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.

magnificent maps

On my last visit to London, I had a few hours spare and went to the Magnificent Maps exhibition at the British Library, just because it happened to be on my way. Found it really interesting in the way it shows the different ways in which maps have been used in different contexts - each represented by a room of the venue, e.g. the audience chamber, the bedchamber, the merchant's house, etc.

I actually tend to put maps on my walls as well, have a huge pseudo-realistic view of Europe on display, and an aerial photograph of Oxford (kind of a map as well). Sad though that satnavs and google maps will drive all map makers out of business, so I'm not sure whether there will be any maps from the 21st century to feature in future exhibitions.

Magnificent Maps continues until Sept.19

a furious gentleman

When I finished my PhD and packed my bags to move to the UK, my professor gave me a book by watercolour artist David Gentleman as a parting present, called Gentleman's Britain. The pictures are nice, and the comments by the artist equally well observed, but on the whole, as one would expect from watercolour artists, the work is rather inoffensive.

Imagine my surprise then to find out from this feature in the Guardian's review section that Gentleman is also the artist behind the distinctive and furious blood splattered designs of the 2003 protests against Bliar's war in Iraq, and he is even credited with the idea of turning those two letters around, even though somebody would have done that sooner or later I'm sure.

So I've combined two rather contrasting works that I own in one photo:



Oh, and he's also done lots of posters, stamps, murals in London tube stations, etc. So it's Gentleman's Britain in more than one sense!

venn diagrams

Car design is of course one of the creative activities we're most exposed to, as all our streets are clogged with the things, so I do tend to have strong opinions on what I am confronted with, even though I'm not going to buy a car any time soon. One of the designs I really like is the outline of the backside of the original Ford Ka, which is like a Venn diagram with the lights defined by the overlap between two sets (best appreciated from straight behind, as the kink will disappear).

I was reluctant to put this on here, as I didn't want to do advertising for cars, but I noticed recently that the new version of the model has switched to a completely different (more Japanese-looking) design, so assuming that this one isn't being built any more, I can praise it without fear of boosting car sales (happy to support the vintage car trade, though).



and of course it looks even better with the reflection of the OU Museum of Natural History ...

favourite designs

As part two of my "things I like the look of" I was going to show the new British coins -- very surprisingly, they actually picked a very clever design for last year's revamp, where each coin is like a keyhole revealing part of a bigger picture :)

looking it up on Wikipedia, I found out that reproducing images of UK coins and banknotes, in whatever size and on whatever material will get me tarred, feathered, quartered, hanged and drowned, or something along these lines.

So I'll just post a link to wiki instead (apparently they have obtained an exceptional permission to show the coins, which they have to renew every year, or else they will be tarred ... etc.):

UK coin design.

I have by now collected nice specimens of all coins except the 1 pound coin (the one which contains the solution of the jigsaw).