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THE FIFTH SEASON: SUBLIME IN THE CITY
By Quintin Lake
featured in the book Cinematic Architecture
A few years ago I travelled with some friends one summer to the arctic. For two month we travelled through this reduced landscape leaving our homes in the city. We moved through the ever-changing light and the constant horizon. Kant wrote that the sublime is the moment before fear, feeling overwhelmed and yet using the power of the mind to stay grounded. Occasionally the wind would blow the snow with such force that there were no forms from which to take a bearing.
It sometimes seems bizarre when our desires are so ephemeral, that we live and move in such fixed forms. I yearn for a space of the fifth season within the city: a horizon and no walls, a house constructed of light, whose presence takes one by surprise. and responds to the seasons.
The house of the fifth season is located beyond the houses in a position of lightness where the possibilities of a new horizon can be seen. In the city the light sits perched on a raised structure, its form is created with a laser-light projection. The ephemeral edges are barely visible during the day. At night the reflective coating of the sky mesh screen glows with the laser light. The seasons of nature and the mind are the house. The layered transparent interior filters the city. The house has become the horizon.
Text & Photography © Quintin Lake, 2009
Pascal Schoening with Cinematic Architecture Book. Photograph by Rubens Azevedo
The book looks at 17 years of Architectural Association Diploma Unit 3 work and the past present and future of cinematic architecture.
Editors: Pascal Schoning, Julian Loffler & Rubens Azevedo. Design Stephan Doesinger. Published by AA publications
Featured content by Quintin Lake:
THE FIFTH SEASON: SUBLIME IN THE CITY
Photograph and design of the Cinematic House installation
from the chapter OF CLOUDS AND SHADOWS by Ron Kenley
Photograph of Briey: Cité Radieuse by Le Corbusier
from the chapter BRIEY CONVERSATIONS
Photograph from The Cinematic House installation at the Cinematic Architecture exhibition at the Architectural Association, 2006.
BUY PRINTS/LICENSE more of the completed Cinematic Architecture exhibition images
BUY PRINTS/LICENSE more of the construction of the Glass House at the Cinematic Architecture exhibition images
from the book Cinematic Architecture in the chapter OF CLOUDS AND SHADOWS , by Ron Kenley
Photography © Quintin Lake, 2009
Photograph from Briey: Cité Radieuse or Unité d’habitation by Le Corbusier from the book Cinematic Architecture in the chapter BRIEY CONVERSATIONS, Pascal Shoning, Rubens Azevedo, Julian Loffler
see the full photoshoot here
Photography © Quintin Lake, 2009
BUY PRINTS/LICENSE more Pripyat (Pripiat) 21 years after Chernobyl images here
When reactor number four at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded in 1986 the result was the worst nuclear accident in history. Large areas of Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia were severely contaminated, requiring the evacuation and resettlement of over 336,000 people.
Pripyat, 1km from the reactor, was designed as an exemplar of Soviet planning for the 50,000 people who worked at the power plant. A funfair, with bumper cars and Ferris wheel, was due to open two days after the reactor exploded.
These photographs, inspired by Robert Polidori’s earlier images of Chernobyl, were shot in 2007 over 5 hours, apparently the safe period of exposure. Although a Geiger counter was carried in case of localised high emissions, certain areas of vegetation which attract a higher concentration of radiation were avoided.
The physical devastation stems from looting and gradual building collapse, not from the explosion. Over the last ten years people have intruded regularly into the military exclusion zone, stealing everything from irradiated toilet seats to the marble cladding from hotel walls. Photographs of the town capture a memory of three traumas: the invisible radiation, the visible looting and the gradual collapse of a ghost town.
Hotel Polissia Terrace, Pripyat, Giclee Print, 50×33cm, Edition of 25 + 1 A/P
Pripyat, Chernobyl Exhibition
Pripyat: 21 Years After Chernobyl, photographs by Quintin Lake’ is on show at the Architectural Association Photo Library from Monday 12 May to Friday 6th June 2008, 10.00am to 6.00pm
Architectural Association Photo Library , 37 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3ES
Pripyat, Chernobyl Limited Edition Prints
BUY PRINTS/LICENSE more Pripyat (Pripiat) 21 years after Chernobyl images here
Photography © Quintin Lake, 2007
BUY PRINTS/LICENSE more Pripyat (Pripiat) 21 years after Chernobyl images here
Photographs courtesy of Valerie Bennett
Three Arctic Greenland Landscapee Christmas / Greetings cards by Quintin Lake.
Photographed during Anglo-Scottish Greenland Expedition 2006
Blank inside. All cards 10 for £5.00
Available from Valerie Bennett in the AA Photo Library +44 020 7887 4066
The moon at night
Wind-blown ice
Shadow of clouds
Photography © Quintin Lake, 2006
