St. Francesc Convent by Enric licensed under the terms of the CC BY-SA 3.0
This week’s crazy building is the St. Francesc Convent in Santpedor, Spain.
This incredible mixture of old and new began way back in the early 1700s. Franciscan friars built this convent in a small Catalan town, but it was pillaged in 1835.
The church remained standing in complete ruin until 2000, when a new project aimed to turn it into an auditorium. The old stone walls were renovated, and a new design was added without tearing down the historical site.
The modern designers added fanciful, angular glass facades that stick directly out of the ancient brick and mortar. This redesign added natural light and created a stark contrast between old and new.
Today, visitors can appreciate the beauty of a 300-year-old convent while marveling at the advances in architecture we have made over the past few centuries.
Maybe a few hundred years down the line, another generation of builders can make some hyper-futuristic addition of their own!
