The Capitolino, a citadel hill heavily connected to the myths that populate the origins of Rome, was the building ground to several temples, including a major temple to Jupiter. Nowadays, the post-medieval palazzi dominate the hill, with the overwhelming Michelangelo’s Piazza del Campidoglio in center stage.

The plan of the villa evolved as did Hadrian himself. Many of the places were named and built after Greek and Egyptian deities and influences Hadrian interested himself with, and the several additions to the villa reflected the eclectic life, love and travels of the emperor.

A teacher once told me there are two cities in the world that an architect needs to visit in his lifetime: New York and Rome. I had visited neither by the time I became an architect. Only when I wasn’t an architect anymore, did I get the chance to visit both.

Terni, in Umbria, was stage to a massive bombardment by the Allied forces in WW2. Here lay a heavy chunk of the Italian wartime steel works, a strategic target for Allied bombers. By the end of the war, not much was left of the city, and it had to be rebuilt. Maybe as a result of that, a few buildings, monuments and infrastructure look heavily influenced by the modernist and post-modernist architecture movements, at least around the train station.

Samantha and Matteo, the soon-to-be-wed couple, came back from Milan, to their Umbrian family in Casteldilago, to celebrate their big day. The wedding troupe skipped between the church of Saint Valentine, at the very top of the hill, to the village museum, from the public garden to the local osteria.

High upon a rocky hill, the narrow streets of the village of Casteldilago, sheltered us from the harsh sun, yet, punished us with its steepness. The streets intertwined in organic patios, tunnels, and even backyards of residents.

For the second year, the cultural non-profit AIAR, ADC and the Raia Urban Sketchers chapter, held Traço 17 – the Alentejo Drawing Festival, in the imposing Graça fortress, overlooking Elvas.

Lisboa City Hall is promoting an activity amongst the Portuguese Urban Sketchers community that focuses on a list of 19th to 20th century threatened buildings. The aim is to attract attention to these buildings, alerting the civil society about the dangers of letting these gems perish.

Kraków is definitively more touristy than Warszawa. The medieval town’s survival during WWII made it possible for the city to skip the soviet-style modernist renovation and helped preserve the atmosphere of a historical European city, with all the layers of the preceding epochs in plain view.

Urban Sketchers Algarve and the Municipality of Portimão invited us to teach a full-day workshop, and we decided to give a a test run to a programme that we had prepared before. It’s called “The narratives of architecture and the people that experience it“

A strange and sunny day had hit the city when Pedro Alves and I decided it was time to face the mighty challenge of sketching the crown jewel of Roque Gameiro’s portfolio.

This old 16th century portal in the edge of the old town of Lisboa, in the area called Mouraria, aparently hides architectural and artistic treasures inside its doors.

In Largo da Achada you can find one of the dozens of casas de ressalto existing in the city. These are residential buildings, mostly hailing from the 15th century, with overhanging timber-framed floors, leaning over streets and alleys. A clever way of expanding your real estate, which finds its counterpart in the modern marquises. Clever, but dangerous.

Lisboa has become a city of street art ever since the Carnation Revolution brought with it thousands of political murals in 1974, right down to the international street art stars Vhils (Artsy link here) and Bordalo II. Many corners and alleys, streets and squares in the old town of Lisboa became showcases for this artform