National Library

I don't intend to publish projects which are to be built yet, 
but I will make one exception. 

This is a new building of National Library in Prague designed by Jan Kaplicky. The reason 
why I publish it here is that there is a huge discussion about this building ranging from 
total fascination to total disgust.

Even the Czech president Václav Klaus said today that he will "block with his body" 
building this. The mostly repeated concern is that it is ruthless
and too close to the Prague Castle (see below photo).

The project was chosen in anonymous competition 
(see some details and pics of other projects here) by a jury lead by Zaha Hadid.

I am very interested in opinions of non-Czechs on this building! Please do leave at least a short comment.

Nemo

NEMO museum, originally uploaded by jesuli.

This is a science museum in Amsterdam (see website) built in 1997. A building by Renzo Piano resembles a boat's bow. I like that roof terrace! Great idea. Check also Renzo Piano's website which provides some nice pictures

, originally uploaded by wendyfairy.

Arcam

ARCAM @ Amsterdam, originally uploaded by bbrik.

Arcam (Amsterdam), originally uploaded by Brian Pirie.

This is an architecture center in amsterdam. The building by René van Zuuk was built in 2003. See also the arcam website - they have also an interesting interactive map of Amsterdam's modern architecture (althoug not very user friendly).

Torre de Collserola

Tibidabo - Torre de Collserola telecommunications tower, originally uploaded by auws.

A telecommunication tower by Norman Foster was built for 1992 olympics. The height is 288 meters. It is visible from everywhere in Barcelona. See some more details at answers.com.

Torre Collserola - Norman Foster, originally uploaded by Pricey.

Torre Agbar

Torre Agbar de noche, originally uploaded by Protopito.

Very interesting building , aka. dildo house, by Jean Nouvel was opened in 2005. As you can see it is equipped with led lighting.  Agbar means Agua de Barcelona, the utility company which resides in the building. Make sure to see Torre Agbar's website.

barcelona vistas, originally uploaded by helicopteroverde.

Silodam

Silodam, originally uploaded by CruisAir.

Silodam II, originally uploaded by CruisAir.

In my view, this is the most interesting building in Amsterdam. It was designed by MVRDV architects (nice website!) and built in 2002. See also Silodam's website, you ask for excursion there...

Here we go with an interesting video:

Church of Most Sacred Heart

Church Clock, originally uploaded by roobarb!.

A church by Slovenian architect Jože Plečnik was built in 1928-1932. The huge window-clock has a diameter of 7.6 meters. The church is proposed to be listed as UNESCO heritage. I like this building very much, I live nearby! :-)

Prague Castle

By Night, originally uploaded by roobarb!.

Prague Castle, originally uploaded by jhurrah.

I hate HDRI images, mainly because they are overused and usually excessive, but this one is rather good.

Charles bridge

Charles Bridge (Karlův most) at night - 110407, originally uploaded by ckc1ne.

Well, there are tons of information about Charles' Bridge available in all travel guides. The interesting one is that allegedly they used to add eggs to mortar when building the bridge.

Charles Bridge (Karlův most) from the Petrin Tower - 100407, originally uploaded by ckc1ne.

Zizkov TV tower

Prague - 029, originally uploaded by Sugar Mouse.

The tower was built in 1985-1992. The architect was Mr Václav Aulický. The height is 216 meters. There is an observatory and a restaurant in the tower, offering great views to Prague. In 2000, Czech artist David Černý installed "babies" on the tower, which brought very much attention.

• record at answers.com
• tower's web
  

Communism victims' memorial

Emerging from Communism, originally uploaded by roobarb!.

A set of bronze sculptures by Olbram Zoubek was built in 2002. It was (to my surprise) subject to much controversy. Mr Zoubek said about it "I wanted to commemorate 248 executed, 327 shot and four and half thousand tortured to death in prisons." I still fail to understand how can some 10% Czech still vote for communists, but that's for different blog...

Dancing house

Gehry's windows, originally uploaded by hansschnier.

A house by Frank Gehry in cooperation with Vlado Milunič was built in 1996. There are ING offices in the building. The interiors were partly designed by British-Czech architect Eva Jiřičná. What you may not know is that in the first Czech president Václav Havel lived for years in the building right next to Dancing House (on riverside).

Gehry's Dancing Partners in Prague, originally uploaded by 770.

Unsleepable Blogger

As many others, I like Ben's Unsleepable theme. I didn't like Wordpress though, but wanted the theme at Blogger as well. So one sleepless night resulted in Unsleepable Blogger theme.

It's not a perferct transposition of Ben's theme, I made some slight adjustments for my needs, but these can be easily reverted. I also did not include the footer with side-by-side widgets, but, again, this should be easily achievable.

Depending on the demand (and your comments) I may devote some time to completely transpose Ben's theme.

We agreed with Ben that even beta version is worth sharing, so here we go. Enjoy and provide some feedback please!

Download Unsleepable Blogger

Should work well in Opera9, Firefox2 and Explorer7. Some settings on your side may be needed (e.g. the date format, the "about" link, etc.)

Pepa

About this blog

Many people including myself like short trips to major cities. This site gives some tips what is worth seeing, in my view, in some major cities. I am usually interested in:

• some historical buildings
• modern architecture (post WW2)
• design
• technically interesting stuff (e.g. funicular in Lisbon)

These are sometimes difficult to find in the travel guides so I hope this might help. I am going to put together lists for some cities I’ve been to or which I want to visit in near future (Amsterdam, Rome, Berlin, Athens, Istambul, Moscow…).

Please feel free to share interesting information, photos, links, etc. through comments or by sending me an email!

Please use modern browsers for viewing to obtain proper functionality of the site:

• Firefox2
• Opera9
• Explorer7 (for masochists)

This site is dependent on good photography. I kindly ask you to let me know if you have (or know about) any good photographs worth publishing. 
Most people on flickr.com publish their photos with 
"all rights reserved" but they are willing to share upon request. 
If you are one of them don't hesitate to contact me please!

Enjoy the site and let me know if you like it! (so that I know whether it's worth trying).

Pepa