Mumbai is home to one of India’s richest men, Mukesh Ambani. His residence is probably the most extreme spatial manifestation of the super rich. His Antilia residence towers 170 meters above the city.
Author Archives: benbansal
Delhi Urban
To me, Delhi remains tricky to make sense of as a space. This has to do with the way that I experience the city as well as its idiosyncratic layout and design. Fortunately I had a good guide with me this time, whose author I was also privileged to meet for a chat.
State Trading Corporation, Raj Rewal Associates (1989)
Neelam Cinema
Besides Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret, Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew there were various Indian architects who helped build Chandigarh. Among them was Aditya Prakash. One of his buildings is the Neelam Cinema in Sector 17.
Architecture Biennale 2014
I had a major blast visiting the Architecture Biennale in Venice this year. Although we had a little less than two days, we managed to see most of the main national pavilions, some of the other countries’ contributions as well as the Monditalia exhibition at the Arsenale.
Main Biennale pavilion
Hotel Okura to be demolished
The management of the Hotel Okura announced in late May that the iconic building in Tokyo’s Toranomon area will be demolished and redeveloped into a new hotel complex opening in time for the 2020 Olympics.
Hotel Okura main building – photo by Manuel Oka
More Yangon teasers
Good-bye New York, hello summer
As I write this, we are already back at the airport, waiting to board our plane to Europe. What follows is a brief summary of what I was up to in New York over the past nine months, helping me explain to myself where the time has gone!
Two great comments
I don’t get all too many comments on this blog, so it’s all the more relevant to share two recent ones with my readers. “Lamb” commented on the NOA Building, a post from my Tokyo times. More recently came Michelle’s comment on the post I wrote about the Schomburg Plaza in Harlem.
Schomburg Plaza, New York
Yangon Facebook/Tumblr
To kick off the crowdsourcing aspect of our Yangon Architecture Guide, we launched Tumblr and Facebook pages. We are initially featuring some of the lesser-known buildings, and have already received great comments from from an extremely gracious generous gentleman called Harry Hpone Thant. I paste some examples below the jump.
Thein Gyi Market
Eurasianism 2005 and 2014
Courtesy of my friend Chris, I found this old blog post of mine dating back to 2005. In it I discuss Eurasianism, an ill-defined school of thought in post-Soviet Russian social science. Amid events in the Ukraine it feels strangely up-to-date today. I repost in full after the jump.
Zenkov Cathedral – Almaty/Kazakhstan (2005)