CHRISTOPHER ALEXANDER: The thing that strikes me about your friend's building -- if I understood you correctly -- is that somehow in some intentional … [Read more...]
Mark Lombardi’s Narrative Structures and Other Mappings of Power Relations
(...) the great question today is the question of globalization, the question of the unity of the world. Globalization proposes to us an abstract … [Read more...]
Olympic Diving Diagrams, from the Stockholm games of 1912
Right after the end of this year Olympic games in London, a little divertissement from the Public Domain Review. From the "Official Report of the … [Read more...]
About Metropolis
Metropolis is probably the film that set a standard for 20th century science fiction. The futuristic urban dystopia depicted by Austrian director … [Read more...]
“Utopia”, “The Mediatory City” and “The Struggle for Housing”: Three Issues by Gruppo Strum (1972)
Low popular culture and social activism blend together in this magazine of three issues by Gruppo Strum, commissioned by Moma in 1972. The three … [Read more...]
A False Paris Outside Paris: a ‘City’ Created to be Bombed
With exactly the same title, on 6 November 1920, the story of Sham Paris was revealed by The Illustrated London News. Located in the northern … [Read more...]
Otto Dix, Der Krieg (The War) – 1924
First World War was such a traumatic experience for Otto Dix, (he served as a machine-gunner in the Western front from 1914 to 1918) that he later … [Read more...]
There’s nothing you can do about it: Short history of the Architect and the Robot, by Gérard Courtieux (1969)
From one of the most impressive issues ever of L'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui (Nouvel Environnement de l'Homme, 145/1969), a revealing article about the … [Read more...]
KRIEGSMASCHINE, BY THNMD – 2012
Our friend THNMD, a very active internet user, just got her Master Degree of Advanced Studies in Spatial Design ZFH at the ZHDK. Congratulating … [Read more...]
Mother, do you think they’ll drop the bomb? Post-apocalyptic depictions of 80’s Nuclear Paranoia
"Thinking that perhaps some terrible calamity was imminent—a nuclear catastrophe, or a sudden epidemic after a research-laboratory accident—and that … [Read more...]
Mikhail Okhitovich and the Disurbanism
Mikhail Okhitovich was a singular figure in Soviet architecture of the 20's and 30's. As a Bolshevik sociologist, town planner and Constructivist … [Read more...]
Arabic Machines: Early Schematics
Water powered systems, pulleys and gearing mechanisms, images from an arabic manuscript, datable from the 16th to 19th century. Sources: Max Planck … [Read more...]
The Social Use of the Kitchen (from Ottagono 48/1978)
An interesting lecture -in Italian- from an almost 35 years old issue of Ottagono, (an Italian architecture and design magazine still living today) … [Read more...]
The book of Fortresses, a XVI Century Codex of Defensive Structures
The "Livro das fortalezas situadas no extremo de Portugal e Castela por Duarte de Armas, escudeiro da casa do rei D. Manuel I" is an analysis, dating … [Read more...]
Lyrical Theatre in Cagliari, Maurizio Sacripanti, 1965
Among Italian avantgarde architects of the 60's and 70's, Maurizio Sacripanti was one of those who gained a lesser fortune. Known almost uniquely for … [Read more...]
How the World was Imagined: Early Maps and Atlases
Depictions of the world from the Iron Age to the Age of Discovery and the emergence of modern geography during the early modern … [Read more...]
Early Days of the Advertising Business
Secrets, humiliations and legends in early days of the adverting industry's explosion, from an article of LIFE Magazine April 28th, 1958. As you may … [Read more...]
Duck and Cover, Nuclear War Awareness campaign
In 1951, shortly after the Soviet Union began nuclear testing, the US Federal government's Civil Defense started producing a series of films and … [Read more...]
Again on “How big really?”
As a follow up to Deconcrete's and our post about a more critical use of BBC tool 'How big really?', another interesting approach would consist in … [Read more...]
Reyner Banham – “L’uomo all’expo” + Piero Sartogo – “Habitat 67” (Casabella 327/’67)
Another "vintage" post, this time from Casabella 327/'67, that will be appreciated, unfortunately, only by our Italian readers. In 1967, right … [Read more...]
David Gissen’s Reconstruction of the Mound of Vendôme
David Gissen, teacher at CCA, author of Subnature and editor of HTC Experiments, proposed a project of radical reconstruction, a pragmatic statement … [Read more...]
Utopianism and Megacities, according to Mr.David Harvey
As a complement to today's Funambulist post on Rebel Cities, the last essay by marxism historian David Harvey, (that you can integrate with Owen … [Read more...]
Tropicomania: “The Social Life of Plants” at Betonsalon, Paris
This exhibition at the Betonsalon Art Center in Paris tries to address the socio-economic, cultural and political implications behind the worldwide … [Read more...]
Unemployed into Self Employed, an article by Leon Krier, 1985
This article was kindly sent to us by Gabriele Mastrigli. Altough we're not fond of Leon Krier past speculations and despite the controversy about his … [Read more...]
