The Lingotto

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In 1916 began the construction of Lingotto (ingot) to house the Fiat factories. Created by architect Giacomo Mattè-Trucco and inspired by the Ford plant in Detroit. It includes two helicoïdal ramps, North and South, providing access for cars on the test track located on the roof of the building.



This track, simple ring and ends as a velodrome is a little over a kilometer long. When construction ends in 1922, it was at the time the largest factory in Europe and became the emblem of the Italian industry.



From this impressive industrial site dozens of car models were out of production lines as the Torpedo Fiat, Fiat 508 and Fiat 500 Topolino. The fabrications were arrested at the plant in 1982, the last model made was the Lancia Delta.

photo Elvio Patuano





It was, until its final closure, the flagship of the Fiat group. Masterfully restored by the Genovese architect Renzo Piano (Pompidou Center), he managed this transformation while maintaining the exterior of the building, which has some architectural merit,(avant garde style) the Lingotto now serve as a center for exhibitions, conferences, commercial gallery, museum and sits next to the Fiat history headquarters ...
Today the track welcome a few cars demonstrations, but we'll dream of vintage motorcycle races!!
The Scrigno (jewelry boxes) welcomes the Giovanni and Marella Agnelli (owners of Fiat) Pinacoteca
The futuristic dome houses a conference center.





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The Ilbarritz Castle

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Since my childhood i always saw this castle standing in front of the sea and as all the kids here, i wondered what could have been the life of Albert de L'Espée living inside this house. I know he was playing organ on the Bidart beach during the stormy nights and was saying that the vew he had from the tower was the second incredible vew after the Rio bay...
Frank


In 1854 Biarritz's became renowned when Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III, built a luxurious palace on the beach (now called the Hôtel du Palais). The city now has an international reputation as a glamourous seaside resort, making it much more famous than the whaling village it once was, and has been frequented by the British royal family; European royalty such as Queen Victoria, Edward VII, and Alfonso XIII of Spain. A variety of archietecture adornes the cliffs of Biarritz including one eclectic residence built by Gustave Huguenin, know for his secrecy, which faces Spain and still intrigues locals.


What goes on up on the hill of Handia? The new owner is reclusive, eccentric, and very strict about trespassing on his land and insists he does not was to be disturbed. To help him keep his privacy he has erected 2 iron fences on the 148 acres of land making it a fortress to all who would hope to visit. He is quite open that no one is welcomed on his land. Not only that but he rarely leaves his estate and has nothing to do with society in general. Who is this modern day Howard Hughes? We may never know.


Gaston Lacroix’s Phantom of the Opera struck a cord with Baron de l’Espée who hated humanity and was wealthy enough not to care. He developed an obsession with pipe organs that forced him to live alone on his many properties scattered throughout France.

This changed a bit when he met the famous vocalist Biana Duhamel, who was 20 years his junior, and he became infatuated. She was drawn to the Baron’s eccentric personality as well as his vast wealth. Biana was the soft spot in the Baron’s armor and he would give in to her every whim, want, and need as long as she remained at his disposal. Their relationship is still not fully understood throughout the Ilbaritz region.


Baron de L'Espée is an avant-garde dreamer and designer. He wants his romance and he wants it to take place in an impenetrable fortress of solitude. In addition to the castle, the Baron has built the "villa des Sables" a luxury villa housing his sweetheart Biana Duhamel and her mother.

This glamorous property is surrounded by high walls and is connected to the castle through a covered path allowing Biana to be taken wherever she wants on the Baron’s property without fearing for the weather.


On the beach, from the South to the North; except the kitchen and the hydro-electric factory, one could find the bath cabins, the marine establishments (heated pools and Turkish baths), and the medieval castle (a small neo-gothic castle).

On the East of the Ilbarritz castle, an extraordinary panoramic living room built on pillars which architecture was similar to a mausoleum. Underneath the castle, an artificial cave wonderfully decorated leading to a natural spring and allowed the lovers to take refuge and to quench their thirst...


All of these locations provided the couple with new adventures to enjoy together on a daily basis. Compared to other properties built by Baron de L'Espée none of them shows such unabandoned creativity and fantasy that Ilbaritz afforded him. In the end Ilbaritz was designed as a gigantic theater to appeal to his lover and offer them endless hours of amusement.

All was not as lush and happy as it seemed though. The Baron took it upon himself to become the jailer of Biana and forced her to stay by his side or on the property at all times. In Januaray 1898 Biana began attempting to escape her lover’s prison to enjoy the nightlife in Biarritz. The Baron became furious at these attempts and installed a giant spot light on top of Castle Belvedere to watch the villa des Sables (this light was so bright and blinding it caused the auto accident of the Queen of Serbia). Try as he might the Baron could not keep Biana locked up forever and in February 1898 she left him for good.


The mystery surrounding the castle is not limited to the eerie quiet that engulfs the property. Long ago some evenings a rumble would seep out from the very heart of the manor and escape into the moist night air. This beating heart drumming out Wagner’s tunes was the largest pipe organ ever built for a private person by the world famous Cavaillé-Coll.

The castle was actually built around this masterpiece to enhance the acoustics and overall sound. This pipe organ was the jewel in the crown of the famous organ-smith Cavaillé-Coll. It was built using cutting edge technology in its day which included: 4 manual keyboards and pedals, 78 games, mechanic traction of games and keyboards. This great organ was dismantled in 1903 and returned to Cavaillé-Coll (relocated to La Basilique du Sacré Coeur de Montmartre in 1919).The original organ was replaced in 1906 because the Baron had found a slightly smaller, but more technologically advanced organ built by Mutin. This second organ can now be seen in the church of Uzurbil, close to San Sebastian in Spain.


Sold in 1911 the building was transformed into a hospital around 1917. It then shut its doors again in 1923 and doesn’t see activity until 1939. In the 1940’s the building is requisitioned by the Pyrenees Inférieures and is used as a recovery location for refugees from the Spanish Civil War and then as a holiday resort used by Hitler’s SS Divisions (especially “Das Reich”) fighting on the Eastern front and allowed them a strategic lookout point while enjoying their time.

While fortifying the cliffs from Biarritz to Hendaye by the Todt Organization, it is found that Organ Castle is so enormous and built of concrete and iron that no fortifying was necessary. In 1945 the FFI staying in the castle testify to the excellent state of the castle and comment on the marble tops, woodwork, and titled floor covering the 1200m² terraces are in pristine condition.


After the turmoil of World War II the castle was left to the elements and was used as an annex for a farm. Looting also took place during this time as supplies were scarce.

Within 10 years of neglect the castle is torn apart. Fireplaces and rare marble covering first floor rooms and the organ room up to its gallery are all stolen. Fine chiseled woodwork, golden bronze doors, window frames, and anything of the remotest value are stolen. All that is left after this period of plunder are a few tiles from the terraces.

In 1958, an attempted renovation of the castle is started by a new owner, but he files for bankruptcy in 1986 and the castle is again left to the elements, looters, and squatters.


In 2002, the building is taken over by a private project for reclamation but they find the iron work of the building in sad shape. The metallic structures are badly damaged and require severe work. This slows down the progress of the project, not-to-mention that the design of the building itself (initially planned for an organ an a couple!) makes the use of the building difficult.

In 2008 the building is a permanent residence and is guarded around the clock. Although it may appear as a ghost ship this incredible building shines once again over the Basque Coast.


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Container City

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Containers are an extremely flexible method of construction, being both modular in shape, extremely strong structurally and readily available. Container Cities offer an alternative solution to traditional space provision. They are ideal for office and workspace, live-work and key-worker housing.



Container Cities do not even have to look like containers! It is a relatively simple matter to completely clad a building externally in a huge variety of materials.



Finally the benefits of Container Cities can truly be seen in short and medium term land use projects. Short-life sites can have Container Cities that simply unbolt and can be relocated or stored when land is required for alternative uses. To date this alternative method of construction has successfully created youth centres, classrooms, office space, artists studios, live / work space, a nursery and retail space.

Container City

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Frank Lloyd Wright & The Excelsior

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No, Frank Lloyd Wright did not design the Excelsior, although he is said to have had a hand in designing his personal automobile, a Stoddard Dayton. However, the famous architect did have an interesting connection to Excelsior.
The son of a German immigrant, George T. Robie started the Excelsior Supply Company in Chicago in 1876. The company was a distributor, specializing in sewing machine parts. During the 1880s, as the popularity of the bicycle grew, the company branched out into cycle parts, supplies, and accessories. Excelsior became a major supplier of bicycle equipment and bicycles in the United States and was one of the earliest importers of the safety bicycle.



When automobiles came on the scene, Excelsior again expanded its business to include automotive and machinery supplies. By 1905 it was one of the largest distributors of automobile supplies in the United States, advertising that they handled everything but the motor.



George Robie had one son, Frederick Carleton. In 1895 Frederick attended Purdue but, by the turn of the century, returned home to Chicago to join Excelsior. Frederick met Lora Hieronymous at a University of Chicago dance. Lora was the daughter of the president of the Illinois National Bank. They were married in 1902.



Frederick was interested in manufacturing complete vehicles, motorcycles and cars, but his father did not want the headaches of manufacturing, preferring to remain a distributor. However, Excelsior did become involved in the motorcycle vehicles, an easy extension of their bicycle business. They started selling some built-up machines, then debuted their newly designed single cylinder motorcycle in late 1907. The new motorcycle sold so well, the company had trouble keeping up with the orders.



With the business going well, Excelsior motorcycles were making their mark. The younger Robies had been living in an apartment in a residential hotel, but with a new family member on the way, decided to build a house. Lora wanted to live near the University of Chicago for the cultural events, so they purchased a lot in Hyde Park. Frederick contacted Frank Lloyd Wright to design the house that he had in mind. Lora Robie might have been the impetus for choosing Wright, as he had designed the library at the school where she taught before the Robies were married.



The architect and the manufacturer seemed to hit it off immediately. Robie had a clear idea of what he wanted. Among other requirements for the house were a walled yard for safety and privacy, overhangs to provide shade, and a three-car garage with a built-in car wash and a pit for working on his vehicles. Construction began in 1909 and the house was completed in 1910. By the time the Robies moved in, Wright had already left to study in Europe, with the wife of another client, leaving his family behind.

Although the Robies only lived in the house for about two years, it is still known as the Robie House. Today it is considered the epitome of Wright's Prairie House style and is ranked as one of his most important designs. The manufacture and sale of Excelsior motorcycles helped to make possible this masterpiece of American architecture.

text by Robert Turek


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The Cliff House, San Francisco

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The first night we arrived in San Francisco with my friends Vincent and Come going to Half Moon Bay we stopped in the Cliff House for dinner. It was just a 100 m from our hotel, The Seal Rock Inn and it reminded me my hometown Biarritz. It was a really cool night...

all pictures courtesy of : the cliff house project



The Cliff House is a restaurant perched on the headlands on the cliffs just north of Ocean Beach on the western side of San Francisco, California. It overlooks the site of the former Sutro Baths and a room-sized camera obscura and is now part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, operated by the National Park Service.



Cliff House has had five major incarnations since its beginnings in 1858. That year, Samuel Brannan, a prosperous ex-Mormon elder from Maine, bought for $1,500 the lumber salvaged from a ship that foundered on the basalt cliffs below. With this material he built the first Cliff House. The second Cliff house was built for Captain Junius G. Foster, but it was a long trek from the city and hosted mostly horseback riders, small game hunters or picnickers on day outings. With the opening of the Point Lobos toll road a year later, the Cliff House became successful with the Carriage trade for Sunday travel.



The builders of the toll road constructed a two mile speedway beside it where well-to-do San Franciscans raced their horses along the way. On weekends, there was little room at the Cliff House hitching racks for tethering the horses for the thousands of rigs. Soon, omnibus railways and streetcar lines made it to near Lone Mountain where passengers transferred to stagecoach lines to the beach. The growth of Golden Gate Park attracted beach travelers in search of meals and a look at the Sea Lions sunning themselves on Seal Rock, just off the cliffs to visit the area.



In 1877, the toll road, now Geary Boulevard, was purchased by the City for around $25,000. In 1883, after a few years of downturn, the Cliff House was bought by Adolph Sutro who had solved the problems of ventilating and draining the mines of the Comstock Lode and become a multimillionaire. After a few years of quiet management by J.M. Wilkens, the Cliff House was severely damaged by an explosion of the schooner, Parallel, that went aground under the reasons of dynamite. The blast was heard a hundred miles away and demolished the entire north wing of the tavern. The building was repaired, but was later completely destroyed on Christmas night 1894 due to a defective flue. Wilkens was unable to save the guest register, which included the signatures of three Presidents and dozens of illustrious world-famous visitors.



In 1896, Adolph Sutro built a new Cliff House, a seven story Victorian Chateau, called by some "the Gingerbread Palace", below his estate on the bluffs of Sutro Heights. This was the same year work began on the famous Sutro Baths, which included six of the largest indoor swimming pools north of the Restaurant that included a museum, skating rink and other pleasure grounds. Great throngs of San Franciscans arrived on steam trains, bicycles, carts and horse wagons on Sunday excursions.



The Cliff House and Sutro Baths survived the 1906 earthquake with little damage but burned to the ground on the evening of September 7, 1907. Dr. Emma Merritt, Sutro's daughter, commissioned a rebuilding of the restaurant in a neo-classical style that was completed within two years and is the basis of the structure seen today. In 1937, George and Leo Whitney purchased the Cliff House, complementing their Playland-at-the-Beach attraction nearby and extensively remodeling it into an American roadhouse. The building was acquired by the National Park Service in 1977 and became part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Many of Whitney's additions were removed and the building was restored to its 1909 appearance. In 2003, an extensive further renovation added a new two-story wing overlooking the Sutro Bath ruins.



Cliff House in background, past Sutro Bath Ruins, 2008.The site overlooks the Seal Rock and the former site of the Sutro Baths. More than thirty ships have been pounded to pieces on the southern shore of the Golden Gate below the Cliff House. The area immediately around Cliff House is part of the setting of Jack London's novel The Scarlet Plague (1912).


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Paul Rudolph Architecture

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Paul Marvin Rudolph (October 23, 1918 in Elkton, Kentucky – August 8, 1997 in New York, New York) was an American architect and the dean of the Yale School of Architecture for six years, known for his cubist building designs and highly complex floor plans. His most famous work is the Yale Art and Architecture Building (A&A Building), a spatially complex Brutalist concrete structure.



Rudolph earned his bachelors's degree in architecture at Auburn University (then known as Alabama Polytechnic Institute) in 1940 and then moved on to the Harvard Graduate School of Design to study with Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius. After three years, he left to serve in the Navy for another three years, returning to Harvard to receive his master's in 1947.
He moved to Sarasota, Florida and partnered with Ralph Twitchell for four years until he started his own practice in 1951. Rudolph's Sarasota time is now part of the period labeled Sarasota Modern in his career.



Notable for its appearance in the 1958 book, Masters of Modern Architecture, the W. R. Healy House, built in 1950, was a one-story Sarasota house built on posts. The roof was concave, in order to allow rainwater to drain off. In addition, Rudolph used jalousie windows, which enabled the characteristic breezes to and from Sarasota Bay to flow into the house. Adaptation to the subtropical climate was central to his designs and Rudolph is considered one of the major architects in what is labeled the Sarasota School of Architecture.



Other Sarasota landmarks by Rudolph include the Sarasota County Riverview High School, built in 1957 as his first large scale project. Currently, it is slated for demolition despite international criticism and a great deal of controversy in Sarasota, where many members of the community are appealing for the retention of the historic building since the decision reached in 2006 by the county school board. As Charles Gwathmey, the architect overseeing renovation of Art and Architecture Building at Yale, says:

“ Riverview High School is a fantastic prototype of what today we call green architecture. He was so far ahead of his time, experimenting with sun screens and cross-ventilation. If it's torn down, I feel badly for architecture. ”



Paul Rudolph's Florida houses attracted attention in the architectural community and he started receiving commissions for larger works such as the Jewett Art Center at Wellesley College. He took over the helm of the Yale School of Architecture as its dean in 1958, shortly after designing the Yale Art and Architecture Building. That building often is considered his masterpiece. He stayed on at Yale for six years until he returned to private practice. He designed the Temple Street Parking Garage, also in New Haven, in 1962.



He later designed the Government Service Center in Boston, the main campus of University of Massachusetts Dartmouth (originally known as Southeastern Massachusetts Technological Institute, and later as the Southeastern Massachusetts University), the Dana Arts Center at Colgate University, and the Burroughs Wellcome headquarters in North Carolina.



The Lippo Centre, 1987, by Paul Rudolph, a landmark building in Hong KongWhile the Brutalist style fell out of favor in the U.S. during the 1970s, Rudolph's work evolved, and became in demand in other countries. Rudolph designed reflective glass office towers in this period, such as the D. R. Horton, and Wells Fargo towers in Fort Worth, which departed from his concrete works. Rudolph continued working on projects in Singapore, where he designed The Concourse office tower with its ribbon windows and interweaving floors, as well as projects in other Asian countries through the last years of his life. His work, the Lippo Centre, completed in 1987, is a landmark in the area near Admiralty Station of MTR in Hong Kong, and a culmination of Rudolph's ideas in reflective glass. In Indonesia Rudolph pieces of art can be found in Jakarta, Wisma Dharmala Sakti, and in Surabaya, Wisma Dharmala Sakti 2.

The Elk Rock Road Residence

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Man this house is unbelievable, i saw a Tv documentary about this guy in his house last week and i can tell you he knows what's nice, rare and rad



Elk Rock Road Residence
Lake Oswego, Oregon
Designed: 1988
Completed: 1989

Appearing to soar right out of the hillside, this house clings to a 30-degree slope rising above the Williamette River providing a spectacular view of the river, Mt. Hood and the rising sun. The house is an experiment in feelings. Although providing a secure feeling of being anchored into the site, the structure achieves a feeling of floating in space, like a bird in flight. The structure is funnel-like in shape: starting out with a small studio on the lowest level, moving to the children's bedrooms on the middle level, and on the upper level where the view is the best, family community spaces and master bedroom suite.



In 1971, Robert Oshatz established the firm of Robert Harvey Oshatz, Architect. Over the years the firm has provided a wide variety of organic architecture, planning, interior design and construction management services for developers and individual clients. Robert Harvey Oshatz, Architect has designed and built numerous commercial and residential projects over the past twenty plus years.



"An architect is an artist, creator, logician of evolving aesthetic structures; a designer of not only the visual but the internal space. I see architecture as a synthesis of logic and emotion, exploring and fulfilling the dreams, fantasies and realities of my clients, whether they are individuals, corporate, or community identities."

Jean Prouve Bicycle

A PARTLY PAINTED BENT STEEL AND ALUMINIUM BICYCLE BY JEAN PROUVE, CIRCA 1941



This bicycle is the only complete example left of this model known to exist. A bicycle frame of this model is part of the collections of the Centre Georges Pompidou, Musée National d'Art Moderne and featured in the exhibition 'Jean Prouvé, Constructeur' held in 1991. Prouvé designed this bicycle during the war, in a time of great economic turmoil, with the hope to facilitate his employees' journey between their homes and the ateliers




At Christies tomorrow : Link




Jean Prouvé (8 April 1901 - 23 March 1984) was a French engineer and designer. His main achievement was transferring the manufacturing technology from industry to the architecture, without losing the aesthetic qualities.
Jean was born in Nancy. He grew up surrounded by the ideals and energy of his father Victor Prouvé's art collective, "l'École de Nancy". This school came together with the intent of making art readily accessible, to forge a relationship between art and industry, and to articulate a link between art and social consciousness.



Prouvé was first apprenticed to a blacksmith, Émile Robert, and then to the metal workshop of Szabo. In Nancy in 1923 he opened what would be the first in a string of his own workshops and studios. He produced wrought iron lamps, chandeliers, hand rails and began designing furniture. In 1930 he helped establish the Union of Modern Artists whose manifesto read, "We like logic, balance and purity."

Although Jean Prouvé shaped his public image around the idea that he was not married to a specific aesthetic, the tenets of "l'École de Nancy" were certainly a powerful influence on his body of work. "I was raised," Prouvé says, "in a world of artists and scholars, a world which nourished my mind."



He opened the successful "Ateliers Jean Prouvé" in 1931 and began collaborating with French architects Eugène Beaudoin and Marcel Lods on projects such as the Maison du Peuple in Clichy, an aviation club and an army camp. He also collaborated with Charlotte Perriand and Pierre Jeanneret on a variety of furniture designs. The war kept "Ateliers" in business manufacturing bicycles and a stove called "Pyrobal" that could burn on any fuel. During the war Prouvé was also politically active as a member of the Resistance and he was recognized for this involvement after the war by being named mayor of Nancy. He was also made a member of the Advisory Assembly after Liberation and made the Departmental Inspector for Technical Education. "Ateliers Jean Prouvé" were commissioned by the Reconstruction Ministry to mass-produce frame houses for refugees.



In 1947 he built the Maxéville factory where he produced furniture and undertook extensive architectural research on the uses of aluminum. They built industrial buildings from aluminum and sent hundreds of aluminum sheds to Africa. After Maxéville he started "Constructions Jean Prouvé" whose major works were a cafe in Evian, a pavilion for the centennial of aluminum and the Abbey Pierre house. In 1957 he started the Industrial Transport Equipment Company and built the Rotterdam Medical School, the Exhibition Center in Grenoble and the Orly Airways Terminal façade.



The metal furniture of Jean Prouvé was produced copiously in every studio and workshop. The style is set apart from the Bauhaus steel furniture of the time by his rejection of the steel tube technique. Prouvé had more faith in the durability and form of sheet metal, "bent, pressed, compressed than welded". His designs speak of a work philosophy that includes knowledge of the materials at hand, a commitment to collaboration between artists and craftsmen, an attention to evolving technical developments, and "the principle of never postponing decisions so as neither to lose the impetus nor indulge in unrealistic forecasts". Prouvé was influential in the development of the idea of nomadic architecture, likening a chair to a house, and designing both with portability in mind.

He died in Nancy in 1984.
Posted by Yves J. Hayat