on which the musical and film My Fair Lady is based

The other day, a friend of mine suggested we should go see the new Oslo production of this timeless piece of musical silliness, and suddenly, I was humming the old children's song with lines that go like this:

London Bridge is falling down,
Falling down, falling down,
London Bridge is falling down,
My fair lady.

According to Wikipedia's excellent article about this verse, which is referencing Studwell, 1996, this is probably (???!?) where the musical took its name from. The rhyme is part of an old song about building a bridge using all sorts of materials (wood and clay will was away, iron and steel will bend and bow, etc.). A charmingly illustrated note sheet from 1877 looks like this:

I'm not really sure which one of these guys is the architect, but the old architect's symbol can be found on top of the stone plate being carried by that really muscular man. Maybe it's him?

London Bridge in the late 19th century

London Bridge is a name that has been carried by several bridges throughout the ages. The one pictured on the note sheet was only 40 years at the time, replacing a medieval bridge which stood 30 m downstream. The 1831 bridge was later bought and moved to Arizona, USA, by Robert McCulloch, for a new planned community called Lake Havasu City, after this bridge had been slowly sinking into the Thames since the end of the 19th century. (Nasty rumors have it that he thought he was buying the iconic Tower Bridge.)

Not London Bridge

The reconstructed bridge was finished in 1971, and was in London replaced by a neutrally looking concrete bridge.

The reconstructed London Bridge in Arizona

The current London Bridge

The coolest bridge, though, was the medieval one. Construction began in 1176, but wasn't finished before 1209, 33 years later. Then again, this bridge would last for another 600 years.

From the very beginning, houses with shops, dwellings, water wheels, squares and chapels were built on top of London Bridge, almost forming a continuous street instead of giving the feeling of walking on a bridge. This was partially done to pay for the extremely expensive construction, but also looked really neat.

The infamous Nonsuch house (as in 'nothing quite like it') was perhaps the most outstanding building on the bridge, and can be seen in the middle of this picture. (It's the one with the red, yellow and white facade, topped by four blue onion domes.) To cross the bridge, you actually had to go right through many of the houses, out of which several leaned as far as seven feet out over the water.

The bottom picture shows London Bridge c. 1750, shortly before all the houses were demolished to make way for traffic. The bridge itself stood until 1831, when it was replaced by the bridge now standing in Arizona.

And then only one question remains: Who was this Fair Lady? There are several suggestions, but here's the one I found a picture of, Matilda of Scotland. She was a consort of King Henry I, and oversaw the building of several bridges in 12th century England:

(Picture credits: Wikimedia Commons, except the ones of Audrey Hepburn and Nonsuch House, which I frankly don't quite know who owns.)

FICTIONAL FRIDAY: HELL HALL

In the Disney classic 101 Dalmatians, the said dalmatians are kidnapped and kept in the old country house of the film's villain, Cruella de Vil. Hell Hall is the name of the manor, and the architecture seems to be quite eclectic, mixing gothic, elizabethan and rococo. An interior view:

I also tried finding the clip where the puppies are rescued from the manor, but that wasn't very easy to find. However, if you're a real fan of Cruella and her house (or if your children are(in which case you should probably call you local exorcist)), you can buy the Hell Hall toy house:

I actually think I wouldn't mind living there, considering how I love houses that look like they have been added to again and again. I'd prefer miss de Vil to move out first, though.

JIM KAZANJIAN AND THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE SURREALLY POSSIBLE

The works of artist Jim Kazanjian, these amazing pictures are compiled from images of buildings found online. Although dreamlike and amazing, what I like the most about them, is that the majority of these structures actually could be built. I truly wish contemporary architecture was more like this.

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.

A SIMPLE IDEA OF TETRIS AND URBANISM

Imagine the point when the screen is almost entirely filled up by the different pieces, because you're not really that good at Tetris. Imagine it's a city, and you're seeing it from above. Imagine that every piece is a block, with apartment buildings along the edges, and huge green common backyards in the middle. Imagine narrow streets separating all the pieces, and that the unfilled spaces are squares and parks.

BEFORE THE CARS

Yesterday, the bus gave up on getting us into the city centre and instead dumped us right outside of it. Nairobi is full of traffic and congestion, probably because of all the people driving in their of own cars instead of using public transport, and the fact that the CBD (the tall buildings in the background) has almost no apartments, so people who work there have to spend a lot of time travelling there and back again every day.

Anyway.

When we arrived, we saw that many people were walking towards and on this bridge. There were people selling fruit, and clothes, playing music, chatting, burning things (they seem to have an affinity for burning things in this country) and looking bewildered. We decided to follow, and it turned out that this is a highway that's still being built. In between all the others, there were people in yellow helmets trying to finish it. There were huge cracks every 20th metre or so, which I guess explains why the cars haven't arrived yet. Actually, I'm even sure they should finish it. Research shows that expanding roads only leads to more people using their cars, so that capacity doesn't really increase. Maybe it would be better to keep the life and the people, use it as a new urban space and build some houses and workshops or something on and under it?

CORNELL CRISIS/THE DESIGNER

Milstein's Downfall from maestro on Vimeo.

LOVE AND SLATE

I found this outside the Deichman library the other day while looking at poplars with my sister. I guess there's someone out there who really loves slate. Or maybe it's just a happy person.

WHAT YOU'LL HATE IN TEN YEARS

(Maybe you already do?)

Military History Museum in Dresden, with an addition by Daniel Libeskind.


"The new façade’s openness and transparency contrasts with the opacity and rigidity of the existing building. The latter represents the severity of the authoritarian past while the former reflects the openness of the democratic society in which it has been reimagined. The interplay between these perspectives forms the character of the new Military History Museum" Ouch. Daniel... please, just... shut up.

BOOK COLUMN

How to make a book column

You need:

1 unsightly column

1 Polish guy

Lots of books with titles which make people interested

Glue

Nails

Saw

Start from the bottom. Saw the books in half to make them fit. Glue and nail them to the base and the column. Repeat with new layers until you reach the ceiling.

Voilà! The world is now a better place.

(The picture was taken by yours truly in a Volt shop in Karl Johans gate, Oslo.)

CHURCH IS GAY

I'm going away for a week, to the summercamp of the organisation Queer Youth in Norway. One of the topics of our discussions will be how the LGBT movement and the different religions can cooperate better and achieve more understanding, for the good of everyone.

This is St. Bridget's church in New Jersey. It turns out that churches can be a lot of things.

BEFORE/AFTER

Before:

After: 

(Click on the pictures!) Is this fair? And if so, why? I mean, the weather is different, the season is different... but still. It seems something went terribly wrong, and all I really have to say is this:

Thanks a lot, 20th century!

Pictures of Bergen by Marianne Skjulhaug, rector at BAS.

MOEBIUS SHIP

The lovely Möbius ship by artist Tim Hawkinson, the figurative cousin of the one-sided surface called the Möbius strip. Pun intended, I presume. Image is the courtesy of the artist. 

DOING THE WORK

I'm reworking the drawing, and building a new construstion. Let's hope it works this time. At least I'm having fun and learning stuff.

MOSTLY FUNNY IF YOU UNDERSTAND SWEDISH

The woman is yelling "Help, bungalows!", and in the car, someone's thinking "A soulmate!".

Found in a book by the Swedish artist Jan Stenmark.