Thursday, May 08, 2008

Lithuania is near Albany.

Ever notice how a raccoon creep-hops out of the brush at dusk? Or, the way a possum slithers across the road at midnight, caught in your headlamps? Those are the shapes and fluidities I think of most often when I see the work of Zaha Hadid. Supine. Horizontal. She seems to envision her buildings as lumps beneath a stretchy cover for the landscape of an ironing board.

Quite surprised, I really like her winning design for the art museum to be built in Vilnius, Lithuania. It's a glistening thing that appears to have crawled up out of the Neris River where the locals will have to perpetually spray it with water, just as the eco-sensitive residents of Cape Cod always rush to the beach to douse a confused whale before the riggers arrive to shove it back into the water.

I suppose I'll trundle down to the Maya Stendahl Gallery when I'm back in town, to see what the losers had to offer.







5 comments:

Birdie said...

Where you see organic, I see a cruise ship that got soft in the sun. But I like it nonetheless. Form and function.

Gavin said...

To me, these photos look like a high-tech airport terminal plopped down on some runways. I wonder what it will look like when built.

cb said...

Very interesting architecture. I am not sure how I feel about the building yet, but I would definitely like to see it in real life.

dpaste said...

In answer to your question: No, I've never noticed how a raccoon creep-hops out of the brush at dusk. But thanks for inquiring.

Mike said...

I see something like that and think, "Where's the front entrance?" Like too much of me, intensely practical, probably to a fault.