Oscar Niemeyer Auditorium - Ravello, Italy 2010
 

I've been in Italy for the past few weeks and had the pleasure of visiting Ravello about 10 days ago. The town is a wonderful hill town on the Amalfi Coast overlooking everything from Licosa up to Capri and many points between. Ravello is a center for music performance, hosting numerous classical concerts through the year, along with a city wide music festival.

A few years ago I came across a building by Niemeyer in Ravello and put it in my mental list to go see it the next time we made it back to the area (my wife's family is from near there). This is the first building by Niemeyer I have every come across in my travels and now I really want to see more of them.

What a wonder!

Sketched and designed by Niemeyer in 2000 and overseen by his good friend, the building defies gravity overlooking nearby Minori and looks kind of like an alien ship crashed on the hillside. Modern buildings are extremely rare enough in this part of Italy, let alone one that is so markedly different in form than the traditional roman, baroque, and classical orders of buildings so much more common.

That being said, its form is both functional and derivative of a wave crashing. Its white plaster skin over concrete blends in with the muted tones of the existing hillside structures. Which is not to say it doesn't stand out.

Sadly, the season for the building just closed a few weeks ago and thus I did not get inside, but I did take a number of photos both in the vicinity and from nearby on the coastal road and from a boat.

My only real gripe is that the curve is just slightly segmented in like 2-3 places and it bothers my eye. I'm sure the concrete lifts were hard enough to pour on that hillside without getting it perfectly rounded.

I need to make sure that next time we are here that we get to go see a concert there...

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As I said, I didn't get to go inside, but here is a nice pic of what it looks like:
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