More Juvarra

This is the Superga in Turin. It sits atop a mountain and in theory looks down upon the Po Valley if it weren't for all the smog from those Fiats. It was designed by Fililppo Juvarra for the Savoy family and constructed from 1715 onwards. It is easy to observe the strong vertical emphasis common to much of Juvarra's work.

The view toward the alps, the church is 675 metres above sea level.

Italy

I have a lot of photos from my studies in Italy so I thought I would share some of my favourite places and buildings.


The staircase and facade of Palazzo Madama in Turin, designed by Filippo Juvarra, an architect born in Messina, trained in Rome, and who came to work for the Savoy King in 1714. The staircase sits on the front of the medieval castello in the centre of the city. Juvarra's work is characyerised by an openess of space, the forms are not sculptural but spatial. Richard Pommer described it as 'open architecture' the spaces and solid forms common to the architecture of the 16th and 17th centuries were pierced through with holes and openings. The columns below are like a forest and as one moves around the view and feeling of the space constantly changes.

It is also the staircase which the minis drove down in 'The Italian Job.'