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 …
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. …
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): …
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 …
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 …
Changing a tyre in the pouring rain is not a good way to start the day. Buying yourself a new book, swiftly followed by good coffee and cheescake is the only way to improve your mood. In fact I can’t think of a better way to improve your mood in any given situation than the …
Stuck for suggestions for Christmas gifts? Here’s the current list of most commonly shared books between members of the group I started on librarything.com a little while ago: The most beautiful house in the world by Witold Rybczynski The poetics of space by Gaston Bachelard The Harvard Design School Guide to Shopping / Harvard Design… …
We have a handful of members after day 1. I should point out that one of the most interesting features of the group is the page containing the group zeitgeist.
LibraryThing continues to impress. Book groups can now be set up on the site, so as you might expect I’ve leapt in and started one for the architecturally interested. The paint is barely dry on the walls but come and help me build it into something useful: www.librarything.com/groups/architext
Polis and Curbed have hooked up to propose a contest to name the most Jane Jacobsian block in New York City: The idea is to celebrate the “street ballet” of your favorite block, not just because you like it, but because it exhibits the characteristics that Jane Jacobs enumerated as essential ingredients to a quality …