Hallgrímskirkja, Reykjavík

Been a little too busy lately to indulge much in extracurricula, so this entry’s going to be brief. I wanted to post this picture of Hallgrímskirkja — Iceland’s most photographed church — a while ago as an example of patience.

Hallgrímskirkja took 38 years to build. 38 years! I haven’t even been on the planet that long, so it’s hard to fathom tackling a project for that length of time. As you can see, Hallgrímskirkja is an unusual structure. I imagine when it was commissioned in 1937 that this particularly stark design raised a bit of a ruckus, but at least the architect’s vision eventually came to fruition.

As I get older, I have a greater appreciation for architecture because there is an underlying conflict that we expect things to stand the test of time… but scramble to build them in the least amount of time. If you live in a city, the most visible example of this is the glut of condominiums. Both Toronto and Vancouver are cities of cranes erecting a soul-less condo building every 15 minutes.

I reckon the best way to restore your faith in engineering is to get yourself to a place where old and new co-exist, but the aesthetics of the old don’t eclipse the new and vice versa. An example? Say, Valencia, Spain.