Looking Ahead

Architecturally Speaking / June 16, 2019

Our dinner was just around the corner from Frank Gehry’s Dancing House, so we decided to leave a few minutes early and make a pitstop. The house certainly sticks out like a sore thumb against a strip of gothic architecture. Its asymmetric nature in the middle of square and squares and more squares has let to varying opinions about the building. Gehry used essentially two main components for composer – a glass tower supported by curved pillars and the actually building which is characterised by its sporadic window alignment.

But the location is really the more important part of the Dancing House in this instance. This building lies on the Rašínovo nábřeží (Rašín Embankment), to the right of the Vltava River. The main street lining this area is remarkably busy and provided picture opportunities that I had never even considered when walking alongside it absent of a camera.

The area consists of a cycle route, a plethora of docks for cruise boats, restaurants galore, and more. Despite all of that, upon making a quick trip down to the dock, I found this man; he stood all alone amongst the chaos, seeming completely content. Everything that I just listed that makes this area of so much importance was behind him. His gaze was set on the water and the people who occupied it. There was nothing special about what he was looking at according to the measure of society, but in that instance, it was as though nothing else mattered to this man.

He had no clue that I snapped this shot of him and I think that was all for the better. Moments like this don’t happen often, especially in competition with the rapid pace of our world.