Sunday 29 March 2020

Architecture

1937: 1st Soviet Architectural Congress - Buildings of New Moscow (Designer - N Bobrov)
I have conflicting information about the stamp on the left it is either the TASS News Agency Building or the GPO. The current TASS building is a boxy 1970s number. The stamp on the right is called the theatre at Maykovsky Square but it isn't the Maykovsky Theatre for that was built in the 19th Century.  I wonder if these two buildings are actually just architectural designs, part of Stalin's Moscow building competitions of the 1930s which resulted in what is called today 'Stalinist Architecture'   Well I'm going with the idea of a GPO so I can move seamlessly on to
1991:Historic Postal Buildings (Design - Karin Blume-Zander; Typography - André Zander)
some rather nice German postal buildings .  On the left is a Post Station and on the right Lauscha Post
Old post office in Bonn, Münsterplatz
and what was the rather grand Bonn Post Office.  Having visited the post office now to some more civic buildings
1975: European Architectural Heritage (Design - Otto Rohse)
and the Town Hall and Market at Alsfeld.  The stamp on the right shows the medieval centre of Xanten but it is also famous for its large Archeological Park built on the site of the ancient Roman Xanten.
1987: Maximum Card No 8 (Photo - Markku Mattila) - Europa - Modern Architecture
The library of Tampere is located in a city park, at its entrance are trees and plants in big pots.  The combination of a library and a park has me in a heartbeat.  A design competition was held in 1978 to build a new library which was won by the architects Raili and Reima Pietila for their proposal 'Wood Grouse's Courting Images".  My first thought was what on earth does that mean.

1987: Europa: Modern Architecture (Design - Pirkko Vahtero)
Helpfully Tampere City Library explains that at first the idea was for "the building to coil like the shell of the snail but more and more the building came to resemble a bird, a capercaillie (wood grouse). Seen from above the building looks like a bird carrying a shield".  The design and its interior furnishing is influenced by Finnish nature
1987: Europa - Modern Architecture (Design - L F Anisdahl)
But what is more in tune with nature than a house made of wood and this stamp celebrates wooden architecture.
The old Birkenhead Post and Sorting Office

Sunday Stamp II theme this week is - architecture - more to See It On A Postcard


5 comments:

Mail Adventures said...

Some interesting buildings here. The drawings on the Germany stamps are very nice. But the Norwegian stamp impressed me. Cool design!

viridian said...

happy Sunday Stamps!

FinnBadger said...

Lovely stamps. The clouds on the Soviet stamps stand out. My favorites are the colorful square German stamps. Thanks for this nice mini-collection.

Stay safe!

violet s said...

The Norwegian one is wonderful.
I like all the activity going on outside the PO buildings.
The Russian stamps look those artists renderings of proposed buildings.

Bob Scotney said...

Some great buildings from Germany here. However having spent 10 years working in Norway I have first had experiece of their wooden houses and having lived in one of a similar colour of that on the stamp.