Category Archives: Humor

What in blazes is that!?

Posted on March 14, 2016 by David Brussat

My friend and mapmeister Cliff Vanover sent me the above photo of … heck if I know! He says it sits in Little Compton – Little Compton! – just west of Route 77 near the entrance to the Sakonnet Vineyards, … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Art and design, Development, Humor, Landscape Architecture | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

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 →

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Book/Film Reviews, Books and Culture, Humor, Interior Design, Preservation | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Oh, to be in, um, China!

Posted on February 22, 2016 by David Brussat

It seems the People’s Republic of China has finally followed through on its maximum leader’s threat a year and a half ago to bar goofiness from its architecture. I penned a post, “Xi a Chinese visionary?” expressing my pleasure, or … Continue reading →

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

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 →

Posted in Architecture, Art and design, Book/Film Reviews, Books and Culture, Humor, Video | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Comedia della postal mod

Posted on February 2, 2016 by David Brussat

The humorist and fenestration cleanliness engineer Stevenson Hugh Mields has sent along another First Issue envelope with an engraving of not one but two proposed modernist plans, which he has named “Optical Illusion,” and which I have placed for readers’ … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Development, Humor, Landscape Architecture, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Happy design, happy toaster

Posted on January 21, 2016 by David Brussat

We are all critics of product design. Recently our toaster bit the dust and we bought a new one. Our old Cuisinart gave way to a shiny new Hamilton Beach. But we soon realized that our bagels were no longer … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Art and design, Humor | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

City planning now and then

Posted on January 16, 2016 by David Brussat

My friend Steve’s father Hugh Mields and his friend William K. Brussat (my dad) were city planners. Steve, who is both a philatelist and a fenestration cleanliness engineer, recently sent me an envelope postmarked Washington, D.C., Oct. 2, 1967, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Blast from past, Development, Humor, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Pritzker arrests development

Posted on January 14, 2016 by David Brussat

The first building used by the New York Times to illustrate the work of Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena, this year’s Pritzker Prize winner, chosen yesterday, looks as if it were made of wooden toy blocks. No further comment necessary. Okay, … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Art and design, Humor, Other countries | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

The “of our time” bugaboo

Posted on January 13, 2016 by David Brussat

I have just concluded Brent Brolin’s Architectural Ornament: Banishment & Return, written in 1985 and republished in 2000. It tells the history of how the meaning of innovation and creativity was lost in the 19th and 20th centuries, leading to, … Continue reading →

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Klaustoon pricks Pritzkers

Posted on December 27, 2015 by David Brussat

Here’s the latest Klaustoon, by Klaus, which heaps ridicule on the Pritzker Prize jury in its moment of crisis when laureate-to-be Frei Otto dies the day before the announcement, three days before the death of Michael Graves, the famous PoMo … Continue reading →

Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture History, Art and design, Humor | Tagged , , , , , | 9 Comments