Atrium Dynamic

The Atrium Space at Pierre Lassonde Pavilion @

Musée National des Beaux-arts du Québec by OMA

2016, first visit to Quebec City, beyond the old town sitting in a quite neighborhood, 

a newly built museum extension.

I enjoy taking photos of the dynamic spaces, while there is a right balance use of shape and geometry intersect with circulation make it an interesting flow compare to a chaotic and disoriented scene. Firmly believing, the rightness is based off the context, and how a space can be viewed standalone by itself while keeping the rest maintain its identify.  

Project Spec @ Archidaily

 

From those glazed Basalt Crystal at Harpa

Building during a difficult economic time, these crystal glazing carries a lot of historic weight. Is it worth it at the end? from the hint-side, i would say yes. The complication aim for the dynamic, captured many important spirit of the landscape; beside the hard, cold basalt figure that it represented, it also capture different light quality of any given day. The movement reflected on the facade is a summer symphony of northern light.  

 

Movement at Atrium

These are series of photography studies capture the flow of movement in the main circulation space. Jean-Noël Desmarais Pavilion of Museum of Modern Art in Montreal.

An addition built in 90's. Many innovation and critics but elevate the museum into the modern era.

Interested in the work of architect and history, you can find it here

 

Beth Sholom Synagogue in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania

End of June start entering the longest daylight hour, perfect time to revisit the age of exploration on transparency.  Master piece at the master's late life, but start with a vision from the client. A modern and simple shape design. No window, but a roof with glass and a rotunda the let light in. 1/2 mil. 100 ft tall. 7 years of work(1953- 1959); Translucent corrugated wired glass and fiber glass ceiling, the age of expressionism. Its also interesting to note that Wright refer the soaring exterior wall as "luminous Mount Sinai". 

construction photos - https://www.bethsholompreservation.org/history

interest for a visit - check this out - https://www.bethsholompreservation.org/visit

 

Painted geometry

This series of photographs is a study of how light interacts with space inside the Museo de Bellas Artes de Asturias, which was designed by the Spanish architect Patxi Mangado from Navarra. I was intrigued by the abstract quality of the space and its direct dialogue with the artwork.

visit Behance for high resolution images.

 

Cesky Krumlov #2- A side trip travel in a low season #2

quite street with cobble road in the morning

The next morning I went out as my usual morning shooting hour around 7, air is a bit foggy but the diffuse light makes it a perfect setting for poetic photo shooting. Usually, we meandering a bit just to grab the sense of the town. After couple sip of fresh air to wake me up, I start to sink in and taking some experimental photos. Such as like following the kid in town to their school to pretend that you are a local, this takes me to the area beyond a normal tourist can reach. It's both fun and a self-fulfillment as an adventurous traveler. 

The castle is located on a hill of the outer bank of the river. Through a series of steps and arcade like sloped street  right underneath the castle, you can get to the tip of the region and overlook the town. The curved river channel dramatically represented as a golden belt as the autumn sun rendered it in low angle.  The enhanced experience at this point is magical, the charmed town with exquisite detail but also complement with a grand gesture that ties everything  together seamlessly. 

Town view from the castle

River Babk Chateau, Sankt Jobst, Chateau Cesky Krumlove and Vltava River

at the underside of towerbridge

Coming down the hill, low angle sun in late fall makes architecture vivid and sharp for photo taking. It's 10am now, time for tourist flocked into this charmed town, and it's also our breakfast break. 

The towns housing arranged in 2/3 of the concentric circle. Rubbing off the church in the center hill. A 30 minutes slow stroll can pretty much go through the whole town. Walking over cobble road like a filming scene; Local stores feels like the boutique shop. We enjoyed the special moment of this medieval town demonstrate its charm and brought us back into his glory past. 

the red-orange roof tile is overly saturated under the autumn sun.

 

Cesky Krumlov#1 - A side trip travel in a low season

Listed as one of the most charming town in east Europe and one of the UNESCO site. Our experience with this little town is romantic yet a bit nostalgic.

The setting of the town is interesting, a river - the Vltava make a dramatic twist which forms two peninsulae, each situated with a dominant building in town- the church and the castle. 

We took an evening bus from Prague and arrived late. It was a time accessing data service isn't cheap, so dropping us off of a highway at 9pm without google map and two oversize suitcase does make you feel a bit adventurous and nervous. 

Judging from ambient lighting source and a diagrammatic map at the bus station- I figured the entrance to the town is probably right across the highway. However, this is not the tourist town I pictured in mind, and we did not encounter any single person before arriving the hotel. And here comes the 2nd problem, the b&b we reserved --- it was closed. 

The area is only lighted with fainting yellowish street light. Pretty much all the hostel in the area had shut their door at this point, with just a bit of faith left, we rang the door bell twice. After a long pause, a woman came out, who later prove to be the mother of our host, greeted us with hand gesture accompany her soft voice(she didn't speak English) and eventually get us to the room. After discussed our breakfast hour and other house policy stuff, she left us alone.

Now, dinner time - our night eventually turn totally amazing 30 min later, but we were simply hoping able to get bar food at that moment. 

We take a quick stroll around the town, did encounter some tourist snapping night shot and one pub with a bar inside (perhaps that's our best shot, I was thinking) --- finally we stopped foot in front of a restaurant we had researched, a tavern, and it was open. At the moment, we step in the restaurant, something magical happened --- there is an open grille right at the reception area fill the place with wood flavored warm air, the atmosphere is cozy and relaxing. We observed a bit and found ourselves a lovely setup in the lower section. With a starving stomach and an open mind, we ordered quite a solid feast for ourselves --- more than enough we end of finishing everything off the doggy bag in the next couple days, well -- that's another long story to crave in if you like.

We took a stroll after the dinner, the night light highlighted areas around the castle. Standing at the foot of castle hill, you can observe the textural graphic and admire details of the illustrious result under the reign of Rosenburg family. Unfortunately, we did not encounter the white lady as the local tale, which I'm pretty sure she can provide stories in great details. 

Prague#5 - Castle above the wind

The ride - best in action!!

Prague castle is located above the plain overlooking the old town, you can access it through bus but we prefer a pilgrim route with our favorite transportation - funicular. This gets us to a vast public part even slightly above the castle, and you got a panorama view of the city -- the true city of hundred-spired reveals at this point. 

Inside the park, a petite Eiffel Tower is standing - a more or less tell commute tower? Across the park, You start descending toward the castle - The meandering network path surrounding the castle add extra interest when the vanishing point constant shift in perspective. The castle complex consists  multiple buildings, it's vast and rich, to avoid digging into the history too much; let me use following photo exchanges for text. 

the prague castle - soaked with tone of fall

Prague#2 - Eastern Europe Trip - Municipal House and Old Town Plaza

Municipal House is at our hotel proximity so we dived right in after dropping the luggage. This is a cloudy drizzling day, fit perfectly to visit any interior space; a small tip - my rule of thumb is always flexible on the sequencing of your list of attractions so they can be rearranged based on your real-time situation. The city hall featured Mucha's art nouveau mural throughout, looking at them as mural stirs a very different feeling from the 2d graphic. It's very engaging, the expression coming out of the body language and the starring eye of the illustration speaks to me directly, intimate and forced.

Entrance of municipal hall

Within 5 minutes walk is the old town plaza, which includes the astronomy clock, old town hall and couple historic building, passing through the square, we stopped by the oldest Jewish joint -

Josefov, or the Jewish quarter; an area in between the old town and Vltava river, understand as an old neighborhood surrounded by a wall - ghetto, which the Jews were limited to live in this area. However, you won't feel the narrow street these days as all of the building but couple historic building were torn down in early 20 century to clear out the slum. We wondered around it and tried to avoid the crowd which take us to the riverfront, overlooking the castle up above the hill.

The sun sets early in the fall, the overcast cloud restored every pigment to its natural state; layered red tile, chrome leaves and blue river in order and ready for the night.

Prague Castle From River Vltava