Category Archives: Books and Culture

Krier’s symphony for London

Posted on February 13, 2016 by David Brussat

On my first trip to London in 1979 I took in a classical performance of the London Symphony Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall on the Southbank embankment of the Thames. I felt the hall’s demerits as architecture even back … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Books and Culture, Development, Landscape Architecture, Other countries, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

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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Heinrich Kley’s “Road Rage”

Posted on February 7, 2016 by David Brussat

The sketch above, “Gasoline Stallion,” which these days might be renamed “Road Rage,” is one of my favorites by Heinrich Kley (1863-1945), the German illustrator. It was probably drawn early in the 20th century, when automobiles were beginning to overtake … Continue reading →

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Built in major & minor keys

Posted on February 6, 2016 by David Brussat

David Mayernik, who teaches at Notre Dame’s school of architecture and has designed the campus at The American School in Switzerland, overlooking Lake Lugano, recently presented his views on the language of architecture and definitions of the classical and traditional … Continue reading →

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BBC on Mont Saint-Michel

Posted on January 30, 2016 by David Brussat

Yesterday, I got an email from the author and director of a documentary on Mont Saint-Michel being produced for BBC France. Denis Sneguirev asked me whether I could provide him with information about the development of the abbey just off … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Books and Culture, Development, Landscape Architecture, Other countries, Preservation | Tagged , , , , , | 11 Comments

Architecture and Mozart II

Posted on January 26, 2016 by David Brussat

Here is a passage from a letter by Mozart in Wolfgang Hildesheimer’s 1982 biography, Mozart, in which the great composer, who was apparently not given to theorizing about music, theorizes about music. The passage might be read with profit by … Continue reading →

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Architecture and Mozart

Posted on January 24, 2016 by David Brussat

It would have been difficult for Geothe’s line “Architecture is frozen music” not to float into mind after I stumbled across this passage in Mozart, by Wolfgang Hildescheimer, another fabulous Christmas gift from my friend Steve, who I forgot to … Continue reading →

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Brolin on vandalizing Yemen

Posted on January 22, 2016 by David Brussat

I have raised this subject many times as modern architecture works to wipe out indigenous cultures around the world. In his 1976 book The Failure of Modern Architecture, Brent Brolin provides a vivid account of the arrogance of modern architecture’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Books and Culture, Development, Other countries, Preservation, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

My new blog at TB and PH

Posted on January 19, 2016 by David Brussat

My new blog is now up on the remodeled websites of two leading trade journals, Traditional Building and Period Homes,  published by the Home Group of Active Interest Media. The blog is called Architecture Old and New, a recasting of … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Books and Culture, Development, Preservation, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Rome’s exaltation explained

Posted on January 6, 2016 by David Brussat

I’ve always been intrigued by Rome – which I visited in 1990 – not just by its extraordinarily beauty and its ruins, but by the story of how its ancient leaders conceived the city as a crescendo of classicism in … Continue reading →

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