The famous New York museum and seven other buildings by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright were listed as World Heritage Sites on Sunday. Unesco hailed their “strong impact on the development of modern architecture in Europe”.
All designed and built during the first half of the 20th century in the United States, these buildings “demonstrate the ‘organic architecture’, elaborated by Mr. Wright, which is characterized in particular by an open plan, blurring limits between the exterior and the interior as well as the unprecedented use of materials such as steel and concrete”, underlines Unesco in a press release.
With its famous white curves, the Guggenheim Museum in New York was inaugurated in 1959. Its unique design revolves around a huge skylight over the entire height of the building and a spiral ramp. The visitor reaches the top floor by elevator and then takes the continuous gently sloping ramp to visit the exhibitions to the ground floor.
From Illinois to California via Arizona and Wisconsin, the Unesco list is completed by seven other buildings designed to be private dwellings – such as the House on the waterfall (Mill Run, Pennsylvania) -, “places of worship, work or leisure”.
Prosecco Hills
On the same day, Unesco also inscribed the Prosecco wine hills, shaped by man for centuries in the Venice region, on the list of world heritage of humanity. It is precisely the rugged Prosecco hills of Conegliano and Valdobbiadene, producing some of Italy’s famous sparkling white wine, that have received this cultural landscape recognition.
The landscape of the Prosecco production area in Italy is characterized by steep hills and small plots of vines. [Stefano Scata – AFP]
“This landscape is characterized by hills with steep slopes, small plots of vines installed on grassy and narrow terraces, the ciglioni, forests, small villages and agricultural land”, describes Unesco on its website. website.
“The use of ciglioni has created since the 17th century a particular mosaic landscape made up of rows of vines parallel and vertical with respect to the slopes. In the 19th century, the technique of trellising the vines, called ‘bellussera’, contributed to the aesthetic characteristics of this landscape”, emphasizes Unesco.
The 43rd session of the World Heritage Committee is meeting until July 10 in Azerbaijan to study the dossier of 34 other sites, notably in Brazil and Burkina Faso.
>> To read: The site of Babylon becomes a UNESCO World Heritage Site
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