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Posts tagged Architecture
Gothic Style
Mar 10th
The term Gothic was unknown to the architects of the Middle Ages who practiced the style. They called their idiom – marked by soaring walls with vast windows – the ‘French Style,’ for the country form which it sprang, through the midwifery of a Benedictine Abbot named Suger in the year 1144. That was when Suger unveiled the rebuilt abbey and church of St. Denis, outside Paris. More >
Brion Tomb and Sanctuary – Treviso, Italy
Oct 12th
The Brion Tomb and Sanctuary is a miniature masterpiece by an architect who spent a lifetime developing a very personal and completely modern style. Carlo Scarpa was acutely aware of the building traditions of the Veneto, and they informed all of his work. He received the commission from Honorina Brion, cofounder with her husband of the innovative electronics form Brion-Vega.
To the west is a chapel set partly in a pond lit through translucent alabaster panels. Its door is framed in bronze. To the south is another pond with a contemplation pavilion at its centre, approached across a bridge. But first one has to negotiate a passage with a door that sinks into the floor supported by a brilliantly designed and sculptural counterbalance system. More >
Hala Ludowa – Wroclaw, Poland
Oct 12th
The building, designed by architect Max Berg, is set on a quatrefoil plan, with a centrally positioned, circular 426-foot-wide (130m) hall connected by a double-ring foyer to 56 auxiliary exhibition spaces offset outward. Each side of the floorplan’s main axis is marked by an entrance hall with the main west access point, facing the city centre, emphasized by double-story height, and an oval floor.
To provide appropriate acoustic conditions, the walls are partially constructed of concrete mixed with wood or cork. The elevations’ concrete finish, textured with the imprints of wooden shuttering, adds to the brutal charm of the building. More >
Union Buildings – Pretoria, South Africa
Oct 10th
Mark & Gideon
It is ironic or perhaps appropriate, that the Union Buildings formed the backdrop to the inauguration of Nelson Mandela as South Africa’s first democratically elected president in 1994. The architect, Sir Herbert Baker, would have argued that permanent place-making is a more powerful force than passing political opinion.
Although he belonged to an imperial culture, his fondness for the South African landscape was born out in his work, particularly in the use of local stone. Cape Town’s Rhodes Memorial and a series of homes in Johannesburg demonstrate his belief that an important building should be anchored to its site. Baker’s fascination with the interplay of stone, nature, and symbolism of place is exemplified by the Union Buildings. More >
Casa Ponce – Buenos Aires, Argentina
Oct 10th
Located on the slope of the historic section of San Isidro Labrador to the north of Buenos Aires, this renowned work by Mathias Klotz challenges the tolerance of the home in relation to the skills of modern architecture. Although a small supporting section is semi-underground, three-quarters of Casa Ponce is cantilevered and floats above the ground.
The house is not only a disturbing and spectacular architectural structure but also an overt metaphor for the fetish of contemporary architecture. Klotz resolves the notoriously unchallenging single-family housing program with a provocative twist: he provides, on the narrow lot, open views of the Rio de la Plata, located behind the property. The layout of the parallel bars along the length of the lot struggles with the problematic decision not to divide the lot in two. More >
