Place to visit: Church of Sant’Ignazio in Rome.

I recently listend to a National Gallery of Art podcast that made me want to visit Italy.

In one segment,

Facciata di Sant'Ignazio, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Facciata_di_Sant'Ignazio_(Roma).jpg

Trompe l'oeil ceiling, from http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/30/Sant_ignazio_ceiling.jpg

Model of church, from NGA podcast

Model of church, including trompe l'oeil effect, NGA podcast

Trompe l'oeil dome from Sant'Ignazio, from NGA podcast

What that section of the roof actually looks like:

Trompe l'oeil dome. Yes, it's actually completely flat, there is no dome. NGA podcast

The Architect as Totalitarian

This article made me laugh:

When one recalls Le Corbusier’s remark about reinforced concrete—“my reliable, friendly concrete”—one wonders if he might have been suffering from a degree of Asperger’s syndrome: that he knew that people talked, walked, slept, and ate, but had no idea that anything went on in their heads, or what it might be, and consequently treated them as if they were mere things. Also, people with Asperger’s syndrome often have an obsession with some ordinary object or substance: reinforced concrete, say.