This project belongs to our main project, the Empire of Castaire.

Today we're showing off our city planning bureau, commonly known amongst the people of Lucrécy as the HGI (Harald-Glööckler-Institute for Pomp and Circumstance). If anyone is wondering why we used such an odd name, just google for him. It's a small hommage as the building is overly decorated and his style is marked by an extraordinary of bling-bling things.

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Since the foundation of the Empire Castaire the culture developed and so did the artisan craftwork. Thus, the look of the houses in Castaire and even at the whole continent Esradon made huge transformations through the centuries and the artisans became more and more talented in their profession. But especially castairian artisans achieved such high skills that their cities were known worldwide for being the most splendid and innovative.

But that development did not stop at the house doors, many citizens wanted to participate in this development. It became almost a competition to own the most decorated house and highly remarkable clothing and adornment. Therefore every class owned its unique style of building. The lower classes of the town like the craftsmen were mainly building a roman/early medieval style of building with mostly framework constructions. The patricians/bourgeoise were building mainly solid stone houses with a more renaissance-like type of building, the so called chavonian style (Chavonianism), named after the capital of the duchy of Lanthenas.

It’s a stone pillar based building style with mostly gable-topped constructions made from darker stone bricks and also with darks roofs.

The public and sacral structures of this class were also made of stone bricks but are following a more gothic building style. The upper classes like the aristocrats perfected the baroque style and with newly achieved knowledge in the construction and material usage, they created the so called fantasy-baroque, a highly decorated and, though the usage of white quartz pillars, a very bright looking building style with very high rising structures.

The amount of decorations increased through all classes and building styles and even the citizens were covered by more and more voluptuous dresses, suits and almost ridiculous amounts of jewelry. This trend was called the deco-shit movement and went so far that even some over decorated houses collapsed partly or entirely. Some citizens got injured through the weight of their clothes and golden jewelry.

To satisfy the “needs” of this population and to counteract against the movement our imperial majesty Emperor Steve I planned the Sacre-Cœur de Lucrécy, a splendid cathedral honouring his beloved wife Belle, with the highest amount of deco-shit used. The people celebrated the inauguration of this fantastic construction with days of festivities and they took distance to the movement and returned to more simple clothing. To furthermore secure the withdrawal of decadency, Emperor Steve I founded the Harald-Glööckler-Institute for Pomp and Circumstance. With Harald Glöökler he chose the former figurehead of the deco-shit movement not just as a name giver but also as the Leading Aesthetic Manager of the Empire (LAME) of the institute.

Since then, the institute was there to plan the future scape of the city, to ensure that the new buildings are beautiful but also viable and secure. This new planning bureau was also collecting different plans of decoration elements as well as plans and models of buildings from the city and a huge model of Lucrécy as a whole.

But it’s not just there for planning also it’s meant as a place where future architects and artisans from the university are sent to learn practical use and manufacture in the workshop at the ground floor of the building.
Unfortunately, as the imperial fortune teller said, the whole building will burn down in the year 2016 AC due to an exploding smartphone battery pack. Despite the knowledge of this tragedy it could not be prevented causing the fact that at this time nobody could say what is meant with the word “smartphone” or “battery pack”. Later it will be rebuild in 2017 AC based on original plans but with a cost explosion for the city ;).

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The building itself is a mixture of almost every possible decoration and structural elements of the so called fantasy-baroque. It has got a highly remarkable front with a unique tower with an adorable interior where the office of the LAME is located.

The main entrance is coronated with a marvelous hall leading to the enormous staircase with an oval headlight. At the back, it got two identical clockbell towers and two volute gables which are embracing the staircase windows in the centre of the construction. It is intended that one can see the dome of the front tower while looking from the rear above the central edge.

From the back seen the right tower is called the Tour du Soleil or “tower of sun” and was the name giver of the adjacent Place de Soleil or “plaza of sun”.

The name do not just come from the sunny location but more for an ideological reason. In castairian mythology the day or the sun is seen as the human time where rationalism and logic are determining the time and the human mind. The night with the moon and also the water are seen as the time of transcendence and where creativity comes from. Therefore the left tower is called Tour de La Lune or “tower of the moon” and is directly opposing to the cathedral of Lavinia, the goddess of water, ocean and origin of inspiration.

Also on the left side under the volute gable is a statue of La Mère de Beaux-Arts or “mother of the beautiful arts” and on the right side under the gable is a statue of L'art-création or “the artisan”.
In the middle of the rear facade is a terrace which is divided into three elements and a huge fountain. The fountain shows a scenery at night where the logic and rational world of mankind and its structures at the right side meets the lyrical land of imagination on the left side, and unifies in the middle, where the human artisans getting their ideas from. At this way even the rear facade reminds the people to build beautiful but also reasonable with a picture of mythology.

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Main Architect: Flo0498