Architectonic <

If I look back through some of my old sketchbooks and doodles, it wouldn’t take much detective work to suss out I have probably always had a bit of a fascination with geometric shapes, buildings and architecture. I don’t really know where that came from. Perhaps it was glimpses of detailed architectural plans during the period my parents were renovating a house when I was around six years old, plans made by an architect whose surname even after fifty years, I weirdly still remember.

I still have those detailed drawings as well as a host of other architectural cues and clues; photos I took of the Pompidou (the Boubou) in the late 80s and a subsequent interest with all things Richard Rogers, framed pictures of Clough Williams-Ellis creations, books by the legendary Frank Lloyd Wright, Tadao Ando and host of other architectural greats. But tons and tons of sketches for building designs, for my own various house and flat renovations over the years as well as garden designs and interior ideas for my mother’s old house. If I could rewind and start over, I’d probably focus on studying architecture. But I’m happy to make do with looking, appreciating and sometimes photographing.

“Building becomes architecture only when the mind of man consciously takes it and tries with all his resources to make it beautiful, to put concordance, sympathy with nature, and all that into it. Then you have architecture.”

– Frank Lloyd Wright.

In order:

Arnhem Station, Netherlands
UN Studio

Oslo Opera House, Norway
Snøhetta

Guggenheim, Bilbao, Spain
Frank Gehry

Tenement building, lower East Side, NYC

De La Warr museum, UK
Serge Ivan Chermayeff and Eric Mendelsohn

Marrakesh Menara airport, Morocco
Abdellah El Ghari & Claude Costantini

Twin Towers, NYC
Minoru Yamasaki

Canary Wharf underground, UK
Foster + Partners

Lujiazui financial district, Shanghai

Taj Mahal, India
Ustad Ahmad Lahori

Heathrow T5, pre-opening
Richard Rogers partnership

Shanghai Oriental Sports Centre
Von Gerkan, Marg and Partners