You wouldn’t know there’s a highway behind these beaming blue pools, and that is just what architect Álvaro Siza Vieira intended. At the young age of 26, Álvaro Siza designed these Piscinas das Marés (Pools on the Beach). His creation has become a Portuguese national landmark and is praised for the way the pools blend into the landscape from some perspectives, and show a harmonious blend of nature and artificiality from others. The design respectfully floats the pools between the soft sands of the beach and the rocky outcrops that have been here long before 1966, when the project was completed. The shapes of the pools simultaneously follow and oppose the natural lines of the terrain that surround them, a masterful balance that foregrounds the beauty of each, as well as the entirety of the scene Álvaro Siza has helped to set.
A splash by the sea
Today in History
More Desktop Wallpapers:
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World Bee Day
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Great on so many levels
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Baltic Sea, Estonia
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Guanahacabibes National Park, Cuba
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To the 155th on the 155th
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Oktoberfest begins
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Pi Day
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Sparkling ice diamonds on a black sandy beach
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Wild lupines
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A perfect day to fly your flag
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30 years after Exxon Valdez
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A house of grand scale(s)
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Oh, the places you’ll go
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Whatever floats your boat
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Swimming into the season
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Martinique
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Extraterrestrial Culture Day
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Looking back on 150 years of rail travel
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Frozen fun in the Canadian cold
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Hay, what s up?
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Join us in celebrating World Water Day
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No, it s not a leaf. Happy Look-alike Day
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In Apia Harbor for Samoan Independence Day
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A ‘city’ within Valencia
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In memory of those lost
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International Polar Bear Day
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Tigh Mor Trossachs on Loch Achray, Scotland
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Pups of the prairie
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Burns Night
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Borovets ski resort in Bulgaria