1000 photos

Tomorrow marks the 3rd birthday of my Flickr photostream, and as it happens, I am also celebrating my 1000th picture there. Oh, and I even got used to the new design. Looks kind of cool as long as you don't scratch the shiny surface and it saves me money on the pro membership ...

The most-viewed photos are still the same ones as last year, so instead I'm posting a brand-new one here, photo number 1000:

This is of course Calatrava's Liege Guillemins station.

city

city – a guidebook for the urban age

by PD Smith

Bloomsbury 2012

Call me crazy but I love wandering about in big (European-style) cities. Ideally, they should have a historic core (Mediaeval will do, Roman ruins a bonus!), a big river, a university. Prague, Paris, Cologne, that sort of place is the perfect holiday destination for me.

But what makes cities so attractive, not just for me as a visitor, but for an increasing number of people to move into them, especially into the rapidly growing megacities (with more than 10 million people) of the developing world? Can the cultural history of “the city” be generalised to reveal insights into this form of human cohabitation and cooperation?

PD Smith has attempted this generalisation for cities throughout history and around the world. Like one of my random walks through a city, the book explores many avenues and sights, sometimes via unexpected passageways, and the author invites us to peruse the book in nonlinear fashion. Like the districts of a city, the book has themed section, but within their confines, surprise encounters may happen.

Smith highlights the advantages of a compact, walkable, people-friendly city (I might have mentioned Cologne as an example, where people walk, rollerskate, cycle etc. across the entire North-South extent of the city area on the marvellous river promenade), as opposed to the sprawling, car-friendly city (LA, Brasilia, Milton Keynes). People-friendly cities with adequate public transport and energy-efficient buildings are in fact more environmentally benign on a per-person basis than country lifestyles that heavily depend on driving.

Smith draws on an astonishing treasure trove of sources – including the many volumes that have been written about specific, much-loved cities such as Paris, Venice or New York , and on studies of specific topics like commuting, suburbia, or street art. Faithful readers of his book reviews in the Guardian and elsewhere will recognise some of the information nuggets.

Like any traveller, he always tends to gravitate back home to London, which for a time was the biggest and most powerful city of the world. He concludes the weighty tome with an outlook on the future of the city and with a memento mori, reminding us that all cities will fall to ruins one day.

Highly recommended for anybody who can appreciate cities as more than just the place they commute to.

(amazon.co.uk)

symmetry and complexity

My latest feature in Current Biology deals with complexes built from several identical or different protein subunits. There are good reasons why nature likes to build highly symmetrical assemblies from identical protein units, but on the other hand there are also good reasons why such structures may diversify and evolve highly complex arrangements of different subunits, with the proteasome, shown below, being a case in point.


Symmetry and complexity in protein oligomers
Current Biology, Volume 22, Issue 6, R175-R177, 20 March 2012
doi:10.1016/j.cub.2012.03.001

summary page

PDF file

(NB: my features remain on free access only until the next issue appears, i.e. normally 2 weeks, sometimes 3, and they return to free access a year after publication)

(image: © Prof. Michael Groll/Technische Universitaet München.)

I'm blue

The silver medal in my flickr countdown goes to an abstract architecture photo. This is a bit odd, as these pix, much as I love them myself, normally don't get more than the median number of views. My guess is that the group "Photography is not a crime" is mainly responsible for this. I mentioned in the caption that I got told off by a security guard, and people responded to that, so I guess some people will have clicked on the photo to read the story, rather than to appreciate the photo. But it's all good, they get a nice photo as a bonus:



This is in London, between Paddington station and Little Venice.

Valentine's chemistry

In the round-up of German pieces published this month, we have Maya art works, arsenate eaters, disordered proteins and some seasonal musings on the chemistry of Valentine's day:

Nanopartikel zur Rettung von Maya-Kulturschätzen
Chemie in unserer Zeit
Volume 45, Issue 1, page 6, Februar 2011
DOI: 10.1002/ciuz.201190013
abstract and restricted access to PDF file

Arsenat-Verwerter: anders oder nur angepasst?
Chemie in unserer Zeit
Volume 45, Issue 1, page 9, Februar 2011
DOI: 10.1002/ciuz.201190018
abstract and restricted access to PDF file

Unordentliche Proteine
Nachrichten aus der Chemie 59, 133-4
(feature on intrinsically disordered proteins, some thoughts on this available in English here)

Valentins-Chemie
Nachrichten aus der Chemie 59, 111
(an eternal favourite, also see Cupid's chemistry)



A nicely ordered folding pattern I saw at Barcelona, while attending the conference on intrinsically disordered proteins. (Passeig de Gracia No 83, the Suites Avenue hotel, designed by architect Toyo Ito.)

introduction to Calatrava

slightly belated review of:

Calatrava
by Philip Jodidio
Taschen 2007

I’ve been intrigued by Santiago Calatrava’s architecture since seeing the station at Liege Guillemins just before it was completed. At that point, not knowing much and wanting to find out more, I found this little Taschen book the perfect introduction. There are short (2-6 pages) chapters on each building and a 15-page introduction.

As a scientist at the interface between life sciences and physical sciences, I am of course particularly attracted to Calatrava’s characteristic way of taking inspiration from soft, living, moving creatures and using it for his structures, giving them a life of their own. Biology shines through everywhere in his work, and the book is good in pointing this out, using some of the architect’s sketches as well. The photos are brilliant, too, though it may well be physically impossible to make a boring photo of anything designed by Calatrava - even my photos succeed, see below.

Most importantly, the book contains a world map with the locations of his buildings at the end, very handy for planning travels to see as many of his works as possible (so far I’ve seen his completed works at Liege, Barcelona, Sevilla, and Lyon).

PS here's one of my photos of the station at the airport Lyon-St.Exupery:

Santiago Calatrava at Lyon

While I was at Lyon, I also visited one of the major works of my favourite architect, Santiago Calatrava, namely the railway station serving Saint-Exupery airport. From the outside it looks like it could fly:



while from the inside the gravity defying height and lightness of the structure makes me think of a modern variation on the theme of gothic cathedrals. In both cases, the windows are extremely important:



After duly admiring the structure itself inside out and from all sides, I had a lot of fun walking around and checking which details were and which weren't designed by Calatrava - the granite benches, the departures board, the dustbins, and the bollards clearly were part of his grand design. Disappointingly, the fittings in the gents were off-the-shelf stuff (maybe he doesn't want his work to be peed on?).



When you drive a train to the station, it looks like this:



Ok, I'll admit I cheated here, this is in fact the tram towards the city centre moving away from the station ...

For further photos of my visit, check my flickr photostream. In the architecture set you'll also find two other buildings by Calatrava.

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london art and architecture

Busy day at London yesterday - saw the Gauguin exhibition at Tate Modern on its first day:



I'm afraid I have to agree with the review in the Evening Standard - a biographical approach would have been more enlightening. Gauguin only discovered art in his 20s and became a professional painter in his 30s, then turned his back on the Parisian art scene to live in the South Pacific. Just how this unusual biography came to happen doesn't become clear in the exhibition.

I caught the tail end of the exhibition "Exposed" as well - Tate Modern offers a very affordable combined ticket for the two events while they overlap. More on that exhibition some other time.

I also visited the allegedly ugliest new building in the UK:




and still find it beautiful. What most puzzles me about the "ugly award" is that if you look round Elephant & Castle everything else (shopping centre, 60s tower blocks) is truly hideous, so the one way in which the "owl" doesn't fit in is that it is more beautiful than everything within a mile radius. (It isn't in fact substantially higher than the surrounding tower blocks.) Pleased to see that the Latin American restaurant "La Bodeguita" is still there in the Elephant & Castle shopping centre, it has in fact a perfect view onto the front side of the owl.

And I saw Anish Kapoor's mirrors in Hyde Park:



and the red pavillion at the Serpentine Gallery of which I posted a few (all-red) images on my flickr photostream.

Oh and I had a coffee that was just the right size:



Perfect day.

not an ugly building

I don't know who the people are who voted the Strata SE1 the UK's ugliest recent building, but I think they need their eyesight tested. And anyone who calls this a phallus probably hasn't seen one in decades (beer belly getting in the way?).

I actually like the design of it, plus it's built with various green issues in mind (sustainable energy, footprint, infrastructure, etc) So what's not to like?



image : BFLS

It reminds me of an owl more than anything. More information about the building is here.

a house and a family

The trend this summer seems to be to publish a book about the house you live in. Bill Bryson tried it, but I’ve read mostly bad reviews about his attempt to make the history of the world revolve around his Norfolk rectory.

Now Charlotte Moore, known to people in the UK interested in autism as the author of the Guardian column “Mind the gap” and the book George and Sam about her two eponymous sons with autism (she also has a son without), has a new book coming out on Thursday (1.7.):



Hancox: A house and a family. (Viking / Penguin 2010)

Judging by the snippet that appeared in the Guardian this weekend (All under one roof), I find it a lot more promising than the Bryson book. Her house has been in the family since 1888, and its inhabitants seem to have the genetic disposition to keep things, especially everything that has any kind of writing on it. (At that point I was beginning to wonder whether that phenotype is actually linked to the autism genes, or whether the author is a long-lost relative of ours.)

So using the documents and other memorabilia that her relatives have stashed away in the house for 120+ years, she traced the history of both house and family. I’m really looking forward to reading it. Maybe I can get a review copy ?

PS just discovered, there's also an appreciation of the place by her brother in the Observer: Hancox: so much more than just my home and a photo gallery.

dancing about architecture

Whoever said that "writing about music is like dancing about architecture" clearly didn't take the work of Santiago Calatrava into account. I hear the New York City Ballet is currently running a season of new productions developed in collaboration with the architect. See the fascinating video Calatrava at New York City Ballet on YouTube (can't embed it for some reason).

Which reminds me, I do need to adjust my travel plans to be able to see a few more of his buildings in situ. Valencia, Barcelona, Lyon, Zurich, Venice, Malmo, that would make a nice tour around Europe.



(somebody didn't want me to hotlink to their photo, so I had to recycle one of my own!)

PS: conflict of interest declaration: I often write about music, but rarely dance about architecture, so I always felt the statement cited above couldn't be right ...

liege guillemins in passing

Last stop of my April travels -- admiring Liege Guillemins station by Santiago Calatrava (see previous raving here) from within the train, on our way back to Brussels. It's also interesting to notice how the structure stimulates conversation among passengers who didn't know about it, look out of the window, and notice there's something rather special going on outside.

So here's the view from the windows of an ICE train (running 100 mins late, and being overcrowded due to the ash crisis):

modern architecture at Cologne

... moving up the Rhine to Cologne, where there is also an impressive new development lining a former harbour. Three "Kranhaus" blocks, with lift shafts dangling down from an impossibly weightless "crane" dominate the scene, though some of the other buildings are interesting as well, and a few real cranes have been left in place as reminders of the history of the place.

When I visited last year, all three Kranhaus blocks were still unfinished and fenced in. Now the southernmost one at least appears to be inhabited and is freely accessible.

Here are the three crane houses in context (finished one at the front, the least advanced at the back):



The view from below:



... and the elevator shaft from the side:



... ditto, at ground level:



Coming from the cathedral / main station, these are just a half hour walk along the river bank upstream (i.e. south). (Which reminds me, I should mention that unlike in some cities I could think of, one can actually walk along the river for miles and miles, the promenade is just spectacular.) Definitely worth the trip.

Düsseldorf

... some snaps from Düsseldorf. First the mythical water creatures known as Flossies, which apparently emerge from the river Rhine and climb up otherwise unremarkable buildings:



A building by the waterside in the former harbour area, obviously inspired by the former use of the area:



... and going inland, a 3D work of art on a wall near the station of D-Bilk:

Pension Düsselmann, Bad Nauheim

During my recent trip to Germany, I visited the spa town of Bad Nauheim, where my great-aunt and great-grandmother used to live, for the first time in nearly 30 years. My great-aunt, Esther Düsselmann, used to have a bed & breakfast which around 1973 looked like this: On my visit I was pleased to find out that the people who bought the house in the 1980s have renovated it very nicely and are still using it (as offices): Only the garden looks as messy as ever, so I had to take the picture from the side, as the house is barely visible from the front. Bad Nauheim is of course famous for the early 20th century spa buildings: ... and for the fact that Elvis resided there during his military service in nearby Friedberg: PS More about the Düsselmann family is to be found in this blog entry and in the links therein. Update 8.12.2024 I revisited Bad Nauheim last month, and the house looks still splendid. The hedge is now tidier than it was in 2010, so the house is better visible. See my photos on flickr.

architect honoured but not commissioned

Architect Santiago Calatrava was among those honoured by the University of Oxford this summer (along with local author Philip Pullman), but I reckon the University's enthusiasm for his work wouldn't extend to commissioning a building from him ?! There would be plenty of space at the Radcliffe Observatory site.

If you look at the world map of Calatrava's works, there is a suspicious white area just north of the English Channel. One might blame it on the heir to the throne who devours modern architects for breakfast, but I also have a nagging suspicion that those people handling big building budgets around here just don't have the courage to ask somebody like him, who would build something really special. Now I dream of a new Oxford spire ...

architecture show

Have just joined fotocommunity.com, and think I quite like the site. One of the perks is that I can create a slide show of my pix and embed it here (I hope):

fotocommunity

just one new photo can be uploaded each week, but it will appear in full size ...

new earth sciences

... and talking of new buildings, this is the place where "my" lab once stood:



For comparison, see pictures from half a year ago here and from last summer here.

They are building a huge new complex for Earth Sciences, with a much larger footprint than the old buildings which were knocked down. However, it is certain that they will not be able to build higher than maybe 6 floors, as there are very tight restrictions concerning the Oxford skyline. Certain view lines, looking from the surrounding hills at the famous "dreaming spires" must not be crossed, which limits all new buildings to a very reasonable height.

The tree on the right hand side hides the corner of the former Dyson Perrins Laboratory (organic chemistry lab), an early 20th century brick building which has so far survived the general enthusiasm for knocking down old labs. It now houses something else, I think it's related to archaeology. The building carries a plaque sponsored by the RSC, highlighting it as a landmark of the history of chemistry.

Calatrava's new wave

I hear that the new railway station at Liege-Guillemins, which I saw under construction this April, see here, has been officially opened yesterday.

Here's the Guardian's Jonathan Glancey getting all lyrical about it. Quote from his concluding paragraph:

Britain aside, this is the age of the high-speed train in Europe – and Calatrava has provided one of the era's finest monuments, a station that is a destination in itself. It is worth taking the trip from St Pancras to Liège–Guillemins just to experience this building, which makes our own mess of a railway seem all the more maddening.

I agree with all of that -- will have to go back and see how it looks finished. Even though we may soon get direct high-speed trains from London to Cologne, it will still be worth stopping over to admire Santiago Calatrava's new wave. Will also have to check out his other buildings. I was about to say I haven't seen any of them, but looking them up on wikipedia I realised that I had seen the bridge he built at Sevilla for the 1992 world exposition.

PS: another Calatrava building I have seen in statu nascendi (without knowing) is the new footbridge linking Venice's railway station to the bus station, Ponte della Costituzione


here are some of my photos from April:

rising from the rubble

I'm pleased to learn from the Oxford Times that the University's plans for redeveloping the site of the former Radcliffe Infirmary are likely to get the go ahead very soon.

This is a major development in the heart of the city, and it was relief to see that the University has a master plan for this, which looks really good -- I attended a consultation meeting when it was first released. There is also a similar master plan for improvements of the adjacent Science Area.

Previously, a lot of the building work in both areas has followed the logic of tumour growth rather than any large scale planning. The Radcliffe Infirmary site (where I occasionally worked in the course of a collaborative project with biomedical researchers) was a textbook example to demonstrate what happens if you allow people to build whatever they feel like. I have a traumatic memory of a rickety first floor extension towering on stilts above an equally ramshackle (but apparently unrelated) shed. Whatever space was left between the extensions to extensions was crammed with pipes and looked more like a derelict chemical factory than like a hospital and research site.

So, well, most of it had to be knocked down, only two or three listed buildings survived, and the site now looks like this:



but we are promised a whole new university quarter, which will be open to the public as well, with through roads. And with buildings designed by real architects, not cobbled together by cowboys. Can't wait. Lots of modern architecture to take photos of ...