These buildings are named “The Summer Houses” and located in Jesolo, Italy. They look like one of the best places a summer could be spent hence the name.  My two favorite things about these buildings are how the balconies are layered on each floor and wrap fully around the building and the location. The Summer Houses are located in walking distance of the beach (see image below).  With these buildings Meier designed an amazing vacation destination. You can’t tell in the pictures but on Richard Meier’s website you can find out that the buildings include amenities such as a gym, a spa, with a lap-pool, sauna, and steam room, all oriented south with a view of the sea. If you don’t feel like swimming in the sea then you can relax in the in ground pool surrounded by green gardens.

This is the Oxfordshire Residence located in England. This might be one of the coolest looking houses I’ve ever seen. I think that the all white coloring of it gives it a very clean and sophisticated look. I also find it aesthetically pleasing how the horizontal roof runs almost perfectly parallel with with the ground. I think that one of the best parts about getting to live in the house is all of the natural sunlight that you’d receive. There is a concern of privacy with all of the windows but that concern is negated when you look at the isolated location of the house (see image below). The interior of the house is just as clean as the outside.

When browsing through Richard Meier’s online portfolio this project was the first to catch my eye. It is located in Mexico city and call “Torre Cuarzo on Reforma” which translates to “Quartz Tower on Reformation”. There are 3 main features to this building that I really like.

The first feature being that you can see the white structural skeleton of the building through the transparent glass.

The second feature being the open air corner of the building that is opened up with no glass windows but still has white columns

The third feature being how proud the tower stands compared to its surroundings. The tower looks like a strong vertical entity on the landscape.

This is the St. Antoine Hospital Kitchen located in Paris, France. This building was designed by architect Henri Ciriani and was completed in 1985.

The building  features a courtyard and utilizes brick and glass block as its primary construction materials. Ciriani applied his signature approach to architecture in the St. Antoine Hospital Kitchen by “carefully maintaining the street line with cut-outs and a framing device at the upper levels that forms a screen to the building behind.”  These elements are in many of his modern buildings he has designed.

Ciriani’s design for the St. Antoine Hospital Kitchen was nominated for the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture (EU Mies Award) in 1988.

References:

https://eumiesaward.com/work/1263

https://books.google.com/books?id=LmFooNzPaN0C&pg=RA2-PP1&lpg=RA2-PP1&dq=St.+Antoine+Hospital+kitchen+building+in+Paris&source=bl&ots=Ht5-AoeT-W&sig=ACfU3U2obANyPkADtmokdpQAfgESHOuGKg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjvjOHq3eboAhVS-qwKHZFPCr8Q6AEwDXoECA8QKA#v=onepage&q=St.%20Antoine%20Hospital%20kitchen%20building%20in%20Paris&f=false

This is the Museum of the Great War located in Peronne, France. This is a very unique structure because the modern museum was designed around and incorporates a 13^th century castle in Peronne. The castle is located at the heart of where battles were fought during World War One also referred to as the Great War. The castle marks the entrance to the museum and is a symbolic site of WW1 history and culture. The permanent exhibition in the modern part of the museum was designed by architect Henri Ciriani and was completed in 1992.Ciriani became the architect for this project after he entered into an architectural competition in 1987 and won. Ciriani used white concrete, to emphasize “the nobility of the material, on the same level as stone, brick and marble.” The white concrete structure creates a unique building that looks modern and clean. Ciriani utilized stilts in his design and incorporated a lot light inside the building to erase any effects of heaviness linked to the use of concrete.This is the biggest museum in Europe about WW1. The website for the Historial de la Grande Guerre describes that “The historial was designed by Henri-Edouard Ciriani who used its architecture to express with great emphasis, the building’s vocation, which is to explain the history of WW1in a different manner, without reducing it to battles alone.”

References:

https://www.historial.fr/en/presentation-2/around-the-historial/

https://books.google.com/books?id=XEYEDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA56&lpg=PA56&dq=contest+to+build+historial+de+la+grande+guerre+museum&source=bl&ots=uWJgVcfR_Q&sig=ACfU3U01OzbmotjRtOUbC2vuYu979iLDGw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjLgOHvqOboAhUQSK0KHRbdBNEQ6AEwAHoECAsQKA#v=onepage&q=contest%20to%20build%20historial%20de%20la%20grande%20guerre%20museum&f=false

This is San Felipe Residential Complex that was designed by a team of architects that included architect Henri Ciriani. The project was completed by the Peruvian National Housing Board during the years 1962 through 1969 and was strategically constructed on land of high economic value in Lima, Peru. This is an important work for architect Henri Ciriani because this complex is still considered one of the most important housing projects in Peru.

The Residencial San Felipe is described as an urban project aimed at the middle class. The project “would put into practice new concepts of modernity”, and provided a housing solution and opportunities to people that would otherwise not be able to afford their own home in such a central location in the city of Lima.

This housing project was built in three phases. Ciriani designed the first version of the project along with architect Mario Bernuy, that is located on the southwestern corner of the land. This part of the project included 268 homes that were divided into three types: flats in towers, duplex apartments, and two- story townhomes.

References:

https://www.plataformaarquitectura.cl/cl/787669/clasicos-de-arquitectura-residencial-san-felipe-enrique-ciriani-mario-bernuy-jacques-crousse-oswaldo-nunez-luis-vasquez-nikita-smirnoff

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP partnered with Copenhagen architects after being granted access to construct the Karlatornet project in Gothenburg, Sweden. This building has gained the title of being the tallest building in Sweden and could be a huge shift in the country’s history. The country could shift its traditional developments now because of the inspiration brought by the Karlatornet.

As one can see in the photo, this building sticks out like a sore thumb among the others. I found it very cool that they had the Karlatornet built because it has made history. I compared it to when the United States got news of the twin towers being constructed in New York. It was a monumental moment because they had been labeled as the tallest building during that time period. After this moment, architects were very inspired by what they saw and took it into consideration when creating their own designs. This then became the ‘regular’ and architects began to have more ideas because their spectrum had broadened and engineers became more capable.

Source: https://www.som.com/projects/karlatornet

This is an Archeological Museum located in Arles, France. The museum was designed and built by French/Peruvian architect Henri Ciriani.

Ciriani designed this modern triangular, blue ceramic-clad  building in 1984, and the structure was completed and opened in 1995. This museum houses a large collection of artifacts that date to back to prehistoric times, and go through the end of 6^th century. The Museum features a terrace which gives visitors a view of the building’s triangular shape.

The museum’s website describes that Henri Ciriani’s “triangular layout symbolically incarnates three functions”.

• The transmission and presentation of collections to the public;
• Conservation and restoration, with a mosaic conservation and restoration workshop and an archeology laboratory;
• The reception of different kinds of publics (visits, workshops, internships)

When I was looking on Tripadvisor.com to gather more information about this modern building, I found that most reviews loved one particular artifact, the 2000 year old Roman boat that is on currently on display. However, upon further research I found an interesting article that summarized the law suit in which Henri Ciriani sued the museum owners because his “intellectual-property rights were violated by an expansion project that altered his original design”. The  suit argued that the Arles Archeological Museum “added on to the structure in 2011 without his consent”

The “rectilinear box” was added to one of the buildings corners to house the Roman boat.  

Because this building in one of Ciriani’s most prominent works, the architect argued that he should have been consulted about the changes made to his original design. The French court agreed with Henri Ciriani and he was awarded a settlement for damages.References:

https://www.paintsquare.com/news/?fuseaction=view&id=9074

The Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill LLP is one of the largest architecture firms of the world. 800 West Fulton Market is located in the Fulton District. This is a mixed-use building that contains offices and also houses people. It contains 19 stories but was measured to keep the same scale to the other buildings in the district. 800 West Fulton Market is considered a landmark because it pushed connected this new neighborhood to the higher density commercial district to the north.

This building was very interesting to me because it has become one of the ‘smartest’ buildings in Chicago. The design is LEED Platinum Certified because of improved energy efficiency, better air quality, and lowering operating costs. There is over 50% of green roof space and the temperature is monitored to increase employee productivity while saving money on maintenance. I thought that incorporating the steel into the project gave it a more modern look which helped a lot with making the Fuller District a good bridge towards the north side of Chicago.

link: https://www.som.com/projects/800_west_fulton_market

This unique looking building was created with a vision of turning a garden village into a place where kids could thrive in learning and academics. Cobe architects won a competition to build this school in 2012 and it was completed in 2014. The client for the building was the City of Copenhagen. The school functions as a day care center for 160 children, ranging from ages 0 to 6 years old. The size of the building is 1,950 square meters.

This building is very unique because it allows people of all ages to meet and share the gardens within the school with the kids. The garden features rabbits, goats, chickens and many vegetables. The garden allows for the local kids to enjoy the outdoors and learn more about gardening and animals. Forfatterhuset kindergarten acts as a playground, building, park and an academic institution. This extraordinary work by Cobe is a kids’ world to discover and explore.

Source: https://www.cobe.dk/place/forfatterhuset-kindergarten