1650. Pravda Building, Moscow

Dear Michael,

This exemplaray building of the late constructivism era sadly
remains abandoned since 2006 when it suffered a big fire.
Most likely will be demolished in the future.

R

1649. Casa Madre de la Compañía de Santa Teresa de Jesús. Gaudí

Querido Manuel,

"La verdad padece, pero no perece"
(Santa Teresa de Jesús)

Abrazos,
R

1648. Sabaudia, Piazza Comunale

Dear Paola,

Sending regards from the modern but also "Roman" city
of Sabaudia.
"For this reason a different form of urban planning -a rural
planning- has developed, whose open and linear morphology is
rightly contrasted to traditional city planning. Sabaudia is in fact an
excellent example of modern rural planning"
(Marcello Piacentini, Sabaudia)

Best,
R

1647. Madrid, Circulo de Bellas Artes

Querida Inés,

Espero que estés bien. Aquí te mando una postal muy antigua del
Círculo de Bellas Artes, que fue enviada el mismo año que el
edificio se inauguró. El arquitecto, Antonio Palacios, fue también
el de edificios tan conocidos como el Palacio de Comunicaciones,
el Hospital de Jornaleros de Maudes o el  de la sede del Instituto
Cervantes. Su obra ecléctica tiene influencias de la arquitectura de
Otto Wagner y de la Escuela de Chicago.

Besos,
R

1646. Rotterdam. Het Bouwcentrum

Dear Jan,

"Life is a circle. The end of one journey is the beginning
of the next one" (Joseph M. Marshall III)

Best,
R

1645. Valencia, España. Club Náutico.

Querido primo Juan,

He encontrado por casualidad alguna información sobre Javier
Goerlich el arquitecto municipal y mayor de Valencia desde 1924
hasta 1956 que influyó notablemente en la reformas urbanas del
centro y en el perfil de la ciudad moderna. En la foto de la postal
se puede ver una joya de la arquitectura racionalista diseñada por
él que fue lamentablemente derribada en 1984.

Besos y abrazos,
R

1644. The Viceroy's House New Delhi, India

Dear Tanu,

"...and any stone being mentally handled must become
endowed with such poetry and artistry as God as given you"
(Edwin Lutyens)

Regards from magnificent Rashtrapati Bhavan,
R

1643. Karl-Marx-Stadt H.O. Warenhaus

Querido abuelo,

Los antiguos almacenes Schocken de Chemnitz en una
foto postal posterior a 1945 cuando fueron convertidos
en H.O. Warehaus. Hoy en día albergan el Museo de
Arqueología del estado para lo cual fue restaurado a
su forma original a la vez que adaptado a su nuevo uso
en 2015.

Besos,
R

1642. Trento, Palazzo delle scuole Raffaello Sanzio

Dear Raffaello,

"The limits of architecture are its strength. Its inability to give
form to a transient idea, its inevitable tendency to stabilize, is
the latent power of architecture" (David Chippefield)

Ciao,
R

1641.The Design Museum. "Plain Space" exhibition installation designed by John Pawson.

Dear Nicholas,

"The goal here was to communicate the thinking
and give a sense of the body of work, whilst also
engaging the widest possible audience. Since
engagement is facilitated by first hand experience,
a site-specific, 1:1 installation was conceived as a
key element -the first time anyone had constructed
a building inside the Design Museum"
(John Pawson)

Warm regards,
R

1640. The Design Museum's Shad Thames home.

Dear Dylan,

This charming building was the home of the
world's first museum of mass-produced design.
The building was originally a former 1940s
banana warehouse and was converted to
resemble a building in the international Modernist
Style of the 1930s. In fact, people used to call it
"Bauhaus on Thames"

Best regard,
R

1639. Stadsbiblioteket Stockholm

Dear Olof,

This is an interesting replica of an old postcard dated in
1929. The drawing on the original card was probably made
by Sven Malm and is signed with the word Vulc.

Regards,
R

1638. The Philadelphia Savings Fund Society Bldg.

Querido Valentín,

Aqui te mando una postal antigua que muestra el
primer rascacielos moderno del mundo.
Lo aprendimos de tu padre que lo conocía y
admiraba.

Enhorabuena,
R

1637. The Secretariats of the Government of India, New Delhi

Dear Tanu,

There is a poet in the architect...

Regards,
R

1636. Crystal Cathedral, Garden Grove CA

Dear Roberto,

The famous Crystal Cathedral is being renovated and will open
its doors by 2019.  It will be renamed Christ Cathedral
and became the new seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of
Orange County.

Regards,
R

1635. Lappeenranta. Lauritsalan Kirkko

Dear Paul,

Lauritsala church in Lappeeranta on the shore of lake
Saimaa in southeastern Finland was designed around the
idea of an equilateral triangle representing the Holy Trinity.

Regards,
R

1634. House of Worship. United Church of Rowayton, CT

Dear Michael,

"The Rowayton Church is a superbly functional unit. Though
it is several light years removed from the rigid geometry usually
associated with the term "functional", It serves the varied needs
of the parish to perfection." (Robert Mutrux, Great New England 
Churches)

Sincerely,
R

1633. Kalevan kirkko

Dear Sibylle,

Tampere will be a nice place to visit one summer.  The
Kaleva and Hervanta parishes by the Pietiläs, or the Liehlati
church by Turunen will be a good way to start exploring the
city.

Best,
R

1632. La Pedrera. Casa Milá

Querido Walter,

"Las casas nuestras tenían pues, algo de campamentos. O
de empresas descubridoras" (Pablo Neruda, Confieso que
he vivido)

Un abrazo,
R

1631. Mrs. Thomas H. Gale House

Dear Theo,

A little house that is considered a forerunner of one of
the most famous and beautiful houses ever built:
Fallingwater in Mill Run.

Best,
R

1630. Kimbell Art Museum. Fort Worth TX

Dear Sibylle,

"Design is not making beauty; beauty emerges from selection,
affinities, integration, love" (Luis I. Kahn)

R

1629. Kunnantalo.Säynätsalo

Dear Erki,

"Nothing is more dangerous in architecture as dealing with
separate problems. If we do this we split the possibilities of
making good building art" (Alvar Aalto)

Sincerely,
R

1628. Rovaniemi Library, Finland

Dear Elissa,

"The library was built in 1965 and has one of Aalto's most
successful late interiors with several changes of level and with
lighting designed to exploit the low northern sun."
(J.M. Richards. 800 Years of Finnish Architecture. Vancouver:
David and Charles, 1978. p.179)

Respectfully,
R

1627. Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, 2001

Dear Berta,

"Architecture should make us feel different,  if not,
engineering should be enough" (Daniel Libeskind)

Sincerely,
R

1626. Hotel Xenia, Kos, Dodecanesos

Dear Yorgos:

"Architecture is not an art, it is a natural function"
(Aris Konstantinidis)

Respectfully,
R

1625. Wolfsburg-Rabenberg, St. Heinrichs-Kirche

Dear Albert,

The  postcard features a crown-shaped church inspired by
Henry II  Roman-German Emperor and built by Peter Koller,
Austrian-German architect and city-planner of the city of
Wolfsburg.

Regards,
R

1624. Aeropuerto Internacional Eldorado, Bogota, Colombia

Estimado Luis,

"Las inquietudes intelectuales de Cuéllar, Serrano y Gómez
condujeron a una acelerada dinámica interna que convirtió a
la oficina en una vanguardia arquitectónica y técnica desde
finales de los años 1940"
(http://blogs.virtual.unal.edu.co/hacolombia/category/cap-vi/3-primera-fase/)

Agradecido,
R

1623. Tehran, L'université

Dear Mahmoud,

"A new language is a new life" (Persian proverb)

Respectfully,
R

1622. Erba. Monumento ai Caduti

Dear Mario,

"An the fire and the rose are one"
(T.S. Eliot, Little Gidding)

Best regards,
R

1621. Milano. Via F. Turati, Ca' Brütta

Dear Bruno,

"The Ca'Brütta, the Ugly House, is seen as a symbol of the
dividing line between eclecticism and the modern, for its
freedom in the use of plaster and simplification of the façade.
It was also the first example in Italy of the splitting of a city
block, creating a private road open to the public"
(Giovanni Tomaso Muoio)

Regards,
R

1620. Marcellise (Verona) Villa Girasole

Dear Mario,

"Erano sempre vedute nuove e in una luce diversa, eppur non
avevo percepito nessun movimento. Questo quadri sono stati
l'invenzione di papà" (Lidia Invernizzi)

Sincerely,
R

1619. Darmstadt Stadt Krankenhaus Frauenklinik

Dear Jan,

Visiting Darmstadt's Women Hospital, one of the five
"master buildings" in this city.
Hope you are doing well.

Cheers,
R

1618. St. Catherine's College, Oxford

Dear Berta,

(...)
If you came this way,
Taking any route, starting from anywhere,
At any time or at any season,
It would always be the same: you would have to put off
Sense and notion. You are not here to verify,
Instruct yourself, or inform curiosity
Or carry report. You are here to kneel
(...)

(T.S. Eliot, Little Gidding)

Best,
Rafael

1617. The organ at the Church of the Cross, Lahti, Finland

Dear Stefan,

"If we understood the world, we would realize that there
is a logic of harmony underlying its manifold apparent
dissonances" (Jean Sibelius)

Regards,
R

1616. Helsinki, Suomen Kauppakorkeakoulu

Dear Siby,

"Music begins where possibilities of language ends"
(Jean Sibelius)

Best,
R

1615. Sevilla, Puente del V Centenario

Estimado Alfonso,

“Nuestra profesión debe aspirar siempre a convertirse en una
fuerza al servicio de la comunidad, una palanca viva de creación,
de innovaciones, de educación y de cultura”
(José Antonio Fernández Ordoñez)

Atentamente,
R

1614. Milano, Corso Venezia, Palazzo e Torre Rasini.

Dear Bruno,

"The most resistant material in construction is art"
(Gio Ponti)

Sincerely,
R