Today on AD Architect James Dixon leads us on a walking tour of San Francisco, highlighting the captivating details found in its storied architecture. From the iconic Transamerica Pyramid and Hallidie Building to Postcard Row, the Presidio and more – discover the history behind San Francisco’s most famous buildings and neighborhoods through James Dixon’s expert eye.
Category Archives: Travel
Views: How Venice Was Built On A Swamp (NOVA)
Building a city on a lagoon has its challenges. Here’s how the citizens of Venice accomplished this task centuries ago.
Rising sea levels and sinking land threaten to destroy Venice. Leading scientists and engineers are racing against the clock and battling the forces of nature to try to save this historic city for future generations. Discover the innovative projects and feats of engineering currently underway, including a hi-tech flood barrier, eco-projects to conserve the lagoon, and new efforts to investigate erosion beneath the city. This is Venice as never seen before, at a critical moment in its rich history.
Walking Tour: Bodrum In Southwestern Turkey (4K)
Bodrum is a city on the Bodrum Peninsula, stretching from Turkey’s southwest coast into the Aegean Sea. The city features twin bays with views of Bodrum Castle. This medieval fortress was built partly with stones from the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, completed in the 4th century B.C. The city is also a gateway for nearby beach towns and resorts.
Tours: Light Mine House In Northern New Zealand
Sitting above the dunes on a plateau, Light Mine is an extraordinary home by Crosson Architects that embraces expansive views of the Coromandel Peninsula. Entering from the southern end of the house, the Light Mine house tour unfolds like a book, seeing Crosson Architects offer a carefully planned story from beginning to end.
Video timeline: 00:00 – Introduction to the Extraordinary New Zealand Home 00:43 – An Extraordinary Site 01:12 – A Choreographed Journey 01:30 – The History Behind the Gold Mining 02:10 – The Light Shafts 02:48 – Tying the Material Palette into Context 03:02 – Cladding Built From the Land 03:32 – Moulding and Blending into the Location Overtime 03:48 – The Extraordinary Craftsmanship 04:33 – A Reference to the Interior of a Gold Mine 05:08 – The Variations of Light Quality
Separated into interconnecting pods, Light Mine is a single level family home that takes inspiration from the dunes and headlands behind and becomes a unique structural form for future generations to enjoy. In designing the home, Crosson Architects looked to the gold mining history of the area, finding inspiration from a historical drawing of a gold mine shaft. As such, the architects have designed a series of geometric pods. Serving as unique structural elements, these inserts work together to break up the horizontal design of the extraordinary home.
Embraced by the clients after many conversations with Crosson Architects, the diagonal inserts offer a sense of scale and character to the home that relates to the surrounding landscape. From within, the diagonal shafts bring a playful and unique movement of light that instils changing characteristics; placed strategically over the living and dining areas, they offer variations of light as the sun shuffles through the extraordinary home.
Notably, the light shaft in the main bedroom offers glimpses of the night sky, capturing the Milky Way and stars above. Understanding that the extraordinary home needed to meld and blend into its surroundings over time, Crosson Architects has used reclaimed local native tōtara timber for the exterior cladding, enhancing the home’s horizontality and settling it into its surrounds. Overall, a cohesive approach to colour and materiality ensures the home reflects the surrounding landscape. Dark timber has been employed on the exterior, referencing the rock of the headland behind; inside, the use of light timber speaks to the sand dunes beyond.
The band sawn timber used extensively throughout the interior design creates a warm reprieve from the outside. In contrast, the kitchen and bathrooms feature dark timber veneer, which also nods to the gold mines while creating visual interest in each internal space. Challenged to design something that was both memorable and laid back, Crosson Architects has delivered an extraordinary home, which references Light Mine’s historical context and incorporates the changing colours of the day to emphasise its unique character.
Stockholm Canal Walks: Djurgårdsbrunnskanalen
Perhaps the most classic place for a stroll in Stockholm. Sunday brunch at Djurgårdsbrunns värdshus, combined with a stroll along the canal is something I believe most locals appreciate. We’re here at a weekday, near sunset. Just a few joggers, walkers and a horse around.
Djurgårdsbrunnskanalen is a canal in central Stockholm, Sweden, separating the island Djurgården from the northern mainland. The canal stretches one kilometre from Lilla Värtan to Djurgårdsbrunnsviken and allows ships 9.5 metres wide and 2.1 metres deep to pass.
Yellowstone Hikes: Old Faithful To Mallard Lake
This is a 13 mile hike in the Old Faithful area. I started at the Old Faithful parking lot, and did a clockwise loop around to Mallard Lake and back down to Old Faithful. After the thermal section, most of the hike is through thick forest. I was happy to see fresh bear tracks on the trail. This hike has a very good trail all the way and was an easy hike.
Old Faithful is a cone geyser in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, United States. It was named in 1870 during the Washburn–Langford–Doane Expedition and was the first geyser in the park to be named. It is a highly predictable geothermal feature and has erupted every 44 minutes to two hours since 2000.
Village Walks: Corippo In Ticino, Switzerland (4K)
Corippo is a mountain village in the Verzasca valley some 12 kilometers (7.5 mi) from Locarno, at the north end of the artificial Lake Vogorno and 20 km (12 mi) from the border with Italy. The houses are built from the local Ticino granite with slate roofs and have changed little for several hundred years, leading the Italian writer Piero Bianconi to describe Corippo as “Verzasca’s gentlest village”.
Its early 17th century Church of the Blessed Virgin Annunciata (later the Blessed Virgin Carmine) was extended in the late eighteenth century. Corippo’s architectural value has caused the entire village centre to be placed under a conservation order, and in 1975 the European Architectural Heritage Congress named the village as an “exemplary model” for historical preservation. Corippo was originally part of the larger parish and commune of Vogorno (though maintaining a certain degree of autonomy), before becoming a fully independent municipality in 1822. The village first became connected to the wider world in 1883 when a road was built linking it to the Verzasca valley road.
Aerial Views: Roosevelt Island, New York (4K)
Roosevelt Island, island in the East River, between the boroughs of Manhattan and Queens, New York City. Administratively part of Manhattan, it is 1.5 miles (about 2.5 km) long and 1/8 mile wide, with an area of 139 acres (56 hectares). In 1637 the Dutch governor Wouter van Twiller bought the island from the Indians, who called it Minnahanonck. In 1828 the city acquired it and built a workhouse and penitentiary, which became notorious. Formerly known as Blackwell’s Island, it was renamed Welfare Island in 1921, and in 1973 its name was again changed to honour President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1934 the old institutions were replaced by city hospitals. In the 1970s the island was connected to Manhattan by an aerial tramway system, and moderate-income housing and shopping complexes were constructed there. A bridge connects the island to Queens.
Journeys: Alhambra To Tarifa In Andalusia, Spain
As he travels the Mediterranean, Jaafar Abdul Karim visits Andalusia in Spain. He tries flamenco dancing, tours the Alhambra, and finds his dream house on the Costa del Sol. In Tarifa, photographer José Luis Terrado shows Jaafar his photographs of refugees.
Flamenco music has its roots in the south of Spain. In Las Negras, journalist Jaafar Abdul Karim meets up with flamenco performer Anabel Veloso for a dance. His Mediterranean journey then takes him into the interior of Andalusia. Throughout its history, the region has been a gateway to the Arabic-speaking world. More than 700 years of Islamic rule have left their mark, especially on the architecture.
In Granada, Jaafar visits the famous Alhambra, a world heritage site. Back on the shores of the Mediterranean, the journey continues past beautiful beaches and picturesque bays to the city of Málaga. It’s located on the “Costa del Sol”, where the sun shines more than 300 days per year. The climate attracts millions of tourists, especially from Germany and Britain. Many have bought property here.
In Estepona, Jaafar finds his dream home: the architects José Carlos Moya and Bertrand Coue have built a solar house with floor-to-ceiling windows and 360-degree panoramic views. Its unique design allows it to follow the trajectory of the sun, all day long.
Finally, Jaafar heads to Tarifa, just 14 kilometers across the sea from Morocco. The proximity to the North African side of the Mediterranean has inspired the work of photographer José Luis Terrado. His pictures depict migration and the conditions under which refugees from Africa have to work in order to survive. More than any other destination on his Mediterranean journey, Andalusia shows Jaafar Abdul Karim just how closely linked Europe and Africa are, culturally as well as economically.
Nature: Bryce Canyon National Park In Utah
Bryce Canyon National Park, a sprawling reserve in southern Utah, is known for crimson-colored hoodoos, which are spire-shaped rock formations. The park’s main road leads past the expansive Bryce Amphitheater, a hoodoo-filled depression lying below the Rim Trail hiking path. It has overlooks at Sunrise Point, Sunset Point, Inspiration Point and Bryce Point. Prime viewing times are around sunup and sundown.
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