Berlin, Germany

Snapshots from Berlin, Germany in December 2000.

Deutsche Oper Berlin

Deutsche Oper Berlin. Architect: Fritz Bornemann (1961). What I especially like about this building is the blank, empty main façade. Instead of the expected big windows/glass box lobby of the typical modernist theater building, there’s—nothing.

But there are windows, of course: one has to turn the corner, one has to leave the wide Bismarckstraße avenue and enter either one of the two narrower side streets to discover very generous fenestration indeed, symmetrically, on both side street facades.

More about this spectacular building here.

Grave Matters: Part 2

(Cont.)

More pictures from the the Norra begravningsplatsen cemetery in Solna, Sweden (Stockholm metropolitan area), november 2007.

Tallinn’s Got Talent: Big Chip on Shoulder

A really big chip of concrete on the shoulder of the Väike-Pääsukese road in downtown Tallinn, Estonia: the museum of the archeological excavations and medieval ruins of The Almshouse of St John the Baptist. Architects: Toivo Tammik, Sven Koppel, 2002.

Södertälje Law Courts

Corner of Storgatan and Jovisgatan, Södertälje, Sweden. Designed as a multipurpose city hall/civic center in 1963 by architect Åke Lindqvist. Since 1971 the home of Södertälje tingsrätt (law courts).

Grave Matters: Part 1

Snapshots of Section 14 at the Norra begravningsplatsen cemetery in Solna, Sweden (Stockholm metropolitan area), november 2007:

For some reason, the graves and monuments of the tiny, tiny Section 14 of this huge, enormous cemetery all seem to be erected by romani/gypsy families. In fact, the Section 14 constitutes its own cemetery-within-a-cemetery, so to speak, hidden away, as it were, “somewhere in the ”

Why this segregation? Muslims and jews creating their own cemeteries in a predominantly Christian nation could be expected. But segregating Christians from other Christians? Is it the romani community’s expressive wish to keep to themselves, to have a mini cemetery of their own? Or is it a case of racial/ethnic discrimination?

Or could segregating Section 14 have something to do with the fact (?) that the gold-and-polished-granite opulence of romani grave monuments clashes with the more modest tastes of non-romani Swedes? Is the segregating of romani graves in this particular case “merely” a consequence of the cemetery’s own rules for the design of headstones? Are there rules which only allow for opulent romani monuments at some distance from the more modest headstones of everyone else? Is it “just” a matter of—taste? Is it “only” a matter of—style? (Comments welcome from anyone who is more in the know than I am myself on the subject of the Section 14 at Norra begravningsplatsen.)

Hornsgatan Housing

Jagged black balconies (they might look gray in the snapshots below, but they are in fact black): inner city housing designed by architects Bentele & Co., 1974. Address: Hornsgatan 148, Stockholm, Sweden. Floor plans from the public archives of the Stockholm planning department.

Bingbångandes gods

Berglins i Svenska Dagbladet idag lördagen den 26 april. Precis så skulle jag också göra! Se här och även här.

Modernism Is Pop: Boobs Galore Nonstop

(Cont.)

Here it is, the video clip which started this whole series of architectural pop videos,“James Bond Theme (Moby’s re-version)” from 1997:

This particular video of American recording artist Moby, directed by Jonas Åkerlund, was shot entirely on location in the modernist heart of the Swedish capital Stockholm. Read more about its high-architecture-goes-pop-culture significance here. It was as feedback to that particular article of mine (about Moby’s and Jonas Åkerlund's video) that Lars Gezelius recently sent me the hip-hop video clip which became the subject of the first post in this video mini-series. Thanks again, Lars.

Modernism Is Pop: Way Over the Top

(Cont.)

Video clip of Europe performing their “Prisoners in Paradise” (1991) inside the Institut du monde arabe in Paris (Jean Nouvel, Architecture-Studio, 1988).

Thank you again, Lars Gezelius, for sending another (perhaps not “great,” but certainly “of interest”) architectural pop video tip.