The Villa Koliba in Zakopane is one of the oldest and well preserved examples of the Zakopane Style Housing. It was built in 1892 by artist Stanisław Witkiewicz and houses a museum for the Zakopane Architecture Style today.
What a place! It is on Sauchiehall Street and it was opened 1903 by business woman Catherine Cranston. She told Mackintosh that he would have unlimited resources and her goal was to establish a place where even woman could meet outside their homes. I never thought about the fact, that shopping could be difficult, but there were now possibilities for women to go out unchaperoned and there were no bathrooms for them to go to.
We have been there for only one day all together and so I can only give my first impression. I would prefer Edinburgh to live but if I would be 20 again and looking for a place to visit an Art School I would chose Glasgow.
We went to see Urquhart Castle this day and walked down to Drumnadrochit afterwards. The castle is a very well visited spot overrun by families, busses and instagrammers. The castles history is well explained by a short movie in the movie theater. But the sensation of the movie is the curtains opening at the end of it with a view on the real castle in bright sunshine. With some imagination you can see, how the people lived there.
We planned this holidays long before Covid and finally we did it. We came together – eight people from three different cities – and met in Glenelg, just opposite to the Isle of Skye in a house with phantastic views – all of which Nicky organized meticulously. We first met in Edinburgh to drive to Glenelg from there.
A very special guided tour brought us to some different initiatives in eastern Brandenburg, where we learned, how people from the city and from the villages live and work together on the countrysite and engage actively in village live. I was most impressed by the story of Trebnitz.
Beautifully situated in the Taubertal is the Monastery of Bronnbach a former Cistercian Abbey founded in the 12th century. The surroundings are great for hiking, the Nibelungensteig and one of the German Saint James Ways lead right past the forest just next to the Monastery. It’s a wonderful complex of buildings, above all if it’s the first days of spring.
During our journey I collected some views which I found very typical of Italy. Please tell me what’s your favorite or which one you feel is quintessentially Italian.
In the 19th Century Bad Gastein attracted health tourists from all over Europe and later skiers from all over the world. But the snow has gone and there are other places in Austria which are also appealing and so the huge number of fabulous Art Deco and classicist hotels became unbelievably oversized.
Ten years ago I was on an event in Berlin called the Pecha Kucha Night. During the interruption I talked to Friedrich Liechtenstein who – at the time – wasn’t yet famous. He told me about the End Of The World Congress held in Bad Gastein, a lost city in the Austrian mountains. I immediately hooked to the story and always when I thought of Austria I also thought of the Hotel Miramonte from which he talked a lot.
We stood there for three nights and design wise it’s really a wonderful place which I can absolutely recommend.
Heinrich Hoffmann, Hitlers photographer, once said “Der Fotograf bildet ab, sonst nichts.” (The photographer depicts, nothing else.) This was his argument for turning a 10 year prison conviction to only 4 years.
Albert Speer, Hitlers architect and later Reich Minister for Armaments and Ammunition, was convicted to only 20 years of prison while other leading Nazis of his rank and with very similar collections of crimes against humanity were sentenced to death.
Leni Riefenstahl, Hitlers infamous director, wrote: „[…] wo liegt denn meine Schuld? Sagen Sie mir doch das. Ich habe keine Atombomben geworfen, ich habe niemanden verleugnet. Wo liegt denn meine Schuld? (Where is my fault? Tell me that. I didn’t throw any atom bombs, I didn’t deny anyone. Where is my fault?
Together with Göbbels as Reich Minister of Propaganda and many others creatives, they created the myth around Hitler and the Nazis. Their grandeur and elevation. They depicted the führer as a Messias and the SS as saviors from evil. But their professions deal with visual aspects and they have been and still are underestimated in their effects.
Is design able to create a monster? As you can see in this very distinct examples, it sure is.
A never finished building to host more than 50.000 people. With a planned height of 70 meters and a diameter of 170 meters the biggest still existing of the Nazi buildings.
from where the Reichsparteitag happened and Hitler held his infamous speeches.
hikeminded 