Old and New Architecture in Vienna, Austria

Old and New Architecture in Vienna, Austria Vienna, Austria, by the Danube River, has a mixture of architecture representing many periods and styles, ranging from elaborate Baroque-era monuments to a 20th century rejection of high ornamentation.  The history of Vienna, or  Wien as its called, is as rich and complicated as the architecture that portrays it. The city doors are open to celebrate architecture - and anytime is a great time to visit. Being centrally located in Europe, the area was settled early on by both the Celts and then the Romans. It has been the capital of the Holy Roman Empire and the  Austro-Hungarian Empire. Vienna has been invaded both by marauding armies and medieval plagues. During the Second World War, it ceased to exist completely as it was enveloped by Nazi Germany. Yet today we still think of Vienna as the home of the Strauss waltz and the Freudian dream. The influence of Wiener Moderne or Vienna Modern architecture on the rest of the world was as profound as any other movement in history. Visiting Vienna Perhaps the most iconic structure in all of Vienna is the Gothic St. Stephans Cathedral. First begun as a Romanesque cathedral, its construction throughout the ages displays the influences of the day, from Gothic to Baroque all the way up to its patterned tile roof. Wealthy aristocratic families like the Liechtensteins may have first brought the ornate Baroque style of architecture (1600-1830) to Vienna. Their private summer home, the Garden Palais Liechtenstein from 1709, combines Italian villa-like details on the outside with ornate Baroque interiors. It is open to the public as an art museum. The Belvedere is another Baroque palace complex from this time period, the early 1700s. Designed by Italian-born architect Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt (1668-1745), Belvedere Palace and Gardens is popular eye-candy for the Danube River cruise-taker. Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor from 1711 to 1740, is perhaps responsible for bringing Baroque architecture to the ruling class of Vienna. At the height of the Black Plague pandemic, he vowed to build a church to St. Charles Borromeo if the plague would leave his city. It did, and the magnificent Karlskirche (1737) was first designed by Baroque master architect Johann Bernard Fischer von Erlach.  Baroque architecture reigned during the time of Charles daughter, Empress Maria Theresa (1740-80), and her son Joseph II (1780-90). Architect Fischer von Erlach also designed and rebuilt a country hunting cottage into a summer royal getaway, the Baroque Schà ¶nbrunn Palace. Viennas Imperial Winter Palace remained The Hofburg. By the mid-1800s, the former city walls and military enforcements that protected the city center were demolished. In their place, Emperor Franz Joseph I launched a massive urban renewal, creating what has been called the most beautiful boulevard in the world, the Ringstrasse. Ring Boulevard is lined with over three miles of monumental, historically-inspired neo-Gothic and neo-Baroque buildings. The term Ringstrassenstil is sometimes used to describe this mix of styles. The Museum of Fine Arts and the Renaissance Revival Vienna Opera House (Wiener Staatsoper) were constructed during this time.  Burgtheater, Europes second-oldest theater, was first housed in Hofburg Palace before this new theater was built in 1888. Modern Vienna The Viennese Secession movement at the turn of the 20th century launched a revolutionary spirit in architecture. Architect Otto Wagner (1841-1918) combined traditional styles and Art Nouveau influences. Later, architect Adolf Loos (1870-1933) established the stark, minimalist style we see at The Goldman and Salatsch Building. Eyebrows raised when Loos built this modern structure across from the Imperial Palace in Vienna. The year was 1909, and the Looshaus marked an important transition in the world of architecture. Yet, the buildings of Otto Wagner may have influenced this modernist movement. Some have called Otto Koloman Wagner the Father of Modern Architecture. For certain, this influential Austrian helped move Vienna from Jugendstil (Art Nouveau) into 20th-century architectural practicality. Wagners influence on the architecture of Vienna is felt everywhere in that city, as noted by Adolf Loos himself, who in 1911 is said to have called Wagner the greatest architect in the world. Born on July 13, 1841 in Penzig near Vienna, Otto Wagner was educated at the Polytechnic Institute in Vienna and Kà ¶nigliche Bauakademie in Berlin, Germany. He then went back to Vienna in 1860 to study at the Akademie der bildenden Kà ¼nste (Academy of Fine Arts), graduating in 1863. He was trained in the Neoclassical fine art style that was ultimately rejected by the Secessionists. Otto Wagners architecture in Vienna is stunning. The distinctive tiled facade of the Majolika Haus makes this 1899 apartment building desired property even today. The Karlsplatz Stadtbahn rail station that once  inked urban Vienna with its growing suburbs in 1900 is so revered an example of beautiful  Art Nouveau architecture that it was moved piece by piece to a safer venue when the railroad upgraded. Wagner ushered in modernism with the Austrian Postal Savings Bank (1903-1912) - the Banking Hall of the Ãâ€"sterreichische Postsparkasse also brought the modern banking function of paper transactions to Vienna. The architect returned to Art Nouveau with the 1907 Kirche am Steinhof or Church of St. Leopold at Steinhof Asylum, a beautiful church designed especially for the mentally ill. Wagners own villas in  Hà ¼tteldorf, Vienna best express his transformation from his neoclassical training to Jugendstil. Why is Otto Wagner Important? Art Nouveau in Vienna, a new art known as Jugendstil.Vienna Secession, founded in 1897 by a union of Austrian artists, Wagner was not a founder but is associated with the movement. The Secession was based on the belief that art and architecture should be of its own time and not a revival or imitation of historic forms such as Classical, Gothic, or Renaissance. On the Secession exhibition hall in Vienna are these German words: der zeit ihre kunst (to every age its art) and der kunst ihre freiheit (to art its freedom).Vienna Moderne, a transitional time in European architecture. The Industrial Revolution was offering new construction materials and processes, and, like architects of the Chicago School, a group of artists and architects in Vienna were finding their way to what we consider Modernity. Architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable has described it as a time full of genius and contradiction, characterized by a kind of bipolar architecture of simple, geometric designs adorned with fanciful Jugendstil ornamentation. Moderne Architektur, Wagners 1896 book on modern architecture continues to be studied.Urban Planning and Iconic Architecture in Vienna:   The Steinhof Church and the Majolikahaus are even pictured on coffee mugs available to purchase as souvenirs. Otto Wagner, Creating Iconic Architecture for Vienna The same year Louis Sullivan was suggesting a form follows function in American skyscraper design, Otto Wagner was describing aspects of modern architecture in Vienna in his translated declaration that something impractical cannot be beautiful. His most important writing is perhaps the 1896 Moderne Architektur, in which he asserts the case for Modern Architecture: A certain practical element with which man is imbued today simply cannot be ignored, and ultimately every artist will have to agree with the following proposition: Something impractical cannot be beautiful. - Composition, p. 82 All modern creations must correspond to the new materials and demands of the present if they are to suit modern man. - Style, p. 78 Things that have their source in modern views correspond perfectly to our appearance....things copied and imitated from old models never do....A man in a modern traveling suit, for example, fits in very well with the waiting room of a train station, with sleeping cars, with all our vehicles; yet would we not stare if we were to see someone dressed in clothing from the Louis XV period using such things? - Style, p. 77 The room that we inhabit should be as simple as our clothing....Sufficient light, a pleasant temperature, and clean air in rooms are very just demands of man....If architecture is not rooted in life, in the needs of contemporary man...it will just cease to be an art. - The Practice of Art, pp. 118, 119, 122 Composition also entails artistic economy. By this I mean a moderation in the use and treatment of forms handed down to us or newly created that corresponds to modern ideas and extends to everything possible. This is especially true for those forms that are considered high expressions of artistic feeling and monumental exaltation, such as domes, towers, quadrigae, columns, etc. Such forms, in any case, should be used only with absolute justification and sparingly, since their overuse always produces the opposite effect. If the work being created is to be a true reflection of our time, the simple, the practical, the - one might almost say - military approach must be fully and completely expressed, and for this reason alone everything extravagant must be avoided. - Composition, p. 84 Todays Vienna Todays Vienna is a showplace of architectural innovation. Twentieth-century buildings include  Hundertwasser-Haus, a brilliantly colored, unusually shaped building by Friedensreich Hundertwasser, and a controversial glass and steel structure, the 1990 Haas Haus by Pritzker Laureate Hans Hollein. Another Pritzker architect took the lead converting the century-old and historically protected industrial buildings of Vienna into what today is known as  Jean Nouvel Buildings Gasometers Vienna  - a massive urban complex with offices and shops that became adaptive reuse on a grand scale. In addition to the Gasometer project, Pritzker Laureate Jean Nouvel has designed housing units in Vienna, as have the Pritzker winners Herzog and de Meuron on Pilotengasse.  And that apartment house on the Spittelauer Lnde? Another Pritzker Laureate, Zaha Hadid. Vienna continues to make architecture in a big way, and they want you to know that Vienna’s architecture scene is thriving. Sources The Dictionary of Art Vol. 32, Grove, Oxford University Press, 1996, pp. 760-763Vienna Moderne (November 26, 1978), Architecture, Anyone? by Ada Louise Huxtable, University of California Press, 1986, p. 100Modern Architecture by Otto Wagner, A Guidebook for His Students to This Field of Art, edited and translated by Harry Francis Mallgrave, The Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities, 1988 (translated from the 1902 third edition)

ISIS CAMPAIGN Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

ISIS CAMPAIGN - Essay Example is absolute and when such freedom is abused and already poses a threat to national security, such freedom should be regulated to the effect of asking these social media companies not to be used as a medium by ISIS to recruit fighters from the West. To the end of social media companies, following this mandate of the US government is consistent with CRM or Corporate Responsible Management where the company refuses to be used as a tool of evil. Most media outfit no longer air or cover the propaganda materials of ISIS. In fact, ISIS beheading of people and burning of a Jordanian pilot was not aired not only due to its gruesome image but also as a responsible practice of journalism not to be used by terrorist organizations to spread their propaganda messages. Companies must do the same and should contribute to defeating and ending of terrorist organizations that had killed so many people and destroyed so many infrastructures including those important ones such as heritage structures. They should therefore ban any propaganda messages from ISIS in their

Learner charateristics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Learner charateristics - Essay Example e, eager 8-13 year-old to an optimistic learning result in adolescence, or to the negative, less adaptive results linked with estrangement and disconnection. In this paper we will explain the characteristics of learners in detail When children sight themselves as able, sure learners, strong learning results are maximized. When children are unsure, missing in self-assurance about their knowledge, skills and capability, their knowledge is unnatural and subdued. At the same occasion, their perceptions of themselves are receptive to the environmental chains for learning. Therefore, knowledge of the common habits children see themselves as learners can tell educational practices. Interest is the usual answer of the baby and young child to novelty. In the early on years of schooling (Year 4) this is extremely strong incentive for information looking for and knowledge gaining. When children tackle something with the intention of is new or unknown, their awareness is trapped or their attention is aroused, and they commonly connect in some type of investigative behavior. This means they are being uncovered to and getting novel information and knowledge. Young children (Year 4) usually consider that they discover as a consequence of attempt; that is, when they attempt, they learn. They demonstrate a concentration in what their peers are going to do but they do not characteristically contrast their own act with that of their peers. Common attention in what peers are responsibility shows a wish to discover out about the job and to be acquainted with what to do. †¢ Approximately 7 years of age children are seen to bottom judgments of their personal aptitude and the abilities of their parents on the levels of routine they watch. They have turn out to be conscious that in the middle of their peers there are dissimilar levels of capability, whether it be in arithmetic, interpretation or sports. Social contrast becomes more and more significant in the assessment of self and

Dell Computers Essay Example for Free

Dell Computers Essay Dell Computer pioneered a new way of making and selling personal computers. Its customers â€Å"custom-design† their computer over the Internet or phone. Dell reengineered its â€Å"supply chain† as it coordinated its efforts with its suppliers and streamlined its order-taking and production process. It can ship a computer within two days of taking an order. Personal computers lose 1 percent of their value every week they sit on a shelf. Thus, having virtually no inventory is a great advantage to Dell. Compaq tried to adopt Dells approach, but with limited success. Dell’s CEO Michael Dell understood that kind of execution. His direct-sales and build-to-order approach was not just a marketing tactic to bypass retailers; it was the core of his business strategy. Execution is the reason Dell passed Compaq in market value years ago, despite Compaqs vastly greater size and scope, and its the reason Dell passed Compaq in 2001 as the worlds biggest maker of PCs. As of November 2001, Dell was shooting to double its market share, from approximately 20 to 40 percent. Dell turns its inventory over eighty times a year, compared with about ten to twenty times for its rivals, and its working capital is negative. As a result, it generates an enormous amount of cash. In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2002, with revenues of $8. 1 billion and an operating margin of 7. 4 percent, Dell had cash flow of $1 billion from operations. Its return on invested capital for fiscal 2001 was 355 percent—an incredible rate for a company with its sales volume. Its high velocity also allows it to give customers the latest technological improvements ahead of other makers, and to take advantage of falling component costs—either to improve margins or to cut prices. These are the reasons Dells strategy became deadly for its competitors once PC growth slowed. Dell capitalized on their misery and cut prices in a bid for market share, increasing the distance between it and the rest of the industry. Because of its high velocity, Dell could show high return on capital and positive cash flow, even with margins depressed. Its competition couldnt. The system works only because Dell executes meticulously at every stage. The electronic linkages among suppliers and manufacturing create a seamless extended enterprise. A manufacturing executive we know who worked at Dell for a time calls its system â€Å"the best manufacturing operation Ive ever seen. In 1998, Dell Computers launched its first global brand advertising campaign, beginning in the United States and Canada, to further highlight the advantages of its direct business model. The brand advertising campaign carries the theme Be Direct. The campaign highlights Dells unique business model, which helps to eliminate barriers between customers and the manufacturer, providing Dell with the means to enhance the overall customer experience. Dells advertising has focused primarily on its products and has been targeted largely at computer-enthusiast and industry trade publications, cable and local television and a few national newspapers. The Be Direct campaign will be in addition to the companys ongoing product-oriented advertising. The new brand campaign emphasizes the strengths and advantages of Dells direct-to-customer business philosophy. The direct model, pioneered by Dell in the computer industry, enables Dell customers to have computer systems built to their specifications; a single point of accountability; award-winning service and support; and fast access to the latest relevant technology. Presently, the growing number of orders comes in over the Internet. The order-taking system interfaces with Dells own supply chain control system, which ensures that inventory is where it needs to be for the computer to be manufactured quickly. In addition, Dell stores very little inventory. Instead, Dells suppliers have built warehouses close to Dells facilities, and Dell orders parts on a just-in-time basis. By implementing these strategies, Dell has been able to provide customers with exactly what they want very quickly. In addition, inventory costs are low, and Dell minimizes the danger of parts obsolescence in the rapidly changing computer industry. In this way, Dell has become a dominant player in the desktop PC market and is well on its way to doing so in the laptop and server markets. References Cravens, D. W. Piercy, N. (2003). Chapter 1: Strategic Planning and Decision Making. NJ: McGraw-Hill Companies. http://www.dell.com

Why Gas Prices Are Rising Essay -- essays research papers

Gas prices rising OR EVEN ABOUT SQUEEZING a few more miles out of each precious tankful. But among the special-edition Ferraris, bizarre Cadillac studies and a whole new crop of gas-guzzling SUVs, not all that many people were talking about cheaper and cleaner ways of getting around. The section of the show dedicated to ‘New Energies’ was a tiny corner on the second floor of Hall 2, behind the stands of the insurance companies. There were exactly two exhibits. The lull is deceiving. Never have so many automakers put as much money and effort into building a greener car. Not entirely without some prodding, mind you. Facing clean-fleet laws in the U.S. and â€Å"voluntary† restrictions in Europe, the industry is committing to cut emissions of its gasoline and diesel-powered cars. Gridlocked Italian cities like Rome and Milan may ban conventional cars altogether from their historic centers. In Tokyo, putting 30,000 natural-gas-powered taxis in the streets has already helped clean up the air. But most of all, carmakers have been whipped into action by California’s Zero Emissions Mandate that requires ten percent of all cars sold in the state to be pollution-free by 2003. Mention green cars, and most people think of some battery-powered buggy that the average driver wouldn’t be caught dead in. Electric cars have been around for decades and never caught on. Their problem: batteries aren’t very powerful, so the car’s speed, range and weight remain strictly limited. The typical result is Ford’s new TH!NK, already on the market in Scandinavia and about to hit a few dozen American dealers as well. The TH!NK is a tiny two-seater with a grubby-looking plastic shell that can go about 50 miles between recharges, at a top speed of 50 mph. A full charge takes eight hours, but costs only 50 cents. With a sticker price of $15,000, the car will win a small market niche at best. If you’re not willing to put up with the performance of a glorified golf cart, there are always standard cars powered by alternative fuels like propane, ethanol or liquified natural gas. Also around for decades, these cars have actually begun to catch on. There are 4 million cars in the world today running on a propane/butane mix, including 1.2 million in Italy alone. Many gas stations offer this cleaner fuel as well, so chances are you don’t have to drive very far for a fillup. GM’s U.K.-based Vauxh... ...drogen in favor of methanol, which is simpler to transport and releases hydrogen fairly easily. Trouble is, methanol leaves toxic byproducts that need to be disposed. BMW uses a different technology, burning hydrogen in a conventional combustion engine. Clean steam comes out of the exhaust pipe. As with any other technology, there’s a fierce battle for the standards that will define our hydrogen fuel-cell future.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  So while hydrogen may be what DaimlerChrysler CEO Juergen Schrempp calls â€Å"the great big alternative,† it’ll be a while yet before this technology is mature enough to replace gasoline-powered cars on a grand scale. The first models will roll out in a few years, but they’ll be expensive and hard to find a filling station for. But industry analysts predict that by 2010, the market will be ready; another ten years, and half the cars sold in the world could run on hydrogen. â€Å"Everyone is buying a ticket to the lottery because we all know that whoever wins will win big time,† says Paul Everitt, chief economist at the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. If he’s right, greener cars will start to be a much hotter category at the auto show.

Mount Pleasant Essay

Louise Buxton’s Mount Pleasant is a very uniquely written short story, where we experience a normal day from a child perspective. It’s a modern story from 2005. The story is told in first person singular, where the narrator is a young girl whose name is Elizabeth. †(†¦) like the glue wee peel off our hands after arts and crafts hour at school with Mrs Kelly.† (p.2, l.16-17) Based on the information we know that Elizabeth goes to school, but also that she cannot be more than 6 to 8 years old. When she finds the old photograph of a boy which is a 9-10 year in a costume, we are told that she is not quite as old as he is. We know that she is a young girl, judging by her verbal skill and behavior. â€Å"With the sun in my eyes, I couldn’t see my mammy’s face, not even squinting with both arms above my head and my head tilted†. (p.2, l.22-23) The language is very descriptive and it seems as if one were looking through the eyes of a child. The short story varies from other traditional first person stories by putting the focus on a child and what a child does. Elizabeth’s focus is on everyday play, and those days are to her full of adventure and close friendships: †Lena, Little Fran, Wilf and me – playing for hours at house or working at some theatrics†. (p.5, l.152-153) Or where there is a break with everyday routines. For example, when Lena and Elizabeth discovers a business with unlimited possibilities in the form of candy and ice, until the mother puts an end to the adventure: †(†¦) raspberry ruffles and chewing nuts and chocolate raisins and liq-uorice sticks and ice cups and strawberry boot lace. We put them on Mammy’s account at first but Mammy found out after she got given a bill (†¦).† (p.4, l.92-94) The children also play ghost games, where they attempt to frighten one another by dressing up in linens and pursue one another. In several cases reveals the narrator herself as a child by acting irationaly. When Lena and Elizabeth lie in their beds and think they can hear ghosts, they pull the sheet over their heads and lie still. The reaction shows a childish logic. If they cannot see the ghost, then the ghosts cannot see them: †If I don’t move, they can’t get me.† (p.5, l.147-149) Since the perspective is a child’s, it is particularly interesting to see where the child’s perception of situations and episodes differs from that of an adult. For example, when Elizabeth thinks that the mother reknits the nuns clothes, because the  mother is good at knitting and can do it better: †(†¦) and mammy isn’t proud, she always takes them – and unravels them and knits them again, better, because she’s a good knitter, my mam†. (p.4, l.87-89) The reason is more likely that the mother does not want people to know that they have gotten the clothes from the nuns. The narrator being a child has the effect that we as readers several times pause to think about what it means. At several places in the story where Elizabeth tells about an episode where the reader has to interpret the situation, to determine whether it’s a ghosts or just the narrator’s childish imagination. It’s for example unclear in Elizabeth’s depiction of how the photograph ends up on the mantelpiece again and again: †But somehow it found its way back on top of the mantelpiece.† (p.4, l.102) Or where she feels like there is somebody sitting on the bed and watching them. The fact that the narrator is a child is very easy to see by analyzing the language. She mentions her parents with expressions such as â€Å"mammy and â€Å"daddy†. The little brother, George William she calls â€Å"babby†. The language is characterized by an absence of literary language. An example of this is where she says that their hands are â€Å"(†¦) lickity-stickity†. (p.5, l. 121-122) She invents her own expressions, which results in the story being poor in traditional imagery like comparisons and metaphors. The imagery used is mainly related to the child’s imagination. For example when she feels uncomfortable in her clothes she says: † I’m all blowed up like an old frog.† (p.2, l.12) Another interesting thing is how the sounds in the house are described. Elizabeth perceives the sounds caused by the wind to be scary, and describes it with the use of personification. The short story takes place in an environment that Elizabeth knows well, which is at their house, Mount Pleasant. We don’t hear much about the world outside the neighborhood, or thoughts that exceed it. This is of course because she is a child who is not involved in it. â€Å"We know the roads around Mount Pleasant pretty well now. And everybody knows me and Lena.† (p.4, l.83-84) The tittle of the short story Mount Pleasant, which is the name of their house, indicates how safe and merry their life is, and stands as a stark contrast to the spookiness. Mount Pleasant can be seen as a symbol of childhood joys and play. Her childhood eventually gives in to a more mature and realistic  perception of reality. When Elizabeth throws the photograph in the fireplace, it seems as if she actively tries to fight her fear. She might think that the deceased boy had something to do with the ghost. She goes to bed, and the tension builds up and gets stronger and stronger until she finds out that there is nobody there at all. Elizabeth takes a small step towards becoming an adult; she finds out that there are no connections between the photo, the scary sounds and the deceased boy.

The Meaning of Bimodal in Statistics

A data set is bimodal if it has two modes. This means that there is not a single data value that occurs with the highest frequency.  Instead, there are two data values that tie for having the highest frequency. Example of a Bimodal Data Set To help to make sense of this definition, we will look at an example of a set with one mode, and then contrast this with a bimodal data set. Suppose we have the following set of data: 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 6, 7, 7, 7, 8, 10, 10 We count the frequency of each number in the set of data: 1 occurs in the set three times2 occurs in the set four times3 occurs in the set one time4 occurs in the set one time5 occurs in the set two times6 occurs in the set three times7 occurs in the set three times8 occurs in the set one time9 occurs in the set zero times10 occurs in the set two times Here we see that 2 occurs most often, and so it is the mode of the data set.   We contrast this example to the following 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 6, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 8, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10 We count the frequency of each number in the set of data: 1 occurs in the set three times2 occurs in the set four times3 occurs in the set one time4 occurs in the set one time5 occurs in the set two times6 occurs in the set three times7 occurs in the set five times8 occurs in the set one time9 occurs in the set zero times10 occurs in the set five times Here 7 and 10 occur five times. This is higher than any of the other data values. Thus we say that the data set is bimodal, meaning that it has two modes. Any example of a bimodal dataset will be similar to this. Implications of a Bimodal Distribution The mode is one way to measure the center of a set of data. Sometimes the average value of a variable is the one that occurs most often.  For this reason, it is important to see if a data set is bimodal. Instead of a single mode, we would have two. One major implication of a bimodal data set is that it can reveal to us that there are two different types of individuals represented in a data set. A histogram of a bimodal data set will exhibit two peaks or humps. For example, a histogram of test scores that are bimodal will have two peaks. These peaks will correspond to where the highest frequency of students scored. If there are two modes, then this could show that there are two types of students: those who were prepared for the test and those who were not prepared.