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Author Archives: David Brussat
Bass: ‘Beauty Memory Unity’
New York architect Steve Bass, long associated with the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art as a teacher of classical theory, recently wrote a book, Beauty Memory Unity, on his favorite subject of architectural proportion. Proportion has long been a … Continue reading
Talk the talk on buildings
Here is a post of mine from Feb. 7, 2018, “Talk the talk on buildings,” about the incoherence of architectural language. It was originally illustrated by a map of the 1901 McMillan Plan for the National Mall, a fine example … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture
Tagged ArchNewsNow, Duo Dickinson, Kristen Richards, Marianela D'Aprile, Michael Imber, National Civic Art Society, Video
4 Comments
“In the Wake of the Willows”
Nightly over several recent weeks – interrupted by a bout of Bell’s palsy – I read to my 11-year-old boy (and his mother) an enchanting children’s book called In the Wake of the Willows, by Frederick Gorham Thurber and lovingly … Continue reading
Krier on living communities
The other day, after I’d posted on an official Chinese edict against copycat architecture, “China bans novel archivirus,” I received an email from the great architect and theorist Leon Krier, a native of Luxembourg and master planner of Prince Charles’s … Continue reading
Duo vs. the “style wars”
Maybe I am a rascal, or maybe I’m going batty in coronaprison, or maybe I would really just like to foster an amicable agreement, among architects, that an architecture that worked for thousands of years is preferable to – and … Continue reading
China bans novel archivirus
The People’s Republic of China, taking time off from other matters, has issued a decree banning copies of foreign design in its architecture. The decree, as described in the BBC’s “China ‘copycat’ buildings: Government clamps down on foreign imitations,” also … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture
Tagged BBC, CCTV, China, Copycat Villages, Cultural Heritage, Modern Architecture
4 Comments
Plečnik capitals you can see
Jože Plečnik may perhaps be deemed the Antoni Gaudi of Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. Or vice versa. Both shifted the character of their principal cities (Barcelona in Gaudi’s case) toward a more animated, innovative and yet entirely classical character. … Continue reading
“Building Notre Dame”
PBS has broadcast a brilliant documentary, “Building Notre-Dame,” on the construction, over some 800 years, of the cathedral in Paris. We all know that the building arose as the cutting edge of architecture in the Middle Ages, and that a … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture, Video
Tagged Building Notre Dame, Documentary, Notre Dame, Paris, PBS, Repair of Notre-Dame, WGBH
3 Comments
Dickinson vs. Dickinson
Duo Dickinson is an architect in New Haven whose work, primarily private houses, is creative yet overwhelmingly traditional in appearance. I like his architecture very much. His firm’s portfolio and productivity are impressive. However, when writing and speaking about architecture … Continue reading
Is Wuhan China’s Chicago?
Wuhan, the Chinese city where the Wuhan virus originated, is sometimes called “The Chicago of China” for its size (pop. 11.8 million), its central location, its setting on the Yangtze River and its historic buildings and its modern architecture. Here … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture
Tagged CCTV, CGTN, Chicago, China, Corbusier, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Paris, Plan Voisin, Rem Koolhaas, Wuhan
7 Comments
