Category Archives: Other countries

Sign petition to save Paris!

Posted on October 16, 2014 by David Brussat

Here is a petition sent out worldwide to save Paris from skyscrapers. Need I say more, except that it comes to me (and the TradArch list) from the inimitable Mary Campbell Gallagher – our correspondent for all things Paris. I … Continue reading →

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A kinder, gentler Zaha

Posted on October 12, 2014 by David Brussat

Lightening up on her typical aesthetic slash-and-turn violence, Zaha Hadid has designed a genocide museum and institute south of downtown Phnom Penh to honor the dead of Pol Pot’s savage regime. The commemoration has inspired Guardian architecture critic Oliver Wainwright … Continue reading →

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Kismet, but not in Mecca

Posted on October 2, 2014 by David Brussat

Kismet. A useful word. Taking a break yesterday from the authorship of a blog post on the destruction of Mecca by modern architecture, I went downstairs, made myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and turned on the television. I … Continue reading →

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The destruction of Mecca

Posted on October 1, 2014 by David Brussat

Kudos to Erik Bootsma for posting this New York Times oped to the TradArch list. Written by Ziauddin Sardar, The Destruction of Mecca describes the transformation of Mecca, of all places, into a modernist hellhole – led not by Western … Continue reading →

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Shot of Richmond Riverside

Posted on September 16, 2014 by David Brussat

This shot of Richmond Riverside, completed in the mid-1980s near London and designed by Quinlan Terry, is on the latest edition of AVOE – A Vision of Europe. It is so lovely that I decided to post it after posting … Continue reading →

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Beauty in Beirut

Posted on September 16, 2014 by David Brussat

This photograph comes toward the end of a most beautiful website called AVOE. The site, sent to the TradArch list by Audun Engh, features the lovable urbanism that remains in Europe, and fights against modernism that has warred against beauty … Continue reading →

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Under Western Eyes

Posted on September 10, 2014 by David Brussat

Here is a passage from Joseph Conrad’s book about revolutionaries of early 20th century Russia (though the book is mostly set in Geneva, a refuge for those feeling discomfort under the czar). Razumov, who has just met a fellow agitator … Continue reading →

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In defense of Zaha?

Posted on September 10, 2014 by David Brussat

It has emerged that news stories last June out of Qatar, where Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid has a commission to build a stadium to host soccer’s World Cup in 2022, falsely asserted that hundreds of itinerant construction workers had died … Continue reading →

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Bad news from Paris

Posted on August 23, 2014 by David Brussat

Mary Campbell Gallagher, of SOS Paris, reports that the new mayor of Paris is working to undermine the already weakened legal stuctures that protect the beauty of the City of Light. There was a pro-beauty, anti-skyscraper candidate in the March … Continue reading →

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Column: Help save history and Peter Pan

Posted on August 21, 2014 by David Brussat

Winchester, a city 68 miles southwest of London, was the seat of government in England until the 12th century, and the center of its trade in wool. The town figures as Kingsbridge in Ken Follett’s novel “The Pillars of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture History, Books and Culture, Development, Other countries | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments