Re-use on a big scale: Germany

It doesn't sound very sexy, going to old Nato bases somewhere in Germany or steel works in Ruhr, but it's a lot better than it sounds.

Alter Flugplatz Bonames, Frankfurt

What do you do when an old airfield is abandoned? You turn it in to a park of course. Let nature take over and have something which attracts people, like keeping the old tarmac by the flight tower for people to roller-blade on and convert the buildings in to a restaurant. On a German tour this has to be one of the stops. Tower Café, located in the park in the old airfield buildings.

Duisburg Nord Landschaftspark, Ruhr

I think I could get lost here, as simple as that. The park has some interesting lightning too so a visit twice is probably in order, and I suspect that this time of the year is the best time to go. Landschaftspark Duisburg Nord on the web.

Once these are ticked off I'd slowly cruise the narrow roads down the Rhine Valley and work my way through the villages and wineries, eating and drinking for a week at least.

As time passes

I have a thing for brick, preferably if it comes in the derelict form, especially in old abandoned industrial buildings. Stumbled over this site today. Below are my favs.

 

It's not just the bricks of course. This is a stark reminder of how short our time is and how quickly we disappear in to history. These pictures are painfully beautiful, with the kind of pain that comes when you realise life actually has an end. It takes a while to come to that understanding. Life slowly gets this bitter-sweet streak the older I get. I've lived half my life, maybe more, maybe less. Then I'm gone, slowly lost in time, just as these buildings will be eventually. It's sad, but I have accepted it and I think that's why I have developed a love for the old, no longer needed or wanted and soon forgotten.

Worn and homely

The natural cause when you get past the super minimalist home decoration style (you know, you have kids and a significant other who simply doesn't work with the concept 1 spork, 1 cushion, 1 bowl) is to head in the general direction of industrial. Cosy industrial I might add. If you can't have a perfect void of things, then don't try any half-measures.

I don't remember where I got these (well Google obviously, but I don't recall the sites) but it's the home of some designer in the USA, that much I know. Oh I know, concrete is such an evil material ecologically, but I love it. I really do.

Floats my boat

It's not the furniture, because you don't need fancy Eames to make this flat work. It's the pipes, the walls, the garage feel that I love. Guzman penthouse in New York by LOT-EK Architecture.

Pipes pt II

My kind of tap.

Pipes

Industrial. My kind of thing.

Blending in

Japanese conservatory house.

In touch with nature

Living in a part of the world when outside and inside are separated during most part of the year, I really appreciate ideas where the outside and inside meet. It reminds me of certain old conservatories, the way it's dug in to the ground.

House on water

A caravan on water. Always sea view. Could it get any better? I've always had a thing for houseboats.

Saunders+Wilhelmsen+Åland

Yeah, I'm in the modernist camp. I'm no big fan of wooden houses but this one is really lovely. Linky to Wilhelmsen and linky to Saunders.

Gaudí

Still haven't been to Barcelona.

Outside the box

We're so very used to having hard floors everywhere in our houses, insulated properly. It is possible to do it differently though. This house is in Japan, and part of the house has dirt floors where various plants thrive. If you're building a glazed extension of the house, consider something like this. Not only does it give a lush, more earthy feeling, but it gives a better in door climate in that part of the house.

Church of light, Osaka

Tadao Ando is a Japanese architect who works with light a lot. Just a little light, given some structure, can create interesting and dramatic effects. The shifts in weather, how the sun moves through the gaps and what season we have gets so much more clear when the light is concentrated and cuts through a wall.

Knowing your environment

Knowing the room you're going to work with is very important when you're working with any kind of architecture. A room can be vast and it can be tiny. No matter what you need to get a feel for it and understand it. The above are two pictures taken during a workshop I was part of during my years at SLU, when we worked with spaces. By moving around in the room, sitting still, using our own bodies to build structures, we learned how room structures work. It was a very interesting workshop in that it brought up a lot of things we tend to take for granted, or think we know, and we got insights in how room structures affects us and how we can affect a room, and change the impression of a space.

A good experience is to empty a room completely, move around in it, stand in different places and think about where you prefer to be and where you don't wish to be. Why is that? Bring the furniture back in, one at the time and place them carefully in the room, based on what you found out when the room was empty. You'll get a whole new room. It's a bit more difficult to do that in a garden, but it's still possible to feel the space and think about improvements.