Annie and the queen of England

few months ago, i went to see with a friend a great exhibition of Annie Leibovitz at CO Berlin. among amazing photographs of her personal life, fashion photography services, musicians and celebrities, there was one portrait of the the queen of England - queen Elizabeth II. it was a little bit surprising to see her between Demi Moore naked pregnant and Brad Pitt. well first we were asking our selves how could THAT be?! then i found this video.

Gotham city

one of the things i like about Batman is the location. Gotham city was always this dark, imaginary place, something between New York and Metropolis of Fritz Lang. that is why i was really exited to see that someone invented the map of it. i thought it was much bigger though...

Street art

usually, i'm not a great fan of 'trash'. graffiti and meaningless writings on the walls are not 'my cup of tea' and i prefer other forms of expression, but there are some exceptions!
xoooox is the code-name of a street artist in Berlin (on the left), that like others, is anonymous but has a very recognizable signature. he uses usually stencils and posters .his work could be mistaken for an ad or a design label, a kind of ironic attack on the use of street art for commercial proposes.
about the one of the right, i have no info. i just like it but it's already covered with meaningless graffiti. luckily, Berlin is full of good examples of street art. i should post some others soon.

Thunderbirds Reloaded

a cult TV series that kept us busy in the afternoons and definitely re-evaluated the importance of the eyebrows. aircraft n.2 was my favourite. will be continued with 'team america'

Urban insertion II

well, i guess the main question is about identity. how to create a strong urban identity that can be recognized and can be referred to? we know that most of the cities have, in one way or another, their own identity. an identity that was created through historic and cultural references, climate, building codes, materials, symbols, monuments, etc...but what is the process that characterized the development of the cities today? does contemporary architecture really create or donate to the local identity? or it creates a lot of interesting spaces, new interpretation and other 'big terms' that eventually could be everywhere?

it seems that the contemporary architecture could be classified on a scale between ‘Dubai and Las vegas’. Dubai (and many other cities with a fest growing development) create symbols and monuments to define their identity. Las Vegas, on the other hand, copies symbols and monuments so we could feel as if we are somewhere else. in the first case, it doesn’t really matter where these symbol or monuments are. they could fit almost everywhere. In the second case, creativity and innovation are in doubt.

Presuming that keeping the local identity is important, then designing new buildings that contain the essence of the city within is the main issue. but then how does it deal with pluralism?

Berlin Art Project

on my way to buy some beautiful souvenirs to my friends in Milan, i ran into a gallery with interesting paintings of some german artists: Sebastian Schrader, a joung artist with a realistic, almost baroque, style of surreal and 'Berlin life' scenes. Tom Fleischhauer who paints crowded scenes of people, streets and nature transformed into abstract images in gray-scale. Joerg Lohse who add some glamour to his painting using a fashion ads composition and brands (from his flashlights collection).

i saw them all at the Berlin Art Project showroom, unter den linden 40. between two souvenir shops.

Hiroshi Sugimoto

'Suppose you shoot a whole movie in a single frame? And the answer: You get a shining screen. Immediately I sprang into action, experimenting toward realizing this vision. Dressed up as a tourist, I walked into a cheap cinema in the East Village with a large-format camera. As soon as the movie started, I fixed the shutter at a wide-open aperture, and two hours later when the movie finished, I clicked the shutter closed. That evening, I developed the film, and the vision exploded behind my eyes.' Hiroshi Sugimoto.

U.A. play house, 1978. one of the photographs in the exhibition last year at the Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin.

'VOOM' portraits

'VOOM portraits' is an exhibition created by the iconic artist and theater director Robert Wilson. it is a series of video portraits of celebrities, animals and ordinary people that combine a precise hybrid of still photography and motion picture. a surprising interpretation of the term portrait.

the contrast between the minimal HD video screens and the neo-classical context of the 'plazzo reale' in Milan makes it even more particular.

'VOOM' portraits until october 4th, palazzo reale, Milan, Italy

I need an explanation

this bijou was built few years ago right in front of the 'colonne di San Lorenzo'; one of the most important locations in Milan. where was the office of 'soprintendenza alle belle arti' when you needed it? Sgarbi?

Urban insertion I

what I like about the city is that it offers you a variety of spaces. for many of us, a 'good city' is a city rich of different places that make you feel somewhere else. it has distinguished and individual neighborhoods, streets and squares (we learned it all in the university). Berlin (and maybe most of the big cities...) is a good example for it. Karl Marx Allee for instance: as soon as you arrive to Strausbergerplatz from Alexanderplatz you get the impression of being in another city. this soviet relic from the 50’s, in the middle of the city is in complete contrast with its surrounding. it has a different scale, design and details that make you feel as if you are somewhere in moscow even if you have never been there.

i was always attracted to these different places in the city, all these china towns, little italys and german colonies that have their own codes and cultural references that come from far away. even where they were created in an already existing urban context they managed somehow to modify it and give it a new identity.

i think that one of our tasks as architects is to create this places but it’s not an easy one. when we try to build new architecture are we really making new places? can we do that without references to an already existing culture? in other words, can we say Redbull is the new espresso only because it has caffeine?

Metropolis

metropolis is the name of photography collection, created by the architect Michael Najjar who tries to explore the development of 12 megacities. for each megacity he makes a portrait made of multi-layered photos of different panoramic views. the result is abstract images of endless woven urban fabric. very aesthetic.
some of the portraits might still be in the second floor of Newton bar in Berlin but sometime it's closed. i had to sneak in.

bonus: the website of Michael Najjar will send you directly to one of James Bond's movies...

Transit map of the world

part of a global underground/subway/metro/u-bahn map that shows all the cities which have or planning to have an urban rail system in the future.
the map was made to promote Mark Ovenden's book Transit Maps of the World.

that would be so easy to go and visit family and friends. from Berlin i wouldn't even have to change trains to go to Tel Aviv. to New York though, i will have to change in Newark, which is the american version of Kottbusser Tor or Piazzale Loreto.

thanks again to strange maps

I need an explanation

Alexa shopping center. alexanderplatz, Berlin. when the suburb-chic style meets the city center

The Teahouse of the August Moon

i love japan. well, at least i think. i've never been there but i was always fascinated by the culture of the rising sun country. i guess it's also because of these Hollywood productions i saw when we still had one TV channel.

The Teahouse of the August Moon. 1956 directed by Daniel Mann. with Marlon Brando, Glenn Ford and Machiko Kyo