covered courtyard for the exhibition of sculptures,
central biennale pavilion, venice 1950-1952.
architect: carlo scarpa, 1906-1978.
the scarpa set.
Tags: carlo scarpa architecture architect venice venezia italy italia biennale modernism modern modernist brick concrete courtyard light arquitectura architektur arkitektur arquitetura Architectuur Architettura seier+seier creative commons CC
covered courtyard for the exhibition of sculptures,
central biennale pavilion, venice 1950-1952.
architect: carlo scarpa, 1906-1978.
with spaces like this at the biennale, who can spend time looking at yet another load of renderings and photoshop collages?
a courtyard covered with a sail-like structure is entirely appropriate in italy and beautifully translated into concrete by scarpa.
here is his old love, frank lloyd wright, quoted in the column/planter which covered in foliage stops short of the very roof it is meant to support. here is the crude postwar concrete made attractive by le corbusier but strung out in curves handled with an elegance we have since learnt to associate with brazilian architecture rather than italian.
the 1950's were great years in architecture and what a moment for scarpa to come into his own. and how typical and strangely fearless of him to keep the buildings and architects and artworks that influenced him clearly visible in his own finished works.
when you stand there, though, the place is all about the manipulation of light.
the roof-sail-canopy cuts out direct sun light and instead the light bounced off the reddish-orange brick walls permeates the space, its warmth contrasted only by the reflections from shallow pools of water animated by little fountains.
I don't know who else could get away with that in 1952, post-war reconstruction and all, except possibly wright. but he was a million years old, at which age you can get away with murder.
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the scarpa set.
Tags: carlo scarpa architecture architect venice venezia italy italia biennale modernism modern modernist brick concrete courtyard light arquitectura architektur arkitektur arquitetura Architectuur Architettura seier+seier creative commons CC
institut für architektur, raketenstation hombroich, neuss, germany (under construction).
architect: alvaro siza, b. 1933.
alvaro siza making a magistral statement on masonry, transparency, and framing - effectively turning the institut für architektur into a crash course in its future content.
this photo was uploaded with a CC license and may be used free of charge and in any way you see fit.
if possible, please name photographer "SEIER+SEIER". if not, don't.
Tags: alvaro siza raketenstation hombroich rocket station neuss germany deutschland architecture architektur arquitectura arquitetura Architectuur Architettura building haus recycled brick modern modernist modernism wall texture seier+seier creative commons CC
aarhus university, 1931 (competition), jutland, denmark. main building.
original architects: kay fisker, c.f.møller, povl stegmann,
architect of main building: c.f. møller.
landscape planning: c.th.sørensen.
fisker, møller, stegmann and sørensen won the 1931 competition for a new university in aarhus, jutland, with a proposal which combined modernist planning in a park setting with a traditionalist building section with yellow brick facades and yellow tile roofs.
that the newly established modernism in architecture could survive such a treatment was learnt from hannes meyer's Bundesschule (berlin 1928), one of the greatest projects of early german modernism.
by the late thirties, the collaboration of the original team had ended and c.f. møller was left to complete the university alone in a difficult political climate. local fascist apologists included, for a time, leading newspaper "jyllandsposten" and leading intellectual and priest, kaj munk, an outspoken opponent of democracy. it should come as no surprise then that when the main building of the university came up, c.f.møller was ordered to change the design along the lines of piacentini's recent città universitaria in mussolini's rome. he refused, taking instead as his cue the national brick architecture of p.v. jensen-klint. the university authorities could hardly turn down a nationalist project and møller buried their fascist aspirations in a sea of bricks.
there is a cruel irony to the fact that nazi germany took an instant linking to fisker and møller's architecture, nationalist brick buildings being their thing. years ago, I came across an article in a german architectural magazine from 1942 in which aarhus university was hailed as a model for the future of nazi baukunst.
such peculiar facts never turn up in histories of danish architecture and the aarhus campus remains the best and best loved in the country.
Tags: aarhus århus university universitet architecture modern modernism modernist kay fisker c.f. møller povl stegmann c.th. sørensen brick building park oak seier+seier creative commons CC
aarhus university, 1931 (competition), jutland, denmark. main building.
original architects: kay fisker, c.f.møller, povl stegmann,
architect of main building: c.f. møller.
landscape planning: c.th.sørensen.
Tags: aarhus århus university universitet architecture modern modernism modernist kay fisker c.f. møller povl stegmann c.th. sørensen brick building park oak seier+seier creative commons CC