Ivan Illich Leonidov (1902-1957) designed the Lenin Institute for Librarianship (the collective scientific and cultural center of the USSR) in 1927 as … [Read more...]
Fireworks at Parc de la Villette, Paris, by Bernard Tschumi, 1992
In 1974, Swiss architect Bernard Tschumi developed the theme of fireworks as an architectural manifesto. Fostering a fierce reaction against the … [Read more...]
Sculptural Cartography: How The Marshall Islands Inhabitants Used Stick Charts to Map the Waves
The stick charts were the main tool the Marshallese used to navigate on canoe across the islands of the Pacific Ocean, until WWII. Lacking … [Read more...]
Staging Deceptions as a War Strategy: The WWII Ghost Army
Almost 1100 men fought World War II as members of the US "Ghost Army", the result of an uncommon lateral thinking in war strategy. Created … [Read more...]
Yannis Xenakis’ Polytopes: Cosmogonies in Sound and Architecture
Fusing the ancient greek terms "poly" (“many”) and "topos" (“place”), Greek-French composer Iannis Xenakis coined a neologism for … [Read more...]
A Building is an Island is a Building: The Île Seguin Renault Factory in Paris
In 1919 Louis Renault, a talented engineer and head of the « Société des Automobiles Renault» began to acquire the "Île Seguin", an island in the … [Read more...]
Flying Boats /2 – Latécoère 521 “Lieutenant de Vasseau Paris”
The interwar period must have been very exciting for an aviation enthusiast. The aircraft industry developed so rapidly that only twenty … [Read more...]
Holiday Machine in Tropea, Italy (1967) by Cristiano Toraldo di Francia (Superstudio)
In the final diploma project of Cristiano Toraldo di Francia (later to become a member of the Italian architectural collective Superstudio), … [Read more...]
The Funambulist Papers Vol.1 and a crowdfunding campaign for the Archipelago project
Our friend Léopold Lambert, author of the Funambulist blog and a writer who's often/quoted/here/at/Socks, just announced the publication of the first … [Read more...]
Atlas Photographique de la Lune (1899)
This moon atlas was published by L'Observatoire de Paris in 1899 and edited by Maurice (Moritz) Loewy. The following are the Cover, the Title Page … [Read more...]
Hans Hollein’s Alles Ist Architektur (1968)
“Everything is architecture“, Hans Hollein announced in the 1968 (1/2) edition of the “Bau“ journal. As correctly explained by Ethel Baraona, he was … [Read more...]
When the Earth Began Looking at Itself: the Landsat Program
When the first images were transmitted from the Landsat 1, only days after the small unmanned satellite was launched in 1972, cartography and Earth … [Read more...]
Confusion of Tongues: The Construction of the Tower of Babel
1 And the whole earth was of one language and of one speech. 2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of … [Read more...]
Computer Graphics’ Archaeology: the HP 9845C Demo
The Hp 9845C , introduced in 1981, was the top-of-the-line model of the 9845 series, it was the very first HP computer supporting color and it was … [Read more...]
Ettore Sottsass jr., Mobile and Flexible Environment Module, 1972
In 1972 Ettore Sottssas Jr. imagines a domestic environment composed of a networked system of grey plastic containers, equipped with sliding wheels … [Read more...]
The Diesel Era Lithographs of Louis Lozowick (1920’s to 1940’s)
The Diesel era immortalized in the powerful lithographs of Louis Lozowick (December 10, 1892 – September 9, 1973). Born in the Russian Empire, … [Read more...]
Architecture Without Humans
Factory Futures, (Architecture Without Humans), a studio of AA Visiting School at Ivrea, directed by Tommaso Franzolini, Maria S. Giudici, Pierre … [Read more...]
Brian Sanders: Artwork Commissioned for the Making of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Illustrator Brian Sanders was hired by Stanley Kubrick to record the filming of "2001: A Space Odissey. Sanders had free access to most of the set and … [Read more...]
How the House looked like in 2001
Sorry for the misleading title, this is really Walter Cronkite in 1967 explaining how the house of the future would have looked like. (From the CBS … [Read more...]
Microcities’ “The Field” at The Storefront for Art and Architecture, NYC
Hello and sorry for the long hiatus, due to overwork at Microcities, lately. This quick post is to thank friends at Think Space and Adrian Lahoud, … [Read more...]
Tango, by Zbigniew Rybczyński (1980)
Tango is certainly a prodigy of pre-digital animation. The experimental short video shows thirty-six characters interacting in one room, moving in … [Read more...]
Tsunehisa Kimura’s Digital Apocalypse
Tsunehisa Kimura (1928-2008) was a Japanese artist, specialized in photomontage. His works usually depict scenes of surreal destruction, caused by … [Read more...]
“Don’t you think there is enough anxiety at present?” The 1982 Debate Between Christopher Alexander and Peter Eisenman
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...]
Pierre-Antoine Marraud, Proposal for a Dystopian Architecture
Some days ago I've been invited as part of the final jury for Pierre-Antoine Marraud (a former student of our atelier at ESA) diploma. This is his … [Read more...]
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