Category Archives: Architecture

Temper of the Times

Posted on December 16, 2014 by David Brussat

This cartoon by Olivier Schrauwen that ran with “How to Rebuild Architecture,” by Steven Bingler and Martin Pedersen in yesterday’s New York Times is most evocative. An architect is directing the attention of another man to his stupid-looking houses but … Continue reading →

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Repost: Happy or Hayworth

Posted on December 16, 2014 by David Brussat

Originally posted on Architecture Here and There:
The American Institute of Architects has announced its basic lack of seriousness as an organization by announcing that the artist who recorded “Happy” will be the keynote speaker for its upcoming convention. Now,…

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Gentling gentrification

Posted on December 15, 2014 by David Brussat

A stinging rebuke to Australia’s capital city of Canberra, and thence to just about every other city that has embraced the placemaking agenda, comes from Oliver Wainwright in the Guardian, “50 years of gentrification: Will all our cities turn into … Continue reading →

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Browbeating Boston’s brand

Posted on December 13, 2014 by David Brussat

Marty Walsh has taken over as Boston mayor after 20 years of Tom Menino, who used to decide what sort of hat new buildings would wear – most famously, the “tiara” of a glitzy tower called R2-D2, near the Pru. … Continue reading →

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The Granoff showdown

Posted on December 11, 2014 by David Brussat

At Wednesday evening’s meeting of the Blackstone Neighborhood Organization, at the Central Congregational Church, some attendees reported they’d seen surveyors at the Granoff estate. This suggests that Paula and Leonard Granoff may attempt to complete their supposedly incomplete application for … Continue reading →

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Disproportion by definition

Posted on December 10, 2014 by David Brussat

Above is my promised second reclining nude by Ingres, “The Sleeping Odalisque,” to be delivered after responses to my post “Naked proportion.” My promise to post another reclining nude by Ingres was slowed down by an apparent insufficiency of response. … Continue reading →

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Placemaking under siege

Posted on December 9, 2014 by David Brussat

Audun Engh, of INTBAU, the International Network of Traditional Building, Architecture and Urbanism, recently sent to TradArch readers an update by Ellie Violet Bramley on the work of Jan Gehl, the pioneer of city livability. Bramley’s article in the Guardian, … Continue reading →

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Naked proportion

Posted on December 8, 2014 by David Brussat

Here is Roger Scruton’s passage regarding the human body and its proportions, from Chapter 3 of The Classical Vernacular: Imagine a beautifully formed body – as depicted by Ingres, for example. Here we see a certain kind of perfection, in … Continue reading →

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Scruton on proportion

Posted on December 8, 2014 by David Brussat

As an advocate of classicism I’ve always been sort of absent without official leave from discussions of proportion. Perhaps that is because it involves mathematics, which I have tried to keep at arm’s length throughout my life. Thank God for … Continue reading →

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Architecture is qualiadelic

Posted on December 6, 2014 by David Brussat

My brother, who lives in Oregon, has just published a book. It delves into the most intimate and profound aspects of ritual, and how engaging with one’s own patterns of ritual creatively can improve one’s life, and open one’s mind … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Art and design, Book/Film Reviews | Tagged , , | 2 Comments