439. Aguas de Lindoia. Est. de S. Paulo

Dear Oscar,

The great architect Osvaldo Arthur Bratke was a leading
architect and designer who worked mainly in Sao Paulo.
Admirer of Austrian-American architect Richard Neutra,
he was also a remarkable painter.

Best regards.
R

438. Stockholmsutställningen

Querido Abuela Amparo,

En esta maravillosa Exposición de Estocolmo hay de todo. Después de ver los modernisimos pabellones hemos
acabado en la explanada delante del Restaurante Paraiso.
De entre los pequeños locales que hay dando a la galería
porticada hemos ido a la peluquería a hacernos un buen
corte de pelo. Luego hemos ido arriba a cenar y a bailar
bajo unos simbólicos Adam, Eva y la manzana que nos
recordaban continuamente que estabamos en el Paraiso.

Un beso muy grande.
R

437. Helsinki. Lasipalatsi

Dear Linus,

The Latsipaltsi or Glass Palace was built in downtown
Helsinki in 1936 initially as a temporary structure.
Designed by three young designers, it is considered the
most impressive functionalist commercial building in
Finland still standing.

Best.
R

436. Roma. Palazzo della Civilta Italiana

Querida Cristi,

Esta postal que tu me mandaste presenta
un vista bellisima del llamado "Coliseo
Cuadrado". En cada remate superior de
sus cuatro fachadas identicas se puede
leer:
Un pais de poetas, de artistas, de heroes,
de santos, de pensadores, de cientificos,
de navegantes, de viajeros

Pero lo cierto es que no se en que
apartado incluir al actual Primer Ministro...

Mil besos.
R

435. Kunnantalo Alajarvi, Finland

Querido Enric,

Hoy hemos llegado a la pequeña localidad de Alajarvi 

al oeste de Finlandia. Este pueblo es basicamente de
caracter rural y cuenta con unos 10,000 habitantes que
hablan mayoritariamente solo fines. El Ayuntamiento 

fue diseñado por Alvar Aalto y se terminó en 1969. 

Lo rural y lo moderno se unen aqui de una manera 

completamente natural y sin fisuras...como tantas cosas en este maravilloso país.

Un abrazo.
R

434. Aarhus. Raadhuset-Town hall-Rathaus

Dear Ariana,

Arne Jacobsen, the architect of the Aarhus Town Hall,
was a good friend and admirer of Swedish architect
Gunnar Asplund from whom he learned among other
things to create a sense of place in his architecture.

Best.
R

433. Sarasota City Hall, Sarasota, Florida

Dear Bob,

The Sarasota City Hall, designed in 1966 by Jack West
is a remarkable example of the Sarasota school of
architecture, a regional adaptation of Modernist architecture
that was introduced in Southern Florida in the 1940s.
Other architects of this school include Ralph Twitchell,
Paul Rudolph, Tim Seibert, Gene Leedy and Victor Lundy.

Best regards.
R

432. Koln am Rhein

Dear Jan,

Frei Otto, the leading authority on lightweight tensile and
membrane structures once said:
"I have built little. But, I have built many castles in the air"

Hope you're doing great.
Cheers.
R

431. Monastere du Carmel de Saint-Elie. San Remo

Querida Cristina,

Para esta maravillosa Iglesia de Gio Ponti, unos versos
profundos de mi admirado Jose Angel Valente que para
mi describen la naturaleza de este espacio:

Limite

Que oscuro el borde de la luz
donde ya nada
reaparece

Mil besos.
R

430. Siunauskappeli Turku

Dear Jose Angel,

"We had the experience but missed
the meaning. And approach to the
meaning restores the experience."
(T.S. Eliot: The Dry Salvages)

Sincerely,
R

429. Pavillon Suisse de la Cite Universitaire de Paris

Bet

Casa, lugar, habitacion, morada:empieza asi la oscura
narracion de los tiempos: para que algo tenga duracion,
fulguracion, presencia: casa, lugar, habitacion, memoria:
se hace mano lo concavo y centro la extension: sobre las
aguas: ven sobre las aguas: dales nombres: para que lo
que no esta este, se fije y sea estar, estancia, cuerpo:
el halito fecunda al humus: se despiertan, como de si,
las formas: yo reconozco a tientas mi morada.
(Jose Angel Valente: Tres lecciones de tinieblas)

A ti Juan, un abrazo.
R

428. Stuttgart, Weisenhofsiedlung

Dear Mel,

Regularity of structure, treatment of exterior as weightless
and use of color and structural detail in lieu of applied
ornament were main features of early modern buildings.
Here we see the use of color in the now mythical 1927
Weisenhofsiedlung.

Best.
R

427. Exposition des Arts Decoratifs Pavillon du Tourisme

Dear Sonia,

"Architecture is an art which is basically
geometrical. The cube is the basis of
architecture because the right angle is
necessary. The steps of a staircase
consist of vertical and horizontal planes
and the corners of rooms are nearly
always right angles"
(Robert Mallet-Stevens)

Regards.
R

426. Pavillon de L'Esprit Nouveau

Dear Jean,

"The simultaneous effort of reason and sensibility realizes
the conception"(L.C.)

Best.
R

425. Gut Garkau

Dear Peter,


"Building is a biological process, building is not an aesthetic
process...We organize building materials into a constructive
whole based on economic principles" (Hugo Haring)

Best wishes.
R

424. Hong kong Bank

Dear William,

"Architects have a vital role as advocates
of sustainable solutions"
(Norman Foster)

R

423. Lloyd's of London

Dear Jean Francois,

"Form follows profit is the aesthetic principle of our
times" (Richard Rogers)
Nevertheless it is a very good building!

Best.
R

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 ever 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

412. Siemensstadt, Berlin

Dear Peter,

"We must call on things and let them unfold their own forms.
It goes against our nature to impose forms on them, to
determine them from without, to force upon them laws of
any kind, to dictate to them"
(Hugo Haring "Approached to Form"1925)

Thank you for your book and best regards
R

411. Milano. Corso Italia, Nuovi Palazzi

Dear Matt,

"In architecture, more than in other arts, the power and 

the will to exist beyond the natural and the useful is a 

fundamental quality, distinct from the simple fact of 

construction. Architecture arises as a terrible act of 

existence, everlasting, and is justifiable only in this 

sense" (Luigi Moretti)

Sincerely
R

410. Paimion Parantola

Dear Elissa,

"Intuition can sometimes be astonishingly rational"
(Alvar Aalto)

Regards.
R

409. St. Catherine's College, Oxford

Dear Joao,

The St. Catherine's College on the outskirts of Oxford was
designed entirely in 1960-63 by the great danish architect
Arne Jacobsen. He draw all from its setting down to the
furniture or even the cutlery.

Best regards.
R

408. Kunsthaus Bregenz. Fassadeninstallation James Turrell

Dear Jim,

"The real has it own magic. Of course, I know the magic
that lies in thought. The passion of a beautiful thought.
But what I'm talking about here is something I often find
even more incredible: the magic of things, the magic of
the real world" (Peter Zumthor)

Best regards.
R

407. Tate Modern. London

Dear Mark,

" Our strategy was to accept the physical power of the
massive mountain-like brick building and to even enhance
it rather than breaking it or trying to diminish it. (...)This is
a kind of Aikido strategy where you use your enemy's
energy for your own purposes. Instead of fighting it, you
take all the energy and shape it in unexpected and new
ways." (Jacques Herzog)

Regards.
R

406. La Solana del Mar. Vista nocturna

Querido Ricardo,

"Caminante, son tus huellas
el camino y nada mas
Caminante, no hay camino
se hace camino al andar.
Al andar se hace camino,
y al volver la vista atras
se ve la senda que nunca
se ha de volver a pisar.
Caminante no hay camino
sino estelas en la mar.
(Antonio Machado)

Un abrazo
R

405. Kaufhaus Schocken, Chemnitz

Querido Abuelo,

El edificio para los grandes almacenes Schocken en la
ciudad alemana de Chemnitz es considerado por muchos
la obra maestra de Mendelsohn. Construido en 1930 se
ha dicho de el que su equilibrado diseño es un clasico
debido a su tremenda dignidad y aparente sencillez.

Un beso.
R

404. Santa Coloma de Cervello. Cripta de la Colonia Guell

Carme,

"de la llar lo foc, visca lo foc de l'amor"

Salutacions cordials
R

403. Aalborg. Nordjyllands Kunstmuseum

Dear Alvaro,

KUNSTEN Museum of Modern Art is located in
Aalborg and was designed by Elissa and Alvar Aalto
in 1972. Because of the mobile partition wall system
the building offers very flexible spaces that can be
adapted to different exhibitions requirements. But I
would say that to me the most striking feature of this
museum is the wonderful use of natural light.

Best regards from Denmark.
R