Friday, March 09, 2012

Facade Friday!

The post about the wood pallet facades got me thinking about facades. So - NEW COLUMN! Facade Fridays will highlight an interesting facade each Friday. Our inaugural facade will be one of my favorites - the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris France:
Photo from nyhabitat.com


Image from Designcliff's Weblog
What I love about this facade is that it's beautiful, but that it's form is a direct result of the job it's doing. Each of the individual frames is made up of operable lenses that open and close as necessary to control the light that enters the building. This can be seen as one is inside the building:
Image from Panaramio
The end result is beautiful, but also evocative of middle eastern architecture and screens used traditionally in the Arab world. I love it. It's by Jean Nouvel, and if you get a chance to see it in person you should.



2 comments:

the designers muse said...

I've been to the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris. It's a wonderful building. What's remarkable is that it was built more than 20 year years ago, yet feels very new, original and groundbreaking.

Scharrera said...

I was there shortly after it opened, and was really enthralled by it. You're right, it seems high tech even today!