Sunday, October 10

Cob of Corn


photo source: men.style.com

This is the second best if not the best corn I have ever had! From Cafe Habana in NYC, the corn is barbecued on an open grill and served with pepper powder, cheese and lime. Twice I have been and I was never disappointed! Highly recommended!

Cafe Habana
17 Prince St. New York, NY 10012
at Elizabeth St.
212-625-2002

Sunday, September 12

Monday, April 26

Jewish Museum in Berlin

The design is based on a process of connecting lines between locations of historic events and locations of Jewish culture in Berlin. more info


Zinc-cladding


Halocaust Tower
empty and bare
noise from outside is audible
but outside world is out of reach
a place of memory
bareness and emptiness represent
the victims of the mass genocide in Germany



Another empty room that is filled with iron-cast "faces"; visitors are free to walk on them, making melancholic sounds that travel through this void.


Main Stair with beams penetrating through the void

Saturday, April 24

Reichstag


The Reichstag Dome in Berlin by Foster & Partners
the former home of German democracy, it was gutted by fire, damaged during the second world war and left in run-down state until 1960s, when it was re-opened as conference centre.
In 1992, it was then transformed into home for the unified German Parliament. The design focussed on making it more transparent.


Dome is accessible to the public, offering 360-degree views of central Berlin.

Berlin Germany

Left Barcelona at noon on an Air Berlin flight to Berlin. Since this city is filled with politics and history, there is no better way to learn all about it than taking a guided tour.


The full-day tour was led by this knowledgeable American tour-guide.


The Berlin wall was demolished, but is demarcated by stones pavements.


A piece of history preserved


Tricycle-Taxi near Brandenburg Gate.


I met some Canadians on the guided tour and we made a trip to a Holocaust memorial the next day. Two Quebecois on the left and Calgarian on the right.


Holocaust memorial at former concentration camp

More Photos...

Thursday, April 22

Barcelona Pavilion


By Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Built 1928-1929, demolished 1930, recently reconstructed.
The building has no real program, it acommodates whatever Mies chose to make of it.


The only function it accommodated was a reception for the King and Queen of Spain as they signed the "Golden Book" official opening of the exposition.

M. A. C. B. A.

Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona
by Richard Meier
Website




Main atrium with ramped vertical circulation along the front facade


Ramp on top floor

Mercury Fountain


"Alexander Calder designed this fountain, with actual mercury, for the Spanish Pavilion at the 1937 World's Fair in Paris. It was in the entrance hall, opposite Picasso's Guernica, also designed especially for the exhibition. Like Picasso's painting, this sculpture is a political statement, protesting Franco's siege of the Almadén mercury mines during the Spanish Civil War. Today the fountain is housed behind glass at the Fundació Miró."

Diagonal Mar


Diagonal Mar
source of the diagram


Plaça de Les Glòries


Torre Agbar by Renzo Piano
Headquarter of Water Company
under construction in 2004


The building skin will eventually reflect the lights of the city on the glass cladding as a metaphor for Water.


Forum 2004 by Herzog & De Meuron




Reaching the end of the Diagonal, looking west along the coast

Food Market off La Ramblas


Seafood stall


Percebe?


Weird looking shellfish.


Jamon?


Ham