Lille Grande Palais/Congrexpo, Lille, France (Rem Koolhaas, OMA)

Photo taken in 1995, shortly after Lille Grande Palais / Congrexpo in Lille, France was completed. Designed by Rem Koolhaas/OMA.

Artwork at 798, Beijing

Although I have visited Hong Kong, this was my first trip to mainland China. My first impressions of Beijing was one of scale: We entered through the new Terminal 3 at Beijing Capital International Airport, designed by Foster + Partners and ARUP. The building is said to represent a dragon in motion, with its undulating roofline. Stepping through the passport control, you see the building on axis for the first time and the way the columns extend out reminded me of drawings of the Italian Futurist Antonio Sant’Elia at the turn of the century, in the way it celebrates modern transportation infrastructure. According to Sir Norman Foster in a presentation at the DLD Conference, Munich in 2007:

[The new Terminal 3] is physically the largest building on the planet at the moment… larger by 17% than every terminal put together at Heathrow [London].

The scale of the building is also reinforced on the exterior, by using an optical illusion to make the building seem stretch out into the vanishing point.

As we were landing at the airport the pilot informed us that there was about a 3 mile visibility. I thought it rather odd that he was disclosing this information, the first time I’d ever heard it being mentioned inflight. Driving from the airport to downtown, I realized why this information was relevant. Although it was a clear day, there was a haze all around. "Yellow dust" or "hwang-sa" is what they call it in Korea. It’s the dust being blown across East Asia from China’s Gobi desert (See NOAA satellite photo).

Although the trip was primarily business-related, I did get a chance to visit a few local attractions. The Grand National Theatre of China in Beijing, was designed by French architect Paul Andreu, and completed in Dec 2007 after 6 years of construction.

It’s huge – the dome houses 3 freestanding building inside it: the opera, theatre and concert hall. They didn’t allow any cameras through security (but they did allow cellphones with cameras) so I wasn’t able to take any interior photos.

The entrance goes under the moat surrounding the building and you can look up through glass at the water as you enter the building. The dome surrounded by a moat make the building an easy target to be called a "egg" – a fried egg in this case.

798 Art District in Northeast Beijing is a thriving artist community, studios and galleries housed in former weapons factory. The "798" comes from the factory number.

The Chinese government seems to give artist a lot of breathing space these days, allowing open criticism of the government, its open market policies and the negative effects of capitalism on their society. In a way, Chinese artists have it easy, since they have an easy focal point upon which they can base their creative energy, unlike art in the west, which has lost its ideological focus and now can only resort to critiquing itself. My friend put it nicely: it seemed like the Chinese artists were like students in art school, trying to find their voice, uninhibited and full of raw energy.

When we visited it was under heavy construction and renovation in preparation for the tourists that are going to flood Beijing around the Olympic Games this summer. It a shame that the artistic character of area will soon be gentrified beyond all recognition. It will be yet another Soho, Greenwich Village or Williamsburg in New York, now full of galleries and shops with few traces of the artists who pioneered the neighborhood and made it possible.

One thing I found missing from Beijing that I expected was the presence of bicycles. I always remember photos of large cities in China full of masses of people riding bicycles. My friend told me when he first visited Beijing 10 years ago, there were thousands of bicycles on the streets, but now it’s hard to see any due to the ban on bicycles that has gradually been enforced since 1998. They say that China is the faster growing market in automobile sales, and public transportation infrastructure is growing. However I can’t imagine the effects of all those people switching to carbon producing cars will benefit the already fragile state of China’s environment.

AIA's America's Favorite Architecture website

The American Institute of Architects (aka the AIA), celebrating its 150th Anniversary, put together a website of America’s favorite architecture. The list was compiled by polling its members. The result is a collection of 150 buildings, bridges, monuments and memorials which users can vote on.

What’s nice is that they have added models to Google Earth, so user can see the location, and see the landmarks in 3D

My personal favorites? (from the list provided by the site)

1. Grand Central Terminal, New York
2. The Vietnam War Memorial, Washington DC
3. Brooklyn Bridge, New York
4. The Getty Center, Los Angeles
5. Seattle Public Library, Seattle

Of course, my selections are skewed towards building in New York that have personal significance and buildings I have actually visited.

One glaring omission in my opinion: National Gallery of Art‘s East Building, Washington DC, by I.M. Pei. This building is by far my favorite in Washington DC.

Go and vote!

I take the Seoul Metropolitan Subway system to work everyday, compacted like sardines in a can. I was in no rush to get to work the other day and as I took my time through the system, I started to notice the signage around me. I found some interesting ones.

(My personal favorite) In case you find yourself in the possession of a shopping cart in the middle of the subway system, we won’t ask you how you managed to get it down the steps and through the turnstile, but you absolutely cannot take it with you on the moving walkway.		You probably won’t know what floor you are on since it doesn’t really matter underground and we don’t tell you, but the restrooms, should you find yourself in need of one, are located somewhere between B4 and B3.
Just follow the blue line into the wall to transfer to the Blue Line.		Make sure you fully decipher the meaning of these random signs before you get on the escalator. And btw, falling down the escalator is not permitted.
Please make sure your feet are in a good mood before attempting to negotiate these steps.		This is where you call to “S.ave O.ur S.ubway”
These seats are reserved for the people who did not listen and fell down the escalator, or have back issues, or (we understand it happens sometimes) just had too much kimchi and rice for dinner.		However these seat are reserved for those in wheelchairs, should they want to get out of their wheelchair and want to sit on these really comfy seats, or those who can magically balance a cane without any hands, or are hiding something under their dress, or are being attacked by tiny aliens.

My Lloyd's on London photo on Schmap!

A photos I took back in 1989 of Richard Rogers‘s Lloyd’s of London made it on to Schmap‘s guide to London, a dynamically travel guide which bills itself as:

Exploring a Schmap Guide is a uniquely interactive experience: maps and guide content are dynamically integrated, allowing intuitive, real-time access to reviews and photo slideshows for places of interest.

You can also see the original photo or the Lloyd’s of London Flickr set.