Massimo Nalli (Uploaded April 18, 2023) – Pula is situated at the southern tip of the Istrian peninsula in Croatia. The city is best known for its many surviving ancient Roman buildings, the most famous of which is its 1st-century amphitheatre, which is among the six largest surviving Roman arenas in the world, and locally known as the Arena.
Video timeline: – 00:00 – VIEW OF THE PULA FROM ABOVE – 00:13 – TWIN GATE AND CITYT WALLS – 00:55 – TRIUMPHAL ARC OF THE SERGI – 02:04 – FORUM SQUARE – 04:07 – TEMPLE OF AUGUSTUS – 05:03 – ST.FRANCIS CHURCH – 06:55 – CATHEDRAL – 09:55 – ADMIRALTY BUILDING – 11:31 – CASTLE – 13:37 – CHURCH OF ST.MARY FORMOSA – 14:46 – AMPHITHEATER
During the World War II Italian fascist administration, there were attempts to dismantle the arena and move it to mainland Italy, which were quickly abandoned due to the costs involved. Two other notable and well-preserved ancient Roman structures are the 1st-century AD triumphal arch, the Arch of the Sergii and the co-eval Temple of Augustus, built in the 1st century AD built on the forum during the reign of the Roman emperor Augustus.
The Twin Gates (Porta Gemina) is one of the few remaining gates after the city walls were pulled down at the beginning of the 19th century. It dates from the mid-2nd century, replacing an earlier gate. It consists of two arches, columns, a plain architrave, and a decorated frieze. Close by are a few remains of the old city wall.
The Globalist, April 19, 2023: The strategies behind China’s attempts to control Taiwan’s semiconductor industry, the Norwegian environmental NGO branded as “undesirable” by Moscow and the halting of Absolut Vodka exports to Russia.
The settlement with Dominion Voting Systems was the latest extraordinary twist in a case that exposed the inner workings of the most powerful voice in conservative news.
A Times investigation reveals the story behind how Mexico became the first and most prolific user of Pegasus. It’s still using it, despite promising to stop.
Brandon Li Unscripted (April 18, 2023) – The spirit of Morocco, through my eyes. From the medina to the mountains, the Fantasia to the World Cup, Morocco is forever rising.
The Local Project – (April 18, 2023) – Located in the established suburb of Glen Iris, the modern dream house by Pandolfini Architects responds to the desire for a home built of hard-wearing materials and to tell the story of the client’s most recent travels.
Video timeline:00:00 – Introduction to the Ultra Modern Dream House 00:28 – Main Components of The Brief 01:00 – The Composition of the Home 01:42 – Contrasting of the Pavilions 02:17 – The Car Workshop 02:32 – Glass Links and Palette Cleansers 03:03 – The Theme of Discovering New Things and Surprising Moments 03:55 – The External Raw Materials vs. The Internal Materials 04:38 – Effortless and Simple Materials
Reinterpreting the story of floating down rivers, going around bends and discovering new landscapes, the form of the modern dream house creates a journey through distinct architectural and material choices. Composed of three main pavilions, Glen Iris House holds the private wing at the front, a middle pavilion for the dining and living areas, and the last pavilion, which hosts a car workshop that is inherent to the storytelling of the home.
The desire for hard-wearing materials struck a chord with Pandolfini Architects, therefore, raw elements were employed for the exposed form of architecture along the exterior façade. Providing beauty to the home’s shape, bricks have been laid vertically and then rotated 45 degrees to create a strikingly complex surface that the light dances across. As the home faces west, the addition of copper screens has been employed to mediate the natural illuminance that comes inside, providing dappled light throughout the bedrooms.
Similarly, in each pavilion, the glass links provide the opportunity to cleanse the palette so that one can transition seamlessly between zones. Additionally, the links offer a connection to the surrounding landscape of the modern dream house. Used to contrast the brick pavilion, the living barn – the middle pavilion – uses exposed concrete ribs to form the shape of the interior design. Containing materials such as American Oak timber, travertine and soft hard-plaster walls, the living room barn has been broken up with structural elements so that each space can shine independently.
Additionally, a curved breakfast nook formed out of travertine adds to the middle pavilion’s internal structure, while a sculptural fireplace sits between the living and dining rooms and delineates the spaces. Continuing with the theme of discovery, the architect has created surprising moments throughout the interior with timber batten walls and concealed doors that open up to other corridors or into new areas that are not expected. Though arches are present throughout the modern dream house, the choices were not premeditated and instead have evolved naturally throughout the design process. Furthermore, the hard and dense materials used for the exterior of the home are complemented by the arches to insert a playfulness and respite over the home’s form. Providing a contrast to the internal materials, which are softer and more refined, only three materials were used for the home’s exterior.
With bush-hammered concrete, terracotta brickwork and copper, Pandolfini Architects chose the materials due to their hard-bearing nature and ability to age with the property. Incredibly proud of how the materials have come together, Pandolfini Architects recognises the joint effort with the builders, interior designer and the clients who helped to create their own modern dream house.
Villa Medicis, Rome (April 18, 2023) – The piano nobile of Villa Medici consists of the former rooms of Cardinal Ferdinando de’ Medici with three rooms in a row – the Room of the Elements, the Room of the Muses and the Room of the Lovers of Jupiter – with 16th century frescoes by the Mannerist painter Jacopo Zucchi. These rooms, which are open to the public on guided tours throughout the year, are located next to two private rooms from the same period which complete the complex.
As part of the project Reenchanting Villa Medici, the interior refurbishment of these emblematic spaces of Villa Medici has been entrusted to India Mahdavi, an internationally renowned French architect, designer and scenographer, who will be responsible for the artistic direction of the project in association with craftsmen (more information to come). This transformation is being carried out with respect for the period décor and previous architectural interventions, in order to revisit the premises by adding a touch of colour and modernity. The rooms will be equipped by Maison Tréca, a French manufacturer of high quality bedding.
National Trust (April 18, 2023) – To this day, Virginia Woolf is still known for her novel ‘Mrs Dalloway’ and for her early involvement in the Bloomsbury Group, which was established in the early 1900s in London.
Monk’s House in Sussex was once the place she and her husband Leopold called home, and it’s now being cared for by the National Trust. In this video from the National Trust, you can experience what life was like at Monk’s House first hand. For more than 20 years, Virginia Woolf transformed Monk’s House into a place of beauty, art, creativity and contentment.
Virginia Woolf
From reciting lines in her bathtub to writing books in the tool shed, let this literary pioneer tell you in her own words how she finally found ‘a room of one’s own’. Throughout much of her life, Virginia Woolf experienced bouts of mental illness, and Monk’s House was used as a writing retreat by Virginia and Leopold.
The Sussex landscape captured her imagination, and this came through in much of her writing. She was also engaged in the conservation of the land – a legacy that lives on through the work that National Trust staff and volunteers do to care for this place of history.
The Globalist, April 18, 2023: The Fox News-Dominion defamation trial begins. Plus: the effect of Russian mercenaries on the conflict in Sudan, a flick through the day’s papers and a dispatch from the Salone del Mobile.
Shocked by Russian atrocities, NATO is becoming the war-fighting alliance it was during the Cold War, committed to defending “every inch” of its territory from Day 1.
The inquiry aims to hold to account Syrian officials considered key architects of a brutal system of detention and torture that has flourished under President Bashar al-Assad.
Grace Wright’s atmospheric paintings are all-consuming, inviting the viewer into a baroque world of tangled gestures. Markings on the canvas twist and convulse about themselves to build an anarchic structure before unravelling to moments of repose. While Wright’s gestures may be abstract, she views her paintings as representational narratives, evoking the tempestuous rhythm of the natural world, while alluding to 17th-century religious paintings.
Grace Wright, World Receivers, 2023
Deep Symmetry explores a recent evolution of Wright’s practice as a result of her time in Europe in the latter half of 2022. Its title was inspired by the architectural geometries of the Sainte Chapelle in Paris, France, and a quote by writer Karl Ove Knausgaard: “Life is irregularity, death is geometry”.
Wright has been long fascinated with the deeper, universal connections that exist beyond our normal comprehension. Marrying alluring, harmonious colour with visceral imagery to monumental standing, Wright’s paintings are a reflection of this deep connectedness; her coiling energetic brush marks echoing the universal ‘rhythmic, cyclical nature’ forms in our world, to emotion and the force of life itself.
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