Architecture

Ndebele housing painting

In the 18th century the Ndzundza Ndebele people of South Africa created their own tradition and style of house painting. These Nguni people are very fierce warriors and large land owners. In the autumn of 1883, the Ndebele people went to war with the neighboring Boer farmers. The loss of the war brought on a harsh life and horrible punishments for the Ndebele. Through those hard times expressive symbols were generated by the suffering people expressing their grief. These symbols were the beginning of the African art known as Ndebele house paintings.

El Croquis

El Croquis is one of the most prestigious architectural magazines in the world

Casa Malaparte

Casa Malaparte is a house on Punta Massullo, on the eastern side of the Isle of Capri, Italy. The house was conceived around 1937 by Italian Rationalist architect Adalberto Libera for Curzio Malaparte. Malaparte actually rejected Libera's design and built the home himself with the help of Adolfo Amitrano, a local stone mason.

Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library

One of the world's largest libraries devoted entirely to rare books and manuscripts and Yale's principal repository for literary archives, early manuscripts, and rare books.

Terracotta Army

Workers digging a well outside the city of Xi'an, China, in 1974 struck upon one of the greatest archaeological discoveries in the world: a life-size clay soldier poised for battle. The diggers notified Chinese authorities, who dispatched government archaeologists to the site. They found not one, but thousands of clay soldiers, each with unique facial expressions and positioned according to rank.

Porer lighthouse

Porer lighthouse was built in 1833 on the islet of the same name, southwest of Istria's southernmost cape.

Admont Abbey

Admont Abbey contains the largest monastic library in the world and a long-established scientific collection, and is known for its Baroque architecture and collections of art and manuscripts.

Sümela Monastery

The Sümela Monastery stands at the foot of a steep cliff facing the Altındere valley in Turkey. Legend has it that two priests undertook the founding of the monastery on the site after having discovered a miraculous icon of the Virgin Mary in a cave on the mountain.

Maison de Verre

No house in France better reflects the magical promise of 20th-century architecture than the Maison de Verre. Tucked behind the solemn porte-cochere of a traditional French residence on Rue Saint-Guillaume, a quiet street in a wealthy Left Bank neighborhood, the 1932 house designed by Pierre Chareau challenges our assumptions about the nature of Modernism. For architects it represents the road not taken: a lyrical machine whose theatricality is the antithesis of the dry functionalist aesthetic that reigned through much of the 20th century.

Bank of Georgia headquarters

Bank of Georgia headquarters is a building in Tbilisi, Georgia. In 2007 the building was conferred National Monument status under the National Monuments Acts. The building and its interior was completely renovated and a new main entrance an underground lobby were constructed from 2010 to 2011.

Opus

Encyclopædia of the sublime