1148. Turku-Abo. The Resurrection Chapel

Dear Tapio,

"The entire design of the Turku Chapel is carefully calculated
and finely tuned to achieve a lasting balance between what is
positive in modern functionalism and what persists as
reinforcement from memories of past structures."
(Malcolm Quantrill)

Best wishes,
R

1147. Teologado de Dominicos San Pedro Mártir. Madrid

Estimado Luis,

(...)
Difíciles barrancos de escaleras,
calladas cataratas de ascensores,
!qué impresión de vacío!,
(...)

(Miguel Hernández, El Silbo de 
Afirmación en la Aldea)

Gracias por tu sabiduría.
R

1146. Geneve. La Maison Ronde

Dear Pierre,

Maurice Braillard, the designer of the Round House,
had in common with Alvar Aalto his strong professional
interest on housing and his refusal of strict functionalism.
This well-known semicircular building in Geneva was also
as typologically experimental as it was the Schönbühl
residential tower that Aalto, along with Fleig and Wandeler,
built in Lucerne some 30 years later.

Best wishes,
R

1145. La Sextant. Les Mathes. Charente-Maritime

Dear Corey,

This summer house in Les Mathes, near to La Rochelle,
was built by Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret back in
1935 under such limited budget that the architects
couldn't afford to travel to visit the site neiher before or
during construction for inspection and supervision.
Nevertheless a well-thought project from the architects
and the honest work of a small village contractor made
possible the construction of this stone masonry home in a
more than satisfactory way.

Regards,
R  

1144. Ferrara. Palazzo Aeronautica

Dear Guido,

"We feel that this is our architecture, because
we are the inheritors of Roman building
power. Profoundly rational, utilitarian, and
industrial as they were the characteristics of
Roman architecture".
(First Exhibition of Rationalist Architecture,
Rome, 1928)

Cheers,
R 

1143. Caracas, Venezuela

Querido Juan Carlos,

Esta asombrosa casa colgada de la colina de Bello Monte
en Caracas tiene para mi el mismo carácter y vivacidad que
los maravillosos e irrepetibles muebles construidos por Carlo
Mollino o Ico Parisi.

Un abrazo,
R

1142. Lahti Starckjohann

Dear Malcolm,

The Starckjohann Building in Lathi is one of the first self-service
wholesale and over-the-counter stores in Europe. This
eye-catching functionalist building has many common features
with another important commercial building of the 1930s in
Finland: the Latsipalatsi Glass Building in Helsinki.

Kind regards,
R

1141. Joao Pessoa, Brasil. Hotel Tambaú

Estimado Eduardo,

"La arquitectura es la forma más sencilla de articular el
tiempo y el espacio, de modular la realidad, de hacer
soñar." (Gilles Ivain)

Con todo mi afecto,
R

1140. Centro de Convivencia, Campinas, Brasil

Querido Roberto,

"Nuestra propuesta consistia en crear un espacio de
encuentro. Separando los distintas partes y ámbitos del
teatro queríamos que el espíritu del lugar fuese capaz de
atraer al ciudadano común y corriente, que al cruzar
entre esas piezas se viese sorprendido de repente por
un grupo ensayando una pieza de ballet, por unos músicos
afinando sus intrumentos o por una compañía de circo con
sus malabares. De esa forma el ciudadano imaginario sería
despertado y podría comezar a iluminar su vida con las
cosas de la cultura" (Fabio Penteado)

Un abrazo afectuoso,
R

1139. Chrysler Building, New York

Dear Noah,

When completed in 1930 the most admired Chrysler Building
was one of the most recognizable built expressions of the
myth of modern luxury already embodied in the sumptuous
and innovative 1930s classic cars. After more than 80 years
the Chrysler Building is still the highest steel-supported brick
building in the world. The light and dark grey bricks, more
abundant in the lower and middle levels, let the "Nirosta"
stainless steel to become the main cladding material as it
rose toward the secretly constructed 125 feet-long steel spire.

Best regards,
R

1138. Bordeaux. Stade Municipal.

Dear Daniel,

"Architecture begins where engineering ends"
(Walter Gropius)

Best,
R

1137. Buenos Aires. Edificio Safico

Querido Ricardo,

"La arquitectura debe dar forma a lo que en el mundo
contemporáneo tiende a desaparecer" (Louis I. Kahn)

Abrazos,
R

1136. Heladeria Coppelia, La Habana

Querida Gloria,

Decía Alejo Carpentier que él luchaba por ser nacionalista
y vanguardiasta al mismo tiempo, aunque era consciente de
que lo primero significaba defender la tradición y lo segundo
erradicarla.

La popular Heladería Copelia, en el tradicional barrio de
El Vedado, es una féliz reinterpretación vanguardista del
clásico sistema gótico de contrafuertes y arbotantes.

Besos,
R

1135. Sanatorium Zonnestraal, Hilversum

Dear Katherine,

It would better to greet you as water,
To embrace you as light
And know you as wind.
Be brushed and buoyed by me,
Held and washed over, my arms long to know you
Differently.

Make me into league-like depths,
And the air I no longer need to come up for.
Leave me of another likeness,
And I will know you still.
I will love you better,
I will be fulfilled.

(Katherine Orloff- Another Likeness)

(The underlined font is mine)
Thank you Katherine,
R

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