Tina’s challenge this week is all about interesting architecture. As I guessed you would all have fantastic examples of modern buildings, I decided to focus on the birds and the bees…and only a little about human buildings. The opener shows weavers’ nests in the Amazon, Ecuador.
I am always impressed by magnificent woodpiles – and my grandfather was an excellent builder of these. But, while they often are set behind houses or hidden in a barn in Sweden, I found this special display in Switzerland. Elegantly leaning against the house and beautifully framing the window. One of a kind.
To me, one of the most interesting Nordic building is Hállgrimskirkja in Reykjavik, Island. It looks almost like a spaceship icicle with smaller icicles attached to it. Everytime I visit Iceland – it is a must see again.
In Sweden we only have one skyscraper – Turning Torso by the famous architect Calatrava. I never liked it – despite it being beautifully built, it doesn’t fit in among the older buildings in Malmoe. I believe storks have better ideas about how and where to build a high rise building…Modern too – electrified!
Magpies often build high as well, and their nests are very intricate. They are durable, domed structures made of sticks and twigs and contain an interior mud cup and lining. Every nest has got two entrances – one close to the top and one from the side or under – and it can reach more than 1 meter in height. Not the nest to the far right though, that is a small but sturdy bird’s nest found during a winter walk.
The three middle pictures show the enormous European hornet’s nest we had in our summer house last summer. A fantastic and elaborate construction. Finally, my last image is from Bhutan and a monestary covered in bees’ ”pouches”. As the Buddhist monks care for everything living, they were happy to have the bees and their nests hanging there.
We thank you for your beautiful responses to last week’s “A Day in My Week” challenge – what a terrific variety of amazing days you shared with us!
We hope you’ll join us this week with some interesting architecture from around the corner or around the world. Be sure to use the Lens-Artists tag to appear in our reader, and to link to Tina’s original post.
Leya 
Hi Ann-Christine
I adore your weaver’s nests photo. Here the Baltimore Orioles build somewhat similar nests and they always surprise me. I like that you focused on architecture by the bird and the hornets. Humans are not the only architects – the natural world has much to show us, as your lovely photos and commentary imply.
Here’s my offering for this week’s Interesting Architecture. At last something from me with meat on its bones for this topic:
Best, Babsje
Thank you, Babsje. And these weavers were Orioles too!
Pingback: Beautiful Heron on the Charles River | Babsje Heron
Wonderful post with beautiful pictures!!! I agree with Calatrava skyscraper.
Thank you, Ana!
Pingback: Lens-ArtistPC-173-Interesting-Architecture – WoollyMuses
Fascinating especially those bees’ ”pouches” on the Bhutan monastery
Never seen anything like it!
A very interesting choice! I like the juxtaposition of animal architecture and human architecture 🙂
I thought it interesting too – glad you enjoyed it!
What a marvelous take on the theme. The woodpile and bee hives hanging are very good.
Happy you liked it – thank you!
Nice take on the challenge, Ann-Christine! I loved the woodpile photo. Ours were never that orderly.
Haha, no, some people make art of everything.Impressive.
Hi Ann-Christine
Your woodpile is an awesome photo! Some woodpiles are constructed like Tetris puzzles, aren’t they? Yours is gorgeous and makes me imagine the time and care it took to create.
Here’s my offering for this week’s challenge:
Best, Babsje
Thank you – it’s an art, woodpiling.
Hi Amy
Machu Picchu is still my favorite of all of your photos in this collection. And i like the way you have featured many Japanese-style images over time in your posts.
Here’s my offering for this week’s challenge:
Best, Babsje
Pingback: Great Egret for Not-So-Wordless Wednesday | Babsje Heron
Your images are wonderful as always. The hornets nests are amazing.
Thank you, Beth – they are fantastic builders!
Beautiful structures!!! The first photo is very creative. It give me an idea what to do in my next lanai project ha ha!
Ha, good! What is a lanai project?
A lanai in the area of the house. It’s a like a combination of a patio/porch and a veranda. 🙂
That sounds beautiful and relaxing. Thank you for explaining!
Yes it is! 🙂 You can sit beside nature haha
🙂
Beautiful pictures, Ann-Christine. The modern buildings are eye catching especially Iceland’s icicle. It is as you describe it and then there is the hornet’s nest. I have never seen such a big one before at such close quarters.
Thank you , Sheetal. Glad you enjoyed them! Nature is incredible.
Remarkable photo collection, AC! I love the natural architecture images. What a brilliant idea!
Thank you, Amy! I knew you would all have magnificent photos of architecture, so I focused on the natural world and its inherent architecture. Glad you appreciated it!
Well thought, creative indeed!
🙂
The spaceship
Icicle building is really awesome – and love that pile of wood – clever wood chopper to stack like that/ and wood chopping is not easy work. Your dad must have been strong
🔥
Thank you! My grandfather was a woodpile artist !
🙂
Yes, I really like Hállgrimskirkja too, and the views from the top are fantastic! I love how you’ve included so many animal architecture examples 🙂 I do find the Turning Torso building rather elegant – I would love to see it in London but I can see that it looks out of place where it is.
Agree, Sarah!
I’m really attracted to the wood pile and the next. What a wonderful gallery of photos for this week. 😀
Thank you, Cee – I had fun with it!
Hi, AC. I love your unique and creative interpretation of the theme, by including nature’s architecture. I am amazed by nature’s creations–like the wasp and bee nests. That lone skyscraper in Sweden does look out of place. I wonder if other skyscrapers are planned in that area? Have a great week…
Thank you, Patti! Your images are amazing as usual! You have the possibilities for grand architecture photography closer to where you live.
I don’t think more skyscrapers are planned here, so this white, twisted finger will be standing alone for now. I wish the Torso would have been built in an appropriate environment to be rightly appreciated.
I can see what you mean, AC. It looks ”lost” in its current location. Thanks for your kind words about my photos. I feel the same way about yours. 😀❤️
I love our differences and similarities. 🙂
Great examples, but I was most impressed with the woodpile design. I’ve never seen anything more than a stack of wood along a wall or fenceline.
Haha, yes, I was impressed too. My grandfather would have loved it.
Excellent post, Ann Christine….I love the examples from nature
❤
😊😊
♥
Fantastic shots, Leya 😃 I’m in total agreement with you, the skyscraper does not fit in with Malmoe’s older architecture as I remember it; it does ruin a very pretty town 😩
Well, Jez – it would have looked better in the company of other skyscrapers. But that said, I don’t want more scyscrapers in Malmoe…In fact I liked this tower once – on flying in to Malmoe near sunset and a clear sky. A beauty then, the Torso.
It is a beautiful building in the correct context; it’s just a shame it can’t be moved to the right place 😃
Agree!
Hard to choose a favorite from among this selection but I think I have to go for the woodpile as I sense some humour in that. But hard on its heels has to be the hornet’s nest and the two accompanying pictures. How amazing is that!
Thank you, Mari! The hornet’s nest is really amazing – and I am glad you went for the woodpile as well! Fun, and a small tribute to my grandfather – he would have loved this one.
What a wonderful gallery of natural and man-made architecture, A-C. But I have to say that the ‘feature’ woodpile strikes the biggest chord in the Farrell household 🙂
Haha, thank you! Do you make woodpiles…I understand? It is an art indeed.
We do have wood piles, as in outdoor places where wood is stored, but nowhere near so neatly stacked as in your photo. That makes an artform of wood piling. I’ve been debating whether to show it to G. I fear it would induce instant wood-pile envy.
Haha, thank you, Tish! You’d better spare him that then…
Great collection, Ann-Christine. Thanks for sharing an image showing a hornet nest, an image still missing in my archive. I also included some examples of architectural masterpieces of Mother Nature.
Thank you so much! And yes, the hornet nest was amazing – nature’s wonder again!
yep, definitely😊
A lovely post. The internal architecture of the hornets’ nest is beautiful. The Bhutan picture shows human creativity making room for other life. I was surprised to see so many positive responses to the Turning Torso. On my one visit to Malmö my reaction to that building was ‘ok but why?’
Thank you, Judith. So glad you liked the natural qorld builders. And – it’s very OK to think ok, but why?
Those bees are amazing, and your right, animal architecture is astounding
I am glad you liked my bees – and yes, they are amazing!
I was particularly impressed by the Swedish skyscraper, but there are also many very artistic architects at work in nature.
And in Nature, they don’t have many tools…Thank you for liking Turning Torso – there is a love/hate relationship in Sweden for it.
Oh, I can’t pick a favourite here. Maybe the woodpile, for sheer cheek?
Haha, I am glad you chose that one. It is fun and a tribute to my grandfather – he would have loved this woodpile.
I smiled to see the stork, Ann-Christine, because my post this week is full of them, but the woodpile was probably my favourite. Which mischievous person would try to take a log from the middle? Have a great week, hon!
I saw your post, Jo – and LOVED the nests! How I wish I was there walking with you! Who’s the mischievous person…?
Couldn’t possibly be me 🤣🤣🤣
😇
Great twist on this week’s challenge Ann-Christine. Animals do have building talents of their own. I like the hornet’s nest. It’s very beautiful and dangerous!
Glad you liked the twist, Anne – I love the constructions they make – with almost no tools at all. And they are cleverly constructed most of them.
I like the last photo. Where is that building?
It is in Bhutan, on the way to Thimpu if I remember it right.
The Woodpile …. Innovative
Glad you liked the idea – also a kind of tribute to my grandfather. I saw him building them, and it takes quite the eye and practice. And time.
Quite a few varied examples of architecture. I like the Turning Torso the most.
Thank you – yes, the building is quite beautful.
Thanks for the reminder of the magnificence of the Lutheran cathedral in Iceland. Haven’t seen the Turning Torse – brilliant. Extra praise for including architecture from nature! A brilliant addition.
So glad you liked the combo, Brian. and as always, Nature is the Master.
Great selections and variety. Love that woodpile!
Thank you, John! A tribute to my grandfather as well. He would have loved it.
Just as well we are all different ! I find ;the Turning Torso’ in Malmoe such a fantastic purist Nordic building I see fitting into a previous architectural landscape just perfectly ! It has no tall buildings from a different era with which to contend and shows off the perfection of its ‘here and-now’ beautifully ! I so love really innovatively nuanced architecture . . . perchance it is a matter of cultural acceptance as over 90% of the worthwhile new is built in Asia and the Antipodes . . .
I might agree to some extent, Eha – at least to that I am glad we are all different! The building itself is great, I think, but I would rather have had it together with other skyscrapers…Now I think a twisted white finger rising from a flat city is rather…strange.
Clever you to find some natural architecture! Brilliant!
♥
So happy you included some of natures architecture too A-C 🙂 🙂
Brian – that’s what we are, aren’t we?
I LOVE the creative variety in this post AC! I’ll see if I can dig anything up in the archives!
😀 Will be waiting impatiently for it!
A most interesting approach Ann-Christine. First, I must agree on the Turning Torso although honestly I think I feel the same about the Hállgrimskirkja which appears also to be a futuristic building in the midst of much more classic neighborhood. Your idea of restricting modern skyscrapers to specific places would definitely get my vote! I loved all of the natural architecture you featured this week, especially the last. Have never seen anything like that!
Thank you, Tina – as I knew I wouldn’t get far with my own old images of architecture, I went for nature, and a little humour too…can’t go wrong there. Interesting about Iceland and the church, but for me, it fits in with snowy mountans and ice – at least much more than a twisted white finger in a flat Malmoe. I would have loved Turning Torso together with other skyscrapers Ibelieve…When I think of it, I found Turning Torso beautiful once, coming in for landing in Malmoe in bright evening sun – that was really a great view.
LOL a beautiful evening sun can make anything look gorgeous A-C, don’t you think?!
Ha – I think you are right…