Erich Mendelsohn's Sketch

Einstein Tower (Potsdam, Germany)

Erich Mendelsohn
(21 March 1887-15 September 1953)

"Draughtsmanship is no substitute for spatial reality", said Mendelsohn. "We must combine sculptural form with the spatial (and spiritual) and this is the third road to the future of architecture."

The Einstein Tower is an astrophysical observatory in the Albert Einstein Science Park in Potsdam,Germany designed by architect Erich Mendelsohn. It was built for astronomer Erwin Finlay Freundlich to support experiments and observations to validate Albert Einstein's relativity theory. The building was first conceived around 1917, built from 1920 to 1921 after a fund-raising drive, and became operational in 1924. It is still a working solar observatory today as part of the Astrophysical Institute of Potsdam. Light from the telescope is brought down through the shaft to the basement where the instruments and laboratory are located.

Mario Botta's Sketches (2)

Jean Tinguely Museum, Basel, Switzerland

(1993 - 1996)

The museum is dedicated to the work of Jean Tinguely, one of Switzerland's greatest sculptors, who died in 1991. The building has a rectangular plan, and each of its sides responds in a different way to the prevailing urban conditions. Whereas on one side it rises to a solid wall, in an effort to shut out the constant din of motorway traffic, on the other side it embraces the adjacent park area with a series of generously proportioned front naves. As entrance to the park and to the museum, the building provides a space for mediation with the city; it also provides a walkway suspended above the river. The museum becomes a reorganizing influence, dominating and controlling its location. This is how Botta's design process works - through constant attention to the surrounding environment, to the conditions, the history and the morphological demands of the site.

The museum is a wonderfully surprising delight. All four levels are alive with ponderous movement, musical with the clean notes of working machinery. "Works of art usually make their statements silently, " said Mario Botta, the Swiss architect who designed the museum specifically to house the collection. "These works are the exception, for they communicate through sound engendered by their movements." Many of the exhibits in the museum were donated by Tinguely's wife and fellow artist, Niki de Saint Phalle.

Vitra Design Museum

Weil am Rhein, Germany

Frank Gehry

Sketch: Nate Umstead

via

The design museum houses temporary exhibitions on themes of furniture design, and Gehry's building makes a suitable host for them - in keeping with the theme, but - once inside - supporting, not competing with, the exhibitions.

Piazza Navona, Sant'agnese in Agone

Campo Marzio, Rome, Italy

( 1653 to 1655 )

Architects: Carlo Rainaldi, Francesco Borromini, Girolamo Rainaldi, Antonio del Grande, Giovanni Maria Baratti.

Some useful links: Archinform , Vitruvio.ch , Wikipedia , Romaviva

Sketch: Michael Graves

We would like to thank Russell Fernandez for sharing the sketch, from the new book Michael Graves; Images of a Grand Tour published by Princeton Architectural Press

San Pietro, Michelangelo's Dome

Vatican City, Rome, Italy

Michelangelo (full name Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni)

(March 6, 1475 - February 18, 1564)

The dome or cupola was designed by Michelangelo, who became chief architect in 1546. At the time of his death (1564), the dome was finished as far as the drum, the base on which domes sit. The dome was vaulted between 1585 and 1590 by the architect Giacomo della Porta with the assistance of Domenico Fontana, who was probably the best engineer of the day. Fontana built the lantern the following year, and the ball was placed in 1593. (for more details..)

Sketch: Michael Graves

We would like to thank Russell Fernandez for sharing the sketch, from the new book Michael Graves; Images of a Grand Tour published by Princeton Architectural Press

Tempietto Del Bramante

Janiculum Hill, Rome, Italy

Bramante, Donato
(1444-1514)

In the courtyard where St. Peter was thought to have been crucified, this small temple echoes circular classical temples in the Forum and elsewhere in Rome. The peristyle and steps circle around the main cylinder.

Sketch: Michael Graves

We would like to thank Russell Fernandez for sharing the sketch, from the new book Michael Graves; Images of a Grand Tour published by Princeton Architectural Press

Steven Holl's Sketches

Kiasma, Museum of Contemporary Art (Helsinki, Finland)

"In each project, we seek new ways to integrate an organizing idea with the programmatic and functional essence of a building. Rather than a "style" carried to different sites and climates, or pursued regardless of different programs, we seek the unique character of a program and site, local and global, as the starting point for an architectural idea."

"...as the perspective changes, as you move through space, you have a parallax of spatial overlap.This for me is central and in a certain way it's a small manifesto because you cannot photograph this phenomenon.You need to experience it by walking through the spaces in a building. For example, in my Helsinki Museum, there are twenty-five galleries in a sequence that are experienced like a musical cadence which takes half an hour to walk through the whole sequence. So, there is no way you can photograph that. "