Really Minnelli

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's Barcelona Pavilion seems to feature ideas ranging from the distant past like classicism, to more recent ones, such as Industrial Neoclassicism. Classicism is the style of the ancients, or the ancient Greeks and Romans, of which the Greek temple or the temple in general is considered the paradigm. Industrial Neoclassicism is a term coined by Peter Behrens to describe reduced and abstracted architecture, that became increasingly popular during the 19th and 20th centuries. Mies seems to have shared a passion for exploring how Industrial Neoclassicism could manifest itself better in modern buildings, a venture that Behrens, whom he worked with, had taken interest in himself. The combination of glass, steel and stone create dramatic contrasts and comparisons between the materials and the structures they create. The glass creates a sense of seamlessness while the stone seems to assert dominance. While glass and steel have been used extensively to ornament th

  The pied-à-terre has four floors: the ground floor and three levels. The ground floor has two small lawns at the front and back, a car park, utility room and a staircase leading up to level 1. Level 1 comprises of three bedrooms and two baths. The rooms are located in such a way that light would enter through the elongated windows into the rooms and hallway, each room would have enough privacy and also with an inverted arrangement, like Garches. Moving through the floor, another staircase is visible at the end, which leads up to Level 2. This floor has all the living spaces combined into one room, except for the toilet room which is cut off from the rest of the floor. Level 2 also has a small balcony that is accessible from the living area. Next to the toilet room is the last staircase that leads up to the roof terrace. This plan has been constructed in the manner of Corbusier by applying the Five Points of Architecture; the pilotis, free plan, ribbon window, free facade and the roof

The Code Of Honor—A Duel in the Bois De Boulogne, Near Paris , wood-engraving after  Godefroy Durand ,  Harper's Weekly  (January 1875). Image from Wikipedia. The gentleman’s duel is an arrangement between two people where they engage in combat with matched weapons. This practice was particularly common during the 17th and 18th centuries, where the opponents faced each other in the event where one of the two parties had offended the other. The two parties would duel although it was most likely that both would survive in the end, as it was mostly considered a symbol of risking one’s life to restore honour to both parties. In The Twelfth Night, Viola, who is disguised as a man who goes by the name Cesario, has to face Sir Andrew in a duel, and before the duel Sir Toby Belch gives Sir Andrew advice by saying “so soon as ever thou seest him, draw; and, as thou drawest swear horrible; for it comes to pass oft that a terrible oath, with a swaggering accent sharply twanged off, gives manh

Othello. Image from Wikipedia. Othello was a play written by Shakespeare presumably in the years 1603 and 1604, during which a peace treaty was signed between England and Spain. This might have brought about the memory of the War of Cyprus that occurred when Shakespeare was much younger, inspiring him to write a play set in Venice around the time of this war. Othello was a Moor that Shakespeare portrayed as a kind, brave and charismatic character, contrary to the common belief at the time where people usually saw Black Moors in rather disdainful light. In Act 1 Scene 3 of Othello, Iago tries to humiliate Othello in front of the Duke and judges by exposing Desdemona’s marriage to Othello, which was carried out without the consent of Brabantio. Previously, Iago and Roderigo wake Brabantio up and break the news of his daughter’s elopement “to the gross clasps of a lascivious Moor”, giving Brabantio the impression that she has been forced to wed. Othello arrives and agrees to settle the