Architecture by me: Nov 1, 2011

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Nordpark Railway Stations - Innsbruck-Zaha Hadid

photo credit: Werner Hutchmacher

Rising from the midst of grey and white of Innsbruck’s surrounding alpine peeks is the stage for Zaha Hadid’s 1.8 km long Nordpark Cable Railway. Comprised of four new stations and a cable-stayed suspension bridge over the river Inn, takes you from the center of Innsbruck to the top of the mountain in less than half an hour.

The design for each station adaps to the specific site conditions at various altitudes, whilst maintaining the coherent overall architectural language of fluidity. This approach was critical to the design for the railway, and demonstrates the seamless morphology of Hadid’s most recent architecture.

photo credit: Werner Hutchmacher

photo credit: Werner Hutchmacher

photo credit: Thomas Mayer

photo credit: Roland Halbe

photo credit: Werner Hutchmacher

photo credit: Roland Halbe

Shell & Shadow’: a unique architectural language of fluidity inspired by natural ice formations, for stations along Innsbruck’s northern chain of mountains. Lightweight organic roof structures float on concrete plinths, their soft shapes and contours creating an artificial landscape that describes the movement and circulation within.

“Each station has its own unique context, topography, altitude, and circulation. We studied natural phenomena such as glacial moraines and ice movements - as we wanted each station to use the fluid language of natural ice formations, like a frozen stream on the mountainside.”
Zaha Hadid.

Zaha Hadid, an architect who constantly continues to amaze and inspire me with her creations taking in the natural landscape and creating something futuristic in feel yet relevant, workable and infinitely modern.

Have an infinitely modern day!

source http://blog.2modern.com

Tiebele- The Gurunsi Architecture

The Gurunsi (Kassena) tribe live in fortified houses in the Tiebélé region on the border of Burkina Faso and Ghana. The Gurunsi women create beautiful abstract frescoes that decorate the walls of their mud huts,situated in a round formation.

The Gurunsi architecture, known for the beauty of its functional lines, inspired the Swiss vanguard architect Le Corbusier.

enjoy the great video below courtesy by steinpom

Tiebele

by Belinda

In the south of Burkina, very close to the Ghanaian border lies a tiny village called Tiebele where you can visit some wonderfully painted Kassena houses of the village chief and his royal family (i.e. about 300 members in total). It is described in the guide books as ‘one of the few official tourist attractions’ in Burkina - which almost makes you not wanting to go - but having had to cope with the horrifying huge hordes of tourists in Bruges for years, I can honestly say they have no idea what they’re talking about! :-) Apart from a little entrance fee and (interesting) guided tour, it was really quiet and peaceful, and we were the only ‘tourists’ around.

Pots, canari’s and calabashes are essential to the village life as they are used to cook and store food & drinks, etc. They also play an important role in funeral rituals, e.g. on the fourth day of a woman’s death calabashes filled with shea butter will be broken on the path to her parent’s house.

The houses have different shapes, depending on who's living in them: big rectangular ones for (married) couples, single round huts with straw roofs for bachelor men, and figure 8-shaped-fused-together round huts for (grand)parents and bachelor women - who are not (allowed to?) living on their own.

The (grand)mother house is the oldest one in the village, housing the (ancestral) spirits and decorated with all the important symbols of the Kassena culture. On the right hand side of the entrance you can see the bas-relief of a snake, i.e. the boa constrictor, which is considered sacred as they are believed to hold the spirit of the grandmother. Next to it the lizard, ‘loyal pet’ and occupant of every house in Burkina. A Kassena house is only fit to be lived in once a lizard has moved in - if lizards are refusing to live in it, it would be a very bad omen. The pipe and walking stick (= left from the entrance), honorary symbols of old age; the canvas (just above the entrance) to protect the chief from the heat of the sun; the sun and moon (top left) representing the universe; geometric crosses (top right) which they cut onto children’s skin/face, the scars of which are believed to protect against disease;

and so much more.

The houses have no windows and are dug into the ground, with very small and low entrances often almost immediately leading to an interior wall with the same hight to protect the occupants from outside - enemy or wild animal - attacks. As a consequence it is very dark and enclosed inside, and hard to imagine one could actually live/cook/eat/sleep there without feeling too claustrophobic.

Inside the house it is absolutely pitch black. We only saw a quick image of these pots, canari’s and calabashes thanks to the flash of our camera.