Exploring the beautiful Altstadt (old town center) of nearby Ratingen, a small brown sign pointed us towards something called “Haus zum Haus” or roughly translated, “House to House.” This particular castle dates back to the 13th Century, when a fortified house was built on the site of former ruins dating back as far as the 9th Century. Over the following 400 years the construction grew to include an outer courtyard, inner keep, large stable complex and a variety of outbuildin

Let me take you back to the Ständehaus, to another dark room, this one spider-free (as far as I could tell) but filled with “atmosphere”, carefully crafted to chill. I will borrow the description from the back of the exhibit’s post card, since it captures the room wonderfully: “An old wooden door opens onto a kind of study. Disarranged, it is filled with books containing scientific diagrams, essays on paranormal phenomena and handwritten scribbling. The scene is illuminated b

I love architecture. But even more so, I love the process of design so I take any chance I get to peek behind the curtain that is the world around us, to see the process behind the final product be it skyscraper or cell phone.This goes for fine art as well and I am as interested in the study sketches and underlying layout lines as the final image. So it was with great anticipation that I visited the K21 Ständehaus in Düsseldorf, where an amazing two-part art installation by A

Today my German host, fellow architect Monika Kramer, took me to Düsseldorf to the eye-catching museum platz next to the Rhine River. We hit the "Museum Kunstpalast" (Palace of the Arts Museum) for the last day of the Wim Wenders photography exhibit. I had seen a couple of his movies and had a general image in my mind of his photography - I pictured desolate southwest American townscapes - but I was amazed at the depth and breadth of his work! Spread among two separate ligh