Mijksenaar

Nice buildings (#2)

2009

On our yearly itinerary to 'la Bella' (Italy) we pass by car thousands of buildings without paying special attention to them.
But a few are always mentally recorded and not because they are archtectural highlights but because they stir up our emotion. Is it just a matter of personal taste or are there universal criteria which apply even to sheds?


Architect Palladio's Villa La Rotonda (1566) near Vicenza of course is a celebrated architectural landmark. For years it has been closed to the public. Now we could enter it and validate its splendity as already mentioned by Goethe, Corbusier and many others. A joy of perfect dimensions on a surprisingly human scale.






Every year we pass this French silo between Strasbourg and Basel along the E25 twice (at a distance). This year we figured out where to leave the highway to see it more closely.
It's a masterpiece of the use of corrugated steel elements by, undoubtedly by an anonymous engineer.


You'll find these news stands in every Italian city. Beautiful harmonization of street furniture in its environment. Even if they are closed at nights, they add to the fascinating and always changing experience of Italian squares and streets.


Even a simple house at a sharp street corner in Florence makes you hold your breath. It's very difficult to find contemporary equivalents that causes the same excitement.


During an in-between trip to printer Cartor near Chartres, I noticed this elegant, all glass passenger corridor at the new 'cheap carrier' concourse 2F of Paris airport Charles de Gaulle.


Not even a barn but more a shed to keep the wood for the fire place dry is a satisfying experience of spatial organization (Chianti area, Italy).