Category Archives: Architecture

Trad and not so trad, cont.

Posted on May 29, 2020 by David Brussat

In light of my recent review of Beauty Memory Unity (2019), by Steve Bass, I offer a long post from 2017 that urges classicists to criticize bad trad more gently if they seek a classical revival. Bass describes strict methodologies … Continue reading →

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Bass: ‘Beauty Memory Unity’

Posted on May 25, 2020 by David Brussat

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 →

Posted in Architecture, Book/Film Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Talk the talk on buildings

Posted on May 21, 2020 by David Brussat

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 →

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Krier on living communities

Posted on May 14, 2020 by David Brussat

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 →

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Duo vs. the “style wars”

Posted on May 11, 2020 by David Brussat

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 →

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China bans novel archivirus

Posted on May 8, 2020 by David Brussat

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 →

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Plečnik capitals you can see

Posted on May 4, 2020 by David Brussat

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 →

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“Building Notre Dame”

Posted on May 1, 2020 by David Brussat

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 , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Dickinson vs. Dickinson

Posted on April 27, 2020 by David Brussat

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 →

Posted in Architecture, Preservation, Video | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 32 Comments

Is Wuhan China’s Chicago?

Posted on April 24, 2020 by David Brussat

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 →

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