Cuthbert

I like looking at pictures of buildings sometimes so I thought we could have a thread for that.

York Minster, York, United Kingdom:





Roman Baths, Bath, United Kingdom:







Glasgow City Chambers, Glasgow, United Kingdom:





Victoria Law Courts, Birmingham, United Kingdom:

Cuthbert

Allianz Arena (home of Bayern Munich), Munich, Germany:









Westminster Abbey, City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom:







Estadio Santiago Bernabeu (home of Real Madrid CF), Madrid, Spain:

Ol’ Qwerty Bastard

this is the new library they built near my place a few years ago

thoughts?

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Lisnaholic

At last! The thread I've always wanted: Victorian Law Courts Wars.

Round One: Birmingham vs. London:

vs. London:-



^ I'd say that the top floor, with it's dramatic overhang is an exciting piece of architecture, qwertyy. Not so good is the middle floor, which is neither straight nor dramatic; it looks like a slice of ham that hasn't been put in the sandwich properly and just makes me annoyed that nobody could be bothered to push it straight.

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"Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953

Ol’ Qwerty Bastard

the top floor might be the best part of the design. i spent a lot of time there during my last semester and usually after long hours of studying and homework we would go out on the roof and watch passing traffic just to clear our minds and relax.

unfortunately awhile back there was a jumper scenario and because the individual was ready to jump from the top floor, they deemed it unsafe. so until they come up with a safer way to prevent that from happening again the rooftop is closed.

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Lisnaholic

^ That sounds like a nice thing to do. What a pity that it's been closed.

Two of my fave brick churches. This one in London:-



The next is Watts Cemetery chapel, tucked away in a little-visited corner of the countryside about three hours from London; I still remember the feeling of surprise I felt when I first came across it by chance while cycling down a country lane.

The floor plan is just a cross superimposed on a circle and in the middle of this photo you can see one quarter of the curved wall, so you can imagine how, out of sight, it repeats itself at the back, in perfect symmetry. And notice how, at about first-floor level, there is a band of decoration on the curved wall? There are similar decorative panels running vertically down the stubby ends of the cross walls.
..........................................

Well, each one of those decorative terracotta panels is a work of art in itself: here's a photo of one, close up. What I particularly like is that the decorator has given up any pretense of depicting conventional Christian symbols. It's like he's saying, "Forget the religion, this is art!"

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"Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953

Cuthbert

A fantastic building.

Lisnaholic

^ Thanks, MLM, but I'd give the win to your Birmingham Law Courts to be honest.
More importantly, thanks for opening this thread; I also love walking around looking at buildings, so when I saw this thread I thought, "Aha! A true kindred spirit!"

^ Yes, this building is wonderful. I love it when an architect uses colours but not paint. Here the natural colours of the materials compliment each other so well; the brick, the stone and the copper(?) of the roof.

^ Absolutely extraordinary, MicShazam,although for some reason the phrase "over the top" springs to mind when I look at your pics.

I was also very interested in your photos of Aarlborg with it's mixture of old and new. It looks like an attractive city, and to me that's one of the big challenges for architects today; putting something that is clearly new into a city of old buildings and making a kind of harmonious contrast.

On that count, I'm sorry to say that I don't share MLM's opinion of London's "Gerkin." Sorry, MLM, but it's actually one of my least favourite additions to London; the drab surface of glass, the lack of interesting detail, but mostly the shape. Bad enough that everyone immediately thinks "penis", what's worse is that it disregards all the language of straight lines with which it is surrounded. The size of it is also an issue with me; if it was shrunk down to the size of a telephone box, I think I could live with it appearing on a streetcorner, or as an ATM kiosk in front of a bank.

If you're going to put curves into buildings, I prefer to see them used more discreetly. This building, for example, has quite simple geometry that neatly accomodates just a couple of curves within its straight lines:-

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"Am I enjoying this moment? I know of it and perhaps that is enough." - Sybille Bedford, 1953

MicShazam

the Operahouse in Copenhagen.

It looks really cool at night because of the reflective roof.

Cuthbert

Cheers for posting Q-Man.

It's not bad imo, I like glass buildings a lot because they will generally age well. Nice and shiny.

Since you mentioned new libraries I would like to post our new one as it is impressive imo, opened 2013 and looks a bit like a cake, or a gift or something:



Sometimes they change it to different colours, one time they changed it to claret and blue for Villa (I took this pic):



This was for the Sikh festival, Vaisakhi, :



For LGBT:



I like it. It kind of reminds me of a fireplace.