書展速寫(二)

今年書展的best buy，包包盛惠20元，T-Shirt則40元。

王司馬的牛仔，Sempé的petit Nicolas，同樣可愛得令人愛不釋手。

Mega Box

在公私兩便的情况下，比原先計劃提早去了一趟位於九龍灣的Mega Box。正如許多去過了的人認為，反正有一半以上的商店尚未開業，可能遲一些去會較好。Mega Box的市場策略是一連串的「首個」及「最大」，但以家品店B&Q為例，大則大矣，但貨品未算情緻、新鮮或獨特，倘以價廉物美為賣點，市場上可供選擇的也不算少。倒覺得達國際級標準的溜冰場真不俗，當天還看見一班十來歲的小朋友正在比賽冰上曲棍球，像是上演少年版《Pride》呢。另，首個IMAX立體影院想必也樂趣無窮吧！Mega Box給我的整體感覺是以年青家庭為主要對象，有意成為他們假日必到的消閒熱點。

商場的主調是紅色，內部設計著重鮮明繽紛的感覺，但風格不太統一，有點混雜。那些巨型公仔造型無疑可愛，容易惹人好感，是整個商場較吸引的點綴。不期然便想到新加坡的Vivo City (怡豐城) ，由日本著名建築師伊東豐雄(Toyo Ito)設計並以一些很pop很有來頭的公共藝術招徠(是Fumio Nanjo背後策劃的呢)，營造時尚歡欣的氣氛，容易吸引小朋友或年青人注意，這點我想Mega Box是希望可以看齊的吧。值得注意的是Vivo City以水為主題，很配合長年天氣炎熱的獅城。以人為本，與地境相輔相成，這是值得我城借鏡之處吧！

還是要選

是時候要換手機啦! 今次決賽佳麗有兩名：一部是Nokia 6300，另一部是Sony Ericsson K550i。

Nokia是老相好，Sony Ericsson則是新歡。

新歡舊愛，如何是好？歡迎用家多多賜教 ^.^

Torn between 2 cell phones

Photo via MacDailyNews

原以為會乖乖重投Nokia的懷抱，誰知殺出兩個程咬金?

What A Nice Lamp!

Chandelier,
What a nice name!
What a nice lamp!

Stuart Haygarth, “Millenium Chandelier” (2004)

Stuart Haygarth, “Tide Chandelier” (2004)

Photos via Stuart Haygarth

Neues Licht, “Schintilla 6.0”

(designed by Simon Brunner)

Photos via Inhabitat

吊燈的英文Chandelier，名字很優美動聽。

一盞吊燈，照亮一間屋，給人一份如夢如幻的遐想。

Utrecht

Caravaggio

Dick Bruna

Miffy

Tulip

Utrecht

Riddles??

謎底:

17世紀巴洛克時期意大利著名畫家Caravaggio影響力延伸至鬱金香國荷蘭，因為追隨者如Gerrit van Honthorst曾遊學羅馬，被這位意國大師那獨特的繪畫風格深深吸引，更讓他那強烈的光暗對比法移民至故鄉Utrecht。

Utrecht也是Miffy作者Dick Bruna先生的出生地，他至今仍居於此。

如今Utrecht有座聞名的博物館Centraal Museum，建於1838年，是荷蘭最古老的市立博物館，內設一個藝術展覽區，讓一衆兔迷認識Miffy的前世今生。

下次如果青兔失踪，可能會在Utrecht被補，因那裏有齊上述至愛。

還有, 小朋友別誤會Miffy是Hello Kitty或My Melody的親屬, 雖然Miffy和Melody都是兔 :-)

Cat(ch) If You Can

This is just a no win situation. The kitten can never catch the fish swimming around it. Isn't it a reflection of our life sometimes? Can never win the heart of those decision makers no matter what we did? Or there is always one (or more) unrequited love in our life.

Just one more step or a few more seconds we would have been there. The gap separates us from the life that we would have otherwise lived.

What's left over, could it be a beauty too?

未竟全功確實難受，但半步之差每每已是另一個天涯。

可憐的小貓永遠吃不到眼前魚兒，卻成就了一個出色設計。

吊詭不正就是我們的人生嗎?

Luxe, Calme et Volupté

Le monde s'endort The world falls asleep
Dans une chaude lumière In a warm glow of light
Là, tout n'est qu'ordre et beauté There, all is order and beauty only
Luxe, calme et volupté Luxury, peace, and pleasure

- Charles Baudelaire《Luxe, Calme et Volupté 》

Today, architects do not simply build a house or a city. They also build a brand, as Frank Gehry did for Tiffany, Gary Chang for Alessi or recently Zaha Hadid for Louis Vuitton.

Bucket, Zaha Hadid
Exhibition: ICONS
Espace Louis Vuitton
(Sept 15-Dec 31 2006)

If…
Flagship stores are compared to modern cathedrals

Likewise…
Shoppers are pilgrims
Luxuries are altarpieces

Then…
Creative hands please nurture our rotten souls.

Function Kicks Form's Ass

當一頭栽進建築這個既陌生又波詭雲譎的知識領域後，感覺載浮載沉。所以Chad Smith於Tropolism發表的都市札記無疑是給我持續進修的好機會。看罷他於《Everything Emptying Into White》一文寫有關Paul Rudolph的家，心中又是一陣騷動。

以往誤打誤撞唸了一點建築美學與歷史，現已忘掉內容90%，惟經典金句"Form follows function"，卻上心頭。句中形態(form)一詞看似是subject，實則功能(function)才是主角。時移勢易，拜Chad Smith賜教，今天的punch line己換成"Function kicks form's ass" (~呵呵~)。這下可連文法上也function first。

誠然，名建築師的家往往是最佳的作品示範，家居設計猶如芸芸傑作之縮影，盡現當事人對空間使用的獨門秘方，亦貫徹設計者深藏的理念。Paul Rudolph採用簡約至極的白，並採用開放式設計，拆掉界線與邊緣，使空間線條虛實交錯，亦力證現代設計看重multi-function與處理空間的靈活性。

然則功能便很易凌駕於形態，後者的「結局」全然取決於前者所能發揮的極限。這又好像將形態暗降為副車，狠狠將建築與美感脫鉤。

不過世事亦未可料。換個角度看，我們何不將功能看成帶領形態舞動的引子，釋放後者變幻的能量，讓其自由流動？以「有限」換「無限」，何嘗不是美麗的魔法？

一切皆取決於功能與形態的朝夕長短或是相輔相成。


** Thanks to Chad, we know that there is a lovely slideshow showing the renovated house Paul Rudolph did for himself on Beekman Place (courtesy New York Magazine) **

Big Fish

There is often something very "fishy" about Frank O. Gehry, who won the 1989 Pritzker Architecture Prize, the Oscar equivalent in Film. An architect in his own right, he was sometimes more like a sculptor. And now he is even marching bolding into the rivaling sand of "design". That is my first impression when I have recently bumped into his latest design for Tiffany, which is reminiscent of his most celebrated motif - fish.

A devout believer of "architecture is art", Gehry openly admitted that artists like Brancusi had a more profound influence on his work than most architects. Perhaps that explains why most people find his architecture like a modernist sculpture. (By the way, I am completely thrilled by the fact that he also likes Alvar Aalto from the architecture world, for I am a big fan of this Finnish architect.) Gehry made a lot of “fish” in art as in architecture. Fish Dance (Kobe, Japan) is a prominent outdoor sculpture that by far overshadows the restaurant building itself.

Gehry's big fish is, on the other hand, functional in a most intriguing and ecstatic way. Take Barcelona Fish (Spain) for example. As a sculpture, his fish is too massive while as an architectural piece, it is too "fishy". I just wonder how he can accommodate the organic form to the geometric rules in the orthodox canon of architecture. No doubt that modern architects are rule-breakers, as much as the modern icon of the avant-garde in art. Loads of architects like Gehry and Zaha Hadid moved away from norms. They tested upon the limits of violating geometry.

As Gehry states, "I approach each building as a sculptural object, a spatial container, a space with light and air, a response to context and appropriateness of feeling and spirit. To this container, this sculpture, the user brings his baggage, his program, and interacts with it to accommodate his needs. If he can't do that, I've failed."

Recently, Gehry has been shifting from big to smaller fish. From Barcelona Fish and Fish Dance to his Fish Lamps, Pito Kettle for Alessi and Tiffany jewelries, I am not sure what's in the mind of this big big fish ;-)