Adventures in Architecture Dreams (2008– ) Online

Adventures in Architecture Dreams (2008– ) Online

Dan visits places where architecture embodies or evokes dreams or nightmares. The walled city, Shibam, in Yemen, the relatively fertile south of the Arabian peninsula, has the world's oldest high-rise, each tower build and constantly maintained for one family in Ancient-traditional mud bricks. In the Dominican Republic, half of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, lies the first Conquistador city. It was founded to embody the dream of a new Spanish empire and is now the capital Santo Domingo, which preserves the vast oldest American cathedral, in Plateresque (inspired by Spanish silver plates) style with a Gothic interior, from which spreads the renaissance-revival of the Ancient rational rectangular blocks grid adopted throughout the continent. The viceregal palace Alcazar de Colon embodies the contrast between great wealth and enslaving of Indians, as they died -mainly from epidemics- replaced by African slaves import, resulting in the Antillean ethno-cultural melting pot. ...