The old seen project
Collected as a series of albums, all these images and more can be found here. This page is kept for archival purposes.
- The old seen project
- Chipperfield - Neues Museum
- Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza
- Santa Maria Della Pace Cloister, Bramante
- Pantheon - Rome
- Welcomm City
- Paju Book City
- Le Corbusier, Pavillon Suisse
- Le Corbusier, Maison du Brésil
- Jean Nouvel, Fondation Cartier
- St Mary Woolnoth by Nicholas Hawksmoor
- Gothenburg Courthouse by Gunnar Asplund
- Härlanda Church by Peter Celsing
- Mezquita de Cordoba
- Queens House by Inigo Jones
- Caja de Granada: Campo Baeza
- Stockholm Library
- Zürich Tramdepot
- Marble church by Franz Fueg
- Luzern Art Center by Jean Nouvel
- Birch Schule by Peter Märkli
- Berlin free University
- Unité Berlin
- OMA
- Peter Celsing
- School of St Göran
- Church of St Mark by Sigurd Lewerentz
- Chapel of Resurrection by Sigurd Lewerentz
- Riksförsäkringsanstalten by Sigurd Lewerentz
- Högalids Kyrka
- Åsö Gymnasium
- Ahlsell warehouse
- Herzog & de Meuron - The Laban Center
- Francesco_Venezia - Maestre workshop
- The Smithsons
- Caruso st John
Chipperfield - Neues Museum
David Chipperfield
Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza
Santa Maria Della Pace Cloister, Bramante
Pantheon - Rome
Welcomm City
Florian Beigel + ARU and Seung H Sang
Paju Book City
Buildings By Florian Beigel + ARU
Le Corbusier, Pavillon Suisse
Pavillion indeed
Le Corbusier, Maison du Brésil
Playful brutalism
Perhaps not conveyed in these photographs. The building appear surprisingly playful and gentle.
Jean Nouvel, Fondation Cartier
Steel and glass done right
St Mary Woolnoth by Nicholas Hawksmoor
1716
Gothenburg Courthouse by Gunnar Asplund
1913-1937
A stunning interior
Härlanda Church by Peter Celsing
Modern Romanesque
Before seeing it in real life I thought it was a lifeless building. On the contrary it is probably Celsings best.
Mezquita de Cordoba
The Mosque Cathedral of Cordoba
A building of fantastic spatial and ornamental complexity.
Queens House by Inigo Jones
1616 to 1635
That colonnade is pretty terrible. Not done by Inigo though.
Caja de Granada: Campo Baeza
Bank of Granada
The monumental minimalism has a questionable impact on the public space but creates beautiful interiors.
Stockholm Library
Mild Mannered Swede
Despite the bright orange this building is mild if not cool.
Zürich Tramdepot
Interior city room: 1938 Herman Herter
The tramshed sits in the center of Zürich between housing and sunken train tracks. The ashfalt of the street enters the building with the tram tracks that once inside the building disperse across the vast floor. It is an interior room at the scale of the city with the materiality and directness of the city. The space is beautifully lit by monitor rooflights and flourescent tubes. Inspite of its scale and direct design the large building sits quite comfortably on the residential street.
Marble church by Franz Fueg
Meggen, 1966
This Church performs a magic trick as you walk from the exterior to the interior. From the outside the material of the walls appear to be opaque white stone. Inside the stone reveals a golden brown translucency.
Luzern Art Center by Jean Nouvel
Big roof
This expensive looking building revealed to me how surreal most of Jean Nouvels designs are. Before visiting this building I saw him as a typical steel and glass modernist. The price tag is easily conveyed in photographs but the wierdness is tamed.
Birch Schule by Peter Märkli
Big house with big joints
This school is part of a redevelopment of an industrial
area in Oerlikon just outside Zürich. Märklis intention was
to create a shool that is part of and a generator of public
space. The repetitious precast facade aims towards the
language of classical public buildings. The building faces
in every direction and is
“the same all over”
. A reference to the
Smithsonsand their concept of
“a building of the conglomerate order”
?
The interiors follow the logic of a
“big house with big joints”
. The materials are
robust and the joints large. The internal elevations are
highly elaborated and there seems to be no attemt at
reduction. The problem of sprinklers, fire alarms, smoke
detectors and lights was solved in a positive way. Rather
than hiding them Märkli has collected them in flat white
cages attached to the ceiling. The suspended ceilings form
boxy space-making shapes. The design choice between less or
a robust more always fall on the latter.
The palette of colours comes from a 1969 Alpha Romeo and
is a muted green, grey, beige. A very successfull and
unusual choice is the dark red colour used for sinks and
flooring in wet areas. Märkli is was keen to point out that
one should not use primary colours for children as in would
contribute to an infantilizing of the young who are just as
sensitive in these matters as adults.. Moreover the
children, their art and their clothes will add colour to
the school.
Sadly I lost the 'real' roll of film from this visit.
These photograhs are only my casual digisnaps.
Berlin free University
By Georges Candilis, Alexis Josic, Shadrach Woods, Jean Prouvé
This building designed by Team X members is considered to be a prime example of a mat-building. The low, large footprint structure has no front elevation, it is the same all over but responds to site and programme within the constraints of the construction system. It has been successfully extended several times as the facade finish bear witness. Students use the vast areas of wide, carpeted, corridor floor to sit down, study, and socialize. The footprint of the building creates a total interior The courtyards are unable to challange the carpeted interior world as they in courtyard manner look inwards. The beautiful Jean Prouvé facade system in cor-ten steel is in a bad state and is to a large extent covered in gaffer tape and foil. The additions use other finishes with reasonable success but never with the beauty of the original rusting steel.
Unité Berlin
Le Corbusier's Unité Berlin
Not Corbs best work but it was still interesting to see. Especially the interior corridors and the scale of the building in the landscape.
OMA
Dutch Embassy Berlin
The building does not appear quite as dramatic i real life. The slice of building forming the two thin sides of the parcel is the most flamboyant architectural decision, only parts of if can be used by people. The (exterior) finish and materiality appear sober and sophisticated. The glased double facade seem expedient and beautiful at the same time.
Peter Celsing
Prolific modernist
The swedish architect who seem to have built everything.
School of St Göran
Brutalism
Built 1956-60, designed by Leonie Geisendorf.
Church of St Mark by Sigurd Lewerentz
1956
Church of St Mark
The visual and tactile strenght of the brick construction allows for a freedom in detail and form. What could have been an incoherent mess of to many ideas is tied together, by the brick, into a building that has both monumental strenght and liberating looseness.
Chapel of Resurrection by Sigurd Lewerentz
Chapel of Resurrection
The impact of this building nears the narrative arts, it grabs your guts. The austerity of the exterior, the exaggerated proportions and long approach tries in vain to prepare you for the interior.
Riksförsäkringsanstalten by Sigurd Lewerentz
Riksförsäkringsanstalten
Even as a white modernistLewerentz designs were incredible strong and unlike his contemporaries. This building manages to be both classical and modernist without insecurity or blandness, Lewerentz design personality is stronger than the styles.
Högalids Kyrka
Högalids kyrka by Ivar Temgbom
An overly national romantic church.
Åsö Gymnasium
Eyesore with potential
Åsö gymnasium is pretty much a large dead area in Söder (area of Stockholm) but the complex has a stark beauty hidden in the ill maintained volumes.
Ahlsell warehouse
Warehouse
In södra Hammarbyhamnen this warehouse is beeing deconstructed. Its a very nice setup with a ultra light building ontop of the concrete deck.
Herzog & de Meuron - The Laban Center
Herzog de Meurondoes surfaces in Deptford. The building is beautiful, but its´s immaterial, unreal qualities are in to stark contrast with its surrounding. The fence, beautiful as it is, and other strong terriorial markings couple with the immaterial facade to create a beautiful, not hostile, but indifferent alien.
Francesco_Venezia - Maestre workshop
University Workshop Building
The Smithsons
The Economist Building is a direct result of the Berlin competition where the Smithsons refined their ideas of cluster buildings. The complex shows a softer side of the Smithsons and their debt to Mies is at the most obvious. The Economist building must be their most sucessful building, the thresholds and the gradual spatial transitions are very sensitive. The scale and positioning of the buildings show respect for the context whilst adding something distinctly new. The plaza is very well articulated and does form a nice shortcut in the city as envisaged by the architects.
Robin Hood Gardens
A very tough building located on a tough site. This building is an example of how the Smithsons were influenced by the heroic architecture they critisized.
Caruso st John
New Walsall Gallery
The most memorable thing about this gallery was its presence in the city. From a distance it looked like a large but special factory situated in the industial city. Secondly the way it was used by teenagers, hangin' out and snogging in an art gallery, unusual.