Thursday, December 10, 2009

It's just a façade

It's just a façade

This is the old city hall building in Handen. In Swedish it was known as Nämndhuset. It was built in 1971. I visited once as a very nervous twelve year old as I was "helping the police with an investigation". The politicians and everyone else moved out of here nearly three years ago, and the building has been empty ever since. The high-rise was bought by the construction company Fabege one year ago, and they will turn it into an apartment building with around 90 flats and a few shops on the first floor. It's located smack in the middle of the Handen mall so I suspect that many shopaholics will be queueing for an apartment here! Oh, and if you are wondering where the politicians ended up you can see that in this post from a few years ago.

16 comments:

Olivier said...

j'adore cette photo, pour avoir travailler sur des photos d'immeubles, je te conseille de faire la même de nuit, chaque fenêtre ayant une lumiere différente, c'est géniale.
I love this photo, for work on photos of buildings, I suggest you do the same night, each window having a different light is great.

Antjas said...

They look like dominoes that have lost their dots.

Meri said...

It's easy to see from the architecture why politicians rarely think out of the box.

Clueless in Boston said...

I also like the picture. Your composition is spot on and probably makes the building appear better than it is.

I agree with Meri's comment about politicians.

Leif Hagen said...

There seems to be a pattern ....

Bob Crowe said...

This reminds me strongly of some of the work of a favorite photographer, Andreas Gursky. Worth a look. Strong graphic sense here.

Halcyon said...

At least the flats will have plenty of windows!! And at least they're recycling!

EG CameraGirl said...

Perfect housing for shopaholics. :-)

brattcat said...

I love this shot! Thank you!

Three Rivers, Michigan said...

That's a really interesting photograph! Nice pattern of the windows -- with the occasional wrinkled shade. The "new" building looks pretty generic (but better than ours, I should go take a picture of the ugly thing.)

Three Rivers Daily Photo

Don and Krise said...

Good eye Steffe. I enjoy this type of shot. The repeating shapes or patterns. I see the new City Hall came equipped with a couple of curves.

BlossomFlowerGirl said...

At first I thought they were piano keys.
Melbourne Daily Photo

VP said...

A simple shot, but extremely creative: it's all in the eye! Interesting story about the building itself.

Stefan Jansson said...

Spot on Olivier. I have a thing for windows and façades.

Ha, very true Antjas. Good point Meri,not sure who the architect was.

Thanks Mr.Clueless.

A domino pattern perhaps Leif.

Gursky does manipulate some of his photos and so do I!

I'm guessing they will have to redo the façade for the apartments Halcyon.

Go for it In Three Rivers!

I have a different version of this façade over at flickr.

Scylla said...

Nämndhuset, minsann! Jag visste inte att det stod tomt. Ja, nog har det förändrats alltid, Handens centrum, sedan jag var en liten flicka. Vi brukade få mjukglass på Domus, minns jag :)

Unknown said...

Brilliant composition! I do love this!