some favorite phrases

Genius is more often found in a cracked pot than in a whole one.


~ E. B. White



You must have chaos within yourself to give birth to a dancing star.

~Friedrich Nietzsche



Anyone who lives within their means suffers from lack of imagination.

~Oscar Wilde



He allowed himself to be swayed by his conviction that human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but that life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves.

~Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Tim Walker mi amour

Zipping steel

architecture mon amour......

Heatherwick Studio's Longchamp space

The most inventive retail space. Handcrafted French leather purses deserved to be shown...

Concrete Fashion

Architecturally designed jewelry is always intriguing. Frank Gehry has had a collection at Tiffany & Co. for a few years now. The various themes are; fish (images 1&2) torque, morph (image 3), orchid, flux, etc.

Frank Gehry's jewelry for Tiffany & Co.

The shapes are very reminiscent of his exterior architectural aesthetic. The skin his buildings stretch and ooze leaving to the imagination the interior program. These whimsical stylings are very intriguing, but what if architectural/building elements become adornments?

Frank Gehry's Dancing Building and Music Pavillion.

Canadian jewelry designer Karen Konzuk uses architectural and design elements as actual personal accessories. She has embraced her vision of simple and clean accessories where the materials speak for themselves without the need of overly complicated ornamentation. “Konzuk jewelry, with its highly personal elements such as a subtle use of color and an innovative use of materials, is faithful to the clean, minimalist aesthetic of contemporary industrial design and architecture,” is how the fashion is explained on the Konzuk website. Not only are building materials such as concrete, steel, and powder coated enamel celebrated for aesthetic purposes on this minute scale, but they also use design based mechanisms for production such as CNC machines, laser cutters and photoengraving. The themes that Karen Konzuk portrays effectively to buyers are that of individuality, durability, designed strength, color, and beauty.

Konzuk Jewelry Collections

I love the pieces for their simplistic and clean design and the celebration of strength and beauty of manmade materials. I also admire the truth in her design. The Konzuk blog features an inspiration section posted by Karen Konzuk that include mostly architectural images that sparked each of her collections.

weddings - retro

Faces have been covered to protect the innocent

Death by Terracotta

The Bechtler Modern Art Museum

Of course the professional photography looks amazing (left) but I am not sure this building is meant to be seen by day (right).  I am not exactly saying that I do not like it....there are things I appreciate about it and things that I do not.

The overall textures that the terracotta creates are intriguing, but I was more intrigued when I thought that they were all the same unit flipped and flopped to create all of these different elements.  They are, in reality, cast from different molds. It is much smaller than I thought it would be, but the main gallery is highlighted from the outside with the heavy cantilever being held up by a long but significant column.

The south end of downtown is becoming quite the cultural center.  The Bechtler backs up to the Knight Theater, catty cornered is the African American Cultural Center, soon across the street will be the new Mint Museum and a few blocks away resides the one and only NASCAR Hall of Fame.  These have brought some amazing architectural talent to Charlotte as well as highlighting some local talent, Mario Botta, Harvey Gantt, Clark Patterson Lee, and The office of I M Pei.

*art entry to follow

Love and Architecture

I am absolutely in love.  The head over heals kind. 

I get daily updates from the contemporist.com, which has also quickly become one of my favorite sites along with inhabitat.com. 

This is today's feature from Guz Architects - a new favorite!

The Tangga House

Singapore

Description from Guz Architects:

The house is a contemporary interpretation of a traditional courtyard house, laid out around a central green courtyard with a double height stair and entry area forming the focal point of the project. The L-shaped plan creates open spaces which encourage natural ventilation and offer resident’s views over the courtyard to the verandah, roof gardens and beyond. Lushly planted roof gardens surround the house and add to the effect that nature is evident in every part of the house. The large roof above the courtyard creates an indoor and outdoor space leading to the gardens and swimming pool which wraps around two sides of the house. The tangga house hopefully gives the owners the opportunity to live in harmony and comfort with nature, in singapores hot tropical climate

I love how the pool and garden are integrated into every facet of the house - roof - terrace - back yard.