Beijing

The media this week (and all month, really) has been wall-to-wall news, articles and essays about Beijing. Here's my contribution to the avalanche of Beijing coverage:

• Beijing [Figure-Ground.com]
• CCTV Headquarters - Rem Koolhaas/OMA [Figure-Ground.com]
• National Centre for the Performing Arts - Paul Andreu [Figure-Ground.com]

Incidentally, for the first time that I can remember, I'm actually excited about the Olympics. It has not much to do with the Games themselves, but everything to do with the host city and country. All the controversies surrounding this Olympics (the pollution, the media censorship, the crackdown in Tibet, the support of the Sudanese goverment) and the herculean effort the Chinese have made in successfully building a new Beijing that just screams money and power everywhere you look, have made the Olympics interesting again.

August 6, 2008 | Filed Under: Announcements, Architecture & Design, Photos, Travel
Tags: architecture, beijing, china, photos, travel

Toyota Municipal Museum of Art

I love Taniguchi's buildings. They're very elegant and understated.

• Toyota Municipal Museum of Art - Yoshio Taniguchi [Figure-Ground.com]

Another Taniguchi building I've photographed: The Gallery of Horyuji Treasures.

May 8, 2008 | Filed Under: Announcements, Architecture & Design, Photos, Travel
Tags: architecture, figureground, japan, photos, travel, yoshiotaniguchi

Yokohama International Passenger Terminal

• Osanbashi Yokohama International Passenger Terminal - Foreign Office Architects [Figure-Ground.com]

May 3, 2008 | Filed Under: Announcements, Architecture & Design, Photos, Travel
Tags: architecture, figureground, osanbashi, photos, travel, yokohama, yokohamainternationalpassengerterminal

Tadao Ando in Tokyo, 2005—2007

Three recent works of Tadao Ando in Tokyo (pictured above from left to right: hhstyle.com/Casa, Omotesando Hills, 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT). You see a definite departure from earlier works with the incoporation of lots of sharp angles and diagonals. I'm not sure I like this "new" Ando. These are pretty underwhelming projects compared to his earlier work like the Church of the Light and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.

• Tadao Ando in Tokyo, 2005—2007 [Figure-Ground.com]

April 30, 2008 | Filed Under: Announcements, Architecture & Design, Photos, Travel
Tags: architecture, figureground, japan, photos, tadaoando, tokyo, travel

Harajuku Protestant Church

• Harajuku Protestant Church (2005) - Ciel Rouge Creation [Figure-Ground.com]

April 26, 2008 | Filed Under: Announcements, Architecture & Design, Photos, Travel
Tags: architecture, church, harajuku, photos, tokyo, travel

Seoul

These photos are from a trip I took to Seoul over two-and-a-half years ago. I've been meaning to put them up but never got around to it. I'm actually at the airport on my way to Jakarta right now; hopefully, I won't sit on my ass for two-plus years before putting the photos from this trip up. I'm planning on going to some rather out of the way places in Indonesia so wish me luck! This is the first time I'm going somewhere where I need to take preventive medication (for malaria). I almost wanted to cancel my ticket after I read about all the horrible diseases I could contract there. Yikes.

• Seoul [Figure-Ground.com]

May 24, 2007 | Filed Under: Announcements, Photos, Travel
Tags: asia, figureground, photos, seoul, travel

Gehry Residence (plus thoughts on Sketches of Frank Gehry)

"We were told there were ghosts in the house. I decided the ghosts were ghosts of cubism." —Frank Gehry

A small update today: a few exterior shots of the Gehry Residence in Santa Monica. I took these after I went to see Eames House in nearby Pacific Palisades.

I finally got around to seeing Sydney Pollack's documentary Sketches of Frank Gehry last night and I remembered I have a few shots of his house which I never posted so here they are.

• Gehry Residence [Figure-Ground.com]

The documentary is okay, nothing too interesting. It's basically a 80-minute love-fest of Gehry and his work. I understand Gehry is a larger-than-life figure, but can the partners in his firm come off as any more in deference of him? Craig Webb, who by the way is a splitting image of Lyle Lovett, acted more like an awe-struck first-year student assisting his famous professor than a partner in a major architecture firm.

Some Gehry Quotes from the Documentary

On starting a new project: "I'm always scared that I'm not going to know what to do. It's a terrifying moment."

On a model he's working on: "That is so stupid looking, it's great."

On Alvar Aalto: "I would say my work is probably closer to him than any of the other previous generations."

On architecture: "What bugs me are these god damn rules that my profession has as to what fits and what doesn't."

May 20, 2007 | Filed Under: Announcements, Architecture & Design, Photos, Travel
Tags: architecture, california, figureground, frankgehry, la, movie, photos, santamonica, travel