This morning, in my Seattle neighborhood breakfast venue, I had a flashback. The outdoor umbrellas became in mind’s eye, the spectacular Parasol of Seville, Spain.
Because I have been both places, literal form became abstract, functional became stylistic, and I reinterpreted both places with new appreciation.
Through such urban gestalts, the vernacular can easily become the spectacular.
All images composed by the author.
The role of color in cities is a common focus, and dramatic results are often easily achieved. With minimal effort, bland infrastructure becomes more welcoming, as temporary urban art installations explore the limits of the livable city.
Image composed by the author.
For those parts of the city where compactness breeds activity, moments in time show the potential of human interaction.
Here, we have no sense of context, and we do not know what will come next.
Will the protagonists of this photograph interact as friends or relatives, or are they strangers passing by? Is this a parking meter transaction, with surrounding pedestrians, or a social gathering soon to be underway?
Countless scenes like this one weave together the urban story, for the most part safely and without incident. For the careful observer, patterns can yield answers and lessons about the fundamental elements of naturally-occurring city life.
Image composed by the author.
In one way or another, as city-dwellers, we all have our urbanist survival kits—our daily tools of transport and leisure. They are often clustered in a front hall or front porch, usually in a private space.
Yet. increasingly, I’ve seen them shown for public display, or even stored in the public realm, perhaps evidence of a humanizing urban trend.
Here, on the street side of a fence on a city sidewalk, someone shows us a survival kit for walking, riding, playing, and getting protection from the rain.
Image composed by the author.
In early evening, through color and form, a building speaks and smiles.
Image composed by the author.