We did a pitstop in Chandigarh last week to look at what is touted to be the most successful planned city of the second half of the twentieth century. Here, Le Corbusier and others had the tabula rasa situation they so craved to realise their utopian vision of urban life.
Category Archives: Architecture
Visvesvaraya Centre
One building caught my eye while walking through Bangalore. It is the tall tower of the Visvesvaraya Centre complex by Charles Correa. Unbeknownst to me at the time, its equally interesting yet shorter sibling lies to the north along Amebdkar Road.
Antilia
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.
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
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.
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