Architectural trail

MEDIENHAFEN, DÜSSELDORF

Just south of the city centre, Düsseldorf’s waterfront has been spectacularly transformed into an architectural wonderland with a collection of striking contemporary buildings. Apartment blocks that bend and fold like Dali timepieces, that you can see your face in, with a crowd of colourful figures crawling all over…the Medienhafen is nothing less than an outdoor art museum.

Why Medienhafen? Well, the quirkiness of the buildings have attracted trendy folk from the start, with Westdeutscher Rundfunk and other radio stations making it their home, not to mention plenty of advertising agencies and fashionistas.

Start at the Rheinturm, the symbol of Düsseldorf, visible from all over the city and for miles around. Completed in 1982 by Harald Deilmann, the 234-metres-high tower features the world’s largest decimal clock and unsurprisingly offers fantastic views, as far as Cologne on a good day. You also get a remarkable perspective of the Landtag – the home of the state parliament for the Nordrhein-Westfalen Region – looking from above like the innards of some sort of machine.

You can’t miss Neuer Zollhof 1 and 2 next door, #1 a stunning white building, its walls like sheets of folded paper; #2 the same shape but in aluminium, reflecting back the sun (if you’re lucky), the rest of the Medienhafen, and the viewer. These creations are typical of the work of Californian architect Frank Gehry, best known for the similarly twisty Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. The inner space is mostly taken up, as in the rest of Medienhafen, by the offices of trendy advertising companies and other image-conscious businesses. Neuer Zollhof, incidentally, refers to the site’s previous occupant, the New Customs House.

At the far end of the harbour, the architecture is more traditional, less interesting, but before you reach there, you can’t help but notice what’s going on on the opposite side. First of all, the Colorium, on the opposite side, a 62-metres-tall structure that would probably pass for a rather routine tower block were it not for the scheme of coloured panels, British designer William Alsop scattering blues, reds and yellows all over the building, and what looks as if it might be a Helipad sitting on top.

The same colours enliven Neuwerk and Roggendorf-Haus, the neighbouring blocks, which again would be unremarkable but for their extraordinary decoration of human figures with enormous outstreched hands scrambling all over the facade. These 29 figures, known as the Flossis by their Stuttgart-based creator Rosalie, are fashioned from resin, and appear to be engaged in some kind of race to the summit. One or two standing on the roof raise a dinner-plate hand in triumph; another appears to have fallen, stranded at first base. The overall impression is quite unlike anything you’ll have ever seen.

THE RED DOMES OF PALERMO

Palermo teems with stunning architecture, but the most prominent features of the city’s Arab-Norman heritage are the red domes sitting on top of two city centre churches and, more curiously, a small structure just outside. This trail links all three with a related structure, La Cuba. It doesn’t have a red dome, but it’s just as idiosyncratic in its geometric structure to be worth a short visit. Kicking off in the city centre, San Cataldo is the first red top, sitting next to the equally exotic La Martorana in the Piazza Bellini. A chapel belonging to a former 11th century palazzo, there’s not much inside, but you’ll be charged for sitting on a bench so it’s probably enough just to admire the triple-domed roof from the square outside. San Giovanni degli Eremiti is a short walk away, just round the corner from Piazza della Vittoria (though you’ll have to do battle with scooters and other vehicles belching along the pavement-less road). This is a small 12th century church sitting in a paradisiacal garden with citrus and pomegranate trees, and has a collection of red domes sitting on cubic structures. Again there’s nothing to see inside, and, while the entrance fee is a bit steep, there’s really no other way of enjoying the building apart from climbing the nearby tower, and the garden gives you a breather on a steaming Sicilian summer’s day.
La Cuba is a fair hike outside the centre, although the bus to Monreale goes past it on the Corso Calatafimi. This is a palace, or pavilion, once part of a vast garden, which features in one of the tales in Boccaccio’s Decameron, and is once again mostly a shell, renovated in parts, but bearing some original Arabic decorative motifs. It’s the overall geometric form that’s its most striking feature, hidden behind the groceries and cafes of the main drag. You may feel as though you’re straying further and further from the historic centre, but don’t stop there – continue along the Corso Calatafimi a few more blocks and turn right along Via Zangla. On the left hand side, surrounded by palazzi (apartment blocks) and heaps of uncollected garbage, sits La Cubula, La Cuba’s little cousin. This was once a pavilion belonging to the same garden complex as La Cuba, but now it’s little more than a curiosity. Fenced off from the modern city around, it looks a bit lonely. Walk back along the Corso Calatafimi for a stunning view of Porta Nuova as you approach the city centre.