Inside the Box

You just have to love a black floor that's continuously polished to a high gloss. In this case, it's so reflective that the atrium's various grids are superimposed over each other.

Rainbow Rise

This was taken just down the street from yesterday's photos, as you can see in “Rainbow Platter.” I'd made a special trip to the outskirts of Madrid to see this colorful hotel, when I happened upon the at least equally interesting Torres Blancas of yesterday's post. I'd suggest always taking a chance and getting off the beaten path into the suburbs. At the worst, you'll discover an endless sea of parking and fast food establishments. But you might also get lucky and discover some unusual gems. In either case, you'll get a better sense of what the city you happen to be visiting is really like.

Rainbow Platter │ Sony RX1 │ 35mm F4.0 1/200s ISO100

Through Acrylic Curves

This is Madrid's Torres Blancas, a magnificent structure that broke with the conventions of the late sixties and still seems innovative four and a half decades later.

Cylindrical Concrete │ Sony RX1 │ 35mm F4.0 1/200s ISO100

Café Culture

The other thing I do while away from home is eat out. There's really no other choice since I unfortunately don't have access to a kitchen. That equates to a lot of time spent sampling local delicacies; even more time on a day like today where it never stops raining. Occasionally, a café or restaurant will offer up a unique design. That'll often be the only light fare in this rather carnivorous culture.

Stacked | Sony RX1 | 35mm F2.8 1/80s ISO640

Under a Red Belly | Sony RX1 | 35mm F4.5 1.3s ISO100

Brutalist Barbican

The modernist movement has been criticized for its strict separation along functional lines. Since form followed function, there was no reason to differentiate among units assigned to the same function. So we ended up with monolithic blocks composed of endless, near identical flats or offices. While these designs often failed to take our individuality into account, they do have a stark beauty of their own.

Maze │ Sony RX1 │ 35mm F8.0 1/80s ISO125

These ideals are also expressed in the separation of vehicular and pedestrian traffic. While that creates a stress free environment to wander around during the day, these vast, empty spaces can become eerie at night and can hardly be considered vital spaces any time of the day.

Lonely │ Sony RX1 │ 35mm F8.0 1/80s ISO100

Is that Frank down there? He would not have been pleased...

Fragments │ Sony RX1 │ 35mm F8.0 1/200s ISO100

Split White

I've taken photos of this corner before, but never when the sun's rays where split evenly down both sides of the building. It's almost as if the bow is pushing forward through an ocean of photons.

Mechanical Guardian

Postage Stamp Headlights │ GF2 + Carl Zeiss C Sonnar T* 50mm F1.5 ZM │ 50mm F4.0 1/500s│ ISO100

Divergent Circles

Here are two very different views of the same object. One is a semblance of reality, the other a distorted abstraction. In the first image light leaks around the back of the object, in the second image it is blasted by the sun.

Blasted Abstraction │ GF2 + Lumix 7-14mm F4.0 │ 7mm F4.0 1/500s ISO100

In a final image the object is no longer the center of attention.

Transient Reality │ GF2 + Nikkor-P 105mm F2.5 │ 105mm F5.6 1/2000s ISO100

Dissolving Corner

Here the pattern is so dominant and foreign to the actual shape of the building – a plain block – that it dissolves the edges. I had hoped for a lost soul to stumble into the frame, but the area was more or less deserted. So much for adding a frame of reference...

Dramatic EYE

I've taken photos of the EYE Film Museum before, but the light was never this good. I took some photos with my lovely RX1, but nothing can beat an ultra wide angle for this building. The dramatic perspective accentuates the acute angles and the building seems as if it's counting down to take off.

Splitting │ GF2 + Lumix 7-14mm F4.0 │ 7mm F4.0 1/80s ISO100

Out of Gas Part 1

Access to this pair of petrol stations was cut off after the city lowered the level of the highway. Rather than tear them down, they've been transformed into pavilions that serve a new park along the highway.

The underside of the hot pink canopy is a light installation, so coming at night is the thing to do. Stay tuned for part 2.

Rainbow in the Snow

While not as dramatic as they would've been with my super wide angle on the GF2,  these make me confident that architecture photography is possible with a 35mm lens. In fact, quite a lot is possible with only 35mm...

All photos with the Sony RX1 at ISO 100. The overall shots are at F5.6, the details at F4.0 (for those that care).

Uncertain Future

This is the last of the monolithic, sixties flats in Amsterdam Southeast that's still in its original state. All the rest have either been torn down or extensively renovated. A process to sell some of the now empty building is underway. But time is running out for Kleiburg: if 70% of the first 100 units aren't sold by July 1st, the building will be demolished.

Zaha's Zigzag Part 2

Glasgow's Riverside Museum seems as if it's designed for the sweeping perspective of a wide angle lens. The flowing curves and jagged peaks don't suffer from the wide lens' distortion. Instead, the lens makes the architecture appear even more dramatic. Occasionally I even had a little additional help from the sun as it burst through the clouds.

The Curves of Line 26

Reflecting Niche │ GF2 + Lumix 7-14mm F4.0 │ 7mm F4.5 1/400s ISO100

Under a Square Sky

V │ GF2 + Lumix 7-14mm F4.0 │ 7mm F4.0 1/2500s ISO100

Ascending Reflections