THE MOST BEAUTIFUL BUILDING IN THE WORLD 1

We were hungry for lunch.  Trip Advisor said there was an interesting spot not too far from where we were.  After making our way thru the streets of Lisbon, a small courtyard opened before us, and there was the restaurant.

The proprietor was serving only one other table, and they were from Germany.  As we sit at our table in the courtyard, I look up, and see what, at first glance, could easily be considered an ordinary building.

But the more I looked, the more I became enchanted.  And then it occurred to me, this is the most beautiful building in the world.

I guess what attracted me was the soft simplicity. The gentle corners.  The simple detailing.  The power of the organic form.  The various scales of the wall openings. The way it meets adjacent buildings, and in fact springs from those buildings.

Even though I could only see two sides of it from where I was sitting, as seen in the photo below, you could basically understand how the form worked.

When you know that you are going to draw this later, as you know, you have got to take pictures from more than one side.  I got up before our food came and took a photo from the opposite corner.

And then thru the rest of lunch, it was a pleasure to sit in the city courtyard, listening to the sounds that go on around this building.  To see a lady in an upstairs apartment adjust the laundry hanging from a window line.  To watch various people traverse the courtyard.  Two boys ran thru with a soccer ball.  Someone came out of a doorway facing the courtyard and it looked like they were going to the market.  Light slowly changing.