Category: Architecture

Japan – more things I loved

Architecture, Japan, People, Photography, Travel
An ancient tree within a shrine garden bandaged and propped up.
Traditional fabric strips over the entry to a building.
A metal drain cover.
An enormous carved wood block, part of a door hinge in a temple.
Rows of hedges defining slopes within the Imperial Palace Gardens in Tokyo.
Elaborate arrangement of glazed shapes.
A face full of character
Sitting watching the Sunday visitors to a shrine.
A storefront in Tokyo.

JAPAN – Details I loved

Architecture, Design, Japan, Photography, Shrines, Travel
Granite blocks at the Imperial Palace
Bamboo screen inside a window
Ceiling of a department store
Handmade brushes
A drain cover in Kyoto
Marking out new road signs in Tokyo
A concrete waste bin
Screen over a restaurant window
Manhole cover
Wedding photography
Ancient weathered wood
A chalked-up recipe for Sake in a brewery
A copper bollard in a Shinto temple
Copper door
Street drainage cover
Plastic chain link washing line
Netting around a children’s playground
The full moon over Kyoto
Somewhere in the Tokyo underground
An internal bamboo screen
Bamboo fencing
Bamboo forest
Moss with tiny fungi
Split bamboo partition
A drawing of a shrine gateway
Pine forest
Flamed wood as weather protection, traditional technique.
Split bamboo screen
Worn wooden handrail in a temple

JAPAN – Architecture, castles and gardens

Architecture, Japan, Travel
A new building in Shibuya district, only 6 floors. I love the curved glass.
I don’t know when this building dates from, with cast concrete slabs decorating the facade. Very different from any other building sin Shibuya district.
A loping brick wall, I have no idea of its purpose but I can only think it might be a sunscreen?!
Low relief cast concrete sign on the outer wall of a public toilet, near the old cemetry in Edo District
I have never seen such an interesting handrail on exterior steps. Beautifully made.
Gorgeous polished copper facade on this bar beside the river. I wonder how often it will need re-polishing.
Backlit 3D structure in the ceiling over the staircase in a large department store.
One of the corner fortresses of the Imperial Palace gardens with modern Tokyo in the background.
Massive granite walls define the extended gardens, the wardens cycle around for speed.
Lines of low hedges define the contours juxtaposed with perfectly smooth flat lawns.

Fortress at Odawara
Modern architecture in Kyoto
Raked sand gardens in Kyoto
Extraordinary glass roof-scape over Kyoto station
Interesting facade in Tokyo
Re-fit of an old low-rise apartment building in Tokyo, lovely use of a red stripe down the corner of the building.
The Sky Tree. Quite terrifyingly moving at the top, swaying in the breeze. Extremely fast lifts. left my stomach behind at floor 5 or thereabouts, height at the viewing platform on floor 29 is 452 meters!
A very much zoomed in view from the viewing platform of the Sky Tree. The atmosphere was very misty, but theres no disguising how much of Tokyo is very tall buildings.
In huge contrast a two or possibly three story townhouse in Taito – Yanaka. Apparently these small houses are only expected to last about 20 years and are then rebuilt from scratch.

 

Architecture of Toulouse and Castres

Architecture, Photography, Travel

Toulouse Blagnac airport, new terminal. Ingenious wood slats behind the glazing panels filters the sun but lets in plenty of

 

light.

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The approach from the plane into the terminal, none of that grey bland utilitarian style here, it is perfectly functional and the yellow is joyous.
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From the outside you see the slatted wood but not the coloured glass dots that are placed at crossing points.
Architecture, France, Airport
Simple glass barriers along the walkways are half-painted in a delightful maritime blue, a sort of abstract beach scene perhaps!
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None of those hideous hard plastic chairs here, just soft red comfort.
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Even on the sunniest of days the light inside is soft with no glare – a calm space, just right when waiting to board a plane.
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Vertical tube lights hanging over the stairwell
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Wooden slats punctuated by circles of coloured glass at the crossing points. A subtle reference to stained glass windows maybe?
corten
An unusual gateway to a school, water-jet cut out lettering in Corten steel.

Castres

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The weir in the river, looking like an abstract oil painting
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River-side living – cantilevered balconies at every level

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Classical references in this old chapel.
corten steel
Some more Corten steel cut-out lettering, this time the letters have been fixed on supports in front of their corresponding gaps.
gardens
Ripe for an abstract linocut print maybe? The formal gardens at the Bishop’s Palace by the river