Reflecting UNESCO

The other day I took my students on an outing to UNESCO to see some of the interesting architecture within the compound. In architectural terms perhaps the most well known building is the Tadao Ando Meditation Space. But there are also examples of Marcel Breuer and Luigi Nervi's architecture. 

I took many photos of course, but some of my favourite ones are taken in the Japanese Garden of Peace, designed by Isamu Noguchi. It was a freezing but beautifully sunny day and the reflections in the water features were beautiful.

More UNESCO photos can be seen on my Flickr account here.

Tadao Ando Meditation Space (UNESCO Paris)

Almost a year ago Phaidon approached me to ask if they could use a photograph I'd taken of the Tadao Ando Meditation space at UNESCO Paris, for a book they were publishing entitled 'Concrete.' Of course I said yes.

It was a very nice surprise to receive a copy of this book the other morning. It collates a selection of architecture projects where concrete has been used as the principal building material. It is a gorgeous book that illustrates the versatility and beauty of concrete in architecture. Here is 'my' page.

The Tadao Ando Meditation Space at UNESCO Paris was built in 1995 to celebrate the 50 year anniversary of the institution. It is an abstract space symbolising spiritual freedom.

Tadao Ando is a Japanese architect born in Osaka Japan in 1941. Apparently he never had a formal education in architecture but started out as a carpenter between the ages of 10 and 17. He also worked for a while as a truck driver and a boxer. However, by his late teens he had already developed a passionate interest in architecture and visited many Japanese temples, tea houses and shrines gathering inspiration and knowledge which he enhanced further by reading many books on the subject. In his early twenties he travelled to the United States, Europe and Africa and developed a fascination with the work of Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe. The influence of Le Corbusier on Tadao Ando's work goes without question.

I've worked as a consultant at UNESCO since 1996. During the summer months I would often picnic in the Japanese Gardens that form part of the UNESCO complex and then meander through the Tadao Ando meditation space on my way to get a post lunch coffee. 

I would always pause as I passed through the concrete drum, and look up. I think you can see why!

Here is a view from the street.

You can see the Eiffel Tower peeking out from behind.

The main building at UNESCO was designed by architect Marcel Breuer.

Tadao Ando's architecture represents the beauty of simplicity, while often including circulation paths from one space to another, using natural light to enhance and contrast solids and voids.

Here is a blog post I wrote on a Le Corbusier building I visited in India, The Mill Owners' Association Building, Ahmedabad).

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UNESCO
7, Place de Fontenoy
75007 Paris
Metro: Ségur, Cambronne, Ecole militaire
Bus: 28, 80

To visit UNESCO, please write to visits@unesco.org

Please...take a seat

Parisian park chairs and benches are an important and enduring symbol of the City of Lights. 

Perhaps most notable are the green chairs to be found in the Jardin Luxembourg or the Jardin des Tuilleries. They sometimes gather together in clusters...

...or on their own.

I saw these in the Merci Concept Store, the Parisian park chair has become a sought after trendy icon.

Here is a bench in the Parc de Bercy, the very pale mint green is unusual for a Paris park bench.

More benches in the park below the Sacré Cœur.

Periodically a park bench will disappear and return a week later, freshly painted. I think this may happen to these quite soon.

Here are two chairs in the Tando Ando Meditation Space at UNESCO. 

Artists' chairs on the Place de Tertre.

Shiny chairs at Parc de la Villette.

And then of course there are the infamous Parisian café chairs. 

Red ones. With snow

Without snow.

Red and black.

Light brown.

Middle brown.

Dark brown.

Turquoise.

And of course, rainbow chairs as seen stacked outside the L'Eté en Pente Douce cafe just to the east of the Sacré Cœur. 

Circles are divine

“The horizon of many people is a circle with zero radius which they call their point of view.” Albert Einstein

I suspect most people love a circle. Somehow we can't resist them. In the past medieval scholars, and many others believed that there was something intrinsically "divine" or "perfect" that could be found in circles. 

Needless to say I have a collection of circles. 

Here are a few.

Pink flower.

Glass detail on a tombstone in the Cimetière de Montmartre.

Plum cake.

Glass candle holder.

Christmas lights.

Metro chair, Villier Station, Paris.

Blue moon, garden of  Le musée du quai Branly.

Leaves through a bubble.

Café table.

Thistle in Donegal, Ireland.

Thistle in Le square Léon Serpolet, Paris 18th.

White flowers through a bubble.

Dandelion clock.

Kugelhopf mould, marché aux puces de St Ouen.

Parisian cats eye.

And last but not least, the Tadao Ando Meditation Space, UNESCO Paris.

More bbonthebrink circles can be found here