0134, 3439 SPAIN (Catalonia) - Casa Batlló - part of Works of Antoni Gaudí (UNESCO WHS)

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Part of the Manzana de la Discordia (Block of Discord, but also Apple of Discord), located at 43, Passeig de Gràcia,  in the Eixample district of Barcelona, Casa Batlló is a building restored in the years 1904-1906 by Antoni Gaudí and Josep Maria Jujol (with the contribution of Gaudí's assistants, Domènec Sugrañes i Gras, Josep Canaleta and Joan Rubió). Like all the buildings designed by the brilliant Catalan architect, it looks stunning and very modern, even for today's viewer, so it's hard to imagine how strange it may seem, with its organic, even visceral forms, for the early 20th century Barcelonians.

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The building consists of a ground floor, a main floor with a courtyard, four further self-contained floors, a loft and a roof terrace. There is private access to the noble floor (the main floor), and a communal stairwell set within the building well, which has been expanded and artistically tiled as though it were part of the exterior facade. The entire building is astonishing, but stand out in the first place the ground floor (with its tracery, irregular oval windows and flowing sculpted stone work) and the arched roof like a back of a dragon or dinosaur, plated with tiles in the form of scales.

3393 SPAIN (Castile and León) - The Millenium Dome in Valladolid

The Millennium Dome is a space in Valladolid next to the river Pisuerga, with multiple options in regard to the activities that can be held in its interior, such as concerts, conferences, exhibitions, shows and advertising and sports events. It was built by the Barcelona-based architect  Enric Ruiz Geli for Expo Zaragoza 2008, and subsequently acquired by the city of Valladolid as a multipurpose building. This dome covers the pavilion with a surface of almost 1,700 m² and has underground parking for 402 vehicles, a cycle lane and a restaurant.

3242 GERMANY (Hamburg) - Elbphilharmonie

Located on the Grasbrook peninsula of the Elbe River, the Elbphilharmonie (Elbe Philharmonic Hall) is one of the largest and most acoustically advanced concert halls in the world, inaugurated on 11 January 2017. The new glassy construction resembles a hoisted sail, water wave or quartz crystal, and was designed by architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron. It is the tallest inhabited building in Hamburg, with a final height of 108m. The original 1966 brick façade of the Kaispeicher A, formerly a warehouse, was retained at the base of the building.

3141 FINLAND (Uusimaa) - Kiasma

Kiasma is a contemporary art museum located on Mannerheimintie in Helsinki and opened to the public in 1998. The museum exhibits the contemporary art collection of the Finnish National Gallery founded in 1990, its central goal being to make contemporary art better known and strengthen its status. The building itself, a major architectural landmark of Helsinki, was designed by American architect Steven Holl. Kiasma is Finnish for chiasma, a term that describes the crossing of nerves or tendons or the intertwining of two chromatids, the thread-like strands of a chromosome.

2970 SLOVENIA (Styria) - Church of Our Lady Mother of the Church in Maribor

Attested in historical sources in circa 1145, Maribor is in nowadays the largest city of the traditional region of Lower Styria, and the second-largest city in Slovenia. Following its long history, it has many old buildings, which does not mean it lacks new constructions. among these is the Church of Our Lady Mother of the Church, located in Pobrežje, a suburb of Maribor. Next to the church is Cemetery Pobrežje, a place of memory which appears in the list of the significant European cemeteries.

2803, 2804 FRANCE (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes) - The Church of Saint John the Evangelist in Grenoble

2803 Grenoble - The interior of
the Church of Saint John the Evangelist (1)

Built between 1963 and 1965, the roman catholic Church of Saint John the Evangelist was certified in 2003 a "Heritage of the 20th century". It shows a circular shape of 37m in diameter and is described as the most outstanding new church in Grenoble. In 1979, the hyperbolic self-supporting roof had to be redone, because it had problems with the infiltration of the rain water. The current roof is topped by a lantern with nine windows on which is erected a cross.

2803 Grenoble - The interior of
the Church of Saint John the Evangelist (2)

The nave, in the shape of bowl, elevated at 5m, is supported by 18 pillars of reinforced concrete. The dome covering the altar in the shape of inverted cone marks the presence, on the lower level, of a chapel constructed from raw concrete formwork. The interior houses a beautiful colorful icon of Christ on the cross, a copy of a work of the 13th century, made in 1988 by a parishioner, Alain Plotard. The baptismal font is of carved stone from ancient origin.

2430 SINGAPORE (Central Region) - Marina Bay Sands

2430 Marina Bay Sands by night

Opened in 2010, Marina Bay Sands is billed as the world's most expensive standalone casino property. Fronting Marina Bay in Singapore, the resort was designed by Moshe Safdie, who says it was initially inspired by card decks. In addition to the casino, other key components of the plan are three hotel towers with 2,500 rooms and suites, an ArtScience Museum and a convention centre. The complex is topped by a 340m-long SkyPark and a 150m infinity swimming pool, set on top of the world's largest public cantilevered platform, which overhangs the north tower by 67m.

0040, 1215 AUSTRALIA (New South Wales) - Sydney Opera House (UNESCO WHS)

0040 Sydney Opera House (1)

"There is no doubt that the Sydney Opera House is his masterpiece. It is one of the great iconic buildings of the 20th century, an image of great beauty that has become known throughout the world - a symbol for not only a city, but a whole country and continent", wrote Hyatt Foundation in the memo supporting the granting of Pritzker Architecture Prize (architecture's Highest Honor) to Jørn Utzon in 2003. But many had to bear the danish from the Australian authorities during the construction of the Sydney Opera House, although just these authorities have chosen his project following a design competition.

1215 Sydney Opera House (2)

Lack of vision of the construction firms, politicians obtuseness, politically lowballed construction budget (final costs amounted to 102 million AUD, while the initial budget was 7 million) and poor communication between the involved parties were just as many reasons for Utzon to resign in 1966, seven years after the construction begining and exactly seven before it ends.For various reasons, the costs being the main, Danish's plans weren't respected to the interiors achievement, which later turned out to be a mistake. As a supreme disregard, Utzon not only wasn't invited to the inauguration, but nor was his name mentioned.

0166, 1034 UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (Dubai) - Burj Al Arab

Posted on 06.04.2012, 16.03.2014
The first postcard is very representative and suggestive for the current state of the emirates, combining in a appropriate way the past, the present, and even the future. I said here that in Dubai is the world's only Seven-Star hotel (officially rated Five-Star Deluxe). It's about Burj Al Arab (Tower of the Arabs), which, with its 321m, it's now (2014) the fourth tallest hotel in the world. For a decade, since its opening in 1999, until the inauguration of the Rose Rayhaan by Rotana, was the tallest, being exceeded also since then by the JW Marriott Marquis Hotel Dubai (2013) and The Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong (2011).

It was built on an artificial island 280m out from Jumeirah beach, and is connected to the mainland by a private curving bridge. Its shape was designed by architect Tom Wright of WS Atkins PLC to mimic the sail of a dhow, a type of Arabian vessel. Two "wings" spread in a V to form a "mast", while the space between them is enclosed in a massive atrium (182m), also the tallest in the world. The wide open balconies flank two sides of te atrium. At the front of the building, and forming the third wall to the atrium, is a geometric double-skin membrane of PTFE-coated fibreglass, which both helps to insulate the atrium space and acts as a canvas for images projected onto the face of the hotel.

0775 GERMANY (North Rhine-Westphalia) - Glaselefant in Hamm

Founded on 1226 by Count Adolf I of the Mark, Hamm was member of the Hanseatic League, and in 15th century became one of the most powerful towns in the region. Ham means "corner" in the old Low German dialect, and the name of the city derives from the description of its location in the corner of the Lippe river and the narrow Ahse affluent, in the northeastern part of the Ruhr area. During the 19th and early 20th century, Hamm has been one of the West German mining towns.

0748 GERMANY (Hesse) - Hundertwasserhaus Waldspirale in Darmstadt

If Die Grüne Zitadelle von Magdeburg (The Green Citadel of Magdeburg) has been started a year before the death of Friedensreich Hundertwasser, Hundertwasserhaus Waldspirale (the Wooded Spiral) was completed even in the year of the artist's death, in 2000, so it can be interpreted as a loud testament to his hatred of straight lines (the "devil's tools", according to his opinion) and his allegiance to nature. The Waldspirale is a residential building complex located in Darmstadt's Bürgerparkviertel, and contains 105 apartments, a parking garage, a kiosk as well as a café and a bar.

0737 BELGIUM (West Flanders) - Dunes Church of Our Lady in Koksijde

Koksijde (Coxyde in French) is a municipality located in the Flemish province of West Flanders, on the North Sea coast, near the border with France, at only 30km from Dunkirk. Among important sights of Koksijde, alongside of the museum of the historical Abbey of the Dunes (1120-1833), the Zouave Monument (erected in 1934), the British Military Cemetery (1940–1945), and the Paul Delvaux museum (which houses the largest collection of paintings from this Belgian surrealist painter in the world), is the building depicted in the postcard, the Church of Our Lady of the Dunes (also known as Cathedral of Light), built between 1956 and 1962 after the projects of the architect Josef Lantsoght and inspired by the 'kokkel' (a kind of mussel).

0683 SPAIN (Catalonia) - Crypt at the Colònia Güell - part of Works of Antoni Gaudí (UNESCO WHS)

Crypt at the Colònia Güell is an unfinished work by Antoni Gaudí, built as a place of worship for the people in a manufacturing suburb in Santa Coloma de Cervelló, near Barcelona. Colònia Güell was the brainchild of Eusebi Güell i Bacigalupi, Count of Güell, the main patron and lifetime friend of Gaudí, but only the crypt was finished (between 1908 and 1916), because the textile industrialist lost the profits from his business, and the money ran out. This is one of the architect's most studied works and a precedent for many of the solutions used in Sagrada Familia.

0668 SPAIN (Catalonia) - Palau Güell - part of Works of Antoni Gaudí (UNESCO WHS)

This Palau Güell, one of the most luxurious of Barcelona, was commissioned to Antoni Gaudí by his main patron and lifetime friend, Eusebi Güell i Bacigalupi, Count of Güell, The architect started the project around 1880 and signed it in 1886, and the building, placed close to La Rambla, in an area  that in this period was the center of Barcelona, was developed between 1886 and 1888, although the decoration wouldn't finish until 1889. The palace was the Güell residence for a while, much later, in 1945, being sold by the count's daughter to the Diputació de Barcelona (Provincial government of Barcelona).

0650 GERMANY (Saxony-Anhalt) - Die Grüne Zitadelle von Magdeburg

Born at Vienna in 1928 and became, to maturity, citizen of New Zealand, Friedensreich Hundertwasser (1928-2000) is one of the best-known artists of the end of the 20th century, but also one of the most controversial. Half-Jew (his mother was Jewish), he avoided persecution under the Nazi regime joining the Hitler Youth, and due to the experiences from that period he had always an strong anti-totalitarian position. Maybe that's why his works were remarked firstly by bright colours, organic forms, rejecting the straight lines, and a strong individualism.

0156, 0238, 0627 GERMANY (North Rhine-Westphalia) - Der Neue Zollhof and other stuff from Düsseldorf

Posted on 25.03.2012 and completed on 05.06.2012 and 03.05.2013
Grown on the mud and the sand of the east bank of the Lower Rhine, where the delta of the River Düssel flows into the Rhine, almost a thousand years ago, Düsseldorf granted the town privileges în 1288. Rival of the older and wealthy Cologne (located just 40 km upstream, which today means 18 minutes by Regional Bahn), the city has constantly developed as commercial, but also as cultural center, both under the dukes of Jülich-Cleves-Berg and under the house of Wittelsbach, peaking during the Elector Palatine Johann Wilhelm II (r. 1690-1716). Strongly affected by the Napoleonic Wars, Düsseldorf enjoyed a revival by the mid-19th century, thanks to the Industrial Revolution. Heavily bombed by the allies in WWII, in 1946 Düsseldorf was made capital of the new federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Located now centrally within The Blue Banana, in the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region, is one of the country's five global cities (together with Frankfurt, Munich, Hamburg and Berlin). The city itself has only 590,000 inhabitants (of which 110,000 are foreigners), but this doesn’t prevent to be one of the top telecommunications centres in Germany, and also one of advertising and fashion industries.

In the largest picture on the first postcard, but also in the second one, can seen Der Neue Zollhof (New Customs House), located in Unterbilk. The complex, consisting of three separate buildings, was designed in a style commonly considered deconstructivism by American architect Frank O. Gehry (which designed, among others, Olympic Fish from Barcelona, and Dancing House from Prague) and was completed in 1998. Floorplans and facades of all three buildings are curve and lean (constructed of concrete flat slab), reason for them being likened to leaning towers. Each building has a different facade cladding - the outer two in white plaster and red brick respectively; the central building's stainless steel facade reflects material and shapes of its two neighbour buildings. Otherwise geometry, massing and exterior material, provides each of the buildings with a unique identity. The buildings currently occupied primarily by… warehouses.

In the background of the second postcard is Rheinturm (Rhine Tower), a 240.5m high concrete telecommunications tower, built between 1979 and 1981. It houses a revolving restaurant and an observation deck at a height of 170m. As a special attraction, there is a light sculpture on its shaft which works as a clock, the biggest digital clock in the world. This sculpture was designed by Horst H. Baumann and is called Lichtzeitpegel (Light Time Level).

The other five figures illustrate in the first postcard, from left to right, are:
● a sculpture made by Horst Antes in 1986-1987, located in Bertha von Suttner Square, behind the Düsseldorf Central Station (Düsseldorf Hauptbahnhof)
● promenade along the banks of the Rhine to the Medienhafen. In background can seen the Theodor Heuss Bridge, also known as the Nordbrücke (North bridge), a cable-stayed bridge built from 1953 to 1957, the clock tower of the ancient collegiate church of St Lambertus, and castle tower
● Central Station (Düsseldorf Hauptbahnhof)
● Galeria Kaufhof 'an der Kö' (on Königsallee), a department store located centrally on Düsseldorf’s internationally renowned shopping boulevard in the heart of the city, between the Altstadt and Schadowstrasse.

0269 SPAIN (Catalonia) - Casa Milà - part of Works of Antoni Gaudí (UNESCO WHS)

In 1905, when began the construction of Casa Milà, known later as La Pedrera (The Quarry), Gaudí not finished yet the restoring of Casa Batlló, located on the same vital artery of Barcelona, Passeig de Gràcia. Besides, it will be the final residential building erected by Catalan architect, the last 15 years of his life dedicating them exclusively to Sagrada Família. Completion of both houses was marked by tragic personal events, in 1906 dying his father, and in 1912 his niece, the closest people in his life, with whom she lived in the house in Park Güell.

0207 URUGUAY - A living sculpture for a survivor

A gorgeous postcard, from a country less accessible, with a text carefully constructed, a special stamp and a clear postmark. Could exist for a collector a better beginning of the week? Of course not. And for this I must thank Fernando, one of the best swappers that I have met so far.

So: Uruguay, Punta del Este, Casa Pueblo. About the history of Uruguay (substantially different from that of the other countries in the region, be it about much more extensive Brazil and Argentina or about Paraguay) I will write when I receive a postcard with Colonia del Sacramento. Now I will mention only that Uruguay is home for 3.3 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area, that an estimated 88% of the population are of European ancestry, and that In 2009 Uruguay became the first nation of the world which provided to every school child a free laptop and internet.

0198 CZECH REPUBLIC (Prague) - Dancing House

In Prague, on the corner of the embankment Rasinovo nabrezi and the street Resslova, was until WWII a house in the Neo-renaissance style, erected to the end of the 19th century. Destroyed by US Army Air Force during the raid of February 14, 1945, its remains was finally removed in 1960. The neighboring house was co-owned by Czech ex-president Vaclav Havel, who lived there from his childhood until the mid-1990s. Hoping that the building would become a center of cultural activity, he ordered the first architectural study from Zagreb-born but Prague-based architect Vlado Milunic (who has been involved in re-building Havel's appartment). Afterwards the Dutch bank ING (previously called Nationale Nederland) agreed to build a house there, and asked Milunic to invite a world-renowned architect to approach the process.