Urban Design since 1850
More notes from Architecture, You and Me by Siegfried Giedion (found in a second hand bookshop in 2005). This time it’s the recounting of a delightful list of important urban design developments since 1850 – books and building – according to Mr Giedion. The New Urbanists amongst you may find the regular appearance of Corb [...]
inputs and outputs
Still here. Like a Norwegian Blue, I’ve just been resting. I return with some summer frippery. First, another day in the life post, since the past one proved quite popular. This time delivered via twitter, an offering made even more poignant perhaps by yesterday’s news that they’ve pulled the plug on the UK. So, from [...]
clip round the ear
A timely post from the Staufenberger Repository on clip art as I prepare my Powerpoint for next week: Includes an outrageous comment from me suggesting that my old letraset uploads were without precedent. In fact, the very opposite is true. Patrick sent over the direct links for each of these fine collections: store.doverpublications.com/0486273512.html store.doverpublications.com/0486257622.html store.doverpublications.com/048628218x.html [...]
quality of the silence
Radio 3 interviews are ripe for the picking of architectural metaphors. In the time honoured blogging tradition of curating x and pointing out that it’s a bit like y, here’s a quote from Booker Prize winning author Anne Enright that got me thinking about spatial comparisons and architectural narratives (my emphasis). A short story is [...]
page 123
John Hill over at Archidose has tagged me with this refreshingly simple meme. 1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages). 2. Open the book to page 123. 3. Find the fifth sentence. 4. Post the next three sentences. 5. Tag five people. John’s Gibson quoting choice talks of ‘…the hopes of [...]
Architecture re-housed: Part 3
The final part of the story about the design of half a dozen houses in the West Midlands… The next day, exhibition and obligatory drink with fellow bloggers over, I headed back to the office. As I’m recounting to colleagues the story of my discovery of a reference to a similar housing layout in the [...]
Architecture re-housed: Part 2
Proving that blogging can be a slow medium too, here’s the second part to an entry written almost a year ago… December 2006, London, RIBA HQ. Flicking through the pages of the book to accompany the Eric Lyons exhibition at the RIBA, I send a text to Rod: In the RIBA cafe, muffins are terrible. [...]
commonly shared
Do you hang out with architects? Need a reading list to help you get by at parties? Don your black roll neck jumper and tuck a few of these in your satchel. Here’s the latest update to the chart of most commonly shared books over at the librarything.com group, Architext: Most commonly shared books (weighted): [...]
Reminisce – people and books
Some more entries chosen from the archives. Influential ideas from people and pages… People Enthusiasm for tomorrow (RIP Tony Goodall) Memorial speech for my friend and mentor Concrete Ideas (Denys Lasdun) Chairs and the architects that sat in them Letters on meditation (Matt Webb) Learning how to let go Wayne Jacobs (Wayne Hemingway) Letter to [...]
The autonomous house
Architectural Advent day 16: A 1975 AD magazine review of The Autonomous House by Robert and Brenda Vale – a timely discovery following my recent trip to the Hockerton Housing Project (more about which coming up in a future entry). …their book will be useful to all designers and builders looking to construct soundly, but [...]