Legoland

I really don't know what to say about this apartment building complex except that it looks so remarkable. I can't believe that I didn't know them while living in France. I had seen La Grand Motte from the autoroute many times from a distance and though it looked like just a large area full of 1960's apartments never did I imagine that it housed such imaginative architecture.

These images are taken from an article in the New York Times from last week. If you can get by their paywall, try to get in because it's a great article. I tried to see them via Google Earth but whole areas in La Grand Motte are fuzzed out for some reason, probably due to some military zoning. But what i could see showed many other apartment buildings laid out in symmetrical shapes as if designed from outer space.

Copacabana, Rio 

These buildings remind me of some many wonderful things I saw (in print) out of Brasilia, the capitol of Brazil. But in Rio, where I did once go years many ago, I saw that same playfulness everywhere in all sorts of small details around the city. Even seeing the mosaic patterns of the Copacabana from a hotel room high up, was a great surprise for me. It spoke to me of visual pleasure, and yes, a child-like visionary joy of urban living.

I haven't a clue what these apartments are like on the inside or what they are like to live in but imagine the pleasure it might be to just to come home after shopping at Carrefour to an apartment in one of these?