Of Buildings and LV.

With starting school (yet) again it seemed quite appropriate to go and check out the Zaha exhibition at the Design Museum by Tower Bridge. During the first week at school her mention was of course inescapable especially when the head of school was giving an 'insider's guide to the AA' talk, listing everything in an A-to-Z way. Which is fair enough really. As much as my opinion swings from one end to the other there is no denying her talent and influence. I still remember the crit in third year when some guy was being shot down for his 'blatant exploitation of recycled, 80's Hadid-ism.' You can do the (minimum) seven years at school but getting the 'ism' at the end of your name is another lifetime altogether.

It was my first time in that end of London in recent years and found it was dotted with several little gems like this one:

We weren't sure whether the bridges were shared between two flats, were communal or were set between two parts of one flat. My favorite explanation is of course the last one, where you might have a small workspace on one side which has its own entrance, then when it was time to go home you'd just walk across the bridge. Quite like the people who have home offices at the bottom of their gardens. Only cooler.

So in the exhibition I asked whether we were allowed to take photographs and proceeded to go a little snap happy in he process. However I've just checked the website and apparently its not actually allowed so if you plan to go, perhaps its best just to ask.

There are two floors to the exhibition, the first one showing most of her actual building work in the form of draings, sketches and models. The second, displaying mainly her furniture and smaller pieces like tableware and lighting. As expected, the lower floor was by far the more engaging and seductive, but perhaps that has more to do with the fact that I prefer her work done in the 80s, some in the decade to follow but less of the blob-ular obsession with modelling tools of recent years.


Maybe the fact that they told us we could take photos was because they knew most couldn't come out anyway due to the low lighting. The space itself was a little surreal with the walls, floor and ceiling being so dark and black, everything else seemed wightless.

(note: I'd add more photos on here but these two were the only decent and relevant ones I thought best to put in.)

This picture I took of a chair upstairs simply to put on here. I thought it looked quite fun since you don't usually see the print in 3D.


On the way to the museum you pass Foster's City Hall. Surrounded immediately by generous open space that is walled in by a number of taller buildings it's no suprise there's quite a stong wind tunnel!


Oh and on a completely seperate note, Emma's started blogging again which is great! And with photos of the newest member of the fam too. Congratulations again Bobby and Emma,
I cannot wait to meet her. xxauntw