Alara Finisterre Restaurant | CoolBoom

source http://coolboom.net

MAS Arquitectura designed Alara, a restaurant placed on Finisterre, Spain, that mixes design and tradition in a unique building.

Here is the project description:

Finisterre has always been a magical place. Know world ends there. Today this fishing village retains its exotic charm. A square, which crowns a small harbor, welcomes weary travelers. This is where Alara Finisterre emerges.

Placed on an old house, Marcos Samaniego, main architect form Mas Arquitectura, has developed a spectacular complex: coffee, restaurant and tavern.
Each room has been carefully designed in order to create different atmospheres. Finisterre’s fishing essence is present in the local through big photos whilst turned lining offers a design contrast. In addition, lighting has been individualized to emphasize Alara Finisterre characteristics. A terrace has been designed with a bench in order to take advantage of Atlantic sea views.

Alara Finisterre has already become a gastronomic and architectural referent. A place that only a few are able to enjoy.

• Tags: Finisterre, Mas Arquitectura, Restaurant, Spain

A Little Perspective From Spiderman and Renzo Piano’s New York Times Building : Life Without Buildings

source http://lifewithoutbuildings.net

[image via flickr usr thehighlandway]

When I saw the photos last week of Alain Robert, the French ‘Spiderman,’ scaling the side of Renzo Piano’s New York Times building, I was immediately struck by a single thought…well, 2 thoughts really. 1) That. Is. Amazing. 2) If superheroes were to exist, they would appear incredibly insignificant relative to the enormity of the cites they have so solemnly sworn to protect. I mean really, seriously insignificant. So often, our heroes are presented as larger-than-life characters; near-omniscient giants towering over buildings and streets. The reality however, is much more prosaic, as Monsieur Robert so kindly demonstrates. A single man is tiny. A hero, even of the “super” variety, is tiny. No matter how powerful, they will always be humbled by the buildings of a city. Take for example, the following two images:
Whoa! Check out Spiderman swinging through New York City! He’s amazing and larger than life! (people really talk like that, right?) But without dramatic angles and serious photoshoppage, here’s the reality of a “Spiderman” in New York:

[image via flickr usr thehighlandway]

       Ok, there are some prety dramatic angles in that photo, but you get the idea. I hesitate to
 draw this next comparison, due to the obviously negative connatations, but Leni Riefenstahl’s film Triumph of the Will pulls a similar trick in the name of fascist propaganda. By always framing Hitler from below, she gives him a towering presence in hope of creating the image of a mythic leader. Ultimately, she only inadvertently established the manner by which evil is often depicted in everything from serious cinema to cartoons. We understand both our heroes and our villains through abstracted personas built on carefully crafted imagery. But I digress.
     We’re suppoed to be talking about architecture here, and in reality, a man able to climb buildings like a spider on a wall is ultimately just as significant; that is to say, almost not at all. In a world where buildings, not heroic deeds, are often understood as the pinnacle of human achievement, would a superhero even be recognized beyond pure novelty or celebrity? Don’t get me wrong, I have read and enjoyed comics my entire life — in fact, this week’s issue of Action Comics is on my night stand on top of Borges’ Labrynths. I don’t mean to disparage superheroes, I just want give a little perspective on the impossibly impressive wonder that is the modern metropolis. Without resorting to cliché, it’s safe to say that the staggering efforts that went into the Empire State Building or the Brooklyn Bridge are deeds of daring far more heroic than flying around the world fast enough to turn back time.
    In the end, this whole thing really only serves two purposes. 1) It’s start of a new project for me
in the form of a superhero comic where the hero is secondary to the city — a la the NYT Spiderman photo. 2) We’ve now opened up an entirely new realm of fanboy debate. Who would win in a fight: Spiderman or a Renzo Piano Building ? Could a Frank Gehry building defeat the webslinger? How would Batman fare against a SANAA museum?