Parabola – Plettenberg Bay, December 2009
Visionary Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser once wrote:
“The straight line leads to the downfall of humanity.”
He would have loved the Beacon Island Hotel in Plettenberg Bay, South Africa. From the outside, the hotel looks like a chunky ship setting sail from a rocky outrcop – although it appears to be square, the long sides bulge out towards the centre, making the whole thing more like some sort organic creature with a swollen belly. Inside, there are no long, dark, straight corridors: all the corridors curve around the central atrium and are lit by natural daylight from the translucent ceiling.
I have been gazing at this magical architectural parabola every year since I was about four years old. I have never grown bored with it, nor do I think I ever shall.
This is part of a series of non-food photographs that will be published every Saturday on CookSister. All photographs previously featured may be viewed on my Saturday Snapshot archive pages. Many photos featured in Saturday Snapshots are available to buy as high-quality greeting cards or prints in my RedBubble store – feel free to browse. They make great gifts for friends, family, or yourself!
Nice photo. Looks bit like one of those optical illusions!
NICE Jeanne… It takes some time to get alligned and ‘oriented’ to the angle of the view. Beautifully done!
What a gorgeous shot of gorgeous interiors! It appears to be perfectly symmetrical! (I wonder if they have a mark on the carpet that indicates where you should take the picture, heh 🙂
Ah, now doesn’t that look familiar. It’s reassuring to see that some things HAVEN’T changed since my childhood days.