Melsva.

Single family house at Via Selvetta Caprino - Lugano, Ticino, Switzerland; 1962-63

Peppo Brivio

see map | information 1, 2

Jonakirche / Blumenaukapelle (church) Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany; 1960-61

Helmut Striffler (photographs by Robert Häusser)

see map more info 1, 2

Donato Bramante, Plan for New St. Peters, 1506

The centerpiece of Pope Julius II’s transformation of the Church to rival Ancient Rome, New St. Peters was initially designed by the consummate High Renaissance Architect, Bramante.  Replacing Constantine’s venerated 4th century basilica, Bramante’s new structure was built to rival the Pantheon.  Bramante’s plan would go unrealized outside of the area around the dome of present day St. Peters.  Still built over the tomb of St. Peter, Bramante maintained a central plan of a martyrium, yet grew it to epic proportions, marrying antiquity and Christianity.  Centrally planned and crowned by a dome, it was the perfect expression of God, with man being the measure of all things.  The proportions of which were influenced by Vitruvious and the dome included in that it was the cosmological symbol of heaven.  While an ideal plan, it was no particularly practical for Christian practice.  The most ambitious of Julius II’s early plans, he saw his new St. Peter’s as the new Pantheon, establishing himself as a present day Constantine.  The overall schematics show the unity and harmony inherent in High Renaissance architecture.  St. Peter’s would only finally be realized in the Baroque period but the underlying reasons and means by which its construction began helped to usher in the Protestant Reformation.

David Marsh from Parks and gardens UK on glasshouse pioneer John Claudius Loudon (1783 - 1843):

Loudon’s most significant invention was a method of making glazing bars in wrought iron that could be made in curvilinear sections. The big breakthrough was to make them flexible enough to be bent in any direction without reducing their strength.  Suddenly curvilinear or even conical glazing was possible and the great age of glasshouses and conservatories was born.

This led to the publication of  Remarks on the Construction of Hot-Houses in 1817 and in 1818 A Comparative View of the Common and Curvilinear Mode of Roofing Hot-Houses and Sketches of Curvilinear Hot-Houses.

Unfortunately he sold the idea for the glazing bar  to  Messrs W. and D. Bailey of Holborn at an early stage.  They patented it in 1818 and so Loudon did not reap any financial reward from his invention, which is a pity since he was, despite all his publication, on the edge of bankruptcy much of his life.

Loudon collaborated with Baileys on a number of glasshouses in the following years. including Felton Park in Northumberland.

The face of the architect ~ J. Fullaondo Errazu

Apartment building at Mazarredo Zumarkalea Bilbao, Biscay, Spain; 1965

Socialism. Perspective. Andrei Lacatusu

Surrounded by the decaying socialist architectural legacy, I somehow managed to like it and appreciate it’s forms, geometry and angles. I recreated in 3d software some interesting buildings of that period, and rendered them in a some kind of a minimalistic manner.

PHOTOGRAPHY: Vlvelvet

London-based mixed media artist and documentary photographer Mon Levchenkova (monkier: Vlvelvet) has a knack for beautifully capturing still life #aesthetics.