Ghost of a flea: Flying carpets

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February 09, 2006

Flying carpets

Zaha Hadid's design for the Department of Islamic Art to be housed in the Visconti courtyard of the Louvre is staggeringly beautiful (high-res images here). Chicago-based architect, John Hill comments:

This design is sure to be controversial for the way it forces itself into the classically-scaled and proportioned courtyard, as well as for its neo-Islamic / neo-Escher / neo-Libeskind's-vetoed-Victoria-and-Albert-Museum-ish skin. But I.M. Pei's glass pyramid caused quite a stir late last century and it has grown to be an accepted part of the Louvre and the city of Paris.

Shame this is not the one they decided to build. The winning "flying carpet" concept by Mario Bellini and Rudy Ricciotti has its own appeal, and makes less of an imposition on its neo-Classical surroundings, but is lacking that certain "I do not know what".

Posted by Ghost of a flea at February 9, 2006 08:43 AM

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Trackback didn't seem to work . . . Here's my post:

A fleeting feeling of dhimmitudinous fear

Posted by: Sissy Willis at February 11, 2006 04:05 PM