Jake Richards

Beauty & history of the built world | Deep dives on humanity’s most mesmerising buildings & places | Work in Construction IRL 🧱🛠️

[Jake Richards @JakeMRichards]

In 1755, Europe's largest ever earthquake crushed Lisbon.

An hour later, a 20ft tsunami rolled in. Then, 6 days of raging fires scorched the rest.

85% of the city. 1 in 3 people. Gone.

But from the ruins rose one man who rebuilt the city into an icon.

The Marquis of Pombal.

[Jake Richards @JakeMRichards]

@KhlorosP Are you based in Syd also? 🤝

[Jake Richards @JakeMRichards]

While we’re on the topic of beautiful learning institutions…

The University of Sydney, Australia.

A building I’ve had the privilege of helping restore and maintain through various projects over the years.

Simply stunning.

[Dume @gietzschean]

AI would never recreate this amount of beauty. Anyway, build learning institutions like this again.

[Jake Richards @JakeMRichards]

@Shelli_BH She’s a beauty 🙌🚪

[Jake Richards @JakeMRichards]

Wild story about this place…

After years of exile, Medici rival Filippo Strozzi returned to Florence in 1466 determined to build a palace grander than any Medici residence.

But he died before construction finished.

Then the Medici’s confiscated it for the next 30 years.

🤌

[Beautiful Histories @Shelli_BH]

Strength and power —communicated with rusticated honey-colored stone.

Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, Italy.

[Jake Richards @JakeMRichards]

The ceiling mosaics at Lyon’s Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière are out of this world.

Interesting history behind it too.

In 1643, plague loomed over Lyon.

Its leaders climbed Fourvière hill and vowed to honour Mary if the city was spared.

Lyon survived.

Two centuries later, Notre-Dame de Fourvière rose above the city, containing some of France's finest mosaics.

The annual ‘Vow of the Aldermen’ continues to this day.

[Jake Richards @JakeMRichards]

This isn’t Athens or Rome.

You’re looking at Baalbek. An ancient temple complex in south-east Lebanon.

After the Romans annexed the region under Augustus, construction began around the 1st century BC.

But here’s the wild part:

Beneath the Temple of Jupiter sits the Trilithon… three limestone blocks, each stretching 20 metres long and weighing 800 tonnes. Raised 7 metres above the ground.

To this day, nobody knows exactly how the Romans lifted them.

[Jake Richards @JakeMRichards]

@dccockfoster One of my favourites is the Carbide & Carbon Building.

It is said to be designed to resemble a champagne bottle—dark green terracotta for the glass, gold leaf at the crown for the foil cap.

An Art Deco monument to the Roaring Twenties.

[Jake Richards @JakeMRichards]

The mosaics of Delos are worth a look.

Delos was the birthplace of Apollo.

But by the 2nd century BC it also became one of the Mediterranean’s richest trading ports.

Wealth poured in.

Then came the beauty.

The mosaics of Delos are among the finest surviving artworks of the ancient Greek world.

Simply stunning.

[Jake Richards @JakeMRichards]

@KrysiaJ @xmuse_ The Roman amphitheater nearby was also impressive.

Beautiful views.

[Jake Richards @JakeMRichards]

Thanks for reading.

If you’re fascinated by architecture, cities and the unexpected history behind them, drop me a follow @jakemrichards for more.

Behind every great building is an even better story.

[Jake Richards @JakeMRichards]

Modern architecture is dead boring.

The excuse: “Beautiful buildings are too expensive.”

You've been lied to.

In 1960s Uruguay, Eladio Dieste had no capital and basic materials. Yet created gravity-defying structures of astonishing beauty.

Here’s his most inspiring work.

[Jake Richards @JakeMRichards]

Dieste balanced beauty, economy and the mystical:

“A building cannot be profound as a work of art unless it has an earnest and subtle fidelity to the laws of matter.”

In reimagining humanity's oldest building material, he inspired an unlikely phrase:

“As light as brick.”

[Jake Richards @JakeMRichards]

@Dee_Floki Exactly 🤝

[Jake Richards @JakeMRichards]

@WorldScholar_ Breathtaking.

If you appreciate extraordinary floor artwork, the mosaics of Delos are worth a look.

Delos was said to be the birthplace of Apollo. But in the 2nd century BC it also became one of the Mediterranean's busiest trading ports.

Prosperity followed and so did the art