Foster + Partners: The Souk, Abu Dhabi Central Market

The Souk, Abu Dhabi Central Market by Foster + Partners

The ever active design blog Dezeen has published a post entitled “The Souk, Abu Dhabi Central Market by Foster + Partners“, looking at the recently opened, Norman Foster designed, pedestrian shopping center – a marvelously contemporary, yet sensibly historical offering including high-end boutiques, and independent local food and craft markets on the site of a historic city marketplace in Abu Dhabi.

Dezeen‘s article is full of wonderful photos showing courtyards, alleys, integrated balconies, stained-glass windows, columns and more that characterize this flexibly ventilated, seductive wood structure.

image: Nigel Young, Foster + Partners/Dezeen

Read more of Designalog on Foster + Partners, here.

Read more of Designalog on architecture in Abu Dhabi, here.

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Architect & Designer Jurgen Mayer H. – Metropol Parasol, Encryption Patterns, Asymmetrical Sunglasses, Mestia Airport & More

The German architect and designer Jurgen Mayer H. (yes, that’s his middle initial at the end of his name) has recently completed the Metropol Parasol, a 150,000-square-foot mushroom-shaped, mixed-use public plaza in Seville, Spain, made of polyurethane-coated timber, and purported to be the largest architectural structure in the world that is glued together.  Rowan Moore has written an article on the structure entitled “Metropol Parasol, Seville by Jürgen Mayer H – review” in the Architecture section of The Guardian, which includes a number of closer shots of the actual construction.

The Metropol Parasol – “a stacking up of past, present and future, of ruins, market, performance space and sky deck”

Photograph: Sergio Caro/The Guardian

Looking at a few of the other efforts by J. Mayer H., Felix Burrichter has written a short article for The New York Times, entitled “Jurgen Mayer H. |Pattern Recognition” looking at Mayer’s new book, entitled ““WirrWarr” (which Google translates from the German as confusion, tangle, jumble, chaos, and even promiscuity), which contains a selection of more than 100 encryption patterns, as seen below:

This encryption pattern found on the inside of an envelope; one of many specimens in Jürgen Mayer H.’s collection

image: Hatje Cantz/The New York Times

The excellent design blog Designboom has published a post entitled, with a flourish, “jurgen mayer h. architects: airport in mestia” looking at Mayer’s Mestia Georgia Airport, a modest, but very interesting example of Mayer’s fascination with asymmetry.

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New Mestia, Georgia Airport Building by Jurgen Mayer H. Architects

image: Jurgen Mayer H. Architects/Designboom

 And, for a futher look at the question of asymmetry, Designboom has a post entitled “jurgen mayer h. architects: sunglasses for IC! berlin” on the asymmetrical sunglasses that Mayer has designed for optical house, IC Berlin.  See the photo below:

Asymmetrical sunglasses designed by Jurgen Mayer H. for IC Berlin, “a subtle answer to the asymmetry of human faces.”

image: Designboom

Here’s a link to the series of 13 articles that Designboom has written on Mayer and his creations.

If you decide that Mayer’s sunglasses are for you, please don’t hesitate to send us a snapshot of you wearing them.

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