CATHEDRAL OF SAINT SEBASTIAN, RIO, BRASIL

ARCHITECT: EDGAR FONSECA

STUDENT OF OSCAR NIEMEYER

SMO©2010

CONSTRUCTION:1964 -1979

DIAMETER: 96M, HEIGHT 75M

LOCATION DOWNTOWN RIO DE JANEIRO

THE VILLA SAVOYE, POISSY , FRANCE

Last of Purist Houses 

1928-1937
"the icon of bygone modernity"

LIVING ROOM LOOKING TO GARDEN TERRACE

"...the outside always an inside....the hanging garden onto which the sliding plate-glass walls of living room and other rooms of the house  open freely: thus the sun is everywhere, in the very heart of the house"

Transitioning to the exterior , the ramp leads to  SOLARIUM, from which entire site can be seen"

EXTERIOR

SMO©2010

NOGUCHI II

AKARI SHINES LIKE THE LIGHT OF SUN...THEY SEEM TO OFFER MAGICAL UNFOLDING AWAY FROM THE SPRITUAL WORLD.

SMO© 2012

It was on a trip to gifu, Japan  in 1951 that Noguchi created

his first Akari designs, inspired by the traditional lanterns

illuminating night fishing on the Nagara River. He called 

these works Akari, a Japanese term meaning light as a

illumination, but also impliying weightlessness.

NOGUCHI

"To fight gravity is a tour de force. The nature of the stone is weight. In a sense
I am led against my better judgement in attemting out of contradictions to draw
new emphasis. The deepest values are to be found in the nature of each medium.
The question is how to transform not destroy this"
ISAMU NOGUCHI

SMO©2012

DOWN n UP

SMO©2011

DOWN n UP

SMO©2011

RELEVANCE

SMO©2012

Summer

At evening the complaint of the cuckoo
Grows still in the wood.
The grain bends its head deeper,
The red poppy.

Darkening thunder drives
Over the hill.
The old song of the Cricket
Dies in the field.

The leaves of the chestnut tree
Stir no more.
Your clothes rustle
On the winding stair.

The candle gleams silently
In the dark room;
A silver hand
Puts the light out;

Windless, starless night.

Poem by Georg Trakl

Translated by
James Wright and Robert Bly