Author: David Dowling
Single shot: Tara Street
Single shot: Barbican
This is a quick shot of Lauderdale Tower I took on the way to see Digital Revolution the other day. Built in 1974, it’s an example of the brutalist style of architecture and is as beautiful as it is over-bearing.
Design Museum
One of the nice things about living in Bermondsey in South London is being surrounded by so many amazing things to do. Last weekend I took a little trip down to the Design Museum. At the moment there are three exhibitions on, Louis Kahn: The Power Of Architecture, Time Machines: Daniel Weil And The Art Of Design and Designs Of The Year 2014.
Loius Kahn (1901–1974)
I wasn’t familiar with Kahn’s work before seeing it on display. The exhibition showcases his life’s work over the course of nearly half a century.
One of the highlights is a four metre tall (1:50 scale) model of his City Tower project planned for Philadelphia in the mid 50s but never built. The model was built by the Vitra Design Museum.
Daniel Weil
Daniel Weil’s collection of ‘Time Machines’ was fascinating, in particular ‘Clock for an Architect’. It’s hard to translate the finish in a photo but trust me it’s really a beautiful object.
One of the really nice touches is the use of phillips and flat head screws on the positive and negative sides of the battery holder.
Designs of the Year 2014
The Designs of the Year exhibition showcases the best design from the past year and brings it all together in one exhibition. In their words:
“Now in its seventh year, Designs of the Year gathers together a year of cutting-edge innovation and original talent; showcasing the very best in global Architecture, Digital, Fashion, Furniture, Graphic, Product and Transport design.”
— Design Museum
Here’s a few of my favourites from this years show.
Marina Willer of Pentagram’s identity for The Serpentine Galleries
Volkswagen’s XL1 is the first car to do 100km to a litre of diesel
The Lego Calendar by Vitamins is a great mash-up of analogue and digital technology to create a fun, working wall planner.
Experimental Jetset’s identity for the Whitney
The brilliant Dumb Ways to Die
The vote tracker is a nice touch and really makes visitors feel like they are part of the experience. It’s hard to tell but the bars are made up of little pieces of yellow tape and are added to and updated to keep track of which exhibits are the most popular.
Nicely sums it up I think.
Single shot: Blackfriars view
I took this from Blackfriars Bridge as I walked over to South Bank yesterday to meet a few friends for a drink, well, many drinks but that’s beside the point. Anyway, the point is I’m still amazed that you can get shots like this from the camera on a phone that’s 3 years old (iPhone 4S).
Single shot: Train
Trains in a city make me think of work & commuting, but out in the countryside that same train reminds me of holidays, fun times and sunny day trips out of town.
This shot is from a window of a train in Ireland from a good few years ago. There’s nothing particularly impressive about it — I mean it’s blurry as feck and the subject matter is a bit rubbish, hell I can’t even remember where I was going… but I think that’s the bit I like most about it.
