There is not enough fantastical architecture out there

Claude Parent passed away yesterday at the age of 93, the world lost a great architect.

We just went to see an exhibition at Galerie Azzedine Alaïa in Paris with three museum projects of his presented the other week.
I am so impressed by the world of Claude Parent, he worked right up until his death, only the the hand-drawn lines were shakier.

There is not enough fantastical architecture out there, I wish that many more of his project were built!

His work is really one of a kind, between utopia and reality, the French pavillon for the Venice Biennale in 1970 for example reminds me, in some ways of one of my favorites, 'Lustiga huset' at the amusement park Gröna Lund in Stockholm. A house which proportions and features takes you through a mind-game where the stairs move, you walk on something that you don't know if it is a wall or a floor. This house will always stay in my memory since childhood in the same way Claude Parent's work always makes you want to explore the world of his oblique architecture.

Vive l'architecture oblique! His work will live on forever.

Project presented by Claude Parent at the 1970 architecture biennale

Project presented by Claude Parent at the 1970 architecture biennale

Project by Claude Parent at the 1970 architecture biennale

Drawing by Claude Parent

Esparon, the house on a mountain

I just got back from helping architect friends to build their house in South of France. One hour from Nîmes, the town with the beautiful light there is a small village on top of a mountain. They bought an old ruin, and preserving the old walls and the layout, they are now building on to it.

There was a full moon, and you could see the moonlit valley and the unfinished roof.
So quiet, you could hear the owl sounds and see the mountains 280 degrees around you.
Everything about this place is just magical.

Arnarfjörður, Iceland by Haraldur Diego

We were there - Porto

Three years ago we visited Leça Swimming Pools by Alvaro Siza, north of Porto, Portugal.
Porto is a fantastic place to go for architectural visits (go if you haven't been!)
The pools were finished in 1966, but they have aged gracefully and do not feel decayed, despite the Atlantic oceans tough treatment.
The area is completely sunken down, out of view of the cityscape on the side and disconnected from the city, melting into the ocean as apart of it.
You are lead as in procession through the changing rooms, via a ramp down towards the ocean.
The pools are molded into the the cliffs with concrete of the same color as the stone, mixed with the natural water gatherings of the ocean side, it is sensational place.
I would love to revisit in the summer, it was early spring when we were there.

Photo credits: Camilla Levin

Photo credits: Camilla Levin

Photo credits: Camilla Levin

The crevice

When I was about 16 years old we went on a long walk in the forest 'Skulesogen' in north of Sweden.
It is one of the strongest spatial memories I have, especially the crevice in the mountain where we walked.
See, I grew up with these amazing tales by Swedish author Astrid Lindgren, and one of her characters, Ronja (who was the daughter of the master thief of the woods) lived in a mystic primeval forest.
'Ronia, the robber's daughter' was made into a movie, and the split in the mountain that separated the thief families was filmed in this very place. The actual physical place is called 'Slåttdalsskrevan'.

The crevice is a 200 meters long split in the mountain, with 10-storey high cliffs on either side. The narrow passage is humid and often misty. You are walking deep into the mountain, coming out on the other side, once again in a deep forest that encloses you.
After the walk through the crevice, you eventually reach a high place up on the cliffs.
A grand view over the waters, cliffs and forests spreads out for miles. My stepmother had to sit down because the mere presence of the view made her knees weak and she got a bit lightheaded by the hight. Wow, this is truly a beautiful place.
Nature does it best, and then architecture does it. The sublime in the narrow passage, almost like an underwater experience where you see the light surface far away on top of you, a streak of light. The physical presence of the cliffs making you feel like a tiny insect seeking their way in a difficult landscape and then the grandiose opening of the landscape, far beyond what you can comprehend.
Tours like these stay in my memory and inspire me in architecture, far more than any architecture blogg or built reality ever could. Because nature does it best and it is raw in it's approach.


The influence that Astrid Lindgren's tales have had, the film adaptations with dreamlike landscapes like 'The brothers lionheart' and 'Ronia, the robber's daughter' has made a lifelong impression on me.
If you get the opportunity to see them or show them to your kids, I think you should.

Photo: cyberphoto.se / Thomas Lövgren

Photo: Naturvardsverket.se / Michael Engman / Engmanbild

Photo: Skuleskogen.se / Carolina Hillerdal

The Pantheon memory

I would like to share with you one of the strongest architecture experiences I have ever had.
It was in Rome, traveling with one of my architect friends. We went around looking at sites, the sun was gazing hot in september and we went to the little square in front of Pantheon where we sat down and looked at people. The light was warm and the shadows long at Piazza della rotonda. It is one of those perfect smaller sized squares that surrounds you.
Once entering Pantheon me and my friend decided to split up. It was my first time visiting and expectations where both low and high, as they get when you are visiting one of the great ones for yourself.

I don't know how long we stayed there. The afternoon sun formed a perfect beam from the never ending, dissolving vault above. The light was just...magic. The the noise and steps from the tourist crowd altered and dissolved in space. I could hear the sound of birds wings slowly flapping and raising up in the ample space above me. The sense of space was incredible, I walked slowly around alternately absorbed by the different niches in the walls and the acoustics.
It was all so beautiful, I felt completely enclosed in this atmosphere, very small and amazed to be a part of it. The experience completely overwhelmed me and when I finally found my friend I had tears in my eyes from the strong experience that took me by surprise.
My friend also had a similar experience and we decided to sit by one of the extraordinary big pillars by the entrance. Under the high ceiling arranged with corinthian columns we talked a bit about how fantastic it was and how it was a very good idea to have walked around alone. The sun created a razor sharp edge between the cool shadow we where sitting in and the outside.
We talked about how it was definitely a lot in the acoustics, the light, the proportions, space and the sensation of being belitteled. Elements that someone sometime over 2 000 years ago created, that still stands and that enriched our lives and maybe strengthened our future experiences of space by adding to our minds library. I have had many experiences since, but this one will forever remain in my memory.

Photo, Emelie Nielson, 2009

Man vs. Nature

Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, Caspar David Friedrich, 1817