422. Kolumba. Filtermauerwerk uber der Ausgrabung

Dear Catarina,

"I don't understand light. It gives me the
feeling there's something beyond me,
something beyond all understanding,
And I am very glad, very grateful that
there is such a thing" (Peter Zumthor)

Best.
R

421. Hotel Xenia. Myconos

Dear Jan,

Greek architect Aris Konstantinidis used to say that for
him a genuine building is a form that is never finished or
final but that is completed as time goes by, flowering
again and again into daily perfection.

Best.
R

420. Moscou. Club de l'usine Caoutchouc

Dear Alexandra,

The Kauchuk Factory Workers Club, located near the
historical Devichye Pole Park in Moscow, was designed
in 1927 by Konstantin Melnikov. He followed here the
model of his previous and popular Rusakov Club. The
building seems to be much larger of what actually is due
to its cylindrical shape.

Best regards.
R

419. Mockba, CCCP

Dear Galina,

Lenin's mausoleum was designed by Aleksey Shchusev
in 1924, during a period in which the Russian Avant-Garde was still at its peak. The mausoleum is an 

authentic masterpiece of modern architectural plainness finished with red granite for Communism and black labradorite for mourning.

Sincerely.
R

418. Lulea. Shoppingcenter

Dear Carol,

Ralph Erskine, whom I had the fortunate to meet to years
back, once said that the job of buildings is to improve human
relations: architecture must ease them, not make them worse.
This is evident in his Lulea Shopping Center, which is
considered to be the first modern indoor shopping mall built
in the world.

Regards.
R

417. Universita Cattolica del S. Cuore. Milano

Dear Luigi,

Giovanni Muzio was the architect who designed the
best-known work of the Novecento movement, the
Ca'Brütta ("Ugly House") in Milan. This however is a
picture of his nuove aule in the Universite Cattolica, a
work that took Muzio 20 years to complete.

Regards.
R

416. Neutra by Julius Shulman

Dear Jan,

The House Chuey of 1956 in L.A.
was built by R. Neutra and
subsenquently masterly
photographed by Julius Shulman.

All the best.
R

415. Linz. Tabakfabrik

Dear Enric,

The tobacco factory built by Peter Behrens and Alexander
Popp in 1929-35 is one of the most consistent industrial
buildings of international modernism. It has been said that
this building set standards for modern industrial buildings.

Regards.
R

414. San Sebastian. Real Club Nautico

Querido Manolo,

Aún se habla hoy y se hablará en el tiempo
Del tiempo de aquel barco
Cuentan los que lo vieron
(los que nunca lo vieron, pero suponían
amaneceres jubilosos,
constelaciones de bajeles, bancos
de viva sal
para alegrar la vida de las criaturas)
que era bello de ver
y amable de habitar
el confín de aquel barco y que tenía
como nombre EL FUTURO…
Cesa aquí la visión.
El mar al mar, la tierra en tierra
y en la ciudad el barco
que, si todos no vieron, deseaban
y en el barco las letras de su nombre:
JOSE MANUEL AIZPÚRUA,
Navegante, arquitecto.

(Santiago Amón)

Abrazos.
R

413. Park Hotel, Barcelona

Querido Juan Lu,

Esta es una postal del famoso Park Hotel construido 

por Antoni de Moragas en 1953. De él se puede decir 

que su fachada principal, que es la más corta, está emparentada con el racionalismo holandés, 

especialmente con las obras de Duiker; pero que el edificio en su conjunto está más cerca del clasicismo moderno de Adolf Loos e incluso de ciertas obras de Alvar Aalto.

Un abrazo.
R