Pavilhão de Portugal, Parque das Nações, Lisboa
I posted some photos of Lisbon on Flickr. Its a beautiful city, with an interesting mix of of architecture, including some very cool modern buildings, like the one pictured above, which is the Lisbon Pavilion in the Park of Nations, the site of the 1998 Expo. At this angle it reminds me of a giant cling-film dispenser. On the form-to-function spectrum this structure designed by Alvaro Siza Vieira leans well to the form end. When you see something as extreme (and in my view beautiful) as this, you realize function isn’t the be all and end all to urban design. This apparently useless building (the fair is over) gives back something however, a sense of wonder.
I like this photograph a lot. I’m always trying to take abstract photographs of ‘conventional’ things to encourage views I might not have noticed otherwise.
Very nice. :)
Thanks. Its a great way to look for photo ops, I agree. But with this shot all the credit goes to the architect. He’s taken a very conventional thing – concrete – and made it seem to defy gravity, as light as a canvas sheet.
What beautiful lines in this picture. It reminds me of a particular sculpture by Giacometti.