The Barbican

Walked through the Barbican Centre this afternoon. A building complex that was voted as the ugliest in London by a poll conducted by Grey London in 2003. Though this might be quiet clich coming from an architect - I think that it was an unfair judgment to a project of this scale and ambition.
The project is a very particular product of a moment in the history of this city.. it is a outcome of a way of reasoning, rhetoric and passion that is unknown today! Though I agree that it is quiet difficult to navigate its labyrinthic street and multi levels but at some level I think that is the point.It is not merely a project for the city.. it is infact the city itself ..
with multiple layers and meaning .. of streets and hierarchies..
In its own right its a heroic project..
Parts of the project remind me of the great renderings of the Hugh Ferris (an artist/architect who worked in the early 20th century in New York making many a great images of the skyscrapers of Manhattan)
The project was designed by a trio of architecture professors - Chamberlin, Powell and Bon - starting in 1957
Most tour operators functioning in the city explain to tourist that the 60s was a period when London decided to build ugly buildings.. If these are ugly buildings then London surely may be the capital of the world in this category.

But surely this is only because these buildings are so particular to a time... a time whose aesthetic is sadly now unappreciated... An aesthetic that has been erased from popular memory because of its association with fascict regimes in Europe

Along the South Bank

Have been planning to do this since a long time but till today didn't get around to it.

Carried by tripod to work today and left as soon as I could to get some snaps along the south bank of the Thames while the sky was still slightly blue ( you can see it in some snaps at least )

The railway bridge on the west of the Millennium bridge

The Blackfriar's bridge

The same bridge again ... but this time with the St Paul's cathedral in the background

The National Theatre

The Queen Elizabeth Hall (part of the South Bank Centre)

The Hayward Gallery (part of the South Bank Centre)

The Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Royal Festival Hall

And a couple more cliche snaps

Day @ Greenwich

Spend yesterday at Greenwich walking around in the area, looking at the Market and visiting some great Historical sites. Greenwich has a nice small town feel and you almost forget that your still in London.

Myself at the Greenwich university. The building which was formerly the Greenwich Hospital was designed by Christopher Wren (the great London architect who designed among other important buildings St Paul's Cathedral )

The next two pictures show two parts of the building that was planned by Christopher Wren but were not executed by him -
The Painted Hall (which was painted by James Thornhill)

And the Queen's Chapel.

As you walk away from the River and up the hill towards the Greenwich Park you first come across the Queen's House (considered a very important building in British architectural history) designed by English Renaissance architect Inigo Jones, the building now houses the National Maritime Museum (I have to go back to see this from the inside!)This is one of the collonades that were added to the original Queen's house during an extension w from 1807 (designed by London Docks architect Daniel Asher Alexander).

This is an amazing space and is identical to one of the spaces that was designed by our group for a project in Brasilia at the Berlage Institute last year. This is the same building seen from the park (in the distance tall buildings of Canary Wharf)

And my last stop for the day was to see the most famous site of Greenwich - the marking of the Greenwich Meridian (0° longitude) and Greenwich Mean Time at the Royal Observatory at the top of the hill inside the park.

The place was full of Tourists especially Indian tourists clicking their usual goofy poses [that they save for sites of any touristic significance : ) ]

Royal Observatory, Greenwich

Also part of the Royal Observatory is this exciting small project by the architects I'm currently working for - Allies and Morrison Architects.This strange looking truncated cone houses a new planetarium and aligns itself to the Meridian line.

These are some of the reasons why I think this is a really interesting project -

*Sensitivity towards the listed heritage buildings around *The simplicity and abstraction of its form

* the way it shapes and uses the landscape around it

The Diana Memorial

Was at Hyde Park today and walked past the Diana Memorial. This has to be the best memorial I have seen. It has a great spirit, I really like its soothing curves, light contours and sound of the water.

It's designed by the London office of Landscape designer - Kathryn Gustafson

Check out - Kathryn Gustafson's website