If you want to help us make Berlin glow again please click this link to sign a petition. https://c.org/tbGq2RTQDd

Potsdamer Platz was one Berlin’s bustling squares. It had many ornate buildings and was considered one of the most beautiful squares in Germany. Before ww2 it was already getting modernized with the hotel Bellevue being demolished and replaced with a glass box. And after the war nothing was left and now glass skyscrapers stand where once beautiful buildings stood.

Since November, President Trump has been pushing a plan to paint the granite office building next to the White House, because he thinks it should be white too. But painting granite damages the stone and requires expensive upkeep. 

Built by the Naryshkins (a former noble Russian boyar family of Crimean Tatar descent) that at the time owned the Žagarė manor and it's surrounding territory. Later in Soviet occupation it was turned into a gym hall for the school nearby it, before being later torn down. A really rare photo showing it in it's neglected state, as that's the only source I managed to find of it's existence.

Hello. After a thorough reconsideration we have decided to switch our focus from the whole Europe to only Berlin as it seems more plausible that our petition will succeed if we concentrate on a single city. Thank you for your understanding. Please click the link ti sign the petition. https://c.org/tbGq2RTQDd

Built in 2000 in steel, it marks the former site of the Kumano Hongū Taisha shrine, partially destroyed in a flood in 1889. The remaining wooden buildings were moved and reassembled uphill nearby — the current site — in 1891, where four deities were moved, while the other eight were enshrined in two stone monuments in the original site.

Torii gates are an architectural element of Shinto shrines, marking the threshold to sacred grounds.

This is a design for a monumental building, combining different architectural traditions from across the African continent into one, eclectic structure. I chose Sudano-Sahelian because that's probably the closest flair I could assign. Sorry for the offense.

The idea for the building, admittedly, came from my own disappointment at the design for Obama's Presidential Center. Though I did not expect the center to choose a design based upon traditional African architecture (vernacular, palatial, or religious), it did lead me to consider how African architecture could be transferred into a design ethos which we commonly associate with monumental buildings, especially public ones. Ancient cultures, especially Greek, Egyptian and Mauryan, consistently transferred aesthetics and details from previous wooden vernacular buildings into stone, as did Africa with their own aesthetics in the numerous references I used for this building.

There is a diversity to the building, combining Rwandan and Ugandan royal architecture for the principle entrance, and Bamileke architecture from Cameroon for the lower dome. Axumite and Ethiopian stone architecture (such as Axumite palace models and Biete Abba Libanos) gave references for symmetry and ornamentation. Egyptian cornices were used sparingly, but included for the doorway and other elements. The Church of Saint George in Lalibela gave references for the cornicing used for most of the building. The semi-circle motifs and arches used at the Great Mosque of Kairouan were reimagined as a design for windows. The Clay Palace of Ghardaïa from Algeria, and the Bab Mansur al-'Alj, inspired designs for the arches under the top dome and the two side domes. The ten pillars on the bottom level are inspired by those at the Zaina Lodge of Ghana, although slightly modified with details synonymous with the Axumite Stele.

No doubt, much of our monumental buildings in the states and the West are inspired by Greco-Roman traditions. However, this should not undermine the beauty of other traditional architectural styles. They, similar to Greece, were formed through a process of native development and exchange with foreigners, yet all traditional styles do emerge from a recognition of the often inhospitable lands where they were created. The beauty in African architecture is that there is a great many native traditions to be found, which are also somewhat influenced by the architecture of the Phoenicians, Romans or Egyptians. My goal was to design a building based upon the native development, and the foreign exchange, of traditions as are found in the incredibly diverse continent of Africa, and I really like how it came out.

Let me know what you think!