There are architects that have marked the course of human and artistic history through theirs works, symbolic projects that have become, over time, icons of a city or a country. The Center Pompidou is one of them, like the big one Russian National Library, the Philharmonic, located in the heart of Berlin, theOpera House and the prison of Halden, in Norway, so does the Salk Institute. Each of these works, and more, represents the evolution in the field ofarchitecture but also of human creativity. Behind these buildings, the protagonists of the documentary film Cathedrals of 3D Culture by Wim Wenders, at the cinema only for the day of April 21, are hidden designers and studios of excellence, who have changed history and revolutionized the world of art.
Also called Beaubourg, the Center Pompidou was made by Renzo Piano, the most famous of Italian architects, e Richard Rogers in 1972 to 1977. A large steel structure devoid of any decoration, rather characterized only by tubes dyed with strong colors, which offer as a result a real tangle of metal. The work was strongly desired by Georges Pompidou, elected president of the French Republic in 1969, who asked the clients for a building dedicated to culture, dedicated to modern art, from design to photography. The center includes sectors dedicated to different disciplines, including theIrcam, dedicated to music and acoustics, also designed by the Piano studio, already very famous at the time thanks to several of his creations including the Pavilions for the XIV Triennale in Milan, that of Italian Industry at the Osaka 1970 International Expo and, later, the Lingotto Auditorium in Turin, and the Nemo – National Center for Science and Technology, Amsterdam.
There Russian National Library it is a jewel of neoclassical art created by the architect Yegor Sokolov. The idea of having a palace of culture in the country has been around since the 18th century and in 1766 the first project arrived that Catherine the Great did not approve until 1795, shortly before her death. In the heart of St. Petersburg, the construction area of the work was identified, which took almost 15 years to complete. Inside this first structure, initially known as the Imperial Public Library, the private collections of Voltaire and Diderot are kept. Sokolov was also responsible for the Academy of Fine Arts and the Michajlovskij Castle, masterpieces always located in the same city.
To the Danish architecture firm EMA we must, however, what has been defined by Time as the “most human prison in the world”: Halden Prison. The Norwegian maximum security prison has also been labeled a “5-star prison”, a real luxury for inmates. The idea behind this construction is to re-enable prisoners to society, aiming on windows without bars and views of the surrounding nature. The project is, therefore, quite ambitious, just like other works by the same studio, including the Natural History Museum and the Kunsten Museum of Modern Art in Denmark.
Also in Norway, and more precisely in Oslo, we find theOpera House, made by Snøhetta architecture studio. It is a very characteristic and particular building, made entirely of marble and glass, to host the opera and ballet. The Opera House was elected World Cultural Building of the Year in 2008 and won several awards, such as the Mies van der Rohe Prize in 2009 and the International Architecture Award in 2010. The Norwegian studio, also based in New York, has full awareness of eco-sustainability and focuses a lot on the problems of deterioration of structures. This is why the Oslo Opera House, as well as other creations, including the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt and the Norwegian Embassy in Berlin were designed following this conscience.
TO Hans Scharoun the paternity of the Berlin Philharmonic, but also that of the State Library and the Schminke House. The philharmonic building was built between 1960 and 63, has a pentagonal shape that boasts, in the center of this, the stage intended for the orchestra. Everything has been designed to achieve perfect acoustics. Not surprisingly the Philharmonie it is known as one of the best auditoriums in the world. This is also due to Lothar Cremer, professor of physics at the University of Berlin, who collaborated with Scharoun, identifying the shortest path that the sound waves would have taken to reach all seats in an optimal way, well over 2200.
The Salk Institute, also one of the protagonists of the film Cathedrals of 3D Culture by Wim Wenders, is another architectural work without equal. It was designed by Louis Kahn, at the request of Jonas Salk, in 1959. The architect, together with his studio, worked for many years on this work made entirely of concrete, very clean but still singular, which he manages to best enhance the surrounding nature, especially the open view of the Pacific Ocean. Louis Khan he is a visionary architect and he is responsible for several important buildings such as the National Assembly Building in Bangladesh and the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. The creative genius of this great character who revolutionized the history of architecture was pitted in the first retrospective monographic “The Power of Architecture” presented by the Vitra Design Museum.
There are architects that have marked the course of human and artistic history through theirs works, symbolic projects that have become, over time, icons of a city or a country. The Center Pompidou is one of them, like the big one Russian National Library, the Philharmonic, located in the heart of Berlin, theOpera House and the prison of Halden, in Norway, so does the Salk Institute. Each of these works, and more, represents the evolution in the field ofarchitecture but also of human creativity. Behind these buildings, the protagonists of the documentary film Cathedrals of 3D Culture by Wim Wenders, at the cinema only for the day of April 21, are hidden designers and studios of excellence, who have changed history and revolutionized the world of art.
Also called Beaubourg, the Center Pompidou was made by Renzo Piano, the most famous of Italian architects, e Richard Rogers in 1972 to 1977. A large steel structure devoid of any decoration, rather characterized only by tubes dyed with strong colors, which offer as a result a real tangle of metal. The work was strongly desired by Georges Pompidou, elected president of the French Republic in 1969, who asked the clients for a building dedicated to culture, dedicated to modern art, from design to photography. The center includes sectors dedicated to different disciplines, including theIrcam, dedicated to music and acoustics, also designed by the Piano studio, already very famous at the time thanks to several of his creations including the Pavilions for the XIV Triennale in Milan, that of Italian Industry at the Osaka 1970 International Expo and, later, the Lingotto Auditorium in Turin, and the Nemo – National Center for Science and Technology, Amsterdam.
There Russian National Library it is a jewel of neoclassical art created by the architect Yegor Sokolov. The idea of having a palace of culture in the country has been around since the 18th century and in 1766 the first project arrived that Catherine the Great did not approve until 1795, shortly before her death. In the heart of St. Petersburg, the construction area of the work was identified, which took almost 15 years to complete. Inside this first structure, initially known as the Imperial Public Library, the private collections of Voltaire and Diderot are kept. Sokolov was also responsible for the Academy of Fine Arts and the Michajlovskij Castle, masterpieces always located in the same city.
To the Danish architecture firm EMA we must, however, what has been defined by Time as the “most human prison in the world”: Halden Prison. The Norwegian maximum security prison has also been labeled a “5-star prison”, a real luxury for inmates. The idea behind this construction is to re-enable prisoners to society, aiming on windows without bars and views of the surrounding nature. The project is, therefore, quite ambitious, just like other works by the same studio, including the Natural History Museum and the Kunsten Museum of Modern Art in Denmark.
Also in Norway, and more precisely in Oslo, we find theOpera House, made by Snøhetta architecture studio. It is a very characteristic and particular building, made entirely of marble and glass, to host the opera and ballet. The Opera House was elected World Cultural Building of the Year in 2008 and won several awards, such as the Mies van der Rohe Prize in 2009 and the International Architecture Award in 2010. The Norwegian studio, also based in New York, has full awareness of eco-sustainability and focuses a lot on the problems of deterioration of structures. This is why the Oslo Opera House, as well as other creations, including the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt and the Norwegian Embassy in Berlin were designed following this conscience.
TO Hans Scharoun the paternity of the Berlin Philharmonic, but also that of the State Library and the Schminke House. The philharmonic building was built between 1960 and 63, has a pentagonal shape that boasts, in the center of this, the stage intended for the orchestra. Everything has been designed to achieve perfect acoustics. Not surprisingly the Philharmonie it is known as one of the best auditoriums in the world. This is also due to Lothar Cremer, professor of physics at the University of Berlin, who collaborated with Scharoun, identifying the shortest path that the sound waves would have taken to reach all seats in an optimal way, well over 2200.
The Salk Institute, also one of the protagonists of the film Cathedrals of 3D Culture by Wim Wenders, is another architectural work without equal. It was designed by Louis Kahn, at the request of Jonas Salk, in 1959. The architect, together with his studio, worked for many years on this work made entirely of concrete, very clean but still singular, which he manages to best enhance the surrounding nature, especially the open view of the Pacific Ocean. Louis Khan he is a visionary architect and he is responsible for several important buildings such as the National Assembly Building in Bangladesh and the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. The creative genius of this great character who revolutionized the history of architecture was pitted in the first retrospective monographic “The Power of Architecture” presented by the Vitra Design Museum.