So now that my pretty cute and light G15 as arrived, I am playing and testing it around. What better time to do than than during my morning walks? The light is great, adding a glowing yellow tone to everything.
Showing posts with label beauty. Show all posts
Showing posts with label beauty. Show all posts
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Testing out the New Camera
While walking I am taking along my new camera. I purchased a Canon G15, following the recommendation of our friend Adi, who is a professional photographer in Tel Aviv. I could not imagine taking the big Nikon and its big lens along. It would be too heavy, too cumbersome to carry around in a hike. I like to take photos, but I would be afraid to actually come back with some damaged equipment.
So now that my pretty cute and light G15 as arrived, I am playing and testing it around. What better time to do than than during my morning walks? The light is great, adding a glowing yellow tone to everything.
So now that my pretty cute and light G15 as arrived, I am playing and testing it around. What better time to do than than during my morning walks? The light is great, adding a glowing yellow tone to everything.
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
SMDBs
We live in Lago Sul, a suburb of Brasilia, in the SMDB area; in the Setor de Mansões Dom Bosco. The name could be translated by the Dom Bosco Sector of the Manors, or something similar. Even if it is not within the Plano Piloto, Lago Sul is a suburb planned along with the same rules as the rest of Brasilia: everything of similar use goes together. Consequently, the SMDB are the areas for large single family houses. And it is hard to find anything else there.
The interesting thing about the SMDB area is its order, which is very different from the rest of the city. Usually in Brasilia things are organized in an orderly fashion. Number are organized in order; 1, 2, 3 follow each other, as one would normally assume. I mentioned earlier that there is no conventional street name. Things are rather divided in areas, in large zones (like the SMDB for example, but also like the hospital sector, the school sector, the shopping sector), and then broken down in Quadras (neigborhoods) or in Conjuntos (junctions), and then the building number can be given. In Lago Sul, the entire area was sub-divided in two, the quadras along the lake - QL - and the inner quadras - QI. Then a set of numbers are given to all the little dead-end streets on which houses are aligned.
Here in the SMDBs, it is a little more tricky. First the SMDBs are not accessible from everywhere. They are clusters of a few SMDBs conjunctos (or small streets) and each of these clusters are accessible from a limited number of entry points through the QIs, and sometimes by only one point. The first trick is to learn where are these entry points. Then the SMDBs are sprinkled in a orderly fashion that is visible only from above - some big (ego) master plan power (also known as Costa, the planner), laid these around like someone sprinkles salt on his beans. The result is a little odd from the ground, where 17 and 16 are encountered before 14, where 12 is mix beside 28 and where you have 12a 12b and 12c next to 31 but really really far from 12 - an after-thought obviously. These SMDBs are usually on the hills behind the QIs. They all have either a view of the lake or a view of the surrounding hills, streams and nature.
Why am I writing here about this? Simply because the spatial arrangement of the SMDBs creates a unusual maze of roads and nature. I have enjoyed driving along their roads while trying to get Emmanuel to nap (a car ride does wonders these days). I have circumvented my son's sleep patterns with the discovery of the area, while day-dreaming of landscapes over which these houses gaze. I keep taking some shortcuts (that are not always so short) just to keep that impression of being in the countryside. At times I stop the car, and contemplate a landscape that, if standing in the right place, makes you feel that you are somewhere else, away from a city, deep in nature. And I just love it...
Here is a view from this backroad shortcut to our house, under the light of the afternoon ending. Gleaming atop of the hill is our house and our neighbors'. I love this view.
And this photo does not really makes justice to the beauty of landscape.
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Here in the SMDBs, it is a little more tricky. First the SMDBs are not accessible from everywhere. They are clusters of a few SMDBs conjunctos (or small streets) and each of these clusters are accessible from a limited number of entry points through the QIs, and sometimes by only one point. The first trick is to learn where are these entry points. Then the SMDBs are sprinkled in a orderly fashion that is visible only from above - some big (ego) master plan power (also known as Costa, the planner), laid these around like someone sprinkles salt on his beans. The result is a little odd from the ground, where 17 and 16 are encountered before 14, where 12 is mix beside 28 and where you have 12a 12b and 12c next to 31 but really really far from 12 - an after-thought obviously. These SMDBs are usually on the hills behind the QIs. They all have either a view of the lake or a view of the surrounding hills, streams and nature.
Why am I writing here about this? Simply because the spatial arrangement of the SMDBs creates a unusual maze of roads and nature. I have enjoyed driving along their roads while trying to get Emmanuel to nap (a car ride does wonders these days). I have circumvented my son's sleep patterns with the discovery of the area, while day-dreaming of landscapes over which these houses gaze. I keep taking some shortcuts (that are not always so short) just to keep that impression of being in the countryside. At times I stop the car, and contemplate a landscape that, if standing in the right place, makes you feel that you are somewhere else, away from a city, deep in nature. And I just love it...
Here is a view from this backroad shortcut to our house, under the light of the afternoon ending. Gleaming atop of the hill is our house and our neighbors'. I love this view.
And this photo does not really makes justice to the beauty of landscape.
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Counting our Blessings
When I got here, it was really difficult for me to adapt. There is no doubt that many things are still challenging. I am not going to list them here, it is not my point. Rather I just paused this weekend, while we hosting a few of our friends, and realized that we are blessed in so many ways here.
We have this beautiful weather, most of the year. It is sunny and warm.
Nature here is just stunning. And pristine. And there is no absolutely no pollution like we had in Beijing.
We made so many good friends, so many good people are surrounding us now. So many interesting and special individuals.
And we are very blessed to have landed in the house we have now.
We have this beautiful weather, most of the year. It is sunny and warm.
Nature here is just stunning. And pristine. And there is no absolutely no pollution like we had in Beijing.
We made so many good friends, so many good people are surrounding us now. So many interesting and special individuals.
And we are very blessed to have landed in the house we have now.
Saturday, May 18, 2013
National Theatre Classical Evening
Brasilia, from the first glance, does not give the impression of a very culturally vibrant city - I mean, no offense, it is not London or Paris or New York, where trends and modes are set and cultural events known worldwide. Yet the city is fairly generous culturally, with a number of venues are of great quality (like at the CCBB, which I have written about a few days before), and now and then very nice show and concerts are presented. This couple weeks, there is a series of events sponsored by the European Commission, with shows, concert, theater and more. We ended up for a free concert at the National Theater.
It is just impossible for me to go to these buildings and have my trained eye to not focus on a number of "bothersome" elements. It is something we label "deformation professionelle" in French... The experience of the National Theatre, like many other of Niemeyer buildings, feels like if the architect imagined some form and volumes, in this case the entry and the spacial experience - but limited himself to that, not taking much time on detailing. It feels a bit as if the visitor was robbed of something that should have been. In my opinion, good buildings are buildings that are "resolved problems" at all scales - at least this is what I learned in school.
The volume of the National Theater a truncated pyramid with three of its facades covered by a pattern of very large squares evenly distributed on the inclined faces, a work by Athos Bulcao. These patterns create a very nice play of shadows at the end of the day. The theatre is nested in the middle of spaghetti of large arteries in the city center, with a parking lot in its back, on the Exio Monumental. Consequently, the entrance to the theatre is a little strange; one can either enter through a backdoor or walks in the dirt around the building until the main lobby. I prefer using the back door, away from the cars, even if it means walking up and down ramps through a long set of bleak meandering spaces, my way of playing behind Niemeyer's back. Once in the lobby, a pleasant lush greenhouse, the space is filled by lines of very nicely dressed up people (lines are common in the Brazilian system). As with all my previous visits, once passed the doors to the concert hall, I am always surprised to experience the contrast between the lobby and the main space, in terms of finishes and detailing. Once passed a set of "normal concert hall doors", we enter into a fairly dark carpeted space, and rapidly we are brought onto a ramp that spirals down, in the dark, into the concert hall seating area. Scarily enough the ramp has no handrails, and nothing to really differentiate its edges from the ground below (which prompted the current management group to add a set of these cheap plastic floor lights garlands along the edges of the ramp). The spiral twists a full turn before landing at the top of the row of seatings, in a low open space of large dimensions, maybe larger than the stage itself. People gather in this low volume during the intermissions, in a low lighting and worn out carpet, with a plunging view above the seated crowed towards the stage and the light. Steep steps to the seats, which let us experience the years passed and the fact that each generation gains a few inches in height from one another... Seated, I am able to judge the main volume of the hall, a simple concrete box with wood paneling for acoustic purposes. The stage is also simple and efficient, which pleases my architectural taste buds.
Entering the aztec volume, spiraling down in the dark to the concert hall. Voilà!
Fortunately, my architectural eye took a little break while we really enjoyed this classical concert.
It is just impossible for me to go to these buildings and have my trained eye to not focus on a number of "bothersome" elements. It is something we label "deformation professionelle" in French... The experience of the National Theatre, like many other of Niemeyer buildings, feels like if the architect imagined some form and volumes, in this case the entry and the spacial experience - but limited himself to that, not taking much time on detailing. It feels a bit as if the visitor was robbed of something that should have been. In my opinion, good buildings are buildings that are "resolved problems" at all scales - at least this is what I learned in school.
The volume of the National Theater a truncated pyramid with three of its facades covered by a pattern of very large squares evenly distributed on the inclined faces, a work by Athos Bulcao. These patterns create a very nice play of shadows at the end of the day. The theatre is nested in the middle of spaghetti of large arteries in the city center, with a parking lot in its back, on the Exio Monumental. Consequently, the entrance to the theatre is a little strange; one can either enter through a backdoor or walks in the dirt around the building until the main lobby. I prefer using the back door, away from the cars, even if it means walking up and down ramps through a long set of bleak meandering spaces, my way of playing behind Niemeyer's back. Once in the lobby, a pleasant lush greenhouse, the space is filled by lines of very nicely dressed up people (lines are common in the Brazilian system). As with all my previous visits, once passed the doors to the concert hall, I am always surprised to experience the contrast between the lobby and the main space, in terms of finishes and detailing. Once passed a set of "normal concert hall doors", we enter into a fairly dark carpeted space, and rapidly we are brought onto a ramp that spirals down, in the dark, into the concert hall seating area. Scarily enough the ramp has no handrails, and nothing to really differentiate its edges from the ground below (which prompted the current management group to add a set of these cheap plastic floor lights garlands along the edges of the ramp). The spiral twists a full turn before landing at the top of the row of seatings, in a low open space of large dimensions, maybe larger than the stage itself. People gather in this low volume during the intermissions, in a low lighting and worn out carpet, with a plunging view above the seated crowed towards the stage and the light. Steep steps to the seats, which let us experience the years passed and the fact that each generation gains a few inches in height from one another... Seated, I am able to judge the main volume of the hall, a simple concrete box with wood paneling for acoustic purposes. The stage is also simple and efficient, which pleases my architectural taste buds.
Entering the aztec volume, spiraling down in the dark to the concert hall. Voilà!
Fortunately, my architectural eye took a little break while we really enjoyed this classical concert.
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