Flak towers were large, anti-aircraft gun blockhouses used by the Luftwaffe to defend against Allied air raids during World War II. They were able to fire 8000 rounds per minute with a range of up to 14 km in a full 360-degree field of fire.
Pruitt–Igoe was a large urban housing project first occupied in 1954 in St. Louis, Missouri. Living conditions in Pruitt–Igoe began to decline soon after its completion in 1956; by the late 1960s, the complex had become internationally infamous for its poverty, crime, and segregation. Its 33 buildings were torn down in the mid-1970s, and the project has become an icon of urban renewal and public-policy planning failure.
London is a unique film work about a unique city written and directed by architect Patrick Keiller. It concerns a series of journeys made by an unseen narrator and his companion Robinson to discover the spirit of London during the period immediately before and after the 1992 General Election. There is a wealth of detail pertaining to literature, history, architecture and a variety of locales and a highly original style with ironic wit.
Perspecta: The Yale Architectural Journal the oldest student-edited architectural journal in the United States, is internationally respected for its contributions to contemporary architectural discourse with original presentations of new projects as well as historical and theoretical essays.
Fonthill Abbey was the stuff of legend in its day and much admired by the great romantic painters Constable and Turner. Walled and girdled round and closed to visitors, it intrigued the regency public; so much so that when it was first put up for sale through Christie's in 1822, between 600 and 700 people a day traipsed through its soaring mock-medieval halls, gawping up to the plaster vaulting at the top of its wobbly tower. In all, at least 7,200 people paid a guinea each for a catalogue that gave admission to the abbey. It was the Disneyland of its day.
Hearst Castle was the residence for newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst.
Villa Mairea is a villa, guest-house, and rural retreat designed and built by the Finnish modernist architect Alvar Aalto.
The Royal Palace of Caserta is a former royal residence in Caserta, constructed for the Bourbon kings of Naples. It was the largest palace and one of the largest buildings erected in Europe during the eighteenth century.
The Einstein Tower is an astrophysical observatory by Erich Mendelsohn. According to lore, Mendelsohn took Einstein on a long tour of the completed structure, waiting for some sign of approval. The design, while logical and perfectly sufficient to its purpose, stood out like an "ungainly spaceship" in the suburbs of Potsdam. Einstein said nothing until hours later, during a meeting with the building committee, when he whispered his one-word judgment: "Organic".
The Yonaguni Monument is a massive underwater rock formation off the coast of Yonaguni, Japan.