Along the Grand Canal...

Since a few months I am cycling along the Grand Canal at least four times a day... new daily routine related to father's duties ;) 
I have a chance to observe surrounding of the Canal in more details than before and in various light. My eyes are focused mainly on architecture of course. It nicely shows how buildings are changing, how its shapes and character transforms in different light. It can be truly fascinating. Believe me ;)


Two buildings caught my attention - Fitzwilton House on Wilton Place and then former Bord Fáilte headquarters  (Irish Tourist Board) at the junction of Lower Baggot Street and Wilton Terrace. I know them very well as I was working for a few years in this area in my so called previous life.
...so after many moths of concentrating mainly on commercial part of photography and small jobs related to my Darkroom Service I decided to dust off my good reliable Sinar. Going big - the best choice.

Now I had a possibility to look at them through the lens of my camera.


It was also a good chance to check equipment and my own performance after such a long break. And what can I say? All works well and that’s the most important thing :)

I made first few photographs on Direct Positive Paper. Got only one good image which is not bad at all. On Monday morning I returned for more. This time with FP4+ loaded into holders and some more paper as well. 

My 'models' are really important from architectural heritage point of view as they may be gone pretty soon…as many other modernist objects from that period in Dublin. 

Both completely different in scale and both quite a tricky subjects to photograph due to some heavy traffic on Wilton Terrace at the time of the day when I could do my work. Bus stops and bus parking along the street didn’t make it easy as well.

At this stage I would like to push a bit my project ‘Unfulfilled Dreams’ which was on hold since almost the beginning of the year. It's a pity that sometimes it is so difficult to obtain a permission to get inside, if possible at all. That’s why I decided to change tactic, approach many structures in a different way and focus on external parts first instead of interiors. 
I will be very happy to come back and finish it out with interior photography as well but that's a next stage.

Fitzwilton House was designed by architects Emanuel Shoolheifer and Don Burley (hired by Ronald Lyon Estates) for Sir Basil Goulding and completed in 1969.  

It is an immense concrete structure but at the same time fragile in its visual perception.
Very complex facade made of few different concrete finishes creates sort of sceleton which makes all building invisible.
Nine storey tower with smaller, three storey base surrounded by carpark.
Very fine example of modernism in Ireland in my opinion.

In June 2016, planning permission was granted for its demolition...

Bord Fáilte headquarters, another architectural treasure, was designed by Robin Walker (of later Michael Scott & Partners) in 1961.  Robin Walker was the only Irish architect who worked for le Corbusier and studied under the direction of Mies van der Rohe. 

This very unique and beautiful in its simplicity structure is now for sale as a potential development site...

I just wanted to write something about it but doing research I found perfect article written last year by Robin Walker's son Simon Walker... I woudn't be able to explain it better. 
Just click HERE please to read it. 

At the end some technicalities of course.

All was photographed with Sinar F2 4x5 large format camera with Schneider Kreuznach Super Angulon 90/8 lens and Ilford FP4+ 4x5 sheet film.

Some photographs were made on Ilford/Harman Direct Positive Paper. I presented one of them on social media a few days ago. The rest will be shown in the same way so please follow me on FB, Twitter, Linkedin or Instagram.

Also please have a look at recently reorganised and updated 'Unfulfilled Dreams' gallery ...important Irish modernist buildings (just click gallery title please).

Thank you!

Corbusier House

'Construct: Art in Architecture' international, juried group exhibition in Darkroom Gallery, in Vermont, US is on the way...

I am very happy to announce that my photograph 'Corbusier House' has been selected by the jurors to be a part of this show. This time fully dedicated to architecture...

Corbusier House © Artur Sikora 

(...) Photographing the art of architecture; the anthropological implications of structural design (...)' (part of the description from Gallery website)

'Corbusier House' was made about a year ago in Berlin, during my trip dedicated to modernist architecture in this city. It is a part of a small project called simply 'Modernism in Berlin' (please click the link to see the project). 

I would like to come back here with my blog articles showing many photographs and some interesting information collected during research  made back then. I think it is worth to have a look at it if you have an interest in architecture and modern movement itself.
'Corbusier House' is in Modernism in Berlin - space for living article listed below.

Modernism in Berlin - Prologue:
http://artursikora.blogspot.ie/2015/05/modernism-in-berlin-prologue.html

Modernism in Berlin - along the Landwehrkanal:
http://artursikora.blogspot.ie/2015/05/modernism-in-berlin-along-landwehrkanal.html

Modernism in Berlin - space for living:
http://artursikora.blogspot.ie/2015/05/modernism-in-berlin-space-for-living.html

Modernism in Berlin - concrete sculpture and spaceship...
http://artursikora.blogspot.ie/2015/05/modernism-in-berlin-concrete-sculpture.html

Darkroom Gallery

12 Main St.
Essex Jct., VT 

US

http://www.darkroomgallery.com/ex82

Hours: Monday-Sunday 11:00-4:00 and by appt. 

Exhibit opens May 26th, and will run until 11 June.

Thank you!

Modernism in Berlin - space for living...

Modernist movement was massively popular and very strong especially after Second World War. Destroyed cities, housing problems and poverty… a good solution was needed to resolve all these issues. 

And here came creators, 'designers of a better world' - architects and their modern ideas. 

Have a look please at this brilliant short article. It’s explains very clearly what was it all about: 'The rise and fall of modernist architecture'  ...and how it ended up.

Buildings with the widest representation among all modernist structures are buildings related to everyday life, objects built for living. This is what I will show it this article. 

...

Unité d'Habitation of Berlin designed by Le Corbusier called also Corbusier house /1957/.

Le Corbusier was the one who came up with idea of using reinforced concrete as a structural frame for affordable prefabricated housing. Open space floor plans, simple structure with  support poles, free facade, horizontal windows and roof gardens - this is what he was implementing in most of his projects. All linear, practical and functional design.

Corbusier built 5 mentioned above buildings. Four of them in France and one exactly in Berlin. German version was slightly different due to local building regulations. It forced to abandon the proportions given by the Modulor and increase one meter in height between the floors comparing to the famous Marseille version. 

It is important to mention that Unité d'Habitation of Berlin is a part of International Building Exhibition 'Interbau'. Its intention was to show the modernization and reconstruction of Germany and also implementing a new build techniques. 

The main exhibition was located in Hansaviertel, east of the city of Berlin. 

Site beside the Olympic Stadium on the edge of Grunewald Forest however was selected for Corbusier building due to its size.

Unité d'Habitation of Berlin ©Artur Sikora

Building consist of 530 apartments on 17 floors. Each apartment with between one and five rooms. 

On the ground floor, there is large store and washhouse, which serves as a cinema and the club apartment, which is used to hold exhibitions.

Unité d'Habitation of Berlin ©Artur Sikora

I would like to come back now to mentioned Hansaviertel. After war Berlin was almost completely destroyed. One of the most dev­ast­ated places was Hansavier­tel. 

It gave the planers opportunity to built all area from scratch. 

In 1953 was arranged an inter­na­tional com­pet­i­tion  - The Inter­bau 57 as a part of a series of archi­tec­tural exhib­i­tions. Some of the most important architects were invited to design and built new homes/apartments according to modern architecture standards. 

Just to mention Wal­ter Gropius, Alvar Aalto, Arne Jac­ob­sen or Oscar Niemeyer.

Perfectly located Hansaviertel is a beautiful area full of trees and green spaces. 

Very hard to photograph of course which I already said before ;)

Being there a few times already I stayed with only one building, designed by Oscar Niemeyer. Incredibly beautiful. All block called Niemeyer House contains 78 apartments. Its structure is lifted off the ground floor in Le Corbusier style to open up the outside public area. Also one entire floor is dedicated to community activities.

Hansaviertel ©Artur Sikora

Hansaviertel ©Artur Sikora

Hansaviertel ©Artur Sikora

The last very interesting place I would like to show in this article it is Pallasseum, designed and built by Jürgen Sawade in 1977. Pallasseum called until 2001 Sozialpalast is located close to Potsdamer Straße and area with buildings described in my previous blog post /click HERE please/.

Pallasseum ©Artur Sikora

It is a massive complex consist of 514 apartments. Truly impressive size and amount of concrete. All internal area wasn't possible to access at least on the day I was there which obviously allowed me to leave with only one photograph. 

There is another article on the way. This time it will be related to some public buildings. It will be also the last one about Berlin. I will try show some other photographs I took during those few days which will be presented on my FB website.

Thank you!