I get a lot of requests for prints and while I’ve made a few runs in the past, it’s always a lot to take on.
One of my goals this year is to go through my archives and upload files to @darkroom in hopes that people will buy some prints to help fund some projects I’m working on.
They’re mostly desert landscapes, hence the name “Dry and Arid Places” but there are a few other requested gems in there too.
At any rate, I priced these competitively while still holding my own value and the gallery shop is open at the link in my profile:
DryandAridPlaces.darkroom.com
Thanks! And yes, I’ve started working on a book as well…
More Le Corbusier
This ground up construction; Villa La Roche isn’t my favorite home of his. Its disjointed floors are intersected by an atrium with a bridge spanning across the second floor and stairs on either end.
But… the way the first four slides relate geometrically to each other makes me happy. That is all.
Parc de la Villette was one of the first projects in architecture school that felt more like an art installation than other projects we had studed.
Bernard Tschumi won a design competition from the city of Paris to design a cultural park in the city’s old meat processing plant site. He proposed not one building but 26 bright red “Follies” all designed based on opposition to Olmsted’s view that “in the park a city is not supposed to exist.”
Tschumi wanted Parc de La Villette to represent the 21st century and so he developed a program that organized a series of cultural and entertainment facilities, along with buildings of seemingly no function, all inspired by movements through the area.
His competition drawings are phenomenal with exploded axonometrics laying out the influences across his grid of program.
Some buildings have a function - like a cafe - and other are experimental representations of what constitutes a “building.”
The folly genre is a powerful implementation of the art of architecture. With many follies dating back to the 18th century. Other French follies are imitations of the Roman temples or Egyptian pyramids.
A folly mocks “styles.”
Here Tschumi appears to be mocking the minimalist grid and circulation of mid century design, heavily used by Le Corbusier.
Tschumi’s theory, process, drawings, and buildings from Parc de la Villette greatly influenced my school projects and as we rolled past Follie 05 totally randomly on a bike ride, my brain was jettisoned back to those first few years of architecture school.
It’s a great site to ride a bike around. 🟥
I love that Paris has restricted so much of the city from cars.
I love all the new bicycle infrastructure. We rode so much all over!
I love the crowded, people packed streets, of the 3rd and the Marais, and the fact that after walking around for eight hours your nostrils aren’t covered in exhaust soot like other cities.
But I do miss the classic cars I saw during my first trip, twenty years ago.
Although this very rare Autobianchi was a nice treat, in a beautiful color at that.
The note on the windshield said something along the lines of “don’t even think about stealing this, it has a GPS and the police know it well.”
Dang. We’ve had a week to decompress after @bespoked.cc UK but my head and heart are still in the zone.
Thanks to all the builders who took the time to let me document their work, thanks to the punters for showing up in force with smiles and conversations, and thanks to everyone at Bespoked UK for putting on a phenomenal show!
See all 1000+ photos and read all about these bikes at the independent cycling lifestyle website…
