Holloway Road (19 November)

Although Manor House station isn't situated anywhere special, the metal design over the platforms' air vents is quite lovely: Another speck of design amongst surroundings that are rather boring is this remarkable building, on north London's Holloway Road (basically a noisy, polluted thoroughfare better made for cars rushing in and out of the city than pedestrians making their way in the city): The first time I noticed London Metropolitan University's Orion Graduate Centre was from the bus, when all I had time for was to spin my head around, wonder what I had just seen, and make a note to return on foot. I found out that this Holloway Road sight is the only Daniel Libeskind building in London, making it an architectural must-see in a city full of neck-craning wonders. The exterior of the building reminds me of the interior of the Danish Jewish Museum that we visited in Copenhagen this summer, all angles and corners and unexpected intersections, and I learned that the two projects were completed one after another in late 2003. Walking past the building lends a sense of awe, coupled with a healthy dose of disorientation:

Apparently, the building's impact is even better felt from within, but the interior is not open to the general public, so I can't confirm that firsthand. One architectural analysis I read posits that "the three cleverly intersecting elements which make up the Graduate Centre . . . are arranged in an attempt to emphasise the building's multiple functions, one making a connection with the public passing by outside and the other university buildings behind, another to the nearby tube station (a more obvious connection with the rest of the world), and the last block placing the building in context with the street on which it stands." Well, I never would have come up with that myself, but if I really look at the building, I guess I can't exclude such an explanation! If you want to follow along, Holloway Road tube station is to the left of this photo, Holloway Road is in front of the Graduate Centre, and the other university buildings are to the left of and behind Libeskind's building.
I stopped taking photos when the rain started up again, and by the time I finished my errands, the temperature had dropped considerably and I was glad to be home. Bob was even happier to arrive home when he found out that I was cooking a meal fit for a winter's night: lamb shanks braised in red wine along with a gooey mess of rich scalloped potatoes:
Winter's not so bad after all!