1134. Berlin. Neue Nationalgalerie

Estimada Anatxu,

Hace meses hice un comentario a uno de sus artículos
publicados en El País para establecer un paralelismo
entre la pertinencia de los ejemplos de arquitectura social
que mostrabas entonces y la convicción miesiana de que
la arquitectura debía regirse por el espíritu de la época en
que se desarrolla. Esta hermosa imagen nocturna de la
Galería Nacional de Berlín constituye un ejemplo palmario
de esa poderosa idea.

Cordialmente,
R

1133. Berlin- Altes Museum

Dear John,

"Two elements must be distinguished precisely: the one intended
to work for practical necessity and the one that is meant only to
express directly the pure idea" (Karl Friedrich Schinkel)

This very idea of architecture influenced years later the work of
Mies van der Rohe with the ideological opposition of form and
function.

Best wishes,
R

1132. Genova. Costruzioni caratteristiche di Via Elio Modigliani

Querido Fernando,

"La arquitectura exalta algo. Por eso, alli donde no hay nada
que exaltar, no puede haber arquitectura"
(Ludwig Wittgenstein)

Abrazos,
R

1131. Bruxelles. Avenue de Tervueren. Villa Stocle

Dear Anny,

"Art is a line around your thoughts" (Gustav Klimt)

Best wishes,
R

1130. Talmastraat hoek Cooperatiestraat, Amsterdam.

Dear Lodewijk,

In 1920 Michel de Klerk and Piet L. Kramer, two of the leading
architects of the Amsterdam School, received the commision to
design the De Dageraad (The Dawn) housing district located in
the Amsterdam's Oud-Zuid district.
The complex was adjusted to the previous Berlage's town planning
design and included 294 dwellings and 6 retail spaces. Angular
street layout were introduced in this planning design to allow for
a visually rich urban landscape. The most impressive features can
be found on some street corners, especially at the corner of
Takstraat and Burgemeester Tellegenstraat where projecting
undulating planes create a fascinating and dynamic effect.
The image of this vintage postcard shows the intersection of
Talmastraat with Burgemeester Tellegenstraat seen on the right
side of the image.

Regards,
R

1129. Therme Vals

Dear Olivia,

"The principle of confined movement in a few places and
then expansive freedom of movement in larger areas inside
the building is something I discovered while working on the
Therme Vals and have subsequently used again and again"
(Peter Zumthor)

Best wishes,
R

1128. Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro

Estimado Helio,

"Pero no sólo se ha transformado el antiguo concepto de
museo: también lo ha hecho la propia noción de espacio
arquitectónico. El desarrollo de las nuevas técnicas de
construcción ha dado lugar a una estructura independiente
y, en consecuencia, a la planta libre. (...) Surge así un nuevo
concepto de espacio arquitectónico, el "espacio fluyente"
que sustituye a la antigua noción de "espacio confinado"
dentro de los límites de una caja"
(Affonso Eduardo Reidy)

Saludos cordiales,
R

1127. Amsterdam. New Metropolis

Dear Louis,

“Architecture is art, but art vastly contaminated by
many other things. Contaminated in the best sense
of the word – fed, fertilized by many things.”
(Renzo Piano)

A great picture of the whale-like Nemo Science
Center in Amsterdam.

Mobilis in Mobili,
R

1126. Bucaresti, B-dul Take Ionescu

Dear Elena,

The cinema Scala in Bucharest was built by one of the
leader architects of the 1930s pioneering Modernist
movement in Germany: Rudolf Fränkel. He was also
the designer of the Lichtberg Cinema, another celebrated
film theater built in Berlin in 1929, that shares with the
Scala its reminiscences of the compelling expressionist
architecture of Erich Mendelsohn.

Kind regards,
R

1125. Nathan G. Moore House, Oak Park, Illinois.

Dear Thomas,

In 1895 Attorney Nathan G. Moore hired architect Frank
Lloyd Wright to design and build a half-timbered house for
him and his family in the village of Oak Park, located just a
few miles west of Chicago. In 1922 a big fire broke out and
the entire second floor and roof of the house were destroyed.
Wright redesigned and reconstructed the house that he had
built some 25 years earlier combining the original Tudor style
with Sullivanesque brick and terracotta ornaments.

Regards,
R

1124. Matosinhos. Piscina da Praia de Leca

Querido Javier,

"Cualquier diseño es un intento de captar con el mayor rigor
posible y con todos su matices un momento concreto de una
imagen fugaz.  Esa cualidad transitoria se captará
satisfactoriamente en los proyectos en la medida en que sea
más o menos precisa; y cuanto más patente más vulnerable
será." (Alvaro Siza Vieira)

Un abrazo,
R

1123. Hoek van Holland

Dear Margreth,

"The modern machine needs the "round" element,
for it has the advantage of circular movements as
opposed to the straight forward and backward
movements of man's hand and feet" (El Lissitzky)

Sincerely,
R

1122. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA. Alfred Newton Richards Medical Research Building.

Dear Samuel,

"What, or where, was the source
of his inspiration,
of his judgement?
There will be found
the creative process
of Nature itself"

¿Cuál era y donde estaba la fuente
de su inspiración, de su discernimiento?
En ella encontraremos el proceso creador
de la naturaleza misma.

(Jonas Salk, In memory of Louis I. Kahn)

Happy new year to you!
R

1121. Istituto Tecnico Industriale Statale. Busto Arsizio

Dear Vladimir,

"The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the
invisible." (Oscar Wilde)

Regards,
R

1120. Sevilla. Barrio de los Remedios

Querida Cristina,

Esta es una interesante foto coloreada de la Plaza de
Cuba antes de que se configurara como rotonda de
tráfico con la fuente central en forma de riñón. De los
cuatro grandes bloques que conforman en la actualidad
la fachada de la plaza en la foto sólo está construido uno
de los que el arquitecto madrileño Luis Gutierrez Soto
proyectó para este enclave. El de la imagen se terminó
en 1957 y el segundo que es igual al primero y se situa
al otro lado de la avenida en 1964. Las grandes terrazas
ajardinadas, la calidad de los materiales, y la complejidad
de los espacios interiores de las 27 viviendas de lujo
incluidas en cada bloque, revelan el valor de estos edificios
que supieron además construir tan acertadamente un
importante fragmento de fachada urbana hacia el rio
Guadalquivir.

Besos,
R

1119. Montmagny. Chapelle Sainte Thérèse. Interieur

Dear David,

Tonight we will attend Christmas Eve mass (Misa de Gallo)
at the church of Sainte Thérèse. The architecture of Auguste
Perret and the art of Valentine Reyre will make this celebration
even more special.

Merry Christmas,
R

1118. La Sala "O", Mostra della Rivoluzione Fascista, Roma, 1932

Estimado Umberto,

"Reconstruir mediante elementos fugaces y pasajeros de
la crónica cotidiana la perennidad de la historia, (...)
recrear la atsmósfera de los tiempos, toda fuego y fiebre,
tumultuosa, lírica y resplandesciente (...) hacer cosas
modernísimas y audaces, sin melancólicos recuerdos de
los estilos del pasado." (Alfieri y Freddi)

Agradecido,
R

1117. M.I.T. Chapel, Cambridge, MASS.

Dear Aline,

"I have always remembered one night on my travels as a
student when I sat in a mountain village in Sparta. There
was bright moonlight over head and then there was a soft,
hushed secondary light around the horizon. That sort of
bilateral lighting seemed best to achieve this otherworldly
sense. Thus, the central light would come from above the
altar-dramatized by the shimmering golden screen by Harry
Bertoia- and the secondary light would be light reflected up
from the surrounding moat through the arches"
(Eero Saarinen)

Best wishes,
R

1116. MAM. Rio de Janeiro

Dear Lucio,

Brazilian architect Affonso Eduardo Reidy was born in
France of a Brazilian-Italian mother, and an English father.
Despite this circunstance his architecture is unmistakably
Brazilian Modernist. His Rio de Janeiro Museum of Modern
Art was intended to harmonize architecture with the natural
landscape by stressing the horizontality of the building in
contrast with the undulating line of the mountains. Inside the
main building the entire ground floor with the exception of the
entrance is completely free allowing an uninterrupted view of
the sea.

Regards,
R

1115. Abdiij Roosenberg

Querido Gabriel,

"Hay en la arquitectura de Van der Laan, como en la
de otros grandes maestros, un sello de identidad, muy
diferente al de la fastuosa arquitectura contemporánea,
y que se refleja en la expresión natural de su condición
humana, reflejo de la historia interna de la arquitectura.
(...) Sólo lo permanente, lo intrahistórico. Lo antiguo y
lo moderno se anulan en su identificación con el presente
eterno."
(Otras Vias. Pikionis, Lewerentz y Van der Laan,
Jose Ignacio Linazasoro)

Saludos cordiales,
R

1114. Sao Jose dos Campos, C.T.A. Apartamentos

Dear Norman,

“When a form creates beauty it becomes functional and
therefore fundamental in architecture.”
(Oscar Niemeyer)

Best wishes,
R

1113. Hotel Punta Negra, Mallorca

Querido Felix,

El Hotel Punta Negra constituyó una innovadora y refrescante
ruptura con el prototipo de hotel moderno en altura que
dominó esta época en España. Su arquitectura, aunque
incontestablemente moderna, mantiene una gran sintonía con
la arquitectura ancestral que se manifiesta a través de su escala
doméstica, su relación armónica con el paisaje, la diversidad
de los espacios y la sabia elección de materiales y técnicas
constructivas.

Saludos,
R

1112. Los Angeles Philharmonic

Dear Chris,

"The architect of the future will build imitating Nature"
(Antoni Gaudi)

Best,
R

1111. Salgina Brücke bei Schiers

Dear Maire-Claire,

The more rational the design was the
more alluring the bridge became.

Regards,
R

1110. Pfarrkirche Linz, St. Theresia

Dear Steven,

"The art of building, as we meant it, is the
creation of living form, and the church as
we meant it, is not merely a walled shelter,
but everything together: building and people,
body and soul, the human beings and Christ,
a whole spiritual universe–a universe, indeed,
which must ever be brought into reality anew"
(Rudolf Schwarz)

Greetings,
R

1109. Sanatorium Bucegi, Predeal

Dear Georges,

Marcel Janco, the leading advocate of Constructivism in
eastern Europe, was along with his brother Jules the
architect of the private sanatorium of Predeal, outside
of Bucharest. Marcel Janco was a leading Romanian
Jewish architect and art theorist, and the co-creator of
Dadaism.

Best wishes,
R

1108. Diaconessenhuis, Rotterdam

Dear Jaap,

This is an image of the hallway of a functionalist hospital
designed and built between 1931 and 1938 by J.A. Brinkman
and L.C. van der Vlugt, the architects of the Nieuwe Bouwen
movement who became internationally acclaimed for their
Van Nelle coffee, tea, and tobacco factory in Rotterdam.
Brinkman and Van der Vlugt also built the original Feyenoord
Stadium and several private houses including those for Van de
Leeuw, Boeve, and De Bruin.

Best regards,
R

1107. Annie Pfeiffer Chapel, Florida Southern College

Dear Eugene,

"A Child of the Sun where to bring God’s outdoors
into man’s indoors.” (Frank Lloyd Wright)

Best,
R

1106. Bond Centre Office Towers, Hong Kong

Dear Norman,

"Paul Rudolph believed that people
perceived the lower floors of a high-rise
building in a different manner: the upper
levels can be scaleless, but that at street
level should possess a human scale to
relate it to the urban context in which it
is located" (Tony Monk)

Regards,
R

1105. Estepona, Plaza de Toros

Querido abuelo Jose,

La fiesta de los toros se empezo a celebrar en España
en la plazas mayores de pueblos y ciudades. Con el
tiempo se llego a desarrollar un tipo de edificio especifico
para este fin llamado Plaza de Toros. Modernamente las
plazas de toros se siguen transformando en edificios cada
vez mas complejos en forma y uso. Un buen ejemplo de
ello es la Plaza de Toros de Estepona en Malaga que
responde con su graderio asimetrico a otros tipos de
espectaculos y que acoge en su conjunto varios museos
municipales.

Un abrazo,
R

1104. Nazareth, The Church of the Annunciation

Dear Leonardo,

"Only discipline and communal feeling could lead, shortly,
to a new architecture" (Giovanni Muzio)

Regards,
R

1103. Im Asmundur-Museum in Reykjavik

Dear Ríkarður,

Icelandic sculptor Ásmundur Sveinsson designed and
constructed his house and studio from 1942 to 1959
inspired by the vernacular domed buildings typically seen
in the Mediterranean and Middle East cultures. In 1983
an addition to the building was built to serve as the
Ásmundur Sveinsson Sculpture Museum. The picture
shows a crescent-shaped building that housed the
original scupltor's studio.

Greetings,
R

1102. Centre Pompidou-Metz

Dear Philips,

PdP: When you were a child, did you want to become an
architect?
SB: No, I wanted to be a carpenter.

Regards,
R

1101. The Menil Collection

Caro Gio,

"Architecture is about illusion and symbolism, semantics,
and the art of telling stories." (Renzo Piano)

Saluti,
R

1100. Genova, Piazza Sturla, Panorama

Querida Cristina,

La antigua Casa del Fascio de Genova construida en
1938 fue un proyecto del ingeniero y arquitecto italiano
Luigi Carlo Daneri. Contrariamente a otras muchas casas
del partido fascista, ésta muestra una clara influencia de
los preceptos racionalista defendidos por Le Corbusier,
concretamente de sus conocidos cinco puntos. Esa
influencia hace que su arquitectura tenga claras
concomitancias con la de la Ville Savoye del maestro
suizo. Gio Ponti, el gran artista y arquitecto italiano,
admiró enormemente la ligereza, claridad y transparencia
de este edificio.

Besos,
R

1099. Karlskirche mit U-Bahn-Station von Otto Wagner

Dear Joseph,

"Creativity means to push open the heavy, groaning
doorway to life." (Daisaku Ikeda)

Greetings,
R

1098. Ciudad de Mexico. Auditorio Nacional

Estimados Oscar y Guillermo,

El monumental Auditorio Nacional situado en el Paseo
de la Reforma de Mexico D.F. esta considerado
como uno de los mejores escenarios del mundo. El
edificio fue inaugurado en 1953 siguiendo el proyecto
de Fernando Peña y fue extensamente remodelado por
los arquitectos Abraham Zabludovsky y Teodoro
Gonzalez de Leon en 1991.

Saludos,
R