View of the cast iron framework and the skylight of the main hall of the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh.
Photo: The Grand Gallery of the National Museum of Scotland
Photo: Glasgow arches
Colonnade of arches at the University of Glasgow.
Photo: Hidden colours, Brussels
Multi-coloured window jambs on an office building in central Brussels. From head on the building looks fairly normal: its only when you look up and along the walls that the hidden colours become visible.
Photo: Stavanger windows
Despite its significant wealth – Stavanger is the heart of Norway’s oil industry – there are still plenty of lovely old wooden buildings around the waterfront and the old town.
Photo: The Whittle Arch
The Whittle Arch in Coventry, England is a memorial to Sir Frank Whittle, the inventer of the turbo jet engine. The arch is made of a pair of aerofoil sections, with perforated stainless steel sheathing covering a tubular frame and steel lattice.
Photo: Barcelona spiral
The spiral parking garage for El Corte Inglés on the Carrer de Fontanella at the corner of Plaça Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain.
Photo: Albaicin street diptych
An Albaicin street diptych from Grenada, Spain.
Props to Patrick La Roque for his ‘Rock the Grid’ blog post on laying out multiple images in Aperture.
Photo: Albaycin street diptych
An Albaycin street diptych from Grenada, Spain.
Props to Patrick La Roque for his ‘Rock the Grid’ blog post on laying out multiple images in Aperture.
Photo: Ataranzas window, Malaga
Photo: The Cathedral of the Incarnation, Granada
The front entrance to the Cathedral of the Incarnation in Granada, Andalucía. It is claimed that this is Spain’s first Renaissance-style cathedral: the facade is by Alonso Cano.
Photo: Malaga streetscapes - old and new
Photo: Albaicin steps
Cobblestone steps on the Carril de San Agustin in the Albaicín, Granada.
Photo: Alhambra view
View looking south from the Calle de San Nicolas by the Iglesia de San Nicholas in the Albaycin of Granada. This is the usual viewing point for the Alhambra – it’s one of the few places in Granada where you can get high enough to get a decent perspective across the small valley at the northern foot of the Alhambra.
Visitor note: buy your tickets in advance – don’t go on the day and hope tickets will be available. Hope is not a good strategy.
Photo: The road to enlightenment
40 George Square (previously The David Hume Tower – see this BBC article for background on why it was renamed) is part of the University of Edinburgh’s city centre campus and is located at the south-east corner of George Square.
George Square is notable for not only being the first planned square in Edinburgh, but for being the first real suburban development outside of the city’s southern wall – predating the development of Edinburgh’s New Town, which immediately eclipsed it as the ‘suburban’ destination of choice. Despite its apparent solidity, it is a rickety building – not only does it move in the wind but the wind whistles through the building in a frankly rather terrifying manner.
Photo: The power of Scotland
Designed by Catalan architect Enric Miralles, the Scottish Parliament has won a number of architectural awards, including the 2005 Stirling Prize.
The Scottish Parliament is (by some degree) the most incoherent building I have ever seen. Renowned postmodernist Charles Jencks described it as “quite a meal” – faint praise indeed. A very strange mix of post-modernism, brutalism and vernacular architecture, individual bits of the building are spectacular, but the whole is little more than a regurgitated mass of juxtapositions and alien iconographies.