The city

When I was a kid, there was this intro to a television show with a miniature village that captured me every time. The intro was a model of a city on a hill, lit up in the night and it had a train running around it (I believe that the show was called 'skymningssagor').

I think that this one, and other shows with model cities like ('Skrotnisse') completely captivated a child's imagination and I think that looking back, it was one of the things that made me start thinking about architecture and becoming an architect.

There was definitely something about the atmosphere, about seeing the city from afar.
The same fascination led me to night-walks and evening drawings of the city once I moved to Paris.

The city is like this living organism, and during the day you can't see into peoples homes that much even though you are surrounded by other people (around you, moving above you and under you).
But in the night the city lights up and the windows create a mosaic of peoples' lives, many small ones, like looking into a doll house. Everything becomes accessible and the contrasts particularly strong.

I love the way the city transforms in the evenings and the ambiance that being surrounded by hundreds of peepholes of warm lit-up homes creates.
The dynamics of the city captivates me very much.

Night by the Seine, photo by Emelie Nielson 2010