VINEYARD CLASSICISM

This facade is amazing. Simple, and yet intriguing. I suppose the thick stone walls are keeping the wine cold, while the arches and niches make it interesting. The building doesn't really look like a château to me, but it's supposed to be the vineyard Château Mouton-Rothschild in Médoc, Southern France. (Study trips are a great occasion for discussing (and drinking) wine.)

FICTIONAL FRIDAY: OUR HOUSE

Strange, but charming. Don't you think?

PRESENTATION

Today was my first presentation about architecture at BAS without drawings or models. I was presenting my essay concerning sustainability and the use of local materials, showing mostly pictures and telling about my findings and my views, and the response was good. I've done loads of presentations before, but this one was the first about architecture in a theoretical perspective, so I was a bit nervous. All the more rewarding when people came up to me afterwards and told me that it was exciting and focused!

The picture is of the village of Rocamadour in France, a great example of how the use of local materials (in this case limestone from the cliff on which the village itself stands) can result in "an unrestrained harmony", to quote the essay. (Ha ha, I'm so pretentious!) Picture credits: Wikimedia Commons.

CRADLE TO CRADLE

A riddle: Why is Palau Güell (1888) like Siljustøl (1939)?
Hint: It has to do with the origin of the materials.

FICTIONAL FRIDAY: OLIVER!

Thank God it's Fictional Friday! In this new series of posts on my blog, I'll present fantastical and fictional architecture from books, television, films, computer games, art etc. every Friday.

Today's contribution is the gloriously silly "Who will buy?" scene from the 1968 musical film "Oliver!", which won an Oscar for Best Picture. Although this may look very much like a real London street, and some even believed it was filmed at the Royal Crescent in Bath, it's all a gigantic film set which was built at Shepperton Studios. According to movie-locations.com, the designer was John Box, Production Designer, and the inspiration is of course classical terraced houses, garden squares and architectural crescents such as the aforementioned Royal Crescent.

Not only is the street and park beautiful, and most definitely a place I'd like to live myself if it was real, but the scene, which by the way took six weeks to film, also has a great interaction between choreography and architecture, with dancing and stunts following the rhythm of the facades.

GYPSY KINGS

Gypsy Kings from Sebastien Cuvelier on Vimeo.

What happens when kitsch is so kitschy that it's not just kitsch anymore? I mean... It's not pretty, that's quite obvious, but somehow,  it is a bit fascinating.

MRS. JACOBS AND THE CAT IN THE WINDOW

“There must be eyes on the street, eyes belonging to those we might call the natural proprietors of the street. The buildings on a street equipped to handle strangers and to insure the safety of both residents and strangers, must be oriented to the street.  They cannot turn their backs or blank sides on it and leave it blind.  The sidewalk must have users on it fairly continuously, both to add to the number of effective eyes on the street and to induce a sufficient number of people in buildings along the street to watch the sidewalks.“

- Jane Jacobs in one of the most important books about city planning, 'The Death and Life of Great American Cities'

Does this work with cats as well?

STICKS AND STONES

Sticks and stones

May break my bones

But I'd rather you build houses out of them.

Chester Rows in Chester, Cheshire, England, with covered walkways and shops on two floors in townhouses for wealthy families.

ONE MORE HOUSE

There's almost always room for one more little townhouse. This perfect pink one's in Portugal, I think. Don't remember who took the picture, but it sure as Honeydukes wasn't me.

Edit 7th September: The picture was taken by Anders Eide and I borrowed it without asking. Thanks, Anders.

INFERIOR

Julie: Hanging out in the stairs. Supposedly very New York-ish.

Kristian: Stairs that aren't fit for hanging out, are clearly inferior.

Picture taken in NY by my friend Julie Lødrup, on the right. I'm not quite sure who the two other girls are, but they seem nice, too. Julie also has an excellent political blog, called Julie and the City Council. Check it out if you understand Norwegian!

THE WAY WE LIVE (IN NORWAY, TOO)

Roofscape in Prague, picture by yours truly

I just stumbled upon this video on Youtube, and I rather liked it. Supporters of intelligent urbanism, Peter Calthorpe, Leon Krier, Michael Lykoudis, Jacquelin Robertson, Demetri Porphyrios & Robert Adam explain their views on what citites are today, and what they should be. All these guys like very traditional-looking buildings, and the video is perhaps a bit too focused on American cities, but the message is universal. Have a look.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

For unto us a child is born (and He doesn't want you to drive your car everywhere).

Transit-oriented gingerbread house by the Center for Neighbourhood Technology.

MEANWHILE, IN NEW YORK

So you think there's no urban trend going on? So you want to build pretty, grey houses out in the country, where you can escape the noise and life of the city? So you think the city centre is a place to live only when you're young and studying? Think again.

As some of you (I'm quite intrigued by the fact that there actually are people reading my blog) may I have noticed, I have passion for townhouses. This urban version of the single-family house, existing in different incarnations all over the world have, in my opinion, the potential of replacing the detached house. While the suburban detached house is known for causing overuse of resources and energy, destroying natural and agricultural landscapes by the way of suburban sprawl, not to mention very high emissions of greenhouse gases and local pollutants because of people driving their cars everywhere (gasp!), the townhouse takes up less space and can fit into almost any kind of urban situation, while still giving people the feeling of living in their own house.

I'm not the only one who likes them though. While reading the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten online yesterday, I discovered that the richest man in the world, Carlos Slim, had just bought the townhouse in the picture (Although they called it a villa. Amateurs.). According to the Forbes magazine article they link to in (where I didn't steal the pictures, I found them on Wikimedia Commons, thankyouverymuch), the house is only 9 meters (27 feet) wide, but around 33 meters (100 feet) long. Located at 1009 Fifth Avenue, it's just across the street from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in the middle of New York City. Although a house of this kind is far to big to be a sustainable alternative for everyone, I find it very interesting that a person like this chooses to live in the city, and buys a townhouse to live in, instead of just driving to work from some gigantic suburban villa every days. More of this! (Only a bit smaller.)