Cyclorama Center

Cycloramas, 360-degree panoramic paintings, were popular attractions in the late 19th century. In 1883, French artist Paul Philippoteaux completed a massive painting of Pickett's Charge, the famous last battle of Gettysburg. After touring, one of the four versions of the painting went on display in Gettysburg in 1913; it was purchased by the National Park Service in 1942. In 1956, the National Park Service launched a 10-year inititative aimed at improving visitor services to national parks with new facilities and infrastructure. Richard Neutra (1892-1970), an Austrian emigrant to the US who was an advocate for international-style modern architecture, was commissioned to design a new home for the Gettysburg Cyclorama. Opened on the centennial of the Battle of Gettysburg in 1963 at Ziegler's Grove, the site of Pickett's Charge, Neutra's Cyclorama Center was a concrete and glass cylindrical drum, 109 meters (358 feet) in circumference and 8 meters (26 feet) high, overlooking the battlefield. Unfortunately, a lack of maintenance allowed water leakage to damage the painting as well as the building. A new building housing the restored painting opened in spring 2008. Neutra's Cyclorama Center is slated for demolition so that its site, considered by many to be hallowed ground, can be restored to its 1863 appearance. The Recent Past Preservation Network, an education and advocacy organization that focuses on significant sites of the past 50 years, mounted an international campaign to highlight the case of the Cyclorama Center. The group contends that the Cyclorama's demolition will establish a dangerous precedent, endorsed by a government agency, for disregarding mid-century modern architecture. Listed on WMF's 2006 Watch, the Cyclorama Center's situation should bring attention to the plight of postwar architecture more broadly.

Cyclorama Center

Cycloramas, 360-degree panoramic paintings, were popular attractions in the late 19th century. In 1883, French artist Paul Philippoteaux completed a massive painting of Pickett's Charge, the famous last battle of Gettysburg. After touring, one of the four versions of the painting went on display in Gettysburg in 1913; it was purchased by the National Park Service in 1942. In 1956, the National Park Service launched a 10-year inititative aimed at improving visitor services to national parks with new facilities and infrastructure. Richard Neutra (1892-1970), an Austrian emigrant to the US who was an advocate for international-style modern architecture, was commissioned to design a new home for the Gettysburg Cyclorama. Opened on the centennial of the Battle of Gettysburg in 1963 at Ziegler's Grove, the site of Pickett's Charge, Neutra's Cyclorama Center was a concrete and glass cylindrical drum, 109 meters (358 feet) in circumference and 8 meters (26 feet) high, overlooking the battlefield. Unfortunately, a lack of maintenance allowed water leakage to damage the painting as well as the building. A new building housing the restored painting opened in spring 2008. Neutra's Cyclorama Center is slated for demolition so that its site, considered by many to be hallowed ground, can be restored to its 1863 appearance. The Recent Past Preservation Network, an education and advocacy organization that focuses on significant sites of the past 50 years, mounted an international campaign to highlight the case of the Cyclorama Center. The group contends that the Cyclorama's demolition will establish a dangerous precedent, endorsed by a government agency, for disregarding mid-century modern architecture. Listed on WMF's 2006 Watch, the Cyclorama Center's situation should bring attention to the plight of postwar architecture more broadly. More on Modernism at Risk.

Cyclorama Center

Cycloramas, 360-degree panoramic paintings, were popular attractions in the late 19th century. In 1883, French artist Paul Philippoteaux completed a massive painting of Pickett's Charge, the famous last battle of Gettysburg. After touring, one of the four versions of the painting went on display in Gettysburg in 1913; it was purchased by the National Park Service in 1942. In 1956, the National Park Service launched a 10-year inititative aimed at improving visitor services to national parks with new facilities and infrastructure. Richard Neutra (1892-1970), an Austrian emigrant to the US who was an advocate for international-style modern architecture, was commissioned to design a new home for the Gettysburg Cyclorama. Opened on the centennial of the Battle of Gettysburg in 1963 at Ziegler's Grove, the site of Pickett's Charge, Neutra's Cyclorama Center was a concrete and glass cylindrical drum, 109 meters (358 feet) in circumference and 8 meters (26 feet) high, overlooking the battlefield. Unfortunately, a lack of maintenance allowed water leakage to damage the painting as well as the building. A new building housing the restored painting opened in spring 2008. Neutra's Cyclorama Center is slated for demolition so that its site, considered by many to be hallowed ground, can be restored to its 1863 appearance. The Recent Past Preservation Network, an education and advocacy organization that focuses on significant sites of the past 50 years, mounted an international campaign to highlight the case of the Cyclorama Center. The group contends that the Cyclorama's demolition will establish a dangerous precedent, endorsed by a government agency, for disregarding mid-century modern architecture. Listed on WMF's 2006 Watch, the Cyclorama Center's situation should bring attention to the plight of postwar architecture more broadly.

Eritrean capital of Asmara

Perched on a plateau two kilometers (6,500 feet) above the Red Sea, the Eritrean capital of Asmara has one of the world's highest concentrations of early modern architecture. Constructed primarily between 1936 and 1941 by Italian architects unconstrained by the more conservative environment in Europe, Asmara's architects and engineers borrowed from a wide range of building styles. The fusion of European modernism with African highland culture and traditional materials resulted in a unique urban environment that has survived remarkably intact. Today, more than 400 buildings remain from the Italian period, among them the Asmara Theater. Designed in 1919 by renowned architect and engineer Oduardo Cavagnari (1868-1920), the theater was the city's first performing arts venue. Asmara was included on the 2006 World Monuments Watch because of development pressures. Since Eritrean independence from Ethiopia in 1993, increased public and private demands to improve the urban infrastructure and construct contemporary buildings have compromised the city's built environment. Recognizing the threat, the government established the Cultural Assets Rehabilitation Project (CARP) in 2000. With support from the World Bank, CARP undertook extensive research and documentation of Asmara's urban environment, establishing a "historic perimeter" zone around the city center. CARP also worked to develop planning guidelines and a legal framework to protect Asmara's historic resources. More on Modernism at Risk. Please help support work at sites like Asmara Historic City Center by donating to WMF's annual campaign.

modernist architecture

Designed by Chilean architect Enrique Gebhard, the Montemar Institute of Marine Biology has been described as one of the most successful examples of South American modernist architecture. Built in two phases, between 1941 and 1945 and 1956 and 1959, Montemar is considered Gebhard's most important work, and the structure's synergy with its environment and the preexisting activities at the site made it an important model for later Chilean architects working with a modernist vocabulary. The building was constructed as the field station of the Institute of Marine Biology of the University of Chile. The Institute was founded to work in partnership with local fishermen; in exchange for specimens collected by the fishermen, researchers helped improve fishing methods and taught fishermen sustainable management of marine species. When the University of Valparaíso was formed in the 1980s, it was granted ownership of the Institute's building, which is now home to the university's Faculty of Ocean Sciences. The Institute was listed on the 2008 World Monuments Watch due to renovations that have and will damage the integrity of the original design. The building's first addition was constructed in the 1990s, when an extra floor was added onto the area that had originally been a rooftop terrace over the complex's laboratories, changing the architect's intended view of the horizon. Another addition is being constructed alongside the original building, and this will undermine some of the signature elements of Gebhard's design. It will block the large window in the auditorium, and reduce the area available to fishermen by 50 percent, which could lead them to abandon the site for another one farther away.

American modernist architecture

Designed by Chilean architect Enrique Gebhard, the Montemar Institute of Marine Biology has been described as one of the most successful examples of South American modernist architecture. Built in two phases, between 1941 and 1945 and 1956 and 1959, Montemar is considered Gebhard's most important work, and the structure's synergy with its environment and the preexisting activities at the site made it an important model for later Chilean architects working with a modernist vocabulary. The building was constructed as the field station of the Institute of Marine Biology of the University of Chile. The Institute was founded to work in partnership with local fishermen; in exchange for specimens collected by the fishermen, researchers helped improve fishing methods and taught fishermen sustainable management of marine species. When the University of Valparaíso was formed in the 1980s, it was granted ownership of the Institute's building, which is now home to the university's Faculty of Ocean Sciences

LIGHT HAND

WINDOW

TEXTURE

Center for Architecture, Design and Engineering

The Center for Architecture, Design, and Engineering was established in the Library of Congress in 2002 to focus attention on, encourage support for, and promote the study of the Library's unmatched architecture, design, and engineering collections, thereby increasing the public's awareness and appreciation of the achievements of the architecture, design, and engineering professions and their contributions to our quality of life.

EPURE

HOUSE

The Matthew Architecture Gallery, Edinburgh University School of Architecture, Chambers Street, Edinburgh

Ancient Indian Architecture

Famous Hindu Akshardham temple in South Delhi
Indian architecture is that vast tapestry of production of the Indian Subcontinent that encompasses a multitude of expressions over space and time, transformed by the forces of history considered unique to the sub-continent, sometimes destroying, but most of the time absorbing. The result is an evolving range of architectural production that none the less retains a certain amount of continuity across history.

the discipline dealing with the principles of design and construction and ornamentation of fine buildings"architecture and eloquence are mixed arts whose end is sometimes beauty and sometimes use"

Origamic Architecture

In the Japanese paperfolding art of origami, cutting the paper is frowned upon. But in 1981, Masahiro Chatani, professor of Architecture at Tokyo Institute of Technology proved that papercutting could indeed produce stunning pieces of art.
Along with his colleague Keiko Nakazawa, Chatani developed Origamic Architecture, a variation of kirigami (itself a variation of origami where cuts were allowed), where you only needed an X-acto knife and a ruler to create complex 3-dimensional structures out of a single sheet of paper.
Origamic Architecture sculptures range from (the relatively simple) geometric patterns to famous buildings’ facades. It’s like 3-D pop-up greeting cards, but much, much more complex. While looking at the examples below, keep this in mind: everything’s done with the simple cuts of the knife.
Simple cuts can result in stunning geometric shapes

dynamic architecture

Set to be constructed - of course - in Dubai, this skyscraper designed by architect David Fisher rotates by wind power. But not as a whole - this building rotates by individual floor, creating what Fisher calls ‘dynamic architecture’.
Dynamic Architecture buildings keep modifying their shape. As each floor rotates separately, the form of the building changes constantly; you may not see the same building twice.
Dynamic architecture marks a new era in architecture. This new approach, based on motion dynamics, is in fact a challenge to traditional architecture that until now was based on gravity.
Dynamic Architecture buildings will become the symbol of a new philosophy that will change the look of our cities and the concept of living. From now on, buildings will have a fourth new dimension TIME. Buildings will not be confined to rigid shapes; construction will have a new approach and flexibility. Cities will change faster than we ever imagined. [David Fisher, from dynamicarchitecture.net]
So I know what you’re thinking - incredibly wasteful, right? Not if Fisher is successful in placing horizontal wind turbines between each of the tower’s floors - providing 48 turbines to power the building’s spinning.