Architecture
November 25, 2009
- In the last few decades, airports have styled themselves as great places for art exhibits. After all, thousands of travelers pass through airports. They are often a captive audience. And airports are large civic places begging for both beautification and intellectual stimulation. I mean, how much CNN can one person watch, right?To read more about Art in Airports and to see what I found ...
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November 20, 2009
- Medieval and Renaissance Venetians often built exterior staircases on their homes to save precious living space. But the architects of the Scala Contarini del Bovolo -- or staircase of the snail shell -- took the art of floor-to-floor mobility to a new artistic level. Peter Contarini added the staircase and series of loggias to his palazzo near the end of the 1400’s. The staircase and ...
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November 6, 2009
- In 1630-31, the plague devastated Venice. One third of the population -- 95,000 people -- died during the outbreak. In October, 1630 as the plague had Venice on her knees, the Doge and the Senate vowed to make a holy processional each Saturday for fifteen weeks. And he also promised to dedicate a church to the Virgin Mary as a plea for her help. Soon thereafter the plague outbreak ...
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September 4, 2009
- Some spam is tasty. Possibly because I write on the paranormal, I received an unsolicited morsel this morning from online bookseller AbeBooks alerting me to their new “Weird Book Room.” The message showcased cover thumbnails of ten representative titles. My favorites: “The Big Book of Lesbian Horse Stories;” “Outhouses by Famous Architects;” “Old Tractors and the Men Who Love ...
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August 2, 2009
- I thought you might enjoy seeing this fantastice design for a hotel. I think it is really marvelous so I wanted to share the photos. For a view of the inside of the hotel and some more information see the following link. http://bigthink.com/vickinikolaidis/raindrop-shaped-hotel
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July 23, 2009
- Although I rushed, I suspected that with only an hour transfer time, I might, and did miss my connecting flight from Paris to Napoli, Italy. The next flight was three hours later, and although tired, after drinking a cappuccino and eating a sandwich, I felt less like a zombie from the seven hour red-eye flight on which I did not sleep, and more incline to walk around, reconnect with my body and ...
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April 21, 2009
- No, no, I´m not talking about haunted houses. I´m referring to what author Alain de Botton says in his book The architecture of happiness. According to him, there is a language buildings and objects speak when we look at them, and our fondness or distaste of them comes from the relationship we establish between those buildings and human beings whom we like or do not like. In other words, they ...
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February 22, 2009
- Today on my home blog, I am writing about the set design for tonight's Oscar ceremony: "During the 2006 World Cup , I happened to be in Italy which was an extraordinary experience. Regardless of what city I was in – Rome, Florence, Milan, Verona, Venice – people poured out of their homes and gathered in the campos and piazzas. Televisions were dragged out of bars, and crowds formed, ...
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January 19, 2009
- A couple of Sundays ago I took a bike ride around San Francisco and was both moved and disappointed by what I saw. San Francisco is certainly a city that contains multitudes. One of the things that I was disappointed by was that a couple of blocks from my house I noticed that the façade of a lovely Victorian house was still standing as a reminder of the blocks and blocks of other beautiful ...
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November 18, 2008
- No, no, I´m not talking about haunted houses. I´m referring to what author Alain de Botton says in his book The architecture of happiness. According to him, there is a language buildings and objects speak when we look at them, and our fondness or distaste of them comes from the relationship we establish between those buildings and human beings whom we like or do not like. In other words, they ...
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