angels in the architecture: historic cityscape

June 16, 2011

Young girl feeding geese near the dancing building, Prague

Like I've mentioned before, Prague's cityscape is filled with multiple types of architecture, one right next to the other. One of the most famous instances of this is the dancing building, designed by Croatian-Czech architect Vlado Milunić in co-operation with Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry on a vacant riverfront plot. The plot, left vacant after the Bombing of Prague in 1945, has been the home to the building since 1996. 


The design of the building was very controversial for its time, even though the Czech president who lived next to it, encouraged its construction. He hoped the design would allow the building to become a cultural center. I'm not sure what his definition of cultural center was, but multinational firms within and a French restaurant on top, probably wasn't what he had in mind. Nevertheless, it does serve as a cultural landmark and tribute to the bomb mistakenly dropped on Prague by American troops at the end of WWII. 


I took this picture because I really liked the simplicity of the girl feeding the birds, contrasted with the complexity of the architecture. Photographing architecture has been difficult for me, because I find it very boring for the most part, so I thought this was a nice way to fulfill the assignment.