Hasta La Ideas

Facebook’s stock might not be doing so hot, but that hasn’t stopped founder Mark Zuckerberg from picking a big-name architect to design their headquarters expansion. Facebook West, as it’s to be called, will be designed by Frank Gehry.

The space promises to be unusual: The plan calls for a ten-acre building—housing just one, massive, room. That’s 420,000 square feet, spread over a single story. According the Bloomberg Businesweek, who got the scoop:

Gehry said skylights and clerestories in the 26-foot-high ceilings would shower the vast space with daylight.

…You would pass no private office or cubicle, but you could circle a glass-partitioned space at the very center of the floor where you might find Zuckerberg. Outdoor-terraced cafes will serve sushi and barbecue. A twisting wooden stair within a tall cube of glass will lead to a lush rooftop garden—a place to escape.

“Mark said he wanted to be in the same room with all his engineers,” Gehry said. “I told him we could put the building up on stilts, park cars underneath and create a room as large as he wanted.”

Sounds like a sideways skyscraper, doesn’t it? But it makes sense that a horizontally-structured company would want a horizontal office.

Gehry’s last quote in the article, by the way, isn’t good news for blogs and magazines: “My goal is a kind of ephemeral connectivity that you can’t take a picture of.”

Ribbon-cutting is slated for Spring 2015.

(more…)

This woodland observatory by architecture collective CLP Architectes is a patchwork of square wooden panels and windows.

The structure is one of 20 created for the Archi<20 competition, which invites architects to create temporary huts on sites smaller than 20 square metres in a nature reserve in the district of Muttersholtz.

Wooden staircases lead up past the first floor to a roof terrace, which provides a panoramic lookout point for surveying the surroundings.

Sheets of chunky chipboard create deep shelves for storing or displaying small items behind the windows.

Other observatories we’ve featured include one for astronomers and another overlooking a stream.

Here’s a project description from CLP Architectes:

This project, realized for the Archi<20 competition, consisted on proposing a pavilion of 20 m2 floor space to be constructed in a protected natural area in Muttersholtz, Alsace.

With a limited budget of 7000 Euro, the commission obliged us to seek for a precise architecture.

Due to the temporary character of the pavilion, our first intention was to create a building that could offer a varied experience, using the least materials and formal recourses.

This intention is translated into a structural system that performs various tasks: the possibility of light, shadow, ventilation and also to provide temporal storage space.

Ground floor plan – click above for larger image

Our second intention was to conceive an architecture that could enhance and diversify the relationship between the visitor of the pavilion and the surrounding environment.

First floor plan – click above for larger image

The observatory, then, performs as a medium that is both reduced and enhanced into an optical device.

Second floor plan – click above for larger image

In an economic sense, the structure permits an open-plan interior, similar to a theatre stage: The interior space is reconstructed again and again with each visitor.

Section AA – click above for larger image

Seen from the exterior, the pavilion tends to disappear: in the ambiguous nature of its formal limits, a seemingly ordinary object is revealed as a complex interplay of light, images, people and objects.

Section BB – click above for larger image

The visitor is invited to reflect on this uneasiness.

North elevation – click above for larger image

East elevation – click above for larger image

South elevation – click above for larger image

West elevation – click above for larger image

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by CLP Architectes appeared first on Dezeen.

Italian architect Enrico Scaramellini squeezed this narrow holiday house into the passageway between two farm buildings in the Alpine countryside of northern Italy.

The house is named Wardrobe in the Landscape, in reference to the wooden shutters that swing open and closed across the narrow, closet-like facade.

Wooden panels are painted grey on the exterior, but left to their natural colours on the interior walls, floors and ceilings.

The building widens at the back, creating space for a single room.

Other retreats we’ve featured include an arrow-shaped house in Japan and a house on a sled in New Zealand.

See more stories about holiday homes »

Photography is by Marcello Mariana.

Here’s a project description from Enrico Scaramellini:

The project is based on two specific conditions: – on one side the client’s needs, looking for a small and intimate space; – on the other a small, special and precious place. The alpine landscape dominates the place: it becomes evident the condition of a privileged and unique space.

The concept of size guides the project. Great is the land, the landscape: small is the place, the space. There is a mutual relationship that inspires the design process. What is the role of the “room” in relation to the landscape? How the landscape reflects, “adopts” the room? The point of view changes in a frenzied search for balance.

A micro retreat for weekends, a place for contemplation, a clearing house from a daily hectic urban condition. A small wooden box fits between two existing buildings. Inside, the wood shows its nature in warm tones; outside, the surface treatment with silver-gray paints echoes the colors of the centenarian woods of rural buildings.

Site plan

The wooden panels, assembled with different development of the vein (horizontal – vertical), react to sunlight returning different geometric compositions.

Ground floor plan

Outside, almost in a mimetic condition, the new wooden facade seems to hide itself, in the shadows of the landscape, and then to confirm, with sunlight, its presence, dazzling, throwing a visible signal at a long distance.

First floor plan

Inside, the space becomes a privileged place overlooking the landscape. Almost an abstraction, an estrangement that allows to emphasize the privileged status of the “spectator”. A second level of thinking regards the stability of the building’s image in the landscape: spaces lived for short periods consolidate their status of “closed” places.

Section

The light that reflects differently on the wooden panels changes the appearance in colors and tones, the uninhabited façade lives of its own life. Finally, the project underlines yet another ambiguity: as a wooden container, as furniture and furnishing, it is “a wardrobe in the landscape”.

Elevation – click for larger image

The project operates in small size, uses simple devices to find a contemporary language within strongly characterized environmental contexts.

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by Enrico Scaramellini appeared first on Dezeen.

With the Venice Architecture Biennale opening next week, here’s a full transcript of our interview with its director David Chipperfield, who explains the thinking behind this year’s theme, Common Ground.

Chipperfield stresses the need for the profession to address “the 99.99% of the rest of the world which architects are not dealing with.” Otherwise he says, architects risk being relegated to being “urban decorators.”

Above: an edited video of the interview with Chipperfield, which we originally published in May. See below for the previously unpublished full transcript.

Speaking to Dezeen editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs, Chipperfield emphasises the need for shared, public space to be higher on the architectural agenda, with less attention paid to impressive one-off projects like opera houses, theatres and museums. “What about social housing? What about office buildings and just normal architecture? That’s more difficult.”

He also called for architects to more openly acknowledge the inspiration they draw from each other’s work rather than placing themselves apart on pedestals, admitting “we are inspired by our colleagues, I mean maybe only out of the corner of our eye, and maybe we don’t want to admit it all the time.”

The interview took place in May at the press conference to launch the biennale at the Italian Cultural Institute in London. The Venice Architecture Biennale is open to the public from 29 August to 25 November and Dezeen will be reporting from the press preview and vernissage next week.

Here’s the full transcript of the interview:

Marcus Fairs: We’re at the Italian Cultural Institute in London where today we’ve had the press launch of the Venice Architecture Biennale 2012 and I’m with the curator David Chipperfield. David, tell us a little bit about what the Venice Architecture Biennale is first of all. For someone who has never been there, tell us what is it, why is happens and what your involvement is.

David Chipperfield: The Architecture Biennale was stimulated by the pre-existence of the Art Biennale which has been around a much longer time; I think the Architecture Biennale only started in the late seventies, and took the form of the Art Biennale.

Essentially it’s in two parts; there are the national pavilions. Most countries have national pavilions, Britain has one obviously. The national pavilions are the responsibility of each country to curate and select participants and again in the case of the Art Biennale normally it’s a selected artist. However, in the centre of this whole zoo is the main exhibition presentation which is the responsibility of the director/curator, and that occupies physically the three hundred and fifty or so metres of the Corderie Arsenale which is the military basin where boats were built and ropes were made.

So the biennale infrastructure has grown over the years to take up not only that building but the territory around it and actually also take on the responsibility for what’s called the Central Pavilion in the Giardini. So it’s a major exhibition of architecture which should conform to a theme set by the director. The director is responsible for the theme, and then inviting participants to show work or participate under the umbrella of that theme.

Marcus Fairs: And as the curator, as the director, what is the theme that you’ve chosen for this year?

David Chipperfield: My title is Common Ground and in the context of an architectural biennale clearly it has a double meaning. We tend to use common ground, interestingly, not about physical things. It’s now something you hear on Radio 4 when someone says I had a meeting with the prime minister this morning and we have common ground on this issue. So it’s normally a way of describing what two different positions might come together to share. Clearly its origins were physical; there must have been “that’s my ground, that’s your ground, this is common ground”. So in the context of an architectural biennale that reference back to the physical is quite clear.

So why I like this title is that it talks about the intellectual – you know, common ground as we use it, in other words what ideas do we share, where can we meet – but it also clearly is a metaphor for the idea of public space, shared space, the collective, and in my opinion that is something that really needs to be back on the agenda. I think as a society at the moment we are inspired by the financial collapse of all those things that we thought were secure. I think it’s inspired us all to think a bit more carefully about the relationship between our position as individuals, our own trajectory, and what we belong to socially as something we might call a collective.

Marcus Fairs: In the past architecture biennales have sometimes been a bit like a zoo, I think you used the word zoo before. And you mentioned in the press conference that architects can be like perfume brands at duty free on a pedestal; singular and isolated. How are you going to try to avoid that happening at this year’s biennale?

David Chipperfield: Well, the whole thing of Common Ground is in a way trying to get everybody off their pedestal and standing on a ground which I think we share. I think this is the presentation of architects, they are responsible for doing this a bit themselves in their sort of need to brand themselves, but I think the media does it and it’s an issue we all have to deal with. I don’t actually think it’s quite as true, you know I know a lot of those architects, I’m fortunate enough to sort of share an odd whiskey now and again in a bar in Vienna or Berlin or whatever and you know as soon as we’ve had the first whiskey you realise that we all share a lot of ideas. We share a lot of predicaments and concerns, but there’s no place to articulate those beyond the bar.

So I’d like to show that these talents are grounded in something that connects them horizontally (which is what I would describe as an architectural culture) and I want to give oxygen to that architectural culture and say you know, we are the children of our parents. We have been taught by somebody, those teachers taught us certain things which have informed us. We are inspired by our colleagues, I mean maybe only out of the corner of our eye, and maybe we don’t want to admit it all the time but you know what another architect does what an architect of another generation has taught me, what a younger architect has taught me, you know I learn from students that I teach.

That idea of affiliation, of acknowledging where ideas have come from and for us to expose those ideas and share them a bit more. I think it’s a way to be more honest about our common position as opposed to everybody you know shining their wares and putting them on a stand and saying this is what I do, and that’s what somebody else does. I want to break those barriers down.

Marcus Fairs: You said in the press conference that it would be about architecture, about architectural culture rather than architects. What kind of projects will be in the biennale? How will the visitor experience – and how will you get across to the visitor – this idea?

David Chipperfield: We’ll that’s a challenge. I mean it’s all well and good to say what I’ve said. My ambition is clear and it’s been very reassuring to find that architects are willing to join that idea even if they’re a bit stumped at the beginning to know what to do about it, but there is a willingness to think about that. Of course when I say it’s not about architects I need architects to talk about architecture, so it is about them as well, I’m not trying to suppress them but you know in a way ‘the play’s the thing’ as it were, in Shakespeare.

I want great actors but it’s the story which I want to come out, but I do need good actors to do that with. You know the repertoire of actors, the cast, is impressive, and they are all generationally spread from people like Rafael Moneo, Norman Foster, Luigi Snozzi, you know a generation of architects who are now in their seventies down to kids as I would call them, you know 30 to 40. So I think that’s, you know, the idea of finding different connectivities, I mean that’s very important, and also to remind everybody how these layers are important.

What form it takes? I mean it’s a one-by-one thing, each architect is thinking about ways of representing either affinities that they have, inspirations they have, or projects which they might do together as a collaboration with others, or a topic. So it’s a diverse attempt to demonstrate ideas. In a way it hasn’t started with image; it has started with ideas and now we’re struggling to make sure that it has an image because there is a responsibility within the biennale to the superficial if you like. It does have to attract one scenographically, it can’t just be good, earnest ideas.

Marcus Fairs: But you’ve not said to the architects, send us your latest model in a box. You said to them respond to the theme we’ve set, the Common Ground theme, and do something new and specific around that theme.

David Chipperfield: They’re not allowed to send their project in a box; it goes straight back! I mean, that’s not the idea. It may be that some are showing some models of their project in order to illustrate something but I want their contribution to be contextualised by ideas not their CV saying this is my last project, this is how I work, this is who I am, and this is the project that shows who I am and how I do it. I mean that is a context, but it’s not a context I want to show. If someone brings a project or a number of projects – there’s nobody actually doing it in such an explicit way, but there are people showing projects – the reason that project is there is contextualised by an idea.

Marcus Fairs: You mentioned about the economic crisis and the time in which this biennale is taking place. What are your ambitions for it, do you see it as an exhibition that makes a statement about where we’re at in architecture? Do you see it as something that might change the direction or open people’s eyes to a new way of working, or simply reminds them of something that’s perhaps being missed in contemporary culture?

David Chipperfield: I don’t think that you can do an exhibition with an explicit ambition. I’m not out to teach anybody anything, I’m trying to give some oxygen to some thoughts and I think that fronting up to the fact that architecture is probably, as a peace time activity, the most collaborative thing you can do, you know, outside of a war. It’s the thing that galvanises and draws upon the most resources and participation, collaboration. I can’t think of anything that does the same… well, film. But even then, to be honest, a film doesn’t require the people that live in that area to deal with it so you can go to a movie house and not got to a movie house.

So I can’t think of anything that really requires so much buy-in, both in terms of professional buy-in and also from the general public. I think that that’s an issue that we have to articulate better because the dialogue and possibilities we have as architects to do things is predetermined by the way that we sit within society. If we isolate ourselves, and we’re regarded with suspicion then society doesn’t trust us to do things and also we can’t engage society.

I mean we have a confrontational relationship and good architecture is born of collaboration I think. So if there’s an agenda, that’s what it is, but it’s not written above the door that this is what I’m up to, but clearly I want us to come clean to say intellectually, physically and even in our built environment we are part of something which is more collaborative that anything else and therefore, let’s look at architecture from that point of view.

Marcus Fairs: You did say in the press conference as well that we don’t have much common ground between ourselves and the public when talking about the architecture profession. Could you elaborate on why you think that might be?

David Chipperfield: Because I don’t think that we’ve got good methods by which we talk about the diverse concerns that make a building happen. Look at this country: planning is now called development control, you know as if it’s sort of someone with a chair and a whip tying to stop this animal escape; it’s sort of a negative idea of architecture. By the way, I don’t blame it for being like that. As an architect one sits on both sides of the table, we are just as furious about bad buildings as normal people are and you know, why the hell did that project ever get built? We’re capable of feeling that probably more than most people. But the level of discussion and dialogue and the confrontation that seems to exist in the process so often you can see it coming and it just dooms the process. You can see that these things are just not coordinating.

I think what one can see, always, is what I call sort of green-field or green-zone projects. You do a museum, you’ve got a very informed board of trustees, a good director, there’s a budget which is reasonable, there’s a clear desire to do the building… that’s not difficult then. But what about social housing? What about office buildings and just normal architecture where people have not assembled themselves around something and said ‘we must find a good architect, we must do a good building’. We don’t have to worry about those things so much, you know railway stations, opera houses, theatres, museums.

The profession has proved it can do good versions of those; sometimes maybe a bit too spectacular and a bit too iconic but so what? What about the 99.99% of the rest of the world which architects are not dealing with? It’s easy to have a good dialogue about a museum with an informed board of trustees. How do you go out there and have a discussion about other things? That’s more difficult.

Marcus Fairs: And finally, we’re coming out perhaps of an era of the superstar architect and the iconic project and the all the attention that was lavished on those kind of things, but your office has been, I was going to say quietly, but not exactly quietly, but very successfully working away with a much more gentle, beautiful, historically contextual type of work. How do you see the architecture scene today? And do you think we’re at a moment of change away from that kind of star system?

David Chipperfield: We’ll always have icons. I mean we’ve always had icons. From my office I can see Westminster Palace and Big Ben and you think ‘what a funny building’, but you know how glad one is that is it there. If it was rationalised, and wasn’t so fanciful it wouldn’t be half of what it is. I don’t think icons go away, and I think we need icons sometimes. Does everything need to be turned into an icon? Does an extension on the back of someone’s house need to become an icon? Not because I don’t think it’s appropriate, I just think that it becomes slightly irrelevant to the rest of the architectural debate.

I mean that’s my concern, that if what we are doing becomes a bespoke moment that architecture now only becomes those special moments, we become like urban decorators. You know, as soon as someone can afford, can pay for it and the conditions are right we can get up from our beds and do it; I think that’s really dangerous. Therefore, I’m concerned that those projects where one can push give an inspiration to the normal. That’s my issue with architecture that becomes self-referential, that it becomes about itself and while it might be a beautiful opera house, it might be a beautiful museum, has it given any clue as to how other issues might be dealt with? I think sometimes that’s not the task, the task is to stand free and alone but you know most of us have to do other things which are not just self-referential monuments. Therefore, I am interested in the continuity of the profession, not just those special moments of opportunity.

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says David Chipperfield appeared first on Dezeen.

A decaying mosque, a staircase of scaffolding and the steel structure of London’s Olympic stadium feature in the twelve shortlisted images from a photography competition to capture architecture from around the world.

Top: A Place for Aitor Ortiz
Above: Faith Keeper

One image depicts a factory warehouse that looks more like a temple, while others show a brick kiln in Vietnam, a spiral staircase in Singapore and a shack made from scrap materials in South Africa.

Above: Sea of Stairs

UK organisation the Chartered Institute of Building will award a prize of £2,000 to the winning photographer of the Art of Building contest, who will be chosen by a public vote.

Above: Construction

You can register your vote for free by visiting the competition website before 6 September.

Above: Eagle Eye

We’ve featured stories about two of the projects featured in the photographs; the London 2012 Olympic Stadium and the NHow Hotel Berlin.

Above: Shacks built out of necessity

See more stories about photography »

Above: In the Brick Kiln

Here’s some more information from the organisers and the judges’ comments on each image:

CIOB invites the world to decide the outcome of its 2012 international photography contest winner

A clash of bold steel and colour at London’s flagship Olympic Stadium, a young pilgrim transfixed by an abandoned synagogue and a panoramic view of Hong Kong are just some of the artistic subjects to reach the final of this year’s Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) international Art of Building photography competition.

Above: Bird’s Towers

The twelve shortlisted images truly captured the imagination of the judging panel, which included Peter Murray, founder and director of the New London Architecture Centre and the renowned architect, writer and broadcaster, Maxwell Hutchinson. Among other qualities, the “power,” “elegance” and “humour” of the subjects and the composition of the photographs really struck a chord.

Above: Vintage

Now that the judges have had their say, the CIOB is inviting everyone to decide which of the twelve finalists will be awarded the prestigious title of ‘Art of Building Photographer of the Year’ and scoop a cash prize of £2,000. Voting is free and will take place via the competition website at artofbuilding.org.

Above: Roof in Colours

“It was another very strong year for the contest, with imaginative entries from around the world,” says CIOB Art of Building manager, Saul Townsend. “The twelve shortlisted images are sure to divide opinion. Fortunately, it’s free to vote for your favourite, so we’re now urging everyone, everywhere to get online and decide the winner.”

Above: 100 Floors

The contest, which celebrates creativity in the construction industry, is also set to raise much-needed funds for a major project to build hurricane and earthquake resilient schools in Haiti, organised by development and disaster relief organisation, Article 25. A selection of the imaginative entries will be auctioned for the charity later in the year.

Voting will open on 16 August and close on 6 September.

Above: Cantilever

CIOB Art of Building Contest Finalists with Judges’ comments

Title: Faith Keeper [ID 5645 Y] Image location: Chernivtsi, Ukraine
Photographer: Maksym Khytra, Lviv, Ukraine
Photographer’s comment: “This synagogue survived after fascist occupation and soviet dictatorship. It’s old, neglected and ravaged but still keeps faith and history.”
Judge’s comment: “Despite the ravages of war and time and the decay, the synagogue has retained the essence and respect that religious buildings inspire. Whether he is conscious of how many thousands of people have worshipped here or not, the young man is in clearly in awe. Like many of the great mosques, churches and synagogues all around Europe, the building has become a guardian of time and a reminder of our history, pedigree and culture.” Maxwell Hutchinson.

Title: A Place for Aitor Ortiz [ID 5475 Y] Image location: Bilbao, Spain
Photographer: Alfonso Batalla, Bilbao, Spain
Photographer’s comment: “What was a warehouse in a sugar factory now looks like an Arabic temple.”
Judge’s comment: “This atmospheric shot is very interesting from a construction point of view. The block-vaulted ceiling and reinforced concrete is a strange juxtaposition of construction technologies and is beautifully detailed, which adds to its charm.” Maxwell Hutchinson.

Title: Eagle Eye [ID 5789 Y] Image location: Singapore
Photographer: Zheng Hui Ng, Kedah, Malaysia
Photographer’s comment: “Looking down at a pagoda at the centre of the Chinese Garden in Singapore. The patent form of the stair looks like an eagle’s eye.”
Judge’s Comment: “This imaginative perspective on a staircase really does look like an eagle’s eye – right down to the speck of light on the pupil.” Michael Brown.

Title: Cantilever [ID 5524 Y] Image location: Berlin, Germany
Photographer: Gonzalo Acuna, Montevideo, Uruguay
Photographer’s comment: “I was surprised by the way the prism rests gently on the brick building.”
Judge’s comment: “The reflection underneath the modern cantilever brings a sense of history into the image. It’s well put together and benefits from a strong diagonal element.” Peter Murray.

Title: Bird’s Towers [5817 Y] Image location: Doha, Qatar
Photographer: Mario Cardenas, Abu Dhabi, UAE
Photographer’s comment: “A local man standing in front of the bird’s towers in Katara Cultural Village, Doha. This place is an exceptional project, full of hope and human interaction.”
Judge’s comment: “The photograph tells a story but it asks more questions than it answers. Although we can’t see his face, you can sense there is a clear relationship between the man and the building.” Maxwell Hutchinson.

Title: Shacks built out of necessity [5359 Y] Image location: South Africa
Photographer: Frank Trimbos, Holland
Photographer’s comment: “The residents of these small improvised huts in rural townships are mostly immigrants who moved to the cities looking for work. The shacks are built using scrap materials such as plywood and corrugated metal or plastic.”
Judge’s comment: “The image really typifies the contrast between traditional urban living and that of the shanty town. The lonely structure is in a harsh landscape but has obviously been tended to with care. It’s an interesting image of home.” Peter Murray.

Title: Construction [4475 Y] Image location: Greater Noida, India
Photographer: Kamal Krishore, New Dehli, India
Photographer’s comment: “The labourers line up from bottom to top to pass building materials. The picture looks like an artwork.”
Judge’s comment: “This is construction at its most humorous. It made me smile. There is a real harmony between the people and a constant sense of backwards and forwards.” Maxwell Hutchinson.

Title: In the Brick Kiln [4572] Image location: Vietnam
Photographer: Phuc Ngo, Vietnam
Photographer’s comment: “The brick architecture is unique.”
Judge’s comment: “Lovely texture. The composition is very elegant, especially the way the eye is drawn to the light.” Peter Murray.

Title: 100 Floors [4645] Image location: Hong Kong
Photographer: Tim Martin, California, USA
Photographer’s comment: “This image shows the entire scene around it, from the reflections of hundreds of smaller high-rise structures in the city to the boats in the water and the people inside, watching the world below.”
Judge’s comment: “The reflections in the building and the hinterland are marvellous to look at. The tankers in the sea give a real sense of how tall this building is. How did he take it? The question is hanging in the air!” Maxwell Hutchinson.

Title: Sea of Stairs [4078 Y] Image location: Olympic Stadium, London
Photographer: Clarissa Debenham, Essex, UK
Photographer’s comment: “The structure of the stadium is completely on display around the staircases leading to the upper levels. The glass work subtly changes colour as you walk around the stadium, running through every colour of the rainbow.”
Judge’s comment: “The colourful steel really shows the power and strength of construction. A nice composition with strong diagonals.” Peter Murray.

Title: Roof in Colours [3892] Image location: Bangkok, Thailand
Photographer: Ines Costa, Lisbon, Portugal
Photographer’s comment: “This man is building art! It was very inspiring to see how he chose the colours and put the tiles onto the temple roof in the right place.”
Judge’s comment: “The orange tiles are so continental and reminiscent of older European buildings. There’s something very humorous about this colourful composition.” Maxwell Hutchinson.

Title: Vintage [5028 Y] Image location: Chitkul, India
Photographer: Ahana Gangopadhyay, Kolkata, India [YOUNG PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR] Photographer’s comment: “This photograph explores the relationship between the old lady and her old wooden house. The wooden door leading into the balcony and the array of pots and pans, together with the owner in front, add to the fairytale image.
Judge’s comment: “This shot represents the age of the building and how, in communities such as this one in India, it can be so important to preserve buildings at any cost. This lady is wedded to the structure. It’s her home and she looks like she’s defending it.” Maxwell Hutchinson.

The post The Art of Building 2012
photography competition finalists appeared first on Dezeen.