Looking Down

As I walk around Prague, which direction should I be looking? Up? Down? Behind me? Directly in front? Far away? Close up? I wish I had enough eyes to look at each of those. Today I spent a lot of time looking down, but in a variety of ways.

Let’s take a small scale of looking down:  one’s own feet.

Ever since my trip to Italy, I’ve been noticing ground surfaces. I’ve seen a wide variety of materials, textures, and patterns. But Prague is known for its cobblestone streets, yes? I imagined it being the same cobblestone pattern/color across all of Prague, but to my surprise, there is such a variety of cobblestone treatments.

Not many people consider the ground surface to be important. Who looks down to notice it? Maybe people don’t look down because there’s nothing special to notice?

I’ve noticed in Prague that the ground treatment changes a lot. Who thought cobblestones could be so interesting and versatile? A major difference I have noticed is that larger pieces of cobblestone are used for streets while smaller pieces are for sidewalks.

Why does the cobblestone pattern change? Is it marking an entry to a place? Why does it only last one block and then stop? What purpose does the patterning have?

I don’t know the answers to these questions, but I hope to study it more and find out. Here are quite a few examples of the cobblestone my feet have been on.

Next scale of looking down:  at highest point in city.

Some of my classmates wanted to go to the beer garden on the top of the hill. It sounded cool, so I walked there with them. Once we got to the top, it was breathtaking. I forgot about the beer and immersed myself in the view overlooking the city.

Like my post about framing views in Italy, where do you look first when the view is this large? I felt like a giant overlooking the city of Prague. Looking down at Prague, I felt the city’s true beauty. There aren’t air conditioning units/HVAC on top of buildings and no ugly roofs. You can see the city’s history, you see the red roofs that look so well together, and there aren’t many skyscrapers. Back in Charlotte, I appreciate our skyline. But seeing Prague with very few tall buildings was just as impressive as Charlotte’s skyline.

I never thought about people seeing architecture from above. In a city like Prague, where an overview of the city is easy to get to, it is important to care about the building’s ground level appearance as well as its top appearance.

Instead of drawing the view of Prague, I drew the view from where I sat. The beer garden was quite exquisite in terms of being an open park overlooking the city. Who wouldn’t want to spend their whole day here? 

As we walked, classmates went their separate ways, but Abe and I kept going. He suggested a spot to sketch, so I chose the view that had a courtyard below me along with a view of the Prague castle up in the distance.

I loved today. I enjoyed walking around but also experiencing the different scales of looking down. Maybe tomorrow I’ll spend my whole day looking up? Oh the possibilities!

And for you, what floor surface did you like walking on today?