Posted by MadScientist (Düsseldorf, Germany) on 10 May 2008 in Cityscape & Urban and Portfolio.
If you are a regular visitor here, you might remember the odyssey through several old buildings during the last few years my wife and I had. All these bad experiences fade away from memory on these days where everything's perfect: when you wake up and the sun is shining, when there's few traffic and you can hear the birds singing, when you take your breakfast on the balcony and feel like a king: then you love again these impractical buildings with their old conduits and the low water pressure, their wet cellars and their mould and bug problems. I think that's the way the residents of these houses feel, at least it's the way I feel.
Great building! Nice shot.
10 May 2008 2:53am
@Margie: To be continued... :)
Very ornate and the gentle colors are soothing. a beautiful photo!
10 May 2008 6:50am
@Michael Skorulski: Thanks, Michael! Let's see if I have some more... :) (You're now in Hong Kong...?)
Hey you...sorry it has been a while! It's that crazy time of year! Great shot. Love this street with all of the history and detail in the buildings! Great exposure as well.
10 May 2008 7:28am
@Tracey: A very crazy time! I'm sneezing all day! Actually I don't know much about the history of that street or house but I guess it's not much older than 120 years, because it's beyond the former city wall. There are subtle modifications in old buildings before and after 1900: while buildings from 1870 - 1900 usually are very ornate with many quotes from older architectonic styles, the younger ones became more and more sober. Only shortly before WW I there was a strange renaissance of the older styles, but with more emphasis, almost excessively. I wonder if there's some literature about this development - I'd feel like making some pictures about that...
So would I do... ;-)
10 May 2008 3:43pm
@Michael: Du hast ja auch einen tollen Palast :)
Including the branches makes a very plaising composition...
10 May 2008 8:23pm
@akarui: Thanks :) Unfortunately no blue sky at that day...
Beaing colourful, the archtecture looks even more attractive! I used to live, from age 5 to 13, in one of the old blocks of flats built in Bucharest between the two wars. The flat was wonderful, high-ceilinged rooms, beautiful parquet, big terrace, calcio vecchio on the walls.....but ALWAYS there were problems with the heating in winter, the hot water and the elevator! And there were lots of bugs of all sorts and rats in the cellars! My parents felt a great relief when we moved, at the beginning of the sixties, in one of those new apartments built under communism. There was no problem with the hot water and elevator (at least the first ten years!!!!Hahahahaha)
12 May 2008 3:27am
@Japanalia: Well, exact the same problems exist still today with old buildings. It's a kind of love-hate I have here, because I experienced well refurbished old buildings and complete ruins as well. But a certain problem level is always present, as you have already mentioned: heating, hot water etc. But another important factor is the part of town: you don't want to live in the most beautiful old building if the street where it is located is dirty, loud, or even dangerous. Our recent flat is acceptable in every sense, but we've never paid that much for rather careless living!
It seems to me that these old building problems are largely a matter of money. It's hard to believe they can't all be appropriately "fixed" with enough money and effort.
13 May 2008 11:18am
@Twelvebit: That really means a lot of money! On my way to work I'm passing an old building that gets a renovation. Works started a year ago, almost every day since then several craftsmen renewed gas and water pipes, heating, sanitary - everything imaginable. They are still working there, so I guess that renovation is more expensive than the original costs of that building. Many builders therefore decide to keep the facade and to tear everything down behind that, because that's less expensive. We're not yet ready for this, but if my wife and me want to have a house for ourselves, we'll buy a ruin and will make it a palace, year after year. Everything else will result in personal bankruptcy, as buidling a house is *very* expensive here (>500000 Euros for a small two-storied residence in a 'normal' part of the town).
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