The Talks on History and Architecture by Ron Gatepain

This looks at the talks by Ron Gatepain for cruise ships on history and architecture relating to the world's famous buildings and landmarks. More information from www.gatepain.co.uk

Historical Sites to See on Turkey Holidays

Museums of Istanbul
If you take your holidays in Turkey in Istanbul, you won't need to visit the museums to get a sense of history, because you'll see it all around you. The city itself is full of amazing ancient streets and walls, towers and palaces. However, the Istanbul Archaeology Museum is a good value visit for Turkey holidays since it is not one museum but a combination of three: the main Archaeological Museum, the Museum of the Ancient Orient, and the Museum of Islamic Art. There is an array of relics to see here: ottoman artefacts, a number statues, columns, and sarcophagi. The most well-known sarcophagus here is the one intended for Alexander the Great. Alexander was history's greatest military commander responsible for amassing a huge empire that included Turkey, stretching from Greece in the West to India in the east and south into Egypt.

Troy
If your holidays to Turkey take you near the western Turkish town of Çanakkale, you will be on the boundary of two continents, similar to Istanbul. Many people on holidays in Turkey come here on tours to visit the ruins nearby at Truva, which is believed to be the site of Troy. According to Homer's Iliad this is the site of the great siege between the Trojans and the Greeks, where the Trojan horse was used to sneak inside the walls. It's also the origin of the phrase "beware of Greeks bearing gifts." If you come here on your Turkey holidays you'll be able to see the Trojan horse that was used in the film Troy, starring Brad Pitt. It now features on the seafront of Çanakkale.

Ephesus
If you had taken your holidays to Turkey more than two and a half thousand years ago, you could have see one of the "Seven Wonders of the World" here, because this is the location of the Temple of Artemis, a symmetrical edifice with a triangular roof and pillars that could have been eighteen metres high. Although this wonder has been lost to time, you can see a miniature reconstruction of the temple in Istanbul's Miniature Park.

Luckily, the rest of Ephesus has survived the years much better, and is a well-preserved example of Greek architecture. This is a great place to visit on Turkey holidays as part of a guided tour, or for a day trip. You can wander along ancient roads, among classic Greek pillars and imagine that you were here when it was complete. Ephesus is also the site of the impressive Basilica of St. John, which was built to mark the tomb of John the Apostle, who wrote several parts of the New Testament.

Miniatürk
If you don't have time on your Turkey holidays to visit all the amazing historical sites that Turkey has to offer, you could visit them all at once in Istanbul. There's a park called Miniaturk which has reproductions of the major buildings you might visit on holidays in Turkey, as well as some from the former Ottoman Empire. A walk around the Miniaturk Park is no substitute for visiting the real buildings, but it is a fun display of what Turkey has to offer.

Shereena Lingiah is the Marketing Manager for Anatolian Sky, a specialist travel company that provide the very best Turkey holidays at extremely competitive prices. They provide tailor-made holidays to Turkey and North Cyprus, including the entire Anatolian region.

Jim Morrison´s Grave In Paris

James Douglas Morrison (8 December 1943 3 July 1971) was an American singer, poet, songwriter, writer, and film director. He is best known as the lead singer and lyricist of The Doors, and is widely considered to be one of the most charismatic frontmen in rock music history. He was also the author of several books of poetry, and the director of a documentary and short film. Morrison moved to Paris in March 1971, taking up residence in an apartment. By all accounts Morrison became depressed while in Paris, and was planning to return to the US; however, he admired the city's architecture and would go for long walks through the city. Morrison died on July 3, 1971, at age 27. Morrison is buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery in eastern Paris, one of the city's most visited tourist attractions. The grave had no official marker until French officials placed a shield over it, which was stolen in 1973. In 1981, Croatian sculptor Mladen Mikulin placed a bust of Morrison and the new gravestone with Morrison's name at the grave to commemorate the 10th anniversary of his death; the bust was defaced through the years by the cemetery vandals and later stolen in 1988. In the 1990s a flat stone was placed on the grave, possibly by his birth family, with the Greek inscription: ΚΑΤΑ ΤΟΝ ΔΑΙΜΟΝΑ ΕΑΥΤΟΥ. Mikulin later made two more Morrison's portraits in bronze, but is awaiting the license to place a new sculpture on the tomb.

Cat Stevens - Wild World

See project: proiectecasetip2.wordpress.com ; arh. Dan Mihalache: dannarchitect@gmail.com, tel.: 0770/694.945; 0748/371.353; architecture office: united architects, Iaşi, România. Brick (or wood) dwelling house ground floor and attic realized in AutoCAD. Locuinţă parter şi mansardă din cărămidă sau lemn. Proiect realizat în AutoCAD. Yusuf Islam (born Steven Demetre Georgiou; 21 July 1948 in London, England), originally and commonly known by his former stage name Cat Stevens, is a British musician. He is a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, educator, philanthropist, and prominent convert to Islam. His early 1970s record albums Tea for the Tillerman and Teaser and the Firecat were both certified as Triple Platinum by the RIAA in the United States; his 1972 album Catch Bull at Four sold half a million copies in the first two weeks of release alone and was Billboard's number-one LP for three consecutive weeks. He has also earned two ASCAP songwriting awards in consecutive years for "The First Cut Is the Deepest", which has been a hit single for five different artists. Stevens converted to Islam at the height of his fame, in December 1977, and adopted his Muslim name, Yusuf Islam, the following year. In 1979, he auctioned all his guitars away for charity Steven Georgiou was the third child of a Greek-Cypriot father, Stavros Georgiou (b. 1900), and a Swedish mother, Ingrid Wickman (b. 1915). He has an older sister, Anita, and brother, David. The family lived above Moulin ...

Colosseum of Venatum - Minecraft

The Venatum Colosseum by Sounas and Bodydrag on the Godcraft server. It took aprox. 2,5 months to build because of other side projects and because of the sheer volume of materials the Colosseum devoured on a daily basis. Me thinks it turned out pretty well! Credits to me (the designer) and Bodydrag (co designer and major builder), and many others, including (but not limited to): Skaramicke, Zweibaum, Sparven999, Crazyjokke, Cxhristian, Erupyon, Huts98 It is entirely accurate to the real Colosseum. Only have staircases been left out at certain points (they would have look really ugly), and does the Colosseum here have 70 outer arches on each ring instead of 80. The emperor seat also left much to my own imagination :) The size is aprox. 190 by 180 and it's 48 high. Track: ES Posthumus - Mosane Pi ES Posthumus - Isunova Pi

Architecture - What Is It After All?

What is architecture has concerned not only philosophers and art historians alike, but most of us engaged in it, and still trying to figure out.

A surrealistic amalgam of art and science, better though, whatever every architect is searching for through his work, for architecture, pragmatic or not, is the product of the school of thought one subscribes to. Architecture, considered one of the Fine Arts, has as its main staple the poetic form - giving of edifice and landscape. Perhaps architecture is building that provokes the emotions, the fine art of building. Whenever a work attains 'substance', whenever it attains a 'metaphysical' quality so to say, then, by general acclaim - surprisingly regardless of socio-economic status - it qualifies as architecture.

Architecture attempts the realization of a dream. Every design proceeds towards the stated goal based on the designer's concept, the "idea - generator" that is, or his philosophy, which is the outcome of his collective experiences.

Therefore, the point of departure between architecture and engineering lies in the philosophical and emotional backbone of the creator, in the subjectivity of the component art (in this bipolarity). Additionally, we shall agree, in a work of architecture there is the need for objectivity next to the element of emotion. For Peter Eisenman, there is no room for emotion in design, as it is perceived as "weakness". But to insist on not "feeling" a work of art is like reading the script of an opera and taking it in mentally, whereas seeing it, hearing it, music and all, you would take in the full experience.

In an artwork, art and technique should coexist. Generally, experiencing a work of art, like a painting, a musical piece, or a sculpture, you retain something subconsciously. That is what we aim to define; that is what we aim to understand (For people will be judged archeologically by their ruins, by their architecture. We hope our present civilization will not disappoint the archeologists of the future...).

The parameters of architecture are many: functional, artistic, social, psychological, environmental, economic, political... Architect Aristomenis Provelegios (1914-1999) talking of architecture would show his fingers: "These here are the humanities, history, philosophy, anthropology...". Then, cutting them at their origin with the other hand and showing his palm "...and this is technique. The better rooted the fingers are at the palm, that is, the humanities next to the technique, the stronger [better] the resulting architecture is". 1.

For the public, design carries an aura of "mysticism" or romanticism. Naively at times, it is subconsciously perceived as a kind of a "black box": an input at the one end of the box results in the rather speedy or magical output of what's wished for at the other.

This couldn't be further from the truth. In effect, design involves a systematic, cerebral, and time-consuming process; a methodology, as opposed to the romantic stereotype of the architect jotting down the idea on a napkin as he was sipping his drink (As if it was an entirely random event, like lightning on a clear day!). However untrue, this partly explains the public's reluctance to appreciate analogously the creative and intellectual side of the designer (In reality, most of the times a new idea is discarded, as it does not meet the above design criteria).

The design criteria should not only be viewed as limitations, but as opportunities for architectural expression. Quite often the criteria of aesthetics or that of economy are overstressed, to the point of overshadowing or even ignoring the contribution of the others. In that mode of thinking, an architect is considered a good designer if his aesthetics are superior, while a more critical evaluation might have revealed otherwise; for instance, the building he designed is not ecological, perhaps it requires excessive maintenance, or the very application of the building's glazing causes glare during certain hours of the day blinding passing automobile drivers.

So the design process is more evolutionary than revolutionary (Cyclical simulation). However, design is not an overly logical or scientific process, as was thought of by the design methodologists of the sixties. 2.

A design considered as good is often simple and economical, versus one that is simplistic or not thoroughly worked out. "Good" design is subtractive in the wider sense, it does not need to rely on ornamentation; it stands on its own merit. A conscious designer is aware he is entering the "Twilight Zone" when he "stumbles" upon a fresh, unusual approach, where the ordinary changes into the extraordinary, acquiring metaphysical qualities. We will then support that the architect recognizes when out of the design process emerges a particularly good solution. We wish to believe the same holds true for the public to a great extent. Unfortunately, still prevalent amongst many is the notion that equates architecture with luxury.

Attempting a comparative approach, architecture is based on design, but of course the same holds true for the other arts, so there is an element of discord here. The complexity lies in that the design behind architecture is cerebral, diffused, romantic, but seldom realizable in its pure and unadulterated form (Architecture is first and foremost a utilitarian art). Design indeed involves a painstakingly difficult and creative process aiming to meet a goal, attempting to realize a particular vision in the wider sense, even compromising along the way, and something that is accomplished each time with varying degrees of success...

On the antipode, when the building emerges solely out of the economic parameters, architecture is relegated to a secondary plane: that which denotes the vassalage of its art (Ironically, good architecture is proven to be an excellent long term investment).

Architecture is ultimately the end product of the chemistry between the architect and his client. It is their "child" so to say. Any competent and talented architect is doomed to "fail" if his client is not cooperative, or does not have a vision (Such an association can be predicted with a high degree of certainty to fail to produce architecture; even more, it will strain irreparably human relations between them). In the end, every society has the culture it deserves...

In a conscious encounter with architecture, it will reveal its secrets. Points of departure will then emerge, capable of initiating a valid discourse; especially if the architect, as well as the users, approach it with a sense of awe.

At times the role of architecture is narrative, at times alluring, at times soothing, at times symbolic, while at times subversive... In the new era, in the age of new challenges and transformations (one parent households, greater mobility, home office, virtual office, internet, etc), what should the role of architecture be? What are the emerging trends? What are the relevant issues today in the framework of a critical architectural dialog?

So, do we still consider all "building" as architecture?

____________________________________

"The aim of the architect is to go further from, here we want a door, there two windows, and to help his client discover his hidden passions... Architecture aids everyday life..."

(Claude Parent, French architect)

"Trying to bring even more joy to man's life. This is what architecture is".

(Aris Konstantinidis, Greek architect).

NOTES:

1. Memories of Anastasia Pepe, Architect ("Memories of his Work and the Attica Landscape". Weekly Journal of The Technical Chamber of Greece, issue 2220, October 29, 2002, p. 18).

2. Telephone interview with Bryan Lawson, March 29, 1986. Mr. Lawson is both an architect and a psychologist. He is the author of the book "How Designers Think" (London: The Architectural Press Ltd., 1980).

You may also refer to: Vidalis, Michael A. "anti-Architecture: Architectural Monologues". Athens: iwn publishers, 2005 (www.iwn.gr)

Michael A. Vidalis
Registered Architect - Athens, Greece
http://www.vidalisarchitects.com

My house on roblox

My house on roblox (12/31/2010)

World History Project on Classical Rome

World History project. The beards are a nice touch, right? I think they're PrettyFreakinAwesome!

Syracuse, Sicily - An Italian City Rich in Greek History

With a 2009 population of 124,000, the city of Syracuse is located on the southeast coast of Sicily, and is known for being rich in Greek history. Syracuse was settled by Greeks in the 8th century BC, and evolved to become what Roman philosopher Cicero called "the greatest Greek City and most beautiful of them all".

The original city was located on the fortified Ortygia Island, and although the city is still centered there, Syracuse has spread extensively inland. Exploring Ortygia reveals three thousand years of history, starting with the harbor front that leads to a maze of winding ancient streets. The central Piazza del Duomo is impressive with its imposing buildings, and the Cathedral there was built in the 7th century over top of the 5th century BC Temple of Athens. Also central to the old city, and housed in the 13th century Bellomo Palace, is the Regional Art Museum.

The year 1693 saw a devastating earthquake, and Syracuse was rebuilt in what is termed Sicilian Baroque, now regarded as the classic architecture of Italy. The northern part of the city saw heavy damage by Allied bombing in World War II, and the area was unfortunately hastily rebuilt.

Syracuse offers much heritage and many monuments in Greek, Roman and Baroque styles. Just outside of the city are several of the more notable monuments, such as the Temple of Zeus, built in the 6th century BC, as well as the Ancient Greek Castle of Euryalos, one of the most complete defensive complexes in all of Western Europe.

Other monuments of note include the Temple of Apollo, The Fountain of Arethusa, which is on Ortygia Island, as well s the Greek Theatre, which was modified later by the Romans for their Circus games and other uses. Also check out the Roman Amphitheatre, which was partially carved out of rock. Syracuse also features quite a few historical churches of note that represent many styles and periods.

Denise has been writing and publishing in the travel and design field since 2001. Check out her latest website which is all about how to identify and find the best discount window treatments , as well as what to look for in sheer window treatments.

Hometown Boy Honoring an Emperor Roots in Roman North Africa pt7.wmv

Roman Architecture Professor Kleiner discusses two Roman cities in North Africa: Timgad and Leptis Magna. Timgad was created as an entirely new colony for Roman army veterans by Trajan in AD 100, and designed all at once as an ideal castrum plan. Leptis Magna, conversely, grew more gradually from its Carthaginian roots, experiencing significant Roman development under Augustus and Hadrian. Septimius Severus, the first Roman emperor from North Africa, was born at Leptis and his hometown was renovated in connection with his historic visit to the city. This large-scale program of architectural expansion features the Severan Forum and Basilica and the nearby Arch of Septimius Severus, a tetrapylon or four-sided arch located at the crossing of two major streets. The lecture culminates with the unique Hunting Baths, a late second or early third-century structure built for a group of entrepreneurs who supplied exotic animals to Rome's amphitheaters. Its intimate vaulted spaces are revealed on the outside of the building and silhouetted picturesquely against the sea, suggesting that the bath's owners knew how to innovate through concrete architecture and how to enjoy life.

GREEK & SPANISH REVIVAL ARCHITECTURE . THE SOURIS HOUSE

GREEK & SPANISH REVIVAL ARCHITECTURE . THE SOURIS HOUSE ARCHITECT: STEVEN PERISANIDIS

Rethymno

Welcome to Rethymno Greece, Crete The prefecture of Rethymno Greece, one of the four of the Greek Island of Crete, lies between the prefecture of Chania and the one of Heraklion. It is full of magnificent beaches, interesting archaeological sites and Byzantine churches, lovely villages, lively resorts and its capital, the town of Rethymno, is a very attractive city which has kept many example of the sumptuous Venetian architecture.The plethora of charms and beauties astonishes every visitor. Taken from classical Greek, the name Panorama indicates exactly its basic characteristic which is its magnificent all-round views of the bay of Chania and the historic islet of Thodorou. In addition the spectacular White Mountains of Crete overlook the green valleys surrounding the villa.

History channel - Engineering an Empire - Greek Byzantium 5/5

Relations with Kiev Rus Between 800 and 1100 the Empire developed a mixed relationship with the new state of Kiev Rus that emerged to the north across the Black Sea. Byzantine Empire quickly became a main trading and cultural partner for Kiev. After christianizing Rus Vladimir the Great employed many architects and artists to work on numerous cathedrals and churches around Rus, expanding the Byzantine influence even further. Kiev Princes were often married into the Byzantine imperial family and Constantinople often employed Princes' armies, most notably Vladimir the Great presented Byzantine with the famous Varangian Guard - an army of vicious Scandinavian mercenaries. Some believe that it was done in exchange for the marriage to Basil's sister Anna to Vladimir.[1] However, as Primary Chronicle states the marriage was in exchange for the Rus conversion to Orthodoxy, the Varangian Guard (although a signifficant one) was a by-product of this exchange. These relationships were not always friendly. During those three hundred years Constantinople and other Byzantine cities were attacked several times by the armies of Kiev Rus (see Rus'-Byzantine Wars). Kiev never went far enough to actually endanger the Empire, those wars were only a tool to force the Byzantine to sign increasingly favorable trade treaties, the texts of which are recorded in the Primary Chronicle (Rus'-Byzantine Treaty (907))[4] and other historical documents. Constantinople at the same time constantly played ...