Pott Architects, Germany

Interior of a Pott Architects home in Germany (image: Rudi Meisel)

From Wallpaper:

Pott Architects is a small but very active and creative architectural practice, with an interdisciplinary approach. Founded in 2005 by Ingo Pott, a graduate from Berlin’s Technical University, the practice has already won several awards, including the Rudolf Lodders Prize – which Pott scooped at the age of 25. The Berlin-based architect has collaborated in the past with Norman Foster’s global team when they were working on the Belrin Reichtstag, as well as a variety of other projects in Germany and the UK. Following that, Pott worked in partnership with the architect Ulrich Harnann for four years before setting up on his own.

Pott sees architecture as much more than just a building. He therefore aims to create tailor-made solutions, depending on the specific demands of each commission and the requirements of each client, and always with the same high quality standards, creativity and a sense of experimentation. Residential design is a big part of the practice’s portfolio, with the featured Haus L in Glienicke being one of its most characteristic and expressive projects. This modern villa is situated on a slope in an extensive wooded site. Home to a lucky family of four, the structure appears to naturally grow out of the landscape.

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Europe’s Most Beautiful Gardens

Courances, France

The UK Telegraph is counting down the 50 Most Beautiful Gardens in the World. Why don’t we take a look at some of the European selections?

Courances, France (image above)
Is this the perfect example of the French formal garden? Created in the mid-17th century – reputedly by Jean, father of the great Andre Le Nôtre – the garden is filled with water in many moods, although it is serenity that sets the tone. In front of the château, to the south, is an elaborate box parterre that prefaces a perfect rectangular still pool, surrounded by lawns and trees. This vista continues along a broad grassy walk to a small circular pool with a statue of Hercules (symbolising strength and virtue) and on to a larger pool and amphitheatre. The woodland on each side of the main vista contains many more delights, with allées cutting through and pools, canals and cascades to discover. The other side of the house is dignified by a pair of long rectangular canals. The singularity of the conception is what appeals so much and lends this place its sublime beauty.

What Makes the Perfect City?

Rendering of a futuristic San Francisco run by geothermal power by IwamotoScott Architecture

City planning is as old as cities themselves, although the last one hundred and fifty years have seen the city replace the countryside as the primary residence of people. The population explosion that has come about since the Industrial Revolution and is continuing throughout the developing world has put strains on our cities whether socially, environmentally, economically, etc.

City planners have long had a thankless job as few have ever been historically feted yet most are lamented in one way or another. Some cities work; others fail. Some cities become a world unto themselves such as New York or Paris. Others become wastelands such as Gary, Indiana or Middlesbrough, UK.

So what makes a perfect city? Dejan Sudjic, director of the Design Museum of London, tells us the attributes that a perfect city must have:

The perfect city simply doesn’t exist: it would have an underground railway as organised as Tokyo’s, with a bus service as inspiring as the vaporetti of Venice. It would have a setting as beautiful as Stockholm’s. It would have New York’s museums and its 24-hour culture, with Berlin’s cheap, high-ceilinged apartments, and Hong Kong’s energy. It would have London’s tolerance of utterly different ways of life, coexisting side by side. It would have the street life of Naples, and the street cleaning of Zurich.

The following is what would in my opinion make for a perfect city:

How to score a Sicilian villa for only one Euro

Salemi, Sicily – overlooking the Mediterranean

English homes are dropping in value like a rock and the Spanish real estate market has taken a dive. What about Italy? Tuscany is simply too, too expensive for the average or above average investor but there is a place further down south where you can get a villa on the Mediterranean for only one Euro.

Vittorio Sgarbi, the controversial mayor of the Sicilian town of Salemi is offering investors the chance to snap up villas in his town for a single Euro. But there is a catch as Richard Owen explains:

The catch is that you have just two years to restore the homes, which were abandoned after an earthquake 40 years ago.

Vittorio Sgarbi, the colourful Mayor of Salemi – just 72km from Palermo – hopes to attract buyers who had “both the aesthetic sensitivity and the economic resources to take part in this adventure”.But prospective property owners who think the offer is too good to refuse should bear in mind that thhe restorations will have to meet standards laid down by the council and respect the original character of the buildings.

Here is the contact info plus the terms and conditions:

— Salemi does not yet have a website but Vittorio Sgarbi does, at www.vittoriosgarbi.it – e-mails can be sent by clicking on contatti. Inquiries can also be made to the council on (0039) 0924 991 111

— Buyers must use local builders, architects, decorators and plumbers since the aim ofthescheme is to help the local economy

Seeing Berlin by Rooftops

Berlin’s The Weekend Club

In North America Berlin seems to get a bad rap (Europeans know better). When listing off the best European capitals to visit, people will usually start off by naming the holy trinity of European travel destinations: London, Paris and Rome. Beyond that you’ll usually hear Prague and Budapest and maybe Vienna and Copenhagen shortly thereafter.

It’s really quite too bad since Berlin has to be Europe’s most underrated city for tourism. A tectonic fault line worthy of San Andreas during the Cold War, the city manages to balance the old (Unter den Linden) with the new, tradition with technology, art with finance. The city has long been a centre of the arts and especially a nucleus for architecture and design.

Kathmandu – Where the Medieval is Today

Bansagopal Temple, from the 17th century, in Kathmandu’s Durbar Square

Nepal served as the link between Hindu India and Buddhist China and remained a closed place until 1950. What Nepal lost from the lack of contact with the outside world, the rest of us gained from Nepal as the country and especially its capital Kathmandu are incredibly well-preserved in all their medieval glory.

Lucinda Lambdon of Vanity Fair takes a peek at how Nepal is intent on preserving its medieval charm in The Once and Future Kathmandu:

The movement to preserve the valley’s architectural wonders has gathered momentum ever since. In an act of astonishing bravura, in 1969, to celebrate the wedding of King Birendra, the German government backed the restoration of the Pujari Math, a Hindu priest’s house, and later undertook the restoration of more than 200 buildings in the town of Bhaktapur. In 1972, unesco began restoring the vast Hanuman Dhoka Royal Palace, in Kathmandu’s Durbar Square. There have subsequently been heroes aplenty, but here I must reserve my plaudits for the Kathmandu Valley Preservation Trust, founded in 1991 by Harvard professor emeritus of architecture Eduard Sekler and American architect Erich Theophile, on whose heads I place glistening laurels; for, to date, the trust has saved, or helped to save, some 50 buildings. The most prominent supporter of the cause is Prince Charles, who helped launch K.V.P.T.’s plans for Patan’s Royal Palace complex by hosting a fund-raiser at Clarence House and making a donation from his personal trust. Restoration of the complex began in May of this year.

Read the rest of the article and see the photographs at this link.

The Splendour That is Versailles

Versailles’ South Gardens

Few places on Earth can compare to Château de Versailles when it comes to sheer aesthetic beauty. From the dramatic facades of the structures to the finely defined interiors, and of course the splendour of the gardens.

Take a look at this gallery of images from Versailles.