Elias Messinas on Architecture and Travel

The second place that I think is brilliant and I am fortunate to be here is Thessaloniki; the city with the incredible history of thousands of years whether this is Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman And until the recent time Greek history. We have incredible architecture of monuments from Roman times, we have traditional buildings like the Rotunda which is like a Roman building but it’s actually a Greek church, an orthodox church. We have all these synagogues that used to be in Thessaloniki, about fifty of them. We have the Yeni tzami, we have Armenian churches; it’s an incredible place to walk and basically experience history. Of course we have the new plan by Hébrard which he connected the sea to the city and the whole think works together. So, Thessaloniki is definitely again a group of buildings that has to be experienced. 

The third is Jerusalem; this is where I spend most of my time; the wall city which was destroyed and rebuild many times in layers. Two buildings that they are incredible are the Church of the Holy Sepulchre by Eleni, the mother of Consatntine. Basically, a basilica that was destroyed by the Muslims and then it was rebuilt by the Crusaders. But they didn’t have the resources that Eleni had so they built it in the quarter so they made a smaller building. There are parts of the building that you see the Walls; you see the arcade of Constantine’s time and you see the arcade of the Crusaders time; this is about a thousand year’s difference to the walls next to each other. It’s very powerful; the experience and the building. Then, you go down to the basement and you see the layers of Constantine’s stone, then you have some Byzantine building and then you have some Isla, and Crusader and Turkish building. So, you really read the building in layers; it’s incredible. It’s like the city of Jerusalem which you read them in layers. 

And within the holy ground which used to be the Jewish temple is now the Dome of the Rock which is also an important site for the Muslims; it’s where the Mohamed basically left the earth. There is an incredible Rotonda, it’s a baptistery, it’s a Byzantine structure but covered in mosaics, it’s basically covered with mosaic scriptures, Islamic scriptures from the Koran. 

The other place I would go is the US; I would go to New Haven. That’s where I studied, at Yale. I would really recommend that if somebody wants to travel to the US to go see Paul Rudolph’s School of Architecture; the whole building is exposed concrete. Basically, Rudolph designed the building inside out, because he had to design the form work so that what it comes out of it is perfect. And it’s perfect, it’s an incredible thing. Everything is concrete so you have to really design where the lights go and everything. It’s incredible. This is definitely a building for architects to go and see. 

I would go to Barcelona, and of course mention Gaudi’s buildings; the crazy things he did become like the symbol of Barcelona; Sagrada Familia and of course the Casa Batlo, the Casa Mila and what he did for his patrons. The Park Güell which is also a brilliant garden city, a neighborhood that was never finished unfortunately but it’s there. 

I would say Cyprus, I would go to Larnaca again as an experience. Sometimes, we here that Greece is like the meeting point between the East and the West. It’s not. The meeting point of East and West is Cyprus. That’s because everybody wanted to be in Cyprus, everybody wanted to conquer Cyprus, so if you go into the Old City of Larnaca on one hand you see the old buildings which look like Cairo, they look like Jerusalem. On the other hand you see European Architecture. Everything is boiling in there’ it’s really incredible. 

I would go again to Italy. I would actually to the tomb that he built for the Brion family in San Vito which is one of the projects that I went to see when I was a student and it was one of those times that you don’t know what to do with yourself.  It was so brilliant. It was just amazing; the detailing, the space, the water, the relationships, the light. Scarpa was a very modest person and inside this huge compound of the Brion family two walls were meating and there was a little part where you could just go through. And there was his tomb that he designed himself or his son designed it. But he was there too. It was incredible; that you had the Brion’s tomb and then you had the architect’s tomb. I would like to finish with that, I think I gave plenty of ideas for architects to travel.

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