It’s a bit out on a limb, but well worth the effort to get there. You’ve never seen anything quite like the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris. A stone’s throw from Jussieu metro station, its south facade is a showstopper. Thirty thousand metallic apertures form walls and windows that react to the sunlight all day long, dilating or contracting to let only a gentle light sift through to the inside world. It’s free to enter, so I went straight to the 9th floor restaurant and nabbed a window seat,  calmly sipping mint tea and watching the apertures whirr and mesh into position every few minutes. Shapes morphed, patterns emerged, just like a kaleidoscope. What an innovative way to recreate the beautiful arabesques that we associate with the region.

http://www.imarabe.org/preparer-ma-visite/informations-pratiques/acces

This post is very apt after Tuesday’s short trip to snowy Sweden. In a quintessentially English cobbled street, just a stone’s throw from the River Medway, sits the 16th century Upnor Castle, near Rochester. But far more intriguing is this red house that shrinks somewhat self-consciously behind trees and bushes at the opposite end of the lane. But ha! It can’t hide from me! In typical Scandinavian-style, it’s a looker, incredibly striking in perfect red and white simplicity. There’s something playful, childish and unfussy here: the deliberately assymmetric windows flout the rules, and the defiant red looks sensational against the sky, especially on a cold winter’s day in sunny England.

.(Gothenburg, Sweden, taken this week after a blizzard)