BoPaper.com - Building Office Magazine

Sancaklar Mosque

An architect friend of mine was visiting Istanbul last month and asked me if it is easy to get a taxi from Taksim to Sancaklar Mosque. It takes about 100km to reach Sancaklar Mosque from Taksim – meaning it would cost a fortune for my friend to go there on his own. Since I was also curious to see the building, we have organized a minibus tour to the Sancaklar Mosque in the weekend.  Most of the trip towards the eastern end of Istanbul takes place on a highway. When you have Italians with you, it is quite embarrassing to..

30 Oct
0

Architecture

Louvre Abu Dhabi

As I approach Louvre Abu Dhabi by foot, I see three guys on a boat, right next to the bright white gallery box below the ground level, wiping the marks left by the sea where the gallery meets the sea. It takes energy and love to live with great architecture. You can not leave a piece of lemon on a beautiful kitchen counter built by natural stone. I believe living with great materials; great buildings require love and care, just like how beautiful clothes can not simply be thrown to the washing machine. Louvre is the most beautiful building in..

19 Jan
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Architecture

Broad Museum

The Broad Museum opened a month ago in downtown Los Angeles right next to Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall. Architects of the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art and Highline of New York, Diller Scofidio + Renfro designed and completed their third landmark building in the United States. Broad Museum is probably the second most impressive building I have ever seen in Los Angeles after my first visit to Bonaventura Hotel. Los Angeles is, in general, not the best city for a certain kind of architecture. The skin of the building is rigid, wrapping sides, even internal ceilings. The ground level of the building is reserved..

16 Oct
0

Exhibition

Glenn Small: Recovery Room

Assembly and Orhan Ayyüce present Glen Small: Recovery Room, a selection of the architect’s proposals. The show is on view from November 9 through 30. Opening reception is Saturday, November 9, 7-9 pm. Exhibition hours are Wednesday through Sunday, noon-6 pm. Assembly is located at 2045 S. La Cienega Blvd. Ample parking is available in the lot adjacent to WSS Shoe Warehouse at the same address. “When he saw the Green Machine, he said, ‘we’re going to build this thing.’” – Glen Small quoting Los Angeles city planner Calvin Hamilton Oregon and Nicaragua-based architect Glen Small’s mid-career proposals still inspire..

10 Nov
0

Music

Led Zeppelin

I was recently watching the Kennedy Center Honors for Led Zeppelin, which was back in December 2012 (I just discovered it through a friend’s Facebook link with the flashy title “Look at Robert Plant in tears!” so of course, I had to see him crying) It was the most touching performance, showing Heart perform “Stairway to Heaven”, their all-time-classic. Touching, because you could definitely see real emotion in Robert Plant’s eyes as they get watery, immediately as the song starts. But it was just as much of a treat to see the expression on Jimmy Page’s face as he listens...

3 Jul
0

Technology

URL Shorteners

URL shorteners are in our lives since 2001 (1), making it easier to share long URLs through instant messaging, social media platforms and even IRC. Even though they were a huge help for people using chat systems in which clickable URLs were not natively supported (like early massively multiplayer online games), they became an indispensable part of our lives with the rise of Twitter. However, it is not all sunshines and rainbows and beautiful, short links with these services as they have downsides as well. One of the many handicaps of heavily using these services is that they make every..

2 Jul
0