Robbert Leusink
@robbertleusink
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Teaching taste through European craft traditions | Cultural critic | NL 🇳🇱
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Joined August 2021
You see a beautiful building You think: 'That's ornate' And ornate is synonymous with 'beautiful' But what you don't see is... -Why the proportions work -How light creates hierarchy -What the material choices mean Here's what you're missing...
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Badrutt's Palace, was founded in 1896 by Caspar Badrutt in St. Moritz. The building is a neo-gothic icon hosting Alfred Hitchcock and Aristotle Onassis. Still family-owned after 128 years. Dynastic luxury.
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Dutch bluntness works. A restaurant tried to rip me off with paying €30 for this Pasta Carbonara. When paying I told the waiter how shitty it was. I only paid my drink.
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Dutch sailors brought tulips from Turkey, coffee from Yemen, and tea from China The VOC was the Amazon Prime of the 1600s
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Bucherer: founded 1888 in Lucerne. They buult the world's largest luxury watch retail empire: over 100 stores across Europe. And built their own manufacture: Carl F. Bucherer, masters of the tourbillon. For 136 years it was family-owned. Sadly Rolex acquired both in 2023.
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Graveyards used to nurture family plots Tended for generations, inscribed with Latin epitaphs, echoing the Requiem Bodies awaiting resurrection as Catholic doctrine demanded... until Vatican II's 1963 betrayal allowed cremation... Now your ashes are scattered anonymously, and
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St. Moritz Bobsleigh Club was founded in 1897 as the world's first. They pioneered bobsleighing on icy runs carved into mountainsides. Famous member include: Gunter Sachs (Opel), Prince Albert II of Monaco, Gianni Agnelli, and Prince Hubertus von Hohenlohe The club embodies
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The Begijnhof in Amsterdam sheltered Beguines since 1346. Beguines are lay Catholic women in semi-monastic devotion, tending the sick… Long before state-enforced healthcare did…
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Blizzard was founded 1945 in Mittersill, Austria. They pioneered polyethylene bases in 1954. And became the world's largest ski maker by the 1970s. Their Flipcore freeride revolutionised skiing. It was Austrian engineering at its peak.
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Jan van der Heyden invented the fire engine with continuous water pump in 1672. The same man that invented street lighting. He solved 2 urban problems that had plagued cities since Rome. Amsterdam got 2,556 oil lamps by 1669, and was the first city on Earth where you could
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People shoud feel the pain, before they start waking up
The Netherlands has refused to shut down its highly controversial and much criticised integration living project between students and migrants, despite rapes and violence endured by the students.
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Traditional Dutch Advocaat is made with egg yolks, sugar, and brandy whisked by hand But most people buy the pre-made Advocaat in the supermarket Nowadays mostly boomers and elderly still drink it, but is actually quite goated: raw eggs + sugar + booze
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Badrutt's Palace, was founded in 1896 by Caspar Badrutt in St. Moritz. The building is a neo-gothic icon hosting Alfred Hitchcock and Aristotle Onassis. Still family-owned after 128 years. Dynastic luxury.
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San Clemente in Rome was built in a 4th-century Roman courtroom. The liturgy was designed for the architecture. Steps for the Graduale (from gradus, meaning steps). The ambo for the Epistle positioned where the verdict was read in Roman trials. The apse where the magistrate
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Maison Jansen was founded in Paris in 1880 by Dutch-born Jean-Henri Jansen. They designed interiors for the Belgian royal family, the White House during Kennedy's administration, and the Shah of Iran's tent city at Persepolis in 1971. The firm closed in 1989. 109 years of
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The Oossink Estate in Winterswijk features a Hallenhuisboerderij (Saxon farm) with carefully restored outbuildings. This picturesque farm was mentioned as early as 1235. The current owners have achieved energy label A, showing it's possible to preserve ancient character while
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The Netherlands invented artificial kidney dialysis in 1943. Willem Kolff built the first working machine using orange juice cans and sausage casings. During Nazi occupation. While the country was starving, a Dutch doctor was saving lives the world had given up on. Now his
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Chamonix has been a mountaineering destination since 1741, when aristocrats William Windham and Richard Pococke hired local guides to reach Montenvers glacier. By 1821, the Compagnie des Guides de Chamonix was formalized. Guides passed down routes, crevasse knowledge, and
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