Singapore 3 - street sights

The  city centre is mostly modern but the Little India and Chinatown quarters feature an interesting  mixture of colonial and contemporary architecture

 Educational sign in a market complex: 

"The way to Pronounce Tuition is  too-ish-uhn"

Street sign advertising unusual product at the extensive Mustafa's Department Store:

 and nearby a warning about inappropriate public behaviour:

Singapore 2 - Buddha Tooth Relic Temple

There was a ceremony taking place when I came across the temple as I was exploring the Chinatown quarter. Clicking gives a larger version of the photo.

 Temple roof garden with prayer wheel

Singapore 1 - 57 story hotel

In Singapore for the  ASEE GLOBAL COLLOQUIUM ON ENGINEERING EDUCATION  at the Marina Bay Sands hotel gave the opportunity to check out what some consider an important example of modern hotel construction. The 3 towers of the hotel are joined at the top of their 57 story structure by a Skypark with swimming pool. Although undoubtedly impressive, the casino, luxury shopping mall and general hubris of the undertaking left me with a certain ambivalence. 

That being said, my pre-breakfast and moonlight swims in the vanishing-edge pool at the start and end of each day  were unforgettable. Pictures below show the pool during a tropical storm and on a normal day. The city was under a noticeable haze at the time due to the atmospheric effects of forest fires in Sumatra.

Really Madrid

Was in Madrid recently for the IEEE Educon 2010 conference.

Rooftop view from my central Madrid hotel showing arched Moorish-style windows:

Felix Candela was a Madrid-born structural engineer noted for construction work using thin shells made out of reinforced concrete which was very advanced technically for its time.

As he spent much of his life in exile during Franco’s time most of the public buildings he designed are outside Spain, principally in Mexico, but the roof of the Our Lady of Guadaloupe church in Madrid is a good example of this aesthetically pleasing combination of material science and geometrical design. The style had its heyday in the period from the 1950’s to 1980’s but has since gone out of favour with the development of more versatile construction materials.