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Private Notes
We are on the shore of Lake Geneva, facing the Alps, a few kilometres from Lausanne.
Poised on the shore of the lake, lies a wave of ciment and glass, which has inspired many metaphors since it was built in 2010 - from a slice of emmental cheese to a piece of molecular fabric.
The building is certainly unlike any other and its shape provides no clues as to what goes on inside it. It is, in fact, a Learning Centre, a new concept in spaces dedicated to knowledge.
The mutation of a concrete mastodon, the Pantin Administrative Centre (1969) into the French National Dance Centre (2004)... or the successful meeting of Brutus and ballerinas. An architectural overhaul that necessarily owes its success to the monumental strength of the original building.
Started in 1247, Cologne Cathedral was completed in 1880 after a 300-year break in the work carried out on it. The Cathedral, which embodies the unity of Germany, is both a Gothic archetype and a building of the 19th century.
In the Palmeiras district of Sao Paulo, early 20th century former factory-workshops are aligned with strange blocks of cement that stand tall, facing the city. Could the "Citadel of Leisure" be a major work of "Architettura Povera" ?
The history of the Hotel de Rohan and the Hotel de Soubise is one of unbridled ambition that fuelled the Princes of Soubise's dreams of magnificence from 1705 to 1752.
The prince had a dual ambition: he wanted to transform the Hotel de Guise into the Hotel de Soubise for the Crown Prince, and have a second private house built for the fifth son, the Prince-Bishop of Strasbourg.
Two private houses face each other, separated by a beautiful garden in the historic heart of the town. During the various work campaigns, no expense was spared for the Princes of Soubise.
This paradoxical urban complex bears witness both to the Parisian "between court and garden" model and the architects' creativity in adapting it to an irregularly shaped plot. It is also an example of the political role of buildings for the French aristocracy of the 18th century.
