Community: Architecture

Nossa Senhora da Graça Fort near Elvas, Portugal

Perched on a strategic hillside, high above the hot, dry plains of eastern Portugal, the Nossa Senhora da Graça Fort has been called a masterpiece of 18th-century military architecture. The thick walls that surround the fortress are shaped in a star pattern, with pentagonal bastions jutting out from the curtain wall at the corners. We're looking at one of those bastions coming to a point in the lower center of our image.
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A stone's throw from the Spanish border, the Nossa Senhora da Graça Fort was built to defend the garrison border town of Elvas. It's a region shaped by war. The Spanish laid siege to the area during the Portuguese Restoration War (1640-1668), but after the Nossa Senhora da Graça Fort was built a century later, the town was never defeated again. With its 144 cannons, the fort resisted an attack by another wave of Spanish forces during the 1801 War of the Oranges and 10 years later drove back an invading French army during the Peninsular War.

Eventually the fort became a political prison, which it remained until 1974, when it was abandoned and fell into ruin. But it was restored after 2012, when UNESCO recognized the entire historical center of Elvas—including the Nossa Senhora da Graça Fort, a few other nearby forts, and the 16th-century Amoreira Aqueduct—as a World Heritage Site.
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The renovated Rose Main Reading Room, New York Public Library Main Branch, New York City

May 23, 2021 marks the 110th anniversary of the opening of the New York Public Library's Main Branch (now known as the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building). Back just before the turn of the 20th century, a group of New York City business leaders decided that if their hometown was ever going to compete with Paris and London as a center of urban culture, it needed a great library.
... It took almost two decades and a lot of brainpower and money to create the architectural masterpiece that stands today on New York's Fifth Avenue. On the day the library opened to the public, 30,000 to 50,000 people streamed through its doors to take in the architecture and gaze at the one million books on display. The first book request was filed at 9:08 AM and delivered to the reader six minutes later through the library's rapid delivery system. Since then, it's become part of the very fabric of New York and has been featured in movies from 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' to 'Ghostbusters' to 'Spiderman.'
Today, we turn our gaze to the beaux-arts delight that is the Main Branch's Rose Main Reading Room. It is truly one of New York's great public spaces, a lavish hall where one can come to escape the bustle of the city streets and the honking of taxis. This room underwent an extensive renovation after one of the ceiling's gilded rosettes crashed to the floor in May 2014. Now it's all spiffed up and in perfect form for the library's anniversary.

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As the spectacular Cornish bio-domes turn 20, their creators reveal how they were inspired by a lost civilisation – and a load of washing up

A HOPELESS romantic has been ordered to pull down a 22ft model of the Eiffel Tower he built when Covid scuppered plans for a lovey­-dovey getaway.  Nick Charman, 56, spent three months constru…

From a loo inches away from cooking hobs to a window which cannot be reached - let alone opened - these have got to some of the most outrageous property design fails on the internet

A FUTURISTIC home with the look of a Bond Villain’s lair has been built onto the side of a cliff. The eye-catching property – dubbed NCaved by its creator – sits by a secluded rocky cove on t…

We take a look at some of the world's coolest underground attractions from the iconic catacombs in Paris to Krakow's incredible salt mine
I’ve been in Krakows salt mines. We were on a guided tour for 3 hours and visited only 15% of the entire site 😳

A BUNKER 14ft underground is for sale as the ultimate self-isolation hideout. The Cold War reinforced concrete shelter was built to survive a nuclear bomb and is big enough for two adults. For roug…

I believe quite a few people preferred the Bush but the exposed bare look proved very popular

Wouldn’t you just love to dive in ? 🥰

Should have used Stonehenge but this time of the year ? Bit cold

A new book captures the most aspirational and enlightened architecture of the north’s postwar years – featuring competitive church building and an endless supply of reinforced concrete.

From a chunky Russian dacha to Renzo Piano’s evocative turrets in the South Pacific, these inventive buildings celebrate the oldest and most malleable of construction materials. Here are a few of the finest specimens from a new book by designer William Hall – who has written tomes devoted to concrete and brick – that is, appropriately, called Wood

The ultimate nerd Christmas present

What an amazing place to skinny dip

I’d have done it for half that

In all the pandemic, homeoffice and presidential election turbulances i sometimes take the time to daydream in the net.
Some months ago i ended up on a website called "globalmansion" and ever since than i get many pop ups of mindblowing real estates all over the globe.

OF COURSE they are faaaar to expensive (except for the three cheapest ones maybe ) but its a good place to let imagination flow.
... So here are some cool objects:


This is NOT just supercool penthouse in London! Top 3 storey are YOURS for only 5.5 million pounds!
The CLUE is: IT`S the former MI6 HEADQUARTERS!! James Bond feeling included!!! London Central (best city in the world, right after my hometown Stuttgart)
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We look forward to welcoming guests back to the Tower as soon as public health authorities and Canada Lands Company determine that it is safe to do so,” says CN Tower.

Covid-19 is ruining everything, that Hot Pizza looks so good too.

A palace built in 1776 near Moscow, by the order of Catherine II, the Empress of Russia. It was turned into a museum in 1984.

www.thesun.co.uk/news/12625080/i...

Suit the DIY enthusiast