two steps behind

Beauty… Luxury… Temptation… Speed… Adrenaline rushing… Blood pressure rising… Breathless!

It was at the Los Angeles Auto Show, last November that I got to see this beauty presented in one of the galleries. I took a few angles of this Lamborghini, however, I believe that this view, this angle, this moment is just right. It is not about more is less… but it is about Less is More. The design, from an architecture point of view, is so basic with the cause of simple shape elements that creates the elegance of the design. The speed of the car is unquestionable as everyone must know how fast it is. The color of the car, white, black and touch of red/orange to bring out its characteristics.

The selection of the picture today is because I have seen a few of this Lambos here in Marbella already in typical red and yellow paint. I think it would have been much nicer in white just because white is not a color and it represents neutrality, which in my opinion, is also Richard Meier’s reason for choosing all of this architectural design in white is one of the most fact that I must agree with.

Below is the Pritzker Acceptance Speech by Meier:

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I would like to share with you, tonight, the ongoing conversation that I have with my children, Joseph and Ana. It revolves around the question “What is your favorite color?” Joseph, who is four and three-quarters, always replies green, and states when asked why, that “green is the color of grass, the trees are green, green is all around us, it’s the color of spring and dollar bills.”

Ana, who is three and doesn’t like to be outdone by Joseph, replies that her favorite color is blue, and that, “the sky is blue, the pools and ponds and lakes are blue.”

And then they turn to me and ask, “Daddy, what is your favorite color?” And every time we play this gave, my response is the same: “White is my favorite color.”

“But Daddy,” Joseph says, “You can’t have white. White is not a color; white isn’t in the rainbow; you have to take a color that is in the rainbow, like red or green, or blue or yellow.”

And I have to explain that for me, white is the most wonderful color because within it you can see all the colors of the rainbow. For me, in fact, it is the color which in natural light, reflects and intensifies the perception of all of the shades of the rainbow, the colors which re constantly changing in nature, for the whiteness of white is never just white; it is almost always transformed by light and that which is changing; the sky, the clouds, the sun and the moon.

White conventionally has always been seen as a symbol of perfection, of purity and clarity. If we ask why this is the case, we realize that where other colors have relative-values dependent upon their context, white retains its absoluteness. At the same time, it may function as a color itself. It is against a white surface that one best appreciates the play of light and shadow, solids and voids. Goethe said “color is the pain of light.” Whiteness is perhaps the memory and the anticipation of color. For me, the contrast becomes the definition — that which is natural, organic, changing, contains at different times, all of the colors of the rainbow. And that which is man-made should help to focus and intensify one’s perception of all that is around us.

It appears that he has found a successful formula and he’s sticking with it, a eventually it becomes his trademark as an architect, pretty much like Frank Gehry has his dynamic architecture, and Tadao Ando and his minimalist architecture.

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Beauty within Neutrality