You are whole and complete
~
You always have been
~
And you always will be
~
You may not experience it
~
And you may sometimes take actions that don’t reflect it
~
But it doesn’t change the truth of who and what you are
~
There are just barriers to your experiencing it
~
Welcome to the New Year
~
Whole and Complete
Wishing everyone a great end of the year and happy all the festivities! Be back in about a week. To tide you all over, here’s a photo of some lovely lynx ‘tocks!
Wrapping up the city hall tours we end in Aarhus, for a building that is both quite different and yet fully within the same spirit of the others.
Without a doubt the outside is quite different with an austere presentation to the world. Rectangular, punched windows, and covered in a rigid grid of grey marble. And punctuated by the clocktower that looks to all the world like a thick chimney wrapped in scaffolding (which, interestingly, was not part of the original design but added when the townsfolk discovered there were no plans for a clocktower, which didn’t fit their idea(l) of a city hall). Opened in 1941, it fits its time with the rise of early modernism. Yet it is not without flourishes, including the heavy use of copper (such as for the lightly pitched roof) and a complex interplay of forms at the entrance.
Inside things really take off. The great hall is indeed great, a four-story high space ringed with delicate and curving balconies (each housing more gathering rooms), a roof of shell-like vaults each ringed with windows, and all culminating at a giant window wall that looks out over the town. Wrapped in rich and warm wood and with a herringbone wood floor and plenty of hanging lanterns, it’s an exhilarating space to be in. I admit, I was not expecting this at all, both in that I didn’t really know it was there and didn’t expect such a wonderful feeling space. It’s great. (Stand in it by clicking here.)
What really makes the building is a plethora of lovely details, from the grand mural in the entryway (which is on the back side of the council chambers that hover over the entrance, presenting democracy towards the town), to the amazing wood floor and curving staircase, to the artistically crafted doors, and to the long and linear administrative wing, with its atrium down the middle allowing light from the equally linear skylight above to flow in. (Very reminiscent, BTW, of the Marin County Civic Centre, which makes me wonder if Frank Lloyd Wright was influenced by it.)
No pipe organ here, but the piece de resistance here was the elevator core. That sounds… bizarre, but just check out the design of each car, with their niches for the entrance window, signs, and the custom and deco call button panel, not to mention the careful crafting of the wood scrim that envelops it all.
Another great civic centre. It was the last we visited, but certainly not the least.
The Aarhus Rådhus by Arne Jacobsen and Erik Møller.
Wow, what an amazing wonder of light and snow. Halos, pillars of light, glowing coronas… simply beautiful.
It is always good to remember that apologies
(True, authentic apologies)
Are not automatic means to an end.
*
We cannot simply put a quarter
Into the “apology/forgiveness machine”
And expect that all is forgotten,
And we go back to doing whatever it is
We want to do.
*
Real apologies take courage,
They take vulnerability,
And they come from a place
Of ownership and responsibility.
*
We are OFFERING an apology,
That may or may not be ACCEPTED.
And even if it IS
That doesn’t mean
That there won’t be any CONSEQUENCES.
*
To truly apologize
We offer the apology,
And then take
(Yes, take!)
WHATEVER WE GET.
*
That our actions have had,
Whether intentional or not,
And we make no demands.
*
We ask for forgiveness.
And we take what we get.
We continue our tour of the Scandinavian city halls by heading over to Denmark tonight, landing ourselves before the Copenhagen City hall. In some ways this one is a precursor to the others, being the first to be completed, inaugurated in 1905.
Also adorned in the ubiquitous (and lovely) red brick, the exterior here leans much heavier into the National Romantic style, with plenty of articulation and ornamentation. A generous courtyard stands in the middle, and the clock tower remains one of the highest points near the downtown area.
As with the others the heart of the building, and the first thing you encounter upon entering, is the equally generous indoor hall. While no pipe organ hides within (alas!), the amazing glass roof more than makes up for it. The massing and composition of this indoor courtyard is exquisite – it’s a plethora of things (Arches! Gilded bas reliefs! Balconies! Friezes! Sculptural banding! Moldings! White stone! Red brick! Ornate columns! Glass!) yet it doesn’t feel like a hodgepodge vomit of disparate parts. Through careful proportion, well defined datum lines, and enough use of “white space” it instead becomes a delightful concoction. (Click here to stand in the middle of it.)
Again, we didn’t take a tour so we only saw the more public areas of the building, but who needs a tour when you get such amazing artwork integrated throughout! (I especially love the book-like vaulted ceiling…)
Another excellent and vibrant city centre. Good stuff. The Copenhagen City Hall by Martin Nyrop.
a beautiful voice
calling out to the world
expressing so much
with nary a word
(I’ve always loved this track that opens Conjure One’s eponymous first album. So much power in the human voice. Haunting and lovely.)
Avoid basing your identity on beliefs or things
Instead, base it on values or intentions
(As we walk around in life, each of us a conglomeration of identities, some chosen, mostly not, and often forgetting that we were are the sole and final authors of our identities, there are a lot of good pointers and reminders on how to best put our identities together. The one above is nice and succinct. Beliefs rarely are eternally solid and often call us towards attachment, clinging tightly no matter what and no matter the detrimental outcomes. Values and intentions, however, beget multiple ways of being that call us powerfully into action that fulfill us while remaining adaptable, open to shift and always aiming towards our central, authentic, selves.)
Let’s slide over to Norway and check out another grand city hall (and location for the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony and banquet), the Oslo Rådhuset.
Much like the one in Stockholm (and likely/clearly influenced by it – one of the judges of the Oslo city hall competition was the architect for the Stockholm city hall), the building is nifty mix of art-nouveau expressive sculptural elements adorning the crisper lines of brick functionalism. Coming in, the two towers and arcades reach out to welcome you as you come up to the main façade, dotted with flourishes including sculpture, ornamental molding, patterns in the brick, and a very nifty astronomical clock.
Besides possessing large clerestory windows to admit light from above, the main hall inside takes a very different tack than the one at the Stockholm city hall. From wall to wall to wall it’s covered in colourful and very cool paintings that depict the history of Oslo and its people. And, of course, there’s a grand staircase for grand entrances during the Nobel ceremonies. (For the 360~ view, click here)
And best of all, yes, a there is a pipe organ here too!
We didn’t take a tour this time, so we didn’t see into any of the other halls, meeting rooms, or the council chambers, alas. Nevertheless, it is a mighty fine and unique design that makes for a great civic centre for the city.
The Oslo City Hall by Arnstein Arneberg and Magnus Poulsson.
lovely lynx
lounges luxuriously
Lynx Thoughts 