Villa Branca in Melide, Ticino, Switzerland

This gorgeous villa on the lakeshore of Lago di Lugano in the italian speaking part of Switzerland is desperately looking for a new owner who is willing to save her! The place was property of the Branca family, traditional wine makers. The central building was built in 1912 by an unknown architect. In the 1920s the Luganese architect Americo Marazzi added the right wing of the building. Beautiful hanging gardens and pergolas were made at the higher part of the building. On the ground floor are the entrances to the wine cellars, warehouses and offices
The villa was abandoned in 1981 when Adele Branca died. There are still no exact plans for the villa. It will probably be demolished to make place for new housing.

Sales contact:
Cogepra 2000 SA
Via Marliani 3
6850 Mendrisio, Switzerland
or
contact Olga at dinnikovaolga@bluewin.ch

Folly - The View from Nowhere - MoCA at Pacific Design Center Los Angeles

Folly—The View from Nowhere, organized by MOCA Curator Philipp Kaiser and Los Angeles–based architects Frank Escher and Ravi GuneWardena, surveys architectural follies from around the world in an installation at MOCA Pacific Design Center, the museum’s West Hollywood venue designed by Cesar Pelli and located on Pacific Design Center’s campus. Offering a comparative overview of these structures—ranging from the Pantheon at Stourhead in Wiltshire, England, and Lucy the Elephant in Margate, N.J., to Pelli’s pavilion at Pacific Design Center—the exhibition revolves around a site-specific folly of Escher GuneWardena’s own design.

Eero Saarinen exhibiton in New York City

TWA Terminal, New York International (now John F. Kennedy International) Airport, New York, circa 1962. Photographer Balthazar Korab. (c) Balthazar Korab Ltd.

Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future at the Museum of the City of New York
Nov 10 through Jan 31

Presented at the Museum from November 10, 2009 through January 31, 2010, Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future is the first retrospective of this architect’s career, which was one of the most prolific, unorthodox, and controversial in the history of 20th-century architecture. From the TWA Terminal at JFK Airport and the St. Louis Gateway Arch to the Pedestal Chair for Knoll Associates, Saarinen (1910-1961) created some of the most potent expressions of American identity after World War II. Saarinen’s clients constituted a who’s who of the era’s most prominent industries and institutions. For them he designed buildings that advanced the expansion of higher education to the promotion of automobile culture and air travel, popular forms of entertainment like television, and the newest information technologies. Featuring sketches, working drawings, models, photographs, furnishings, films, and other ephemera, the exhibition examines the architect’s career from the 1930s through the early 1960s.

www.mcny.org

Tamina thermal baths, Bad Ragaz Switzerland

I have just come back from a trip to Switzerland, where I re-discovered the stunning architecture of Zurich-based Smolenicky & Partner Architecture. Smolenicky renovated the Tamina thermal bath at the Grand Resort Bad Ragaz on site where Europe's first indoor hot baths were opened in 1871. Situated deep in the romantic Tamina canyon, the Spa design features include grand twelve metre arches and floor to ceiling oval windows. An extensive amount of glass and shades of soft whites, blues and blacks have been used together. Tamina Therme's architecture is likely to become an emblem for the Spa village Bad Ragaz and another showcase for Swiss architecture.

www.resortragaz.ch

Kappe residence published in Swiss Architectural Magazine Ideales Heim

Cube Images produced this photo feature of the iconic Kappe Residence in the Pacific Palisades in California. Completed in 1968, it's the best example of Ray Kappe's strength as an architect: his ability to answer complex design problems with inventive, beautiful buildings. The biggest problems on the project were a steeply sloped site and a running stream. His answer was a series of six concrete tower supports and a bridgework of laminated beams. The house tiptoed over he site, sparing trees, stream, and the delicate beauty of the topography. Developers at the time were cutting hills to make pads. He had been working on the idea of a system of modules to get buildings above grade. Many of his houses ended up using this system because it required the least amount of foundation. Kappe's much awarded and published work is considered to be an extension of the early Southern California master architects: Wright, Schindler, Neutra, and Harwell Hamilton Harris.