Petite France is the city’s lively tourist hub, known for cobblestone streets, canals, and well-preserved half-timbered homes like the Tanners’ House, built in 1572. A terrace atop the 17th-century Barrage Vauban, a covered bridge and dam, offers panoramic views. Alsatian eateries dot the area, while shops on and around Grand’Rue sell clothing and souvenirs such as crockery, wine, and specialty teas.
Strasbourg is the capital city of the Grand Est region, formerly Alsace, in northeastern France. It’s also the formal seat of the European Parliament and sits near the German border, with culture and architecture blending German and French influences. Its Gothic Cathédrale Notre-Dame features daily shows from its astronomical clock and sweeping views of the Rhine River from partway up its 142m spire.
A.M. Edition for Aug. 25. WSJ’s Charity Scott discusses the fallout as restaurants indicate their vaccination policies on Yelp.
The House passes a $3.5 trillion budget blueprint. Goldman Sachs will require Covid-19 vaccinations for employees and visitors. U.S. companies rush to cash in on soaring stock prices. And, the growing popularity of video résumés. Marc Stewart hosts.
Costa Rica is a rugged, rainforested Central American country with coastlines on the Caribbean and Pacific. Though its capital, San Jose, is home to cultural institutions like the Pre-Columbian Gold Museum, Costa Rica is known for its beaches, volcanoes, and biodiversity. Roughly a quarter of its area is made up of protected jungle, teeming with wildlife including spider monkeys and quetzal birds.
The contemporary architecture of Japan has long been among the most inventive in the world, recognized for sustainability and infinite creativity. No fewer than seven Japanese architects have won the Pritzker Prize.
Since Osaka World Expo ’70 brought contemporary forms center stage, Japan has been a key player in global architecture. With his intentionally limited vocabulary of geometric forms, Tadao Ando has since then put Japanese building on the world’s cultural map, establishing a bridge between East and West. In the wake of Ando’s mostly concrete buildings, figures like Kengo Kuma (Japan National Stadium intended for the Olympic Games, originally planned for 2020), Shigeru Ban (Mount Fuji World Heritage Center), and Kazuyo Sejima (Kanazawa Museum of 21st Century Art of Contemporary Art) pioneered a more sustainable approach. Younger generations have successfully developed new directions in Japanese architecture that are in harmony with nature and connected to traditional building. Rather than planning on the drawing board, the architects presented in this collection stand out for their endless search for forms, truly reacting on their environment.
Presenting the latest in Japanese building, this book reveals how this unique creativity is a fruit of Japan’s very particular situation that includes high population density, a modern, efficient economy, a long history, and the continual presence of disasters in the form of earthquakes. Accepting ambiguity, as seen in the evanescent reflections of Sejima’s Kanazawa Museum, or constant change and the threat of catastrophe is a key to understanding what makes Japanese architecture different from that of Europe or America.
This XL-sized book highlights 39 architects and 55 exceptional projects by Japanese masters—from Tadao Ando’s Shanghai Poly Theater, Shigeru Ban’s concert hall La Seine Musical, SANAA’S Grace Farms, Fumihiko Maki’s 4 World Trade Center, to Takashi Suo’s much smaller sustainable dental clinic. Each project is introduced with photos, original floor plans and technical drawings, as well as insightful descriptions and brief biographies. An elaborate essay traces the country’s building scene from the Metabolists to today and shows how the interaction of past, present, and future has earned contemporary Japanese architecture worldwide recognition.
Sirmione is a resort town on the southern bank of Lake Garda, in northern Italy. It’s known for its thermal baths and Rocca Scaligera, a medieval castle overlooking the lake. Set at the tip of a peninsula, the Archaeological Site of Grotte di Catullo encompasses a Roman villa, a museum and olive trees. Just below the ruins is the rocky Jamaica Beach. The church of San Pietro in Mavino is adorned with frescoes.
Worms is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, situated on the Upper Rhine about 60 km south-southwest of Frankfurt am Main. It had about 82,000 inhabitants as of 2015. A pre-Roman foundation, Worms is one of the oldest cities in northern Europe.
Climate change has made extreme rainfall events of the kind that sent lethal torrents of waterhurtling through parts of Germany and Belgium last month at least 20% more likely to happen in the region, according to an international study published Tuesday (August 24).
Venice, the capital of northern Italy’s Veneto region, is built on more than 100 small islands in a lagoon in the Adriatic Sea. It has no roads, just canals – including the Grand Canal thoroughfare – lined with Renaissance and Gothic palaces. The central square, Piazza San Marco, contains St. Mark’s Basilica, which is tiled with Byzantine mosaics, and the Campanile bell tower offering views of the city’s red roofs.
Video timeline: 0:00:00 – Intro 0:01:27 – Ponte del Carbon 0:10:15 – Campo S. Bortolomio 0:20:53 – Riva del Vin 0:27:29 – Campo S. Aponal 0:30:36 – Ruga Vecchia S. Giovanni 0:35:53 – Campo Erberia
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