Showing posts with label paris. Show all posts
Showing posts with label paris. Show all posts

Buckminster Knows 065





The Rue Franklin Apartmets in Paris (1902-1904) is hands down Auguste Perret's (1874-1954) masterpiece. I've been told (it could also be a rumour) that Corbu lived here for a while. Strinkigly beautiful facade, too bad the interiors are off limits for visitors.


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La Sainte Chapelle of 1248 was built by Louis IX inside the Royal Palace on Cité Isle to house the relics of the crucifixion.
This Gothic hall church, which became a reference for future similar projects, was damaged by two fires, one flood and also the French Revolution.
The latter caused an important deterioration of the outside ornamentation, which included symbols of the French monarchy such as fleurs-de-lis.
The Holy Chapel may have been designed by Pierre de Montreuil (1200-1266), but no indisputable evidence has ever been found.

pictures here and here

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Pierre-Francois-Henri Labrouste's(1801-75) most celebrated projects: Ste Geneviève Library (1842-50) (picture above) and the reading room of The Bibliothèque Nationale (1859-68) (two pictures below). Both situated in Paris are early examples of use of cast-iron in public buildings and both considered masterpieces of the nineteenth-century. McKim, Mead, and White took the former as a model for their Boston Public Library but were not able to match Henri's radical novelty. 
If you never heard of these projects, I suggest you look them up!

picture of Ste Geneviève here
picture of Salle Labrouste here and here