I have always been transfixed by the work of the French Visionary Architects of the Enlightenment. Let's start with Étienne-Louis Boullée's Cenotaph for Sir Isaac Newton, 1784.
House of the Temple, Scottish Rite Masonic temple in Washington, D.C., United States, Architect, John Russell Pope, 1911-1915 A masterpiece by the last great practitioner of the American Renaissance.
I was transported by the brilliant TV production of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited in the early '80s. The scene of Lord Marchmain's funeral procession approaching Hawksmoor's severe and somber Mausoleum at Castle Howard, (in Yorkshire, an estate Bill writes about visiting often), was one of the most influential images of my impending architectural career.
@EERO thanks for the background on this. I read the book but it was after I watched the series as a kid. The opening and closing sequences of BR would sometimes cause me to cry.
@Alec , it was a remarkable series. It completely captured the flavor of the book. The scene of Charles Ryder and Julia Marchmain strolling the deck of their Ocean liner in a storm-tossed sea was for me, the most romantic moment I seen on film.
@Alec I think that is what makes Hawksmoor so remarkable. He uses the language of Classicism, which has a prescribed set of rules-guidelines is perhaps a better word-in a non-canonical way. He was inventative, fantastic, sculptural and wholly original.
To throw in some more, I was captivated the first time I saw images on Nicholas Hawksmoor's churches in London projected on a screen in a dark lecture hall. They were the first buildings I went to see went I first went to London. Christchurch, Spitalfields, 1714-29
A sad loss; not a brilliant building, but an interesting one and certainly evocative of a time when Modernity was somehting to look forward to rather than fear. I like the way idt addresses the corner. It's a good, though not contextual building.
@Alec , I hadn't really thought of that, but it's pretty obvious now that I see it. The stepped gables are typical around the Baltic and are often called Hanseatic Stepped Gables. They are also a common feature on the towers of Danish and Swedish churches. In this case, I think Klint was exaggerating and celebrating the form and making a reference to a bank of organ pipes as well.
@Alec , I think any building with a drum without dome bears similariy. Within the context of an architectural education 40 years ago, we would have been told "they share a formal typology."
I guess the time has come for me to throw in a few of my favorite buildings. The Stockholm Public Libray, (Stockholms stadsbibliotek) Erik Gunnar Asplund, 1928.
The former Ministry of Highway Construction of the Georgian SSR building is located in Tbilisi, Georgia. It was designed by architects George Chakhava and Zurab Jalaghania and built in 1975. The engineer was Temur Tkhilava. This 18-storey building was acquired by the Bank of Georgia in 2007. (c) BACU
Terunobu Fujimori - Takasugi-an (too-tall tea house), Chino 2004. The tea house follows the Japanese tradition of tea masters controlling the design and construction of their tea houses, as Fujimori built the project for his own use on a family owned parcel of land. The tea room is supported by three chestnut trees, and is only accessible from free standing ladders. The organic form is consistent with the architect’s interest in more primitive, natural methods of design and construction. Via and more.
L'Homme de Rio (That Man From Rio, 1964), directed by Philippe de Broca, starring beloved Nouvelle Vague celebutante Jean-Paul Belmondo and Françoise Dorléac. With a hero in pastiche of a French James Bond, the film's city-trotting script was directly inspired by Hergé's The Adventures of Tin Tin, which subsequently inspired the Indiana Jones saga. (Spielberg admitted!)
Most notable is the film's wide-spanning frames, set upon architect Oscar Niemeyer's futurist city Brasília. The UNESCO city was still being built during filming in 1962, creating an "accidental" and opportune film set of eerie alienation and surrealist aesthetic.
Ennis House was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for Charles and Mabel Ennis in 1923 and was built in 1924. Located in Los Feliz neighbourhood of Los Angeles, it features prominently in the movie House On Haunted Hill (1959)
Burj Al Babas was a project aimed to create a thermal resort town to attract Arab investors. What’s left of it now is a ghost town of over 500 unfinished Disney castle-themed houses in central Turkey.
As an architect who had Corb rammed down my throat in grad school, this really made my day. As john Foxx once so eloquently said, the Avant Garde become the mainstream and becomes static and soulless. However, in the case of Corb, Less is a Bore, (to quote Venturi) and it always was.
@EERO I thought of you not long ago when listening to one of the interview records of John Foxx with Steve Malins that are available on Bandcamp. I'll have to listen again to find the quote, but it was to do with certain things he's noticed that can't be improved upon, like Levi's jeans, the blues, a Rolls Royce (was that what he said?) and a Georgian house. I'm not sure about the make of car but I know for a fact he said, "Georgian house" and when he said, it, I wanted to run that by you.
@Alec , I would agree about Georgian houses, both in Britain and in America. My library is filled with books about Georgian architecture and monographs of architects from both the Gerorgian periods and the Later Georgian Revival of the early 20th Century. They posses a graciousness of scale, appropriate internal hierarchy, and can be embellished with classical ornament or stripped and austere and never lose their underlying sense of rational order. Most of the firms who create Traditional Architecture today have Georgian Architecture as their touchstone.
Minangkabau paddy houses, West Sumatra, Indonesia, 1950s
Casa Álvarez
Mexico City
1971 - 1975
Augustín Hernández
The Green Cape Hotel, Lake Balkhash, Kazakhstan 🇰🇿 1973
It should be obvious by now that I have a weakness for monumental neo-classicism.😎
Étienne-Louis Boullée's, Deuxieme projet pour la Bibliothèque du Roi (Second project for a Royal Library), 1785.
I have always been transfixed by the work of the French Visionary Architects of the Enlightenment. Let's start with Étienne-Louis Boullée's Cenotaph for Sir Isaac Newton, 1784.
House of the Temple, Scottish Rite Masonic temple in Washington, D.C., United States, Architect, John Russell Pope, 1911-1915 A masterpiece by the last great practitioner of the American Renaissance.
Chichén Itzá
Mexico
I was transported by the brilliant TV production of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited in the early '80s. The scene of Lord Marchmain's funeral procession approaching Hawksmoor's severe and somber Mausoleum at Castle Howard, (in Yorkshire, an estate Bill writes about visiting often), was one of the most influential images of my impending architectural career.
St George's Bloomsbury (1716–1731)
St. Mary, Woolnoth, 1716-23
To throw in some more, I was captivated the first time I saw images on Nicholas Hawksmoor's churches in London projected on a screen in a dark lecture hall. They were the first buildings I went to see went I first went to London. Christchurch, Spitalfields, 1714-29
A sad loss; not a brilliant building, but an interesting one and certainly evocative of a time when Modernity was somehting to look forward to rather than fear. I like the way idt addresses the corner. It's a good, though not contextual building.
I think every architecture student is awed the first time they see the drawings of Italian Futurist Antonio Sant Elia.
Grundtvigs Kirke, Copenhagen, Peder Vilhelm Jensen-Klint, 1927-40
Rotonde de la Villette, Paris, Claude-Nicholas Ledoux, 1784-1788
I guess the time has come for me to throw in a few of my favorite buildings. The Stockholm Public Libray, (Stockholms stadsbibliotek) Erik Gunnar Asplund, 1928.
Buqshan Khaila Hotel, Hadramaut, Yemen
The Rainbow - Hossain Nikzad Amoli
Eight-hundred-year-old cave dwelling, Kandovan, Iran
Following months of uncertainties and preservation attempts, Kisho Kurokawa’s iconic Nakagin Capsule Tower will be demolished on 12 April 2022.
London Aquatics Centre
The former Ministry of Highway Construction of the Georgian SSR building is located in Tbilisi, Georgia. It was designed by architects George Chakhava and Zurab Jalaghania and built in 1975. The engineer was Temur Tkhilava. This 18-storey building was acquired by the Bank of Georgia in 2007. (c) BACU
Source: Instagram
Hugh Kaptur Palm Springs Mid Century Modern Design
Terunobu Fujimori - Takasugi-an (too-tall tea house), Chino 2004. The tea house follows the Japanese tradition of tea masters controlling the design and construction of their tea houses, as Fujimori built the project for his own use on a family owned parcel of land. The tea room is supported by three chestnut trees, and is only accessible from free standing ladders. The organic form is consistent with the architect’s interest in more primitive, natural methods of design and construction. Via and more.
Olavinlinna
Three-tower castle
Savonlinna, Finland
Built in the 15th century
Monastery of Mother of God Hozoviotissa / Amorgos island Greece
Source: IG
Mukteshvara Temple, Bhubaneshvara, India
L'Homme de Rio (That Man From Rio, 1964), directed by Philippe de Broca, starring beloved Nouvelle Vague celebutante Jean-Paul Belmondo and Françoise Dorléac. With a hero in pastiche of a French James Bond, the film's city-trotting script was directly inspired by Hergé's The Adventures of Tin Tin, which subsequently inspired the Indiana Jones saga. (Spielberg admitted!)
Most notable is the film's wide-spanning frames, set upon architect Oscar Niemeyer's futurist city Brasília. The UNESCO city was still being built during filming in 1962, creating an "accidental" and opportune film set of eerie alienation and surrealist aesthetic.
Source: PLY-KNITS
Ghent, Belgium, architect Denis Van Impe, 1980
Farnsworth House – Mies Van Der Rohe – 1951
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Armstrong Rubber/Pirelli Building, New Haven – Marcel Breuer
Brutalist
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Ennis House was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for Charles and Mabel Ennis in 1923 and was built in 1924. Located in Los Feliz neighbourhood of Los Angeles, it features prominently in the movie House On Haunted Hill (1959)
Bocconi University (Italy) – Grafton Architects
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Turkey’s $200 Million Disney-Inspired Ghost Town
Burj Al Babas was a project aimed to create a thermal resort town to attract Arab investors. What’s left of it now is a ghost town of over 500 unfinished Disney castle-themed houses in central Turkey.
Reiyūkai Shakaden Temple – Tokyo, Japan
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Casa Beretta (1967-75) in Brusson, Italy, by Mario Galvagni
Source: abitare.it
Megatron, Alconbury
Build in 1990, refitted as a McDonald’s in 1993.
Demolished in 2008.
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Hundertwasser Haus, 3rd district, the Löwengasse, Vienna.
Rokko Housing (1978-83) in Kobe, Japan, by Tadao Ando
Rudolf Steiner's Goetheanum, in Dornach, Switzerland. (The large building in the background).
A 1961 architectural drawing depicts the LAX Theme Building.
Image courtesy of the Luckman Partnership Inc. (The J. Paul Getty Trust)
Pan Pacific Auditorium, Los Angeles, California, built 18 May 1935.
Architects Walter Wurdeman, Charles F Plummer & Welton Becket.
Art Deco.
Here's one of my architectural graphics
A house here in Kansas City, made entirely of shipping containers.
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Weronika Dudka
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Casa Batlló, Barcelona, Spain. Built in 1877, it was remodelled in the Barcelona manifestation of Art Nouveau, modernisme, by Antoni Gaudí in 1904.
Passeig de Gràcia, 43, 08007 Barcelona, Spain
Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye in a Thomas Kinkade setting (where you'd expect a quaint cottage).
British Pavilion, Expo 70, Osaka, Japan 1970
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/543246773780424964/
Virtual cyberpunk lego (built with Magicavoxel software):
Lancaster services M6
Not Vital / Sandstorm House, Aladab, Niger, 2006
https://nararoesler.art/en/artists/75-not-vital/
Wow , those are great. I can just imagine one of these parked around the back
Steve Hadeka
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