Pixelated Birmingham hotel

I suspect that fewer buildings of the twenty-first century will weather as well as those built in earlier centuries. Are there any modern buildings, I wonder, that will be improved by exposure to time, weather and the rough and tumble of daily life, something that is a feature of quite a few older structures? I pondered this as I took the photograph above. It is a detail of a Holiday Inn Express building in the centre of Birmingham. Its pixel-style cladding is certainly eye-catching. But, I wondered, will it be cleaned when required, will rust stains appear, as they have on the nearby old\new styled street lights. Or will it be re-modelled when the sharp newness of greys, blacks and white becomes passé drabness?

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon D5300

Windows, louvres and shadows

Louvres have proliferated on modern buildings as architects have wrestled with the problem of solar gain. In the eighteenth century the louvres were in the form of shutters that closed across the outside of a window. Today they can be fixed in place with movable vanes. Other designs are immovable and only have an effect when the sun is at a particular angle. In some buildings the louvres become the main decorative element as well as having a functional role. The photograph shows the louvres on part of Gloucestershire College in Gloucester. They are fixed above the windows and project outwards. throwing shade across the window as the sun moves across the face of the building. In bright sunlight the shadows enliven the relatively plain facade.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100