ICC Permanent premises, DEN HAAG

The new international Criminal Court in Den Haag (ICC Permanent premises, The Hague) is finally open.  I have been lucky to be able to photograph this incredible new building by Schmidt Hammer Lassen in the last few weeks. I took my A7Rii and my Tilt Shift lenses down to the Hague, a 1 hour journey from home in Amsterdam, to spend a couple of days photographing the new building. Its amazing how this new camera can capture the finest details and have such soft transitions in light across sharp changes in light conditions.  

The facade of the building looks uniform but on closer inspection the glazed and opaque panels are inserted at angles and so reflect the light in a very interesting way and make it much more dynamic . The hues of the sunlight reflecting from the building are stunning, in particular in the warmth of morning or late afternoon.  The A7rii captures is with such ease. 

Such well thought out and crafted buildings certainly make architectural photography easy and as it goes it doesnt get much better than this. These kind of projects really excite me. I may have moved on from my career as an architect but good architecture is still in my heart. If I can tell the story of a project with some beautiful images then my path is complete.

Zernike College by Team 4 Architecten

I was delighted to be asked to photograph two new schools by Team 4 of Groningen this year.  It took a long time from commission to completion due to the schools being newly built. Nevertheless between August and October Ifitted in 4 shoots days and completed the work last week.  For now this post shows the new Zernike College in Haren, Netherlands.

Het Funen

Great housing scheme right around the corner from my house.  Lots of open space for kids to play and a bit of simple architecture detailing makes this scheme a nice place to live for the residents.  Materials are varied across the scheme and there's lots of interplay between the buildings making it a joy to photograph. You do get some strange looks from the inhabitants with your camera and tripod though.  All shot with the Sony A7R 36 megapixel beast.  Its not good for much else but i can use Canon lenses on it, like my 24mm Ts-e tilt shift lens, which is awesome.

New Commission

I was extremely happy to be commissioned by Team 4 Architecten of Groningen to photograph a number of projects across the Netherlands, particularly around Groningen, Haren and Assen.  Here is the first of the selection, a new pavilion extension to Beatrixoord Hospital in Haren.  The extension houses the tuberculosis patients in a sterile environment necessary for the health of the patients.

New Images from the Eye Film Institute, Amsterdam.

The adjacent tower (you can see the reflection in one of the images), previously owned by Shell is being converted to a hotel and nightclub complex and this made it difficult to get an overview of the building as there is so much construction work taking place so I decided that the building form would suit abstract architectural views.  I think this worked well. What do you think?  Click here to see the images in the full size gallery.

Shot of the day

Utrecht University Library by Wiel Arets Architects.