London Design Biennale– It will explore big questions and ideas about sustainability, migration, pollution, energy, cities, and social equality.

 

London contains four World Heritage Sites: the Tower of London; Kew Gardens; the site comprising the Palace of Westminster, Westminster Abbey, and St Margaret’s Church; and the historic settlement of Greenwich (in which the Royal Observatory, Greenwich defines the Prime Meridian, 0° longitude, and GMT).

Other landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Paul’s Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square and The Shard.

London is home to numerous museums, galleries, libraries, sporting events and other cultural institutions, including the British Museum, National Gallery, Natural History Museum, Tate Modern, British Library and West End theatres.

Hyde Park is a Grade I-listed major park in Central London. It is the largest of four Royal Parks that form a chain from the entrance of Kensington Palace through Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park, via Hyde Park Corner and Green Park past the main entrance to Buckingham Palace.

   

 

Greenwich (in which the Royal Observatory, Greenwich defines the Prime Meridian, 0° longitude, and GMT)

 

   

Portobello Road is a street in the Notting Hill district of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in west London.

It runs almost the length of Notting Hill from south to north, roughly parallel with Ladbroke Grove. On Saturdays it is home to Portobello Road Market, one of London’s notable street markets, known for its second-hand clothes and antiques.

Every August since 1996, the Portobello Film Festival has been held in locations around Portobello Road.

 

The Shard also referred to as the Shard of Glass, Shard London Bridge and formerly London Bridge Tower, is a 95-story skyscraper, designed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano, in Southwark, London, that forms part of the Shard Quarter development.

Standing 309.7 metres (1,016 ft) high, the Shard is the tallest building in the United Kingdom, the tallest building in the European Union, the fifth-tallest building in Europe and the 96th-tallest building in the world.

It is also the second-tallest free-standing structure in the United Kingdom, after the concrete tower of the Emley Moor transmitting station. 

The Shard was developed by Sellar Property Group on behalf of LBQ Ltd and is jointly owned by Sellar Property (5%) and the State of Qatar (95%).

The Shard is managed by Real Estate Management (UK) Limited on behalf of the owners.

 

Arch. Frank O Gehry project

With titanium facades swinging like jiving skirts and windows staggered like towers of toppling coins, the chaotic energy of the latest apartment designs for Battersea power station

 

TATE MODERN, Bankside 

In 1995 it was announced that Herzog & de Meuron had won the competition with their simple design. The architects decided to reinvent the current building instead of demolishing it. This art gallery building is an example of adaptive reuse, the process of finding new life in old buildings. The building itself still resembles the 20th century factory in style from the outside and that is reflected on the inside by the taupe walls, steel girders and concrete floors.

The façade of the building is made out of 4.2 million bricks that are separated by groups of thin vertical windows that help create a dramatic light inside.

 

 

The new Kuwait National Cultural District (KNCD) consists of various cultural venues including Sheikh Abdullah Al Salem Cultural Centre, Sheikh Jaber Al Ahmad Cultural Centre, Al Shaheed Park, and Al Salam Palace.Several Kuwaiti museums are devoted to Islamic art, most notably the Tareq Rajab Museums and Dar al Athar al Islamiyyah cultural centres.

Sadu House is among Kuwait’s most important cultural institutions. Bait Al-Othman is the largest museum specializing in Kuwait’s history. The Scientific Center is one of the largest science museums in the Middle East. The Museum of Modern Art showcases the history of modern art in Kuwait and the region.

Al Shaheed park

The Lead local Consultant Khaled Al Fouzan teamed up with Portuguese architects and landscape designers on the competition-winning redesign. Their reconversion of the Kuwait Green Belt included the integration of several buildings in the existing garden and the selection of a native vegetation scheme that could respond to water consumption restrictions, the harsh environmental conditions and urban maintenance practices. The project was developed and implemented in a record time of 22 months.

 

After the concerns raised by the Martyrs’ Bureau regarding the integrity of the park during the last years, the Emir Office (Kuwait Amiri Diwan) reclaimed, in 2012, the use of the Al Shaheed Park for national celebrations and festivals under the memory of war martyrs. The monument to celebrate the “golden jubilee of Kuwait Constitution” was the first action towards the reconversion, followed by a broad program of public buildings, including two Museums, Car Park, Visitor Centre, a lake and an Aviary for the old Park.

The landscape proposal uses an existing grid, made of underground services and existing trees, that will distribute all the programmatic outdoor and indoor events – the buildings – that will be then converted into mounds due to a consideration of the acoustic studies – the noise protection – and the visual impact of the surrounding. At a larger degree this grid will be a medium climate mitigating wind, noise, dust and sun orientation. It generates a referential that is able to recognize the existing Park limits and trees, underground services, the Constitution Monument and Mecca orientation, as well as providing connections between all proposed elements through three pathways – the Emir path, visitors path and jogging track.

The volume of soil, its transport and storage, innate to the artificial lake and underground car park (program requirements), identified the opportunities to transcend the norm and provide the architectural resources to design the buildings’ fundamental elements. The permission of the Municipal Council was clear regarding the built program, reclaiming the argument that no single building could be erected from the Green Belt grounds, therefore, all proposed buildings are submerged under planted soil. The possibility of introducing extensive green roofs for larger areas in Kuwait will become a challenge similar to the use of concrete and steel structure for the construction of the Shuwaik Power Station and Desalinization Plant in 1953, first modern structures built in Kuwait.

   

The Habitat Museum, ‘Mathaf AlMawten’ in arabic, is a long sand dune planted with native plants that moves into proximity with the garden paths and covers the exhibition galleries, library, laboratory, offices, cafeteria, bookshop and a children learning centre. From the underground car park green roof, the soil drops under the ground to access the museum’s lower level, buried with single structure vacant frames towards the saline depression and desert canyon.

The soil movement was there instrumental to recreate along the park a section of Kuwait’s landscape, from the desert plateau and springs in the north to the oasis of the south, including saline depressions and Acacia woodlands.

Al Shaheed Park in Kuwait – Building Information
Client: Kuwait Al Diwan Al Amiri, Eng. Haifa Al Muhanna (Project Engineer)
General Contractor: Kharafi National, ENg Jacob Kurian (Project Construction Manager)
Lead Consultant: The Associated Engineering Partnership(TAEP)
Architecture and Landscape Consultants : Ricardo Camacho + Stroop | landscape urbanism (Portugal)
Lead Designers: Ricardo Camacho (Architecture) + Sara Machado (Landscape)
Interior Design: Sara Saragoca
Design team collaborators: Frederico Barosa, Sarah Behbehani, Abdulaziz Al Khandari, Rita Tadi, Fernando Martins, Nuno Sequeira, Hugo Ferreira, Graca Vaz, Miguel Costa, Yousef Abdulaal;
Structural Design: Al Farooqi Engineering Consultants Bureau (Kuwait, Serbia) + R5 Engenharia (Portugal)
MEP Design: Kharafi National, Eng Magdy Mohamed (MEP Design Coordination)
Irrigation Design: Geodesenho (Portugal) + Eng Pedro Nobre Correia
Civil Landscape: ProGolf (Brazil) + Eng. Benjamim Silva
Acoustics and Thermal: Psicometro (Portugal)
External Lighting: Atelier33 Architectural Lighting Design Beirut (Lebanon)
Facade Designer: Alico Projects Department (Kuwait)
Green Roof Design: ZinCo GmbH (Germany)
Identity and Project Communication: Ze Pedro Font Amado (Wang Design)
Environmental Consultant: Ali Al-Dousari ( Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research )
Environmental Consultant: Fahed Shuaibi (Amiri Diwan Consultant)
April 2013 – Nov 2014

Victoria Falls  “The Smoke that Thunders”is a waterfall in southern Africa on the Zambezi River at the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe.

     

David Livingstone, the Scottish missionary and explorer, is believed to have been the first European to view Victoria Falls on 16 November 1855, from what is now known as Livingstone Island, one of two land masses in the middle of the river, immediately upstream from the falls near the Zambian shore.

Livingstone named his discovery in honor of Queen Victoria of Britain, but the indigenous Lozi language name, Mosi-oa-Tunya—”The Smoke That Thunders”—continues in common usage as well. Livingstone also cites an older name, Seongo or Chongwe, which means “The Place of the Rainbow” as a result of the constant spray.

Avani Victoria Falls Resort, Livingstone, Zambia

The Crocodile Cafe is a delightful coffee shop situated at The Falls Entertainment Centre. Relax and enjoy the scenery as you take a break from browsing the arts and handicrafts on offer.

With walls painted in geometric designs – a mix of earthy tones and some brighter colours – most of the 208 standard rooms have either either twin or double beds.

         

Streets from Lusaka to Livingstone

 

Lusaka Bar design

Livingstone Lodge safari

 

Chicago Architecture

Chicago is world-famous for its plethora of unique architectural styles, from Chicago Bungalows and Two-Flats to the grand Graystones along Logan Boulevard and Lawndale Avenue, from the skyscrapers of the Loop as well as a wealth of sacred architecture such as the city’s ornate “Polish Cathedrals”.

Beginning in the early 1880s, architectural pioneers of the Chicago School explored steel-frame construction and, in the 1890s, the use of large areas of plate glass. Beginning in the early 1880s, architectural pioneers of the Chicago School explored steel-frame construction and, in the 1890s, the use of large areas of plate glass. These were among the first modern skyscrapers.

Louis Sullivan was perhaps the city’s most philosophical architect. Realizing that the skyscraper represented a new form of architecture, he discarded historical precedent and designed buildings that emphasized their vertical nature. This new form of architecture, by Jenney, Burnham, Sullivan, and others, became known as the “Commercial Style,” but it was called the “Chicago School” by later historians.

Since 1963, a “Second Chicago School” emerged from the work of Arch. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. The ideas of structural engineer Fazlur Khan were also influential in this movement, in particular his introduction of a new structural system of framed tubes in skyscraper design and construction.

The first building to apply the tube-frame construction was the DeWitt-Chestnut Apartment Building which Khan designed and was completed in Chicago by 1966.

This laid the foundations for the tube structures of many other later skyscrapers, including his own constructions of the John Hancock Center and Willis Tower in Chicago and can be seen in the construction of the World Trade Center, Petronas Towers and most other supertall skyscrapers since the 1960s.

Willis Tower would be the world’s tallest building from its construction in 1974 until 1998 (when the Petronas Towers was built) and would remain the tallest for some categories of buildings until the Burj Khalifa was completed in early 2010.

Numerous architects have constructed landmark buildings of varying styles in Chicago.

Chicago is well known for its wealth of public art, including works by such artistic heavyweights as Chagall, Picasso, Miró and Abakanowicz that are all to be found outdoors.

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie School influenced both building design and the design of furnishings. In the early half of the 20th century, popular residential neighborhoods were developed with Chicago Bungalow style houses, many of which still exist.

The Frederick C. Robie House is a U.S. National Historic Landmark on the campus of the University of Chicago in the South Side neighborhood of Hyde Park in Chicago, Illinois. Built between 1909 and 1910, the building was designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright and is renowned as the greatest example of Prairie School, the first architectural style considered uniquely American.  

The Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio (1889/1898) served as Wright’s private residence and workplace from 1889 to 1909—the first 20 years of his career. Wright used his home as an architectural laboratory, experimenting with design concepts that contain the seeds of his architectural philosophy.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Illinois Institute of Technology campus in Chicago influenced the later Modern or International style.
Van der Rohe’s work is sometimes called the Second Chicago School.

Millennium Park – Architect Frank Gehry

 

Jay Pritzker Pavilion is one of the most popular destinations in Chicago for a dizzying array of free cultural performances.

Designed by Frank Gehry, the Jay Pritzker Pavilion stands 120-feet above ground, with a billowing “headdress” composed of individual brushed stainless-steel ribbons that frame the stage opening and connect to an overhead trellis of crisscrossing steel pipes. The stage area of the Pavilion is sheathed completely with Douglas fir and features a series of portable risers and a choral terrace that can accommodate up to a 120-member collective orchestra and choir. Large glass doors that can enclose the stage area when shut, allow the Pavilion to be used during winter months for an assortment of public functions such as banquets, receptions, and lectures. An additional feature is a system of decorative colored lights that when projected onto the proscenium, transform the face of the Pavilion.

Cloud Gate is a public sculpture by Indian-born British artist Sir Anish Kapoor, that is the centerpiece of AT&T Plaza at Millennium Park in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois.  Constructed between 2004 and 2006, the sculpture is nicknamed The Bean because of its shape.

Made up of 168 stainless steel plates welded together, its highly polished exterior has no visible seams. It measures  10 x 20 x 13 m , and weighs 110 short tons.
Kapoor’s design was inspired by liquid mercury and the sculpture’s surface reflects and distorts the city’s skyline. Visitors are able to walk around and under Cloud Gate’s 3.7 m high arch.

 

Gibbs farm sculpture –The Giant Sculptures at Gibbs Farm Art Park in New Zealand

Kapoor Versailles will be on view at the Palace of Versailles from June 9 through November 1, 2015.

Many of the works are installed throughout the gardens in the Grand Perspective and Star Grove. Kapoor’s Shooting into the Corner is installed in the Jeu de Paume room.

Organic architecture is a philosophy of architecture which promotes harmony between human habitation and the natural world. This is achieved through design approaches that aim to be sympathetic and well-integrated with a site, so buildings, furnishings, and surroundings become part of a unified, interrelated composition.

The term “organic architecture” was coined by Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959), though never well-articulated by his cryptic style of writing:
“So here I stand before you preaching organic architecture: declaring organic architecture to be the modern ideal and the teaching so much needed if we are to see the whole of life, and to now serve the whole of life, holding no traditions essential to the great TRADITION. Nor cherishing any preconceived form fixing upon us either past, present or future, but instead exalting the simple laws of common sense or of super-sense if you prefer determining form by way of the nature of materials ..

Organic architecture is also translated into the all inclusive nature of Wright’s design process. Materials, motifs, and basic ordering principles continue to repeat themselves throughout the building as a whole. The idea of organic architecture refers not only to the buildings’ literal relationship to the natural surroundings, but how the buildings’ design is carefully thought about as if it were a unified organism. Geometries throughout Wright’s buildings build a central mood and theme. Essentially organic architecture is also the literal design of every element of a building: From the windows, to the floors, to the individual chairs intended to fill the space. Everything relates to one another, reflecting the symbiotic ordering systems of nature.

A well-known example of organic architecture is Fallingwater, the residence Wright designed for the Kaufmann family in rural Pennsylvania.

Wright had many choices to locate a home on this large site, but chose to place the home directly over the waterfall and creek creating a close, yet noisy dialog with the rushing water and the steep site. The horizontal striations of stone masonry with daring cantilevers of colored beige concrete blend with native rock outcroppings and the wooded environment.

”The Met” Metropolitan Museum of Art- New York City

The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, is the largest art museum in the United States.

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Arch. Frank Lloyd Write often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum located at 1071 Fifth Avenue on the corner of East 89th Street in the Upper East Side neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City.

It is the permanent home of a continuously expanding collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, early Modern and contemporary art and also features special exhibitions throughout the year.

 

 

 

 

 

Architecture of the city

The design of most major buildings in Stockholm show foreign influences. During the 17th century and 18th century, foreign architects were recruited to build the city and in recent periods Swedish architects often drew inspiration from their tours to Europe, and in the 20th century particularly, the United States.

The city structures were built of wood except for the Cathedral Storkyrkan and a tower called “Three Crowns” which were more monumental. Stockholm’s development was also especially influenced by Germany because of the great volume of trade occurring between the nations at the time through the nearby waterways. The North German architecture is most prominent in Gamla stan

Vasa Museum is a maritime museum

Located on the island of Djurgården, the museum displays the only almost fully intact 17th century ship that has ever been salvaged, the 64-gun warship Vasa that sank on her maiden voyage in 1628. The Vasa Museum opened in 1990 and, according to the official web site, is the most visited museum in Scandinavia. Together with other museums such as the Stockholm Maritime Museum, it belongs to the Swedish National Maritime Museums (SNMM)

Moderna Museet– The Museum of Modern Art

The museum houses Swedish and international modern and contemporary art, including pieces by Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí and a model of the Tatlin’s Tower.

The museum’s collection includes also key works by artists such as Marcel Duchamp, Louise Bourgeois, Niki de Saint Phalle, Henri Matisse and Robert Rauschenberg, as well as ongoing acquisitions by contemporary artists.

Architecture New building on Skeppsholmen, designed by the Spanish architect Rafael Moneo, was built. The Pontus Hultén Study Gallery was designed by Renzo Piano.

 

 The Stockholm Metro is one gigantic art gallery. More than 90 of the 110 stations feature artworks created by some 150 artists.

You can see sculptures, mosaics, paintings, art installations, inscriptions and reliefs from the 1950s through to the 2000s at most Stockholm Metro stations.

Solna Centrum station (blue line) stands out for its cavernous, bright red ceiling that seems to ‘weigh down’ on the platform. Meanwhile the walls of the station depict a spruce forest that is one kilometer long.

 

The Royal Palace  is the official residence and major royal palace of the Swedish monarch (the actual residence of King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia is at Drottningholm Palace). Stockholm Palace is located on Stadsholmen, in Gamla stan in the capital, Stockholm.

Architecture plan– The palace is made of brick and sandstone. The roofs are covered with copper and are slanting inward towards the inner courtyard. On the main building they are encircled by a balustrade made of stone. The building consists of four rows, commonly named after the four cardinal directions.
A triumphal arch in splendid Baroque style framed the entrance and the stairwell in the middle of the southern façade, and niches for statues were placed at every second window ledge.

The middle parts of the east and west facades were adorned with Baroque pilasters, herms and statues. The palace has a total of 28 statues, 717 balusters, 242 volutes, 972 windows, 31,600 window panes and approximately 7,500 windows, doors and gates.

The façade is covered with  9,500 m2 of dimension stone and 11,000 m2 of plaster.

 

 

 

Architecture and Art in France

• Centre Georges Pompidou It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture by the architectural team of Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano, along with Gianfranco Franchini.

Commonly shortened to Centre Pompidou and also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of the 4th arrondissement of Paris, near Les Halles, rue Montorgueil, and the Marais.
It houses the Bibliothèque publique d’information (Public Information Library), a vast public library; the Musée National d’Art Moderne, which is the largest museum for modern art in Europe; and IRCAM, a centre for music and acoustic research.

It is named after Georges Pompidou, the President of France from 1969 to 1974 who commissioned the building, and was officially opened on 31 January 1977 by President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing.

The sculpture Horizontal by Alexander Calder, a free-standing mobile that is 7.6 m (25 ft) tall, was placed in front of the Centre Pompidou in 2012.

  

     

• skyline Louis Vuitton’s foundation Arch.Frank Gehry

The building of the Louis Vuitton Foundation  started in 2006, is an art museum and cultural center sponsored by the group LVMH and its subsidiaries.

The $143 million museum in Paris was opened in October 2014.

The building was designed by the architect Frank Gehry, and is adjacent to the Jardin d’ Acclimation in the Bois de Boulogne of the 16th arrondissement of Paris.

    

The Louvre or the Louvre Museum , is the world’s largest art museum and a historic monument in Paris, France.

The museum is housed in the Louvre Palace, originally built as the Louvre castle in the late 12th to 13th century under Philip II.

In 1682, Louis XIV chose the Palace of Versailles for his household, leaving the Louvre primarily as a place to display the royal collection, including, from 1692, a collection of ancient Greek and Roman sculpture.

In 1692, the building was occupied by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres and the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, which in 1699 held the first of a series of salons.

The Académie remained at the Louvre for 100 years.During the French Revolution, the National Assembly decreed that the Louvre should be used as a museum to display the nation’s masterpieces. 

After architects Mario Bellini and Rudy Ricciotti had won an international competition to create its new galleries for Islamic art, the new 3,000 sq m[58] pavilion eventually opened in 2012, consisting of ground- and lower-ground-level interior spaces topped by a golden, undulating roof (fashioned from almost 9,000 steel tubes that form an interior web) that seems to float within the neo-Classical Visconti Courtyard in the middle of the Louvre’s south wing.

The galleries, which the museum had initially hoped to open by 2009, represent the first major architectural intervention at the Louvre since the addition of I.M. Pei’s glass pyramid in 1989

The Louvre Pyramid  is a large glass and metal pyramid designed by Chinese-American architect I.M. Pei, surrounded by three smaller pyramids, in the main courtyard (Cour Napoléon) of the Louvre Palace (Palais du Louvre) in Paris. The large pyramid serves as the main entrance to the Louvre Museum. Completed in 1989, it has become a landmark of the city of Paris.

Commissioned by the President of France, François Mitterrand, in 1984, it was designed by the architect I. M. Pei.

The structure, which was constructed entirely with glass segments and metal poles, reaches a height of 21.6 metres (71 ft).

Its square base has sides of 34 metres (112 ft) and a base surface area of 1,000 square metres (11,000 sq ft).

It consists of 603 rhombus-shaped and 70 triangular glass segments.

The pyramid structure was engineered by Nicolet Chartrand Knoll Ltd. of Montreal (Pyramid Structure / Design Consultant) and Rice Francis Ritchie of Paris (Pyramid Structure / Construction Phase)

   

Architecture Atelier Jean Nouvel

Musée de l’Institut du Monde Arabe- The Arab World Institute  is an organization founded in Paris in 1980 by 18 Arab countries with France to research and disseminate information about the Arab world and its cultural and spiritual values.

The Institute was established as a result of a perceived lack of representation for the Arab world in France, and seeks to provide a secular location for the promotion of Arab civilization, art, knowledge, and aesthetics.Housed within the institution are a museum, library, auditorium, restaurant, offices and meeting rooms.

The building was constructed from 1981 to 1987 and has floor space of 16,894 m2. The Architecture-Studio together with Jean Nouvel, won the 1981 design competition.

This project is a result of funds from both the League of Arab States and the French government, with the cost of the building totaling around €230,000,000.

Façade- Visible behind the glass wall, a metallic screen unfolds with moving geometric motifs.

The motifs are actually 240 photo-sensitive motor-controlled apertures, or shutters, which act as a sophisticated brise soleil that automatically opens and closes to control the amount of light and heat entering the building from the sun. The mechanism creates interior spaces with filtered light — an effect often used in Islamic architecture with its climate-oriented strategies. The innovative use of technology and success of the building’s design catapulted Jean Nouvel to fame and is one of the cultural reference points of Paris.

 

Villa Savoye  is a modernist villa in Poissy, on the outskirts of Paris, France. It was designed by Swiss architects Le Corbusier and his cousin, Pierre Jeanneret, and built between 1928 and 1931 using reinforced concrete.
A manifesto of Le Corbusier’s “five points” of new architecture, the villa is representative of the bases of modern architecture, and is one of the most easily recognizable and renowned examples of the International style

.      

      

Atelier Jean Nouvel

Musée du quai Branly

The museum complex has four buildings, occupying 30,000 sqmt, which, along with the garden, cost 233 million euros.
The main building containing the galleries of the museum is 210 mt long and covers 4,750 sqmt , and has a 3,000-sqmt  terrace on the roof, the largest roof terrace in Paris, which also has a restaurant and mediatheque.

It is constructed like a huge bridge, ten meters over the garden, supported by two large concrete silos at the east and west ends and by twenty-six steel columns. As the trees of the garden around the building grow, the columns will be completely hidden and the building will appear to be resting on the treetops.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Architecture and Art in Spain

• Antonio Gaudi Architect

PARC GUELL
Parc Güell found its humble beginnings as a failed attempt to develop a residential garden city along the El Carmel hill. These days, though you won’t find any available real estate, the green space has been embraced as Barcelona’s most visited park, celebrated as much for its stunning views as for its mosaic-covered benches and geologically-inspired architecture. You can even take a tour of the famed architect’s home, where he lived with his family from 1906 until his death twenty years later

 

CASA MILA

La Pedrera -Casa Milà is one of Gaudí’s most celebrated works of civil architecture – which isn’t to say it was readily accepted by the neighborhood. Its distinct structure is intended to recreate an unending curve, giving it a distinctly natural feel that, at the time of its construction, was considered a bit too unconventional. This angle-less design carries over to just about every aspect of the building, from its circular interior courtyard to its rippling façade.   

 

CASA BATLLO
Casa Batlló is without a doubt one of Antoni Gaudí’s most stunning designs, with its colorful ceramic-and-glass exterior walls complemented by multi-sized windows and balconies that appear to be pulled straight from an ossuary.

The interior amazes as well in all its colorful, naturally curved glory, making this a stop you’ll want to take a little time to savor inside and out

 

 

SAGRADA FAMILIA
The reins of Barcelona’s Holy Family Cathedral were handed over to Gaudí in 1883, and though it’s not slated for completion until 2026 this massive project has become widely recognized as the architect’s single greatest work.

With its trademark curvilinear spires, gloriously colored stained glass windows and countless other unique characteristics, it’s been described by renowned architectural critics as constituting “The most extraordinary personal interpretation of Gothic architecture since the Middle Ages.” Long queues aside, it’s hard not to be intrigued by praise like that.

   

 

 

 

 

 

The Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya-MNAC

Is the national museum of Catalan visual art located in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Situated on Montjuïc hill at the end of Avinguda de la Reina Maria Cristina, near Pl Espanya, the museum is especially notable for its outstanding collection of Romanesque church paintings, and for Catalan art and design from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including modernism and noucentisme.

The museum is housed in the Palau Nacional, a huge, Italian-style building dating to 1929.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Fundació Joan Miró, Centre d ‘Estudis d’Art Contemporani  is a museum of modern art honoring Joan Miró located on the hill called Montjuïc in Barcelona, Catalonia (Spain).

   

• The Museu Picasso , located in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, houses one of the most extensive collections of artworks by the 20th-century Spanish artist Pablo Picasso.

With 4,251 works exhibited by the painter, the museum has one of the most complete permanent collections of work

  

• Architect Frank O’Gehry

Golden Fish sculpture, 1992year

Located in the Olympic Port, next to the towers and Mapfre Arts Barcelona.This is a monumental metal sculpture.
Pez Dorado is a network of thin metal lines intersecting to form a lattice with a style markedly abstract. Nevertheless, it sensed the figure of a fish whose scales acquired a gold when they affect the sun’s rays.
Gehry describes his constructions “fish.” The skin of a fish or imply neither articulates how his internal organs. However, a fish can be beautiful, definitely tailored to fit their environment, and its skin is used to keep the body dynamically consistent. The idea of the fish, he says, is an expression of their anger against useless historical references of postmodernism.
Gehry uses computer-aided design not to create their models, which are made by hand, but to provide precise specifications for their construction asymmetrical forms.

 

Guggenheim  Museum Bilbao

The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is a museum of modern and contemporary art

 

 

• The Barcelona Pavilion, designed by Arch. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, was the German Pavilion for the 1929 International Exposition in Barcelona, Spain.

This building was used for the official opening of the German section of the exhibition.

It is an important building in the history of modern architecture, known for its simple form and its spectacular use of extravagant materials, such as marble, red onyx and travertine.

The same features of minimalism and spectacular can be applied to the prestigious furniture specifically designed for the building, including the iconic Barcelona chair. It has inspired many important modernist buildings.

 

Salvador Dalí’s Theatre-Museum in Figueres, Spain

• Montserrat is a multi-peaked mountain range near Barcelona, in Spain.

It is part of the Catalan Pre-Coastal Range. The main peaks are Sant Jeroni (1,236 m), Montgrós (1,120 m) and Miranda de les Agulles (903 m)

 

• Arch.Jean Nouvel at Barcelona and Madrid

The competition of ideas for the expansion of the Centro de Arte Reina Sofia established a triangular site located southwest of the building, created by Sabatini in the second half of the eighteenth century

• Centro de Arte Reina Sofia- The architect Jean Nouvel explains that this extension is “an invitation to create exhibits, activities… is a support for actions.” –2001-2005 year

“A wing under which he discovers the sky with reflections and transparencies, a unifying wing that does not touch the museum, but was arrested less than a meter to let a ray of light, a wing which corresponds exactly to cover the forged penultimate floor of the museum.”

For the construction new materials and techniques have been resorted to in the field of construction, in Spain, since according to the architect Jean Nouvel “elements employed in the construction of this extension are new in Spain but have been used in other countries such as England or France.” These materials are the composite (vidi fiber and polyester) that covers the building of the addition, both inside and outside, with a very distinctive reddish hue.
Materials known as lamas have been used to create unique designs for protecting facades of extruded aluminum. The creation for the roof of the library is an immense lamp of molded glass at the Royal Glass Factory of the Granja (Segovia) and the aerodynamic deck, covered with alucore and zinc.
Two of the buildings (Library and Exhibitions) are constructed of rolled steel. Beams and pillars have been made, as if it were a fabric, with the laser cutting of pilasters 5cm thick to be welded in the workshops of the company Horta and were transferred to work in each 12, 16 and 22 meters.
The building of the auditoriums was built with a reinforced concrete system. Two large ribs, symmetrical in arrangement, bear the forces of the auditoriums. The stalls are the result of uniting the ribs by reinforced concrete beams.

The large deck that rises six meters on the terraces of the buildings measured nearly 8,000 square meters and is supported by metal pillars. The overhangs are up to 36 meters in flight. It was up a structure of metal girders, filled with 3.4 m in height in the central area, the thickness is reduced up to 5cm in the outer perimeter

   

• The Torre Glòries, formerly known as Torre Agbar  is a 38-story skyscraper/tower located between Avinguda Diagonal and Carrer Badajoz, near Plaça de les Glòries Catalanes, which marks the gateway to the new technological district of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.

It was designed by French architect Jean Nouvel in association with the Spanish firm b720 Fermín Vázquez Arquitectos and built by Dragados. The Torre Glòries is located in the Poblenou neighbourhood of Barcelona and it was originally named after its owners, the Agbar Group, a holding company whose interests include the Barc elona water company Aigües de Barcelona

• Hotel Puerta América, Madrid | 5-star hotel in Madrid

Hotel Silken Puerta América is a Silken Hotel in Madrid, Spain.

The exterior was designed by Jean Nouvel and each floor was designed by a different architectural firm including Ron Arad (7th) and Arata Isozaki (10th). Javier Mariscal and Fernando Salas designed the 11th.

Freedom, architecture and design

This hotel is a real treasure chest. Every corner, every angle and every plane reveals fresh surprise. Every floor is a world of its own, and a tribute to its creator. A creativity that knows no limits except those imposed by the business of building. Freedom reigns and imagination is in its element. Hotel deserve twenty-first century treatment too-to invent new form of accommodation and living away from home, and to stay engraved in the memory of your trip.

The Hotel’s 282 rooms, 21 junior suites and 12 suites are set out over twelve floors. Twelve floors means twelve designers and architects creating miracles of diversity. Twelve versions of how to make privacy work using layout, traditional materials and new technologies. Twelve ways of dreaming, creating indoor landscapes essential spaces, futurist vision, artistic experience. Each room offering an imaginative, stimulating and ultimately private scenario.

Public spaces- Communal areas like corridors, lobbies and reception express the same diversity. The way between reception and the door of your room is filled with contrast, ideas and surprises. The Lobby is a prologue announcing or suggesting what every room has in store. In the corridors, your step through settings shaped by the projects creators, rescued from monotony and uniformity to cheer and illuminate your way.

     

• W Hotel- Barcelona

   

• Mandarin Hotel Barcelona  

   

• Japanese Arch Toyo Ito Barcelona

The Toyo Ito building façade mimics sea waves

Japanese architect Toyo Ito has inaugurated his intervention of the façade, the central core and the interior patios of a luxurious 41 apartment building opposite ‘la Pedrera’ in Barcelona, Spain.

the rest of the building was designed by the architects Carlos Bassó and Toni Olaya on what was hitherto an office block.

Toyo Ito was initially reluctant to do the project but when he went up to the rooftop, seeing ‘la Pedrera’ by Antonì Gaudì, it made an immense impression on him.

Ito admitted he had fallen in love with gaudy’s work during a visit to Barcelona on his honeymoon.

 

 

Hotel Porta Fira (also Torres de Toyo Ito with Torre Realia BCN) is a 28-storey, 113 m (371 ft) skyscraper hotel designed by Arch.Toyo Ito on the Plaza de Europa in the district of Granvia l’Hospitalet in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, a suburb of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.

The building was the 2010 first-place winner of the Emporis Skyscraper Award.

   

• Arch.Santiago Calatrava

The City of Arts and Sciences  is an entertainment-based cultural and architectural complex in the city of Valencia, Spain.

It is the most important modern tourist destination in the city of Valencia and one of the 12 Treasures of Spain.
The City of Arts and Sciences is situated at the end of the former riverbed of the river Turia, which was drained and rerouted after a catastrophic flood in 1957.
Designed by Santiago Calatrava and Félix Candela, the project began the first stages of construction in July 1996, and was inaugurated April 16, 1998 with the opening of L’Hemisfèric.

The last great component of the City of Arts and Sciences, El Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia, was inaugurated on October 9, 2005, Valencian Community Day

 

• Museu Blau de les Ciències Naturals

With its large exterior and interior spaces and its reference to natural processes and shapes, the architecture of the Forum is a particularly appropriate new home for the relocated Museum. And the Museum of Natural Science promises to energetically revitalize the existing building, replacing vacant space with intense new public activities.

The open public space that marks the approach from the Diagonal and extends under the triangular body of the building is now diversified and activated, engaging with the life of the city.

The corner addressing the city center retains its function as the main public approach. This is enhanced by the three existing pavilions which are reconfigured to provide meeting places for groups and general information along the approach to the museum entrance. The second corner, further along the Diagonal is enlivened with lush external planting and the basin under the water patio. And finally, the corner addressing the sea is activated by a new exterior dining area for students and groups, adjacent to a bar which opens onto the plaza.

The core of the Museum is its permanent exhibition. This consists of an outstanding collection of rocks and minerals, taxidermy, microbes, plants and herbariums, meteorites, scientific drawings, diagrams, fossils and skeletons, sounds and dioramas, gathered together over centuries in Barcelona.

 

Location: Barcelona, Spain
Architect: Herzog & de Meuron
Partners: Jacques Herzog, Pierre de Meuron, Ascan Mergenthaler, David Koch
Project Architect: Tomislav Dushanov (Associate)
Project Team: Miquel del Río, Amparo Casaní Arazo, Dulcinea Santos, Stephen Hodgson
Ground Floor: Pavilions 150sqm; Main Entrance 260sqm; Bar 75sqm; Secondary entrance 60sqm; Classroom 70sqm; Staff entrance 65sqm; Plants Garden 280sqm
First floor: Lobby 942sqm; Shop 395sqm; Media library 167sqm; Restaurant 760sqm; Classroom 200sqm; Events room 150sqm; Permanent Exhibition 2.956sqm; Temporary Exhibition 1000sqm; Back of House:1150sqm
Second floor: Access 50sqm; Storage 200sqm
Roof terrace: Outdoor Space 205sqm
Year: 2012

JAPAN- The four largest island of Japan are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, and Shikoku, which make up about ninety-seven percent of Japan’s land area and often are referred to as home islands.

• KYUSHU–

Fukuoka Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan on Kyūshū Island. The capital is the city of Fukuoka. Kumamoto Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyushu.
The capital is the city of Kumamoto. Amakusa 

Fukuoka Castle is a Japanese castle located in Chūō-ku, Fukuoka, Japan. It is also known as Maizuru Castle .Completed in the early Edo period for Kuroda Nagamasa, it has been decreed a historic site by the Japanese government.

• HONSHU– The island includes several past Japanese capitals, including Kyoto, Nara, and Kamakura.

KYOTO-

• Kinkaku-ji “Temple of the Golden Pavilion”, officially named Rokuon-ji is a Zen Buddhist temple in Kyoto, Japan.

It is one of the most popular buildings in Japan, attracting a large number of visitors annually.
It is designated as a National Special Historic Site, a National Special Landscape and is one of 17 locations making up the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto which are World Heritage Sites.

   

• Kiyomizu-dera officially Otowa-san Kiyomizu-dera is an independent Buddhist temple in eastern Kyoto.

The temple is part of the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto (Kyoto, Uji and Otsu Cities) UNESCO World Heritage site.
The place is not to be confused with Kiyomizu-dera in Yasugi, Shimane, which is part of the 33-temple route of the Chūgoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage through western Japan, or the Kiyozumi-dera temple associated with the Buddhist priest Nichiren

Most of Japan’s industry is located in a belt running along Honshu’s southern coast, from Tokyo to Kyoto, Osaka, Nagoya, Kobe, and Hiroshima

TOKYO-

Architecture in Tokyo has largely been shaped by Tokyo’s history. Twice in recent history has the metropolis been left in ruins: first in the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake and later after extensive firebombing in World War II. Because of this, Tokyo’s urban landscape consists mainly of modern and contemporary architecture, and older buildings are scarce.
Tokyo features many internationally famous forms of modern architecture including Tokyo International Forum, Asahi Beer Hall, Mode Gakuen Cocoon Tower, NTT Docomo Yoyogi Building and Rainbow Bridge.

Tokyo also features two distinctive towers: Tokyo Tower, and the new Tokyo Skytree, which is the tallest tower in both Japan and the world, and the second tallest structure in the world after the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.
Tokyo also contains numerous parks and gardens. There are four national parks in Tokyo Prefecture, including the Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park, which includes all of the Izu Islands.

• National Art Center at Tokyo – The National Art Center (NACT) is a museum in Roppongi, Minato, Tokyo, Japan.
  The building has been designed by Kisho Kurokawa
  

     

      

 

 

 

 

• Raffles Design international, Student Achievement/ Park ELLE DECOR Student Contest/24th January 2014

Students from Raffles Design international, Mumbai will be present at the NSIC Ground in Okhla, New Delhi to showcase their award winning design.
Two groups of students from the interior design department had won the distinctive Park ELLE DECOR Design Competition.Our students are certainly elated to have won in both the Furniture of small Spaces Category and Lighting Category. We thank them for their team work and perseverance. More important, we are proud of their achievement and their belief in their work and craft.

We also express our appreciation to Ms. Marijana Beric, a lecturer of the Interior Design department, who had provided guidance and support to our students in this competition.

    

 

• The State Hermitage Museum is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

The second-largest art museum in the world, it was founded in 1764 when Empress Catherine the Great acquired an impressive collection of paintings from the Berlin merchant Johann Ernst Gotzkowsky.

The museum celebrates the anniversary of its founding each year on 7 December, Saint Catherine’s Day.

      

 

• The Moscow ,usually referred to as the Kremlin, is a fortified complex at the heart of Moscow, overlooking the Moskva River to the south, Saint Basil’s Cathedral and Red Square to the east, and the Alexander Garden to the west.

It is the best known of the kremlins (Russian citadels) and includes five palaces, four cathedrals, and the enclosing Kremlin Wall with Kremlin towers. Also within this complex is the Grand Kremlin Palace that was formerly the tsar’s Moscow residence.

The complex now serves as the official residence of the President of the Russian Federation and as a museum with 2,746,405 visitors in 2017. The name “Kremlin” means “fortress inside a city”, and is often also used metonymically to refer to the government of the Russian Federation in a similar sense to how “White House” is used to refer to the Executive Office of the President of the United States.

It had previously been used to refer to the government of the Soviet Union (1922–1991) and its highest members (such as general secretaries, premiers, presidents, ministers, and commissars). The term “Kremlinology” refers to the study of Soviet and Russian politics.

  

• The State Tretyakov Gallery is an art gallery in Moscow, Russia, the foremost depository of Russian fine art in the world.

The gallery’s history starts in 1856 when the Moscow merchant Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov acquired works by Russian artists of his day with the aim of creating a collection, which might later grow into a museum of national art. In 1892, Tretyakov presented his already famous collection of approximately 2,000 works (1,362 paintings, 526 drawings, and 9 sculptures) to the Russian nation.

 

          

 

• Soviet-era outdoor exhibition center- Vystavka Dostizheniy Narodnogo Khozyaystva (VDNKh) , lit. Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy is a permanent general purpose trade show and amusement park in Moscow, Russia.

A magnificent statue of Lenin greets visitors in front of the main pavilion, where the Corinthian columns of Stalinist architecture come together with the Red Army star and the crests of the 15 Soviet Socialist Republics to celebrate socialism, national glory, and scientific progress — three achievements as intricately intertwined in the resulting panorama as they were in the Soviet imagination.

• Railroad Museum of the Moscow Railway

• Public Museum of the Moscow Metro

Mercury City Tower  is a supertall skyscraper located on plot 14 in the Moscow International Business Center (MIBC) in Moscow, Russia.

Occupying a total area of 173,960 sqmt (1,872,500 sq ft), the mixed-use building houses offices, apartments, a fitness center, and retail stores.
Rising 338.8 m (1,112 ft) tall, the Mercury City Tower was formerly the tallest building of Russia and Europe, having surpassed the Moscow Tower of the neighboring City of Capitals complex (also in the MIBC) as the tallest of Russia and The Shard in London as Europe’s tallest building