A few pics that make me dream and think beyond.
Source: metalocus.es
Architect Tadao Ando photographed in his Church of Light. I'm a minimalist at heart and this is one of the images that made me realise this. The bold yet soothing design achieved through uncompromising reduction makes my heart sing.
Source: neogaf.com
Architect Ricardo Bofill’s house. He has tastefully converted an old cement factory to a lush urban home and atelier. I love this kind of blending of nature and architecture. The project applied green roofs, biophilic design and other green architecture buzzwords before they were fashionable. If I could be reborn in a parallel universe of my choosing, it would be one where entire cities looked like this.
Source: neolandscape.vn
It’s images like this one of the famed Burning Man festival that made a younger me dream and wonder if life in some sort of mystical community might be much better that the lives we live in our western cities. It’s that feeling that made me go out into the world and explore. The answer is not black and white of course. Certainly there are many lessons to be gleaned from (often failed) communes in the past, like more open sharing of resources, art and kindness. But the privacy and comfort of western urban life has its place too. The sweet spot probably lies somewhere in the middle.
Source: schrammek.dk
The value of colour is something I’ve had to learn. I remember fantasising as a kid about a world where all products just had plain white labels with a simple “peanut butter“ or “hagelslag“ printed on them in black Helvetica lettering. Now that image seems almost dystopian. It’s movies like Satoshi Kon’s Paprika that first showed me the beauty in the colourful and the weird.
Source: ambertree.be
Nothing breathes craftsmanship like handmade wood joinery, like on this Artisan Neva chair. A cliché perhaps and they are certainly in vogue, but they are also timeless. Whenever I look at an image like this I feel like picking up some timber and heading to the workshop to see what my own humble woodworking skills are worth. And sometimes I do.