Fruits of the Vineyard by David Galloway

An ancient French vineyard is reborn as a site for permanent art installations and modern architecture

For decades, the ancient vineyard of Château La Coste, located on a rolling 600-acre plain near Aix-en-Provence, was a sleeping beauty waiting to be brought to life. Once the center of a major wine-producing region cultivated as early as the Roman times, and a rest stop for pilgrims on the way to Santiago de Compostela in Spain, the property had seen far better days when Irish real-estate developer and art collector Paddy McKillen purchased it in 2002. Convinced that wine-making is “a noble task,” McKillen resolved to restructure the vineyards and to introduce the latest biodynamic standards for their cultivation. At the same time, he realized that La Coste would be a wonderful setting for art.

With that in mind, he invited leading architects and artists to come to La Coste and propose projects that could be realized on its historic terrain. Today, five Pritzker Prize winners and a score of sculptors have left their marks there. With Aix (2008), for example, Richard Serra inserted vast sheets of steel into a hillside at varying angles, like skewed steps. Sean Scully’s signature geometries are realized in the myriad cuts and colors of stone that make up his Wall of Light Cubed from 2007. And Franz West accented the vineyard’s promenade with his bright yellow Faux-Pas (2006), a kind of phallic totem that straddles the line between sculpture and furniture.

The first new structure on the property was the two-part, gravity-flow chai (winery), designed by Jean Nouvel and completed in 2008. Although a nearby 17th-century Palladian-style château with a miniature, baroque garden had long set the architectural tone for the landscape, Nouvel’s gleaming, elegant structure of corrugated aluminum seemed to transport the domain into a new millennium. The winery was soon joined by Frank Gehry’s Music Pavilion, while Tadao Ando’s minimalist “information center” slowly took shape.

In one of the center’s three reflecting pools, a monumental spider by Louise Bourgeois perches above the surface; the second pool holds an Alexander Calder stabile, and the third showcases Hiroshi Sugimoto’s conical Infinity (2010), which rises from the water and tapers to a point no more than one millimeter in diameter. Shimmering in the light beneath the intense blue skies of Provence, Ando’s building and Sugimoto’s sculpture seem almost to dematerialize, while the pools surrounding Ando’s structure reflect the verdant surrounding hillsides. The entire complex encourages a zen-like quiet and introspection.

Ando’s chapel, perched on La Coste’s highest ridge, is a renovated structure that was once a stop for those 16th-century pilgrimages. Completely overgrown when McKillen acquired the property, it was believed by locals to be a former shepherd’s hut, or a gardening shed. Ando stripped the structure of vegetation, took it apart stone by stone, and meticulously reconstructed it, finally encasing it in a glass cube. Its new roof sits slightly higher than the top of the walls, so that by day a narrow band of sunlight filters in.

In the chapel, as with British artist Andy Goldsworthy’s nearby Oak Room (2009), silence feels almost tangible. For Goldsworthy’s permanent installation, he literally wove together the trunks of oak trees cleared from a nearby forest to create a kind of cave within a hillside—a monumental, cathedral-like space that is one of the many surprises awaiting visitors to La Coste. A tour of the property presently takes about 90 minutes, but with new works being added constantly, that duration is certain to expand.

One of the latest projects there involves the erection of a pair of prefabricated houses—among the first of their kind—that Jean Prouvé designed for World War II refugees in 1945. Of the 450 structures originally built, these are perhaps the sole survivors. Restored under the supervision of the architect’s son Nicolas, they now house art libraries fitted with original Prouvé furniture. Linking them is a rare, 17th-century Viet-namese teahouse pavilion, where visitors can sip tea and browse through the objects housed in the adjacent libraries. Meanwhile, work has begun on a bell tower by Henri Matisse’s grandson Paul, a light tunnel by James Turrell, a pair of bridges by Norman Foster, and a Renzo Piano–designed building for aging grand cru wines. Most of this structure is to be underground, but an upper level will house a photography center.

The bulk of a five-star hotel, conceived for the site by Marseille’s Tangram Architects and scheduled for completion late next year, is also to be located underground, embedded in the Provençal landscape. Other exhibition spaces, research facilities, and a cooking school are on the drawing board, as is a concert hall designed by the world’s oldest living architect, the 105-year-old Oscar Niemeyer. A series of organic gardens is being developed by French landscape designer Louis Benech.

The making of Pooh sticks'

AUGUST 09, 2012

The 7-acre parcel, Manhattan’s biggest undeveloped, publicly owned development site south of 96th Street, has provided the chance to contemplate many important urban issues.

Firstly, are we taking full advantage of this great opportunity to develop a vast land in the heart of Manhattan, or just limiting our imagination under current NYC zoning resolution (which is 50 years old)? Secondly, is the hot debate over big box retailers heading to the right direction?

A combination of buildings on each lots based on current zoning regulations (or minor ULURP revisions), is not enough. Conventional podium with commercial programs and tower with the residentials are no longer attractive in the 21st century metropolis. Creating unique urban features will come from the idea which breaks the boundaries of each lot lines.

The answer for the first question didn’t come up until developing the thoughts of the second question.

Big box retailers are often regarded as something “evil” in the discussion about locality, contextual design, etc. However, scraping out the introduction of big box retailers is not fair for the Lower East Side community because they not only provide a variety of choices of goods and services at the lower prices, but create jobs and stimulate local economy. Walking down the streets of Manhattan, it’s common to come across empty stores these days. If Lower East Side cannot claim itself as a unique destination, these phenomena may also happen there. Discount stores where New Yorkers can save money and time in shopping can be one element in making a unique destination in Manhattan. Big box retailers will function as an engine for growth and development in the region. Just as the arrival of Home Depot in some NYC regions has spurred the growth in the locals as a whole, partly because big box retailers bring more foot traffics into existing urban fabrics.

Over the past couple of years, night photography has vastly become one of the most popular forms of digital photography amongst enthusiasts. As the golden hour comes to an end, the night sky begins unfold, revealing the milky way in all its splendor.

For many persons, making use of the light meter built-in their digital camera models is suitable enough. On the other hand in case you want to take your digital photography talents to a whole new level, chances are you will need to consider utilizing a lightmeter that is hand-held.

You are going to discover two kinds of metering:

• The first kind is reflective metering. The actual meter within your digital camera is basically reflective metering. It calculates the quantity of light that will bounce off of from your subject into your camera lens. Your digital camera makes use of this info to determine variables including the aperture, ISO and shutter speed if it is fixed on auto-mode. 
• The 2nd type of metering is called incident metering. Handheld light meters are mostly incident meters. The incident meters calculate the light shimmering on the subject. Simply because they are not relying on the reflective attributes of light to provide you with a reading, they are considerably more precise when compared with your camera interior meter. The dome that comes in reflective meter contains sensitive sensor that calculates the light entering it from all possible angles. 

Enter in your digital SLR ISO setting into your meter as well as the shutter speed. Now hold the meter up facing your subject. Should you be taking a photograph of a man or lady you are going to hold the meter, just right in front of the face of the person along with the dome of the light meter facing in the direction away from them. 

A few photography enthusiasts point the light meter towards the location the digital camera is going to be in. Should you be utilizing a tripod this really is straightforward simply point the meter in the direction of where you camera is going to sit on the tripod. Some other photographers point the light meter towards the source of light. These folks point out that the reading created by the meter while directed on the light source is at any time a lot more precise and inhibits you from receiving highlights which are blown out. You can take a look at the 2 approaches to see which is best suited for you personally. 

After the meter presents read how much light on the subject, it delivers you the f-stop or aperture number you should obtain as the suggested exposure for your image. Simply set the current aperture of your camera, and you can start taking photographs. However, if you are shooting pictures inside a studio environment, with several source of light you will need to require a light meter reading for every light source that hits your subject.

Visit our online shop and compare price from the most respected UK retailers in all things photographic. Register with BestPhotoUK for our latest news, blog post and exclusive online deals.