693. Torres de Oficinas Trade, Barcelona

Dear Carlos,

"We must be as fully aware as possible of the 

problems peculiar to our time, but also of the 

essential human needs, which have not changed, 

insofar as the human is our principal unit of 

measurement." (Jose Antonio Coderch)

Regards.
R

692. Finnish Pavilion, New York 1938-39

Dear Ben,

"God created paper for the purpose of
drawing architecture on it. Everything
else is at least for me an abuse of paper."
(Alvar Aalto)

Best,
R

691. Las Palmas de Gran Canarias, Hotel Parque

Querida Amparo,

El Hotel Parque era cuando se inauguro un edificio multiusos que constaba de dos plantas bajas para comercios, los bloques extremos para viviendas 

(dos por planta) y el Hotel en el centro. Su autor, 

Miguel Martín-Fernández de la Torre fue un gran arquitecto racionalista canario que estudio y trabajó

con Secundino Zuazo. Urbanista y arquitecto, es
autor de obras como la Colonia Alvarado, el edificio 

del Cabildo Insular, el edificio Staib o la Casa del 

Marino, todas ellas en Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

Besos.
R

690. Kaufhaus Selfridges in Birmingham

Dear Laura,

"You have to be an architect 24 hours a day; eight hours
is not enough" (Jan Kaplicky, founder of Future Systems)

Best.
R

689. Rio de Janeiro Av. Atlantica e Praia de Copacabana.

Dear Paulo,

The Copacabana promenade with its Portuguese black and
white cobblestone pavement with wavy pattern makes me
recall my beloved Lisbon, far away, across the Atlantic Ocean.
And from there to Gaudi and his wavy benches at the "Parc
Güell" in Barcelona. And why not ending in the wonderful
Carlos Ferrater's new seafront of Benidorm?

Waving at you.
R

688. Arango House, John Lautner. Acapulco, Mexico

Dear Ariana,

"As far as structure is concerned I think
we should continually experiment and
discover every new material and method
and use it." (John Lautner)

Best.
R

687. Malaysia

Dear James,

The park near the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur
was the last work by Brazilian landscape architect Roberto
Burle Marx. He said about this work that all he wanted was
to "leave the world a little more sensitive and a little more
educated to the importance of nature".

Sincerely,
R

686. Case Study House 22 (The Stahl House) 1960. Los Angeles

Dear Jan,

"You constantly have to go back and
remember the important things. I think
this is what I did successfully in this
case so that Los Angeles becomes an
extension of the house and vice-verse.
The house is just part of the city"
(Pierre Koenig)

Cheers.
R

685. Case Study House 21 (The Bailey House) 1958. Los Angeles

Dear Gloria,

"My houses are like children to me"
(Pierre Koenig)

Regards,
R

684. Paimion Parantola

Querida Inés,

Al pensar en el ascensor de cristal del famoso sanatorio 

de Aalto en Paimio he creído ver una doble cita. La 

primera hacia el pasado: del mismo Aalto y extraída de 

la escalera de caracol acristalada en la Zonnestraal de 

Jan Duiker. La segunda hacia el futuro: de Alvaro Siza 

en el ascensor de cristal en el Banco Borges & Irmão, y 

extraída de este ascensor de Paimio. 

Los maestros citan siempre, como decía Nuno Portas, 

entre otras razones para salvar la memoria de los 

pioneros y la moralidad del acto de proyectar.

Gracias por tu maravillosa postal.
Besos.
R

683. Cristovam Dias. Casa de Cha da Boa Nova.

Prezado Alvaro,

"...toda a obra de Siza desenham aquilo que, um dia, o
filosofo Gilles Deleuze designou, para precisar o objecto
da (sua) filosofia, como um plano de imanência."
(Bernardo Pinto de Almeida, O Que A Luz Ao Caer
Deixa Nas Coisas )

Feliz aniversário!

Atenciosamente seu amigo
R

682. Moscou. La Maison de Gostorgue

Dear Victor,

Cheers from Moscow! I'm staying in a hotel located close
to Myasnitskaya Ulitsa. Yesterday, I went for a walk and
bumped myself into the old constructivist Gostorg Office
Block. I remembered to have seen some pictures of this
building in an old book written by El Lissitzky. When I
came back later to my hotel room, I browsed in the
internet for some info about this building and found 

this image from a vintage postcard in a website named
www.postalesinventadas.com.

Say hello to Leo and Alex.
R

681. Jardins do Aterro do Flamengo. Rio de Janeiro, Brasil

Dear Marina,

Burle Marx, maybe the world's greatest landscape designer of the 20th century, created the wonderful Jardins do Aterro do Flamengo in Rio de Janeiro 

where the open-space aspect of a park is lyrically emphasized.

Best,
R

680. Salsomaggiore Terme

Queridos Rafa y Louis,

Hoy hemos dejado Parma y hemos seguido hasta
Salsomaggiore. El viaje ha sido perfecto. Yo he disfrutado
de la magnifica arquitectura de Franco Albini y mama se
ha dado un baño relajante en la piscina de aguas termales.
Mañana estaremos en Fiorenzuole.

Muchos besos.
P

679. Kaohsiung (Taiwan). University Game Stadium

Dear Toyo,

"Architecture is a static thing that moves" (John Hejduk)

Regards,
R

678. Lisboa, Casa da Moeda

Dear Eduardo,

The Casa da Moeda in Lisbon, a powerful and elegant
building complex, is made up of two buildings: the office
wing (in the picture), and the mint facilities in the rear.
Both structures are gracefully connected through two
bridge-like elevated corridors.

Regards,
R

677. The Sibelius Museum

Dear Erik,

The great Finnish composer Jean Sibelius said once that
the framework of a symphony must be so strong that it
forces you to follow it, regardless of the environment and
circumstances. The Sibelius Museum, a remarkable work
of architect Woldemar Baeckman, seems to fit naturally
in that description: a strong framework that dominates
natures yet offers a pleasant serenity. The perfect
combination between silence and music, exterior and
interior, daylight and nightfall.

Respectfully,
R

676. Esposizioni Torino 1928. Padiglione Futurista

Dear Mr. Pirlo,

“Futurist art is the expression of movement. Futurist
architecture is therefore movement materializing in
space" (Enrico Prampolini)

Yours sincerely,
R

675. Palacio de los Deportes, Mexico

Querido Luis,

Al menos para mi, el Palacio de los Deportes es inolvidable. Lo es porque este edificio tiene una relación intensa con la memoria. Las memorias de Candela, Peyri y Castañeda que aprendieron magistralmente del Palazzetto dello Sports de Nervi y de la Cúpula Geodésica de Buckminster Fuller. Pero también la de los que no podemos olvidar los trágicos sucesos de Tlatelolco días antes de ser inaugurado.

R

674. Bacardi Building and Bacardi Annex, Biscayne Bay

Dear Eugenio,

The eight story main Bacardi Building is a Miesian style
office block designed by Enrique Gutierrez in 1963.
Ten years later, Miami architect Ignacio Carrera-Justiz
added the cantilevered structure for the Bacardi Annex
standing in the background of this picture.
These two buildings are among the best examples of the
"MiMo"style, an acronym for Miami Modern Architecture.

Regards,
R

673. Absolut Graves

Dear Sean,

"Architecture is not simply a style but rather
a language" (Michael Graves)

Best,
R

672. Fiera di Milano. La Darsena

Querido Vicente,

El Pabellon Breda de la Feria de Milan del 52 es un
edificio-anuncio. No exhibe nada, solo su propia forma
que esta basada en las famosas cintas-sin-fin de Max
Bill.

Un abrazo.
R

671. Bottega d'Erasmo, Torino

Dear Fabio,

"We avoid the big stumbling blocks, like
utopian thinking, synthetic visions, schematic
program and methodologies, to turn with a
consistently friendly eye to free research that
focuses on concrete problems with confidence
and a bit of fun" (Roberto Gabetti)

Sincerely,
R

670. Templo de la Purisima. Monterrey, N.L. Mexico

Querido Isra,

El templo de la Purísima en Monterrey es considerado
uno de los primeros edificios modernos construidos en
México. Es también uno de los precursores de las
notables estructuras diseñadas por Felix Candela pocos
años después.

Un abrazo,
R

669. Paimion Parantola

Querida Rosa,

En mi viaje desde Turku a Helsinki me he detenido a 

visitar el Sanatorio de Paimio de Aalto. Poco antes me 

he desviado de la ruta para hacer una breve parada en 

la  pequeña ciudad de Kaarina. Allí, en una tiendecita 

de recuerdos y antigüedades, he encontrado en una 

caja de viejas postales esta que ahora te mando. Verás 

en ella la hermosa solución en la unión de las alas auxiliares posteriores, tan aparentemente 

circunstancial y confusa. La funcionalidad explícita desplegada en el ala principal de los pacientes es

sustituida en la parte de atrás por una admirablemente lírica iconografía compositiva.

Un abrazo,
R

668. Berlin Neue Nationalgalerie

Dear Jennifer V,

"I am not a reformer. I don't want to change the world.
I want to express it. That's all I want"
(Mies van der Rohe)

Sincerely,
R

667. Mies van der Rohe's Deutscher Pavillion

Dear Peter and Alison,

"Material, structure and space and the retless need for
metaphysical security are here made one"
(Werner Blaser)

Best regards,
R

666. Futurama at the General Motors Pavilion

Dear Paola,

Futurama at the GM Pavilion was the most popular
exhibit at the 1939 New York World's Fair. The interior
were designed by Norman Bel Geddes featuring what it
was called "the world of tomorrow"thanks to a 4,ooo
square-yard visionary model of freeways and housing
developments as to be seen in 1960.

Best regards,
R

665. General Motors Highways and Horizons exhibit, New York World's Fair

Dear Paola,

Albert Kahn, the top industrial architect of his time, known as "the man who built Detroit" was the 

designer of the highly popular GM Pavilion at the 

1939 New York World's Fair.

Regards,
R

664. Rabat, L'Hôpital Avicenne

Dear Silke,

After spending some days in Fes and Meknes, today we
have arrived in Rabat. We finally saw the Ocean and some
good architecture with nautical flavor.

Take care.
R

663. Escuela de Altos Estudios Mercantiles, Barcelona, Pedralbes

Querida Inés,

Gracias por tu email. Espero que estés descansando 

y que tus vacaciones estén siendo de los más plácidas. Esta postal está dedicada a un edificio emblemático diseñado por un maestro de arquitectos como fue 

Javier Carvajal Ferrer. Para mi, una de sus reflexiones más clarividentes fue aquella dirigida a los estudiantes 

de arquitectura, en el que les incitaba a no perseguir imágenes, sino ideas, porque según él las imágenes pueden ser cambiadas por otros pero las ideas son 

siempre propias.
Toda un lección de arquitectura y de vida.

Un saludo muy afectuoso.
R

662. Atlanta. The High Museum of Art

Dear Sean,

"I think that the responsibility of an architect is really
to create a sense of order, a sense of place, a sense of
relationships" (Richard Meier)

Best.
R

661. The Sage, Gateshead

Dear Elena

The spectacular Sage Gateshead's roof takes borrowed
the arched form of the adjacent Gateshead Millennium
Bridge by architect Wilkinson Eyre.

Best.
R

660. Tokyo

Dear Koichi,

We arrived today in Shinjuku and went to the Tokyo
Metropolitan Government building. We visited one of
the free top floor observatories and got a glimpse of
Mount Fuji through the haze.

Best regards,
R

659. Edificio Banco Popular, Monterrey, Mexico

Estimado Eduardo,

“Crear para la Arquitectura mexicana el ámbito apropiado
en la cultura nacional, que permita a nuestras comunidades
entenderla, valorarla y ubicarla, como el elemento
indispensable para hacer el país al que aspiramos.”
(Mario Pani Darqui)

Saludos,
R

658. Madrid. Vista Aerea

Juan,

I think I saw a young woman in a window of the Casa
Sindical.

She sits with
tears on
her cheek
her cheek on
her hand
the child
in her lap
his nose
pressed
to the glass

(William Carlos Williams)

Best
R

657. Vitoria. Iglesia de la Coronacion de Nuestra Señora

Querido Txema,

"Esta caracteristica sustancial y distintiva del templo
catolico es el dinamismo, un movimiento casi material
del ambiente, del aire hacia el altar. Una iglesia catolica
es un trozo de aire sagrado en movimiento"
(Miguel Fisac)

Agur.
R

656. Pressa Koln 1928.

Pressa Koln 1928. Kolnische Zeitung Aussenansicht

Pressa Koln 1928. Kolnische Zeitung Innenansicht Ost

Dear Rudy,

“Mass need, the demands of the time and community
thinking lead to collective building, which in turn demands
a functional and lovingly worked-through model”
(Riphahn Wihelm)

Cheers,
R

655. Statne Kupeli Piestany

Dear Josef

The Colonnade Bridge aka Glass Bridge is a functionalist
roofed bridge and an extraordinary architectural work. It
was built in 1932 to connect the town of Piestany and the
spa island and includes small shops located at both ends.
This unique roofed bridge has also glass-covered wall
protection against strong wind along one of its sides.

Best regards,
R