Category Archives: Book/Film Reviews

Architects and The Architect

Posted on June 17, 2016 by David Brussat

A soon-to-be-released movie called The Architect has ruffled the feathers of the community of architects. The movie portrays architects stereotypically, as we have come to know them. As an architect, the main character is arrogant, vain, egotistical, holier than thou, … Continue reading →

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Hart’s humanist architecture

Posted on April 27, 2016 by David Brussat

The Lincoln Memorial – The dignity humanity, and success of a man framed in classical virtue, reminding us of how much we’ve forgotten about building monuments. [Sketches by Albrecht Pichler] Robert Lamb Hart has sent me A New Look at … Continue reading →

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Scruton, Haussmann, Syria

Posted on April 25, 2016 by David Brussat

The British philosopher and architectural theorist Roger Scruton, whose 1995 book The Classical Vernacular is one of my bibles, has recently written “Rebuilding a new Syria without the divisions” for The Times of London. Syria’s history as a French protectorate … Continue reading →

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The reactionary avant-garde

Posted on April 20, 2016 by David Brussat

The epitome of a contradiction in terms, the idea of a reactionary avant-garde is a most appropriate description of what the theorist Nikos Salingaros calls the “cult” of modern architecture. Charles Siegel uses the term in the title of his … Continue reading →

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Kley: Trials of the pedestrian

Posted on April 16, 2016 by David Brussat

This sketch, called “The Train,” by Heinrich Kley was probably etched in about 1910 to judge by the auto, by the fashionable attire of the alligator, or by the era in which Kley was publishing his more curious work. The … Continue reading →

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Roots of the classical revival

Posted on March 5, 2016 by David Brussat

Here’s a passage from The Swerve, a 2011 book by Stephen Greenblatt on how the discovery of the lost poem “On the Nature of Things” by Lucretius helped spark the Renaissance. The passage has to do with handwriting, not architecture, … Continue reading →

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Renovating Castle Lyndon

Posted on February 23, 2016 by David Brussat

Here is a set of passages from William Makepeace Thackeray’s Barry Lyndon, which I am reading for the first time after seeing the movie, directed by Stanley Kubrick in a sort of cinematic slo-mo. The novel is an extended exercise … Continue reading →

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Heinrich Kley book trailers!

Posted on February 12, 2016 by David Brussat

Here are two book trailers – first I’ve heard of a book trailer! – for The Lost Art of Heinrich Kley, a two-volume set devoted to the work of the German illustrator. The set, published by Lost Art Books, boasts … Continue reading →

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Bedford Falls or Pottersville?

Posted on December 26, 2015 by David Brussat

I saw George Bailey in Bedford Falls and Pottersville last night. You don’t see It’s a Wonderful Life on television as much as you used to. The film’s copyright lapsed for 20 years beginning in 1974. Last night I saw … Continue reading →

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Into London’s age of grit

Posted on October 24, 2015 by David Brussat

It suddenly occurred to me that, having done a post on the beautiful Renaissance digital imagery of the video game “Assassin’s Creed II” – it was called “Gaming the Renaissance” – I should check out “Assassin’s Creed I.” I just … Continue reading →

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