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

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 commission 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