architecture – Page 3

morocco by train

This post has been a long time coming as we have been in and out of our flat with plastering and heating issues, and I have a little crazy at work. A quick summary of our Christmas trip below – but the flickr set is probably more interesting.

Having enjoyed our train rides to France last summer so much, and with support from the man in seat 61 Chhay & I decided to test the limits of the system and catch the train to Africa!

Unfortunately there isn’t a direct service from Glasgow Central to Marrakesh, so we pieced our route together traveling down to London, onto the Eurostar to Paris, overnight (in first class spleandour) to Madrid, where we paused for a day to take a breath, before crossing Andalucia to Algeciras in the shadow of Gibralta (by now getting quite weary), crossed the straights by ferry to Tanger for our first taste of Africa before (just to push things that little bit further) we got the sleeper to Marrakesh.
The journey was quite remarkable covering some fantastic terrain, interspersed with 3 course meals int he dining car, and lots of card games – cuarenta developing as a particular favourite much to the amusement of our fellow passengers I suspect.

No boring details but we had a day of contemporary architecture in Madrid, enjoyed an intense (though quite middle eastern feeling) introduction to Africa in Tanger before we spent five very relaxing days over christmas in the charming walled coastal town of Essaouira. It is incredible picturesque with narrow streets, a bustling fishing harbour, with fresh seafood cooked in front of you on teh harbour front as well as a pristine beach. We spent most of our time in our quirky rooftop apartment, shopped in the local markets, ate pastries from the French bakeries, or sat in front of the open fire. Occasionally we would venture out into the souks and alleys, explore local restaurants or go for a wander along the ramparts but generally we kept activity to a bare minimum. The energy levels increased once we returned to Marrakesh on our last day with it’s heaving souks and bazaars.
A mini visit to Barcelona for New Years eve on the way back looked like it may have been a step to far as we struggled to find places suitable to our eclectic (and often mutually exclusive) standards but the city worked its charms, and we also manged to catch up with some old friends and see their new baby before we jumped back on the train home via Paris and London.

liverpool

We spent a fantastic few days visiting Liverpool for the first time at the end of November. Mersyside has the honour of being the European City of Culture this year so there was plenty of things to take in.

We started things off in epic fashion on Thursday night with local lads Echo & the Bunnymen returning and playing Ocean Rain with the accompaniment of a full symphony orchestra. The Bunnymen played a straight up set first off, which was difficult to get into as we were up in the rafters of the totally anonymous (but appropriately named) Echo Arena. Once the orchestra came on the atmosphere was electric, closely matching the magic of their set at Connect last year for personal impact.

On Friday we tootled about the wonderfully intricate ropewalks areas hunting down abandoned brick warehouses and back lane bars. We also checked out a few of the art Biennial installations (including Ai Wei Weiâ€™s spider and the immaculately detailed extension to the Bluecoat gallery) wandered pasted the modernist catholic metropolitan cathedral (Above) and down the road to its equally grandiose Anglican sibling (top). After a late lunch and a few bottles of wine too many at crazy Keith’s in suburban Lark Lane, Claire joined us off the Glasgow train and we met a friend of a friend for some illegal noodles at the intriguing Static Gallery with the friendly staff from ShedKM, which lead to a small tour of some of Liverpoolâ€™s finer drinking establishments as evidenced by the cheery faces below!

After a long sleep in on Saturday we wandered through the eerie mist that had descended on the city to view the somewhat unfocused Le Corbusier exhibition in the crypt of the Metropolitan Cathedral. On the way we chalked up visits to a couple more interesting Art Biennial installations including Atelier Bow Wowâ€™s Rockslide performance space.

That evening we attended to unofficial closing party for the Independent Biennial a wacky space themed poetry cum electro performance with great sets from wave if your really there and we have band who are both worth looking out for if you fancy a boogie.

Sunday morning we squeezed in a quick visit to the fantastic FACT which included a curiously disturbing noise art installation, as well as an installation of Yoko Onoâ€™s ladders in the evocative bombed out ruins of St Lukeâ€™s church, before we hopped back on the train totally knackered but thoroughly entertained.

venice

out there

My new office kindly took us all to Venice for a weekend to witness the opening of the 11th Venice Architectural Biennale, in particular the opening party for the GHA designed Scottish Pavilion. I had nothing to do with it as it had all happened before I joined the practice but was kindly taken along for the ride, and Chhay joined us along with a solid contingent of WaG’s (and not forgetting the HaB’s too!)

I was excited to visit Venice for the first time despite the tourist mecca that it is renowned to be. The combination of lots of boats, windy lanes and Italian architecture is too close to my heart to ignore. Our explorations of the maze of alleyways was limited by torrential rain on the Saturday, which we spent tucked in another of my ideal urban ingredients – a tiny corner bar open to the street and plastic bag clad masses.

Sunday proved to be a little drier so we packed an architectural meg day, starting in the national pavilions in the Giardini before a hyperspeed tour of the architectural (or sculptural really) delights of the Arsenale, where the starchitects had come out to play – with swoopy, eye candy from the likes of Zaha and Frank.

Highlights were the Belgian pavilion filled only with tonnes of confetti in an exploration of emptiness, the indescribably beautiful pencil drawings on the walls of the Japanese pavilions and the mind numbing, literally disorientating saturation of ideas bursting out of the Italian pavilion.

Naturally a weekend was not even close to enough time to explore it all, and the next biennale may provide the perfect excuse to return in a few years time!

london in the summertime

We snuck down to London for the first time in over year at the end of July, to see friends, catch the tail end of the London Festival of Architecture, visit a few galleries and generally see London in summer for the first time.

It was a great weekend, we popped by the just opened Serpentine Pavillion by Frank Gehry (above), although we couldn’t get in because of a fancy pants party, as well spending a fantastic half a day in the Psycho Buildings exhibition at the awesomely brutalist Hayward Gallery. I suppose it was to be expected given our profession but the artists interpreting architecture lent itself to some absolutely brilliant pieces in my opinion – including a spooky dolls house city by Rachael Whiteread a surreal frozen explosion by the Cubans Los Carpinteros and the chance to paddle about on the roof of the gallery courtesy of Gelitin’s Normally, Proceeding and unrestricted without title (below)

We caught up with old friends and farewelled some too, there aren’t many Australians left it seems. We had time to more fully explore the east end of the city wandering about the hipster paradised of Hoxton & Shoreditch, getting our fill of vietnamese (as we can’t find any in Glasgow) and trying out the eco-friendly Waterhouse – which in it’s suitable obscure location served up excellent fare although I was skeptical about prawns flown in from Thailand irrespective of the sustainability of their production.

culloden

I enjoyed my first office outing with my new employers last weekend (not bad after 5 weeks given that we didn’t go anywhere in 18 months at my previous office!) to our newly completed visitors centre at Culloden. Not knowing anything about the battle it was interesting from a historical as well as architectural perspective (I later learned that the Henderson’s sneakily avoided it so I don’t have to take sides in all the stupid commentary 250 years later – scroll down for the comments!)

The building itself sits well in the context and make some nice strong big moves, however up close reveals the evidence of the design + build contract in some of the detailing and final resolution. However, standing in the battlefield with the timber cladding just visible on the horizon (above) the mystery and spookiness of the site is retained, with the profile of the building following the surrounding hills.

I’m looking forward to out next trip in a few months – a little further afield this time to Venice for the opening of the Scottish gathering space.

moving on

Today is my last day with jmarchitects – I start with gareth hoskins architects on Monday – lets see if the grass really is greener on the other side…

costa del solway and the garden of cosmic speculation

The lack of recent posts has been down to some decidedly summerlike weather (5 days without rain!) which has seen us in the garden and out at the allotment. Our seedlings are getting rather huge in the conservatory, although many of the ones that we planted out have been decimated by slugs! I finally added the roof to the greenhouse this weekend so with the addition of a door and an industrial load of gap filler we’ll be at lock up stage.

last weekend for the first of 2 may long weekends we headed south into the Dumfries region. We camped on the Solway Coast in one of those decidedly Brittish holiday parks, complete with green caravans, kids with buckets & spades and a decidedly underwhelming beach, although this one was much less garish than most and beautifully sited overlooking a little bay (above).

We walked from our campsite along the coast to the delightful Rocklciffe & Kipford (more boats – you have to feel for poor Chhay, having to put up with me) , past little settlements and ultimate natural smugglers hideouts (above) carved into the cliffs. We also found time to explore the atmospheric ruined Sweetheart Abbey and the attendant cute little town of New Abbey (below).

On the Sunday we headed back past Dumfries (itself an interesting if a little sketchy regional centre with great winding lanes and beautiful red sandstone housing stock) to the reason for our trip – Charles Jencks own Garden of Cosmic Speculation. Open to the public on only one day a year it is an esoteric, sometimes humorous sculptural post modern landscape treat. Curving grass helixes (below), mirrored ponds, obscure sculptures tucked into hidden groves (bottom) as well as complex hydrological features make for a fascinating place for exploring and it was incredibly popular – packed with the funkier edge of the blue rinse set.

While some of it was a little too post modern for my black skivvied taste, it is an amazing place, showing that there is more to the old critic than a few architecture tomes. As always more at our flickr

southside

glasgow school of art detail, originally uploaded by tim&chhay.

Our friend Ashley from Brisvegas visited us a couple of weekends ago – having scored a free trip courtesy of Her Majesty. We had hired a car for the weekend, so after a coffee from our favourite weekday haunt where the monkey sleeps, we snuck up to the school of art building (above) & the CCA, before taking off to the southside – giving Ashley a rather skewed perspective of our Glasgow.
We popped in to the Queen’s Park famer’s market, wandered about at the tramway for a bit (although there weren’t any exhibitions open as they were preparing for gi), and as the weather was holding up, (and it has a Queensland architectural connection) we took a tour to the Burrell collection, and Pollock House & gardens.

With storm clouds gathering the wonders of vehicular transport let us also squeeze in a guided tour of the new Chipperfield started/Keppie completed BBC building courtesy of Claire, very crisp inside with an impressive red sandstone “street” rising about 5 storeys up through the central atrium.

bbc scotland, originally uploaded by tim&chhay.

Daylight saving even allowed us to wander about the merchant city for an hour or so before a late dinner at Grass Roots which was quite delicious, and a place we intend to return to.

st peters seminary, cardross

machine

One of the highlights of our mad dash across scotland with our friend Ashley last weekend was a visit to the abandoned modernist ruin of St Peter’s Seminary by the locally lauded Gillespie Kidd & Coia. Haunt of local neds, willful fire raisers, hidden glasgow photographers and Mackintosh School of Architecture disciples alike it is a powerful building in a beatutiful context, spooky in its abandonment.

The main hall is a spectacular space with tiered accomodation above a concrete alter now exposed to the sun (below), covered in debris and graffiti. We took one of Ashley’s friends from his course along for the ride – I’ve included his photos here – they’re much better than my efforts. Chhay in her retro manner did get some very atmospheric polaroids which I’ll scan and upload soon. Apologies for the image heavy post but I think they convey the building far better than my words.

More photos at our & daniel’s flickr

Alter, originally uploaded by dmmd303.

st peters, originally uploaded by tim&chhay.

Reflection, originally uploaded by dmmd303.

allotment 08_02_10: the greenhouse part 1

allotment 08_02_10 01

We tackled our less than complete greenhouse as our first significant project. Once we determined that the extisting frame wasn’t suitable for any of the pile of existing windows we have on site we distmantled most of it down to the floor (above). Having clad the back walls with the tin that had unsuccessfully formed the roof previously we then began assembling prefabricated frames from old scaffolding planks to form the front wall. While slightly over engineered they should give us a good substrate for fixing shelves and things once complete – which seems a distant prospect given the after shot below!

allotment 08_02_10 02