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Tag Archives: Le Corbusier
The mods’ survival explained
They cut the feedback loop. Nobody has done a better job of explaining the persistence of modern architecture than does Roger Scruton in his review of James Stevens Curl’s new book, Making Dystopia. In his review, Scruton sums up with … Continue reading
Moore’s attack on Scruton
One of the Scepter’d Isle’s leading architecture critics, Rowan Moore of the Observer, has crafted an utterly despicable if entirely predictable attack on Sir Roger Scruton. Sir Roger is the British government’s choice to head a panel to bring beauty … Continue reading
Architecture’s Three Stooges
Theodore Dalrymple, a British physician, psychiatrist and theorist of society, culture and design, has written a review of James Stevens Curl’s new book Making Dystopia for the New English Review. Dalrymple calls the book “essential, uncompromising, learned,” and especially devastating … Continue reading
Mies edits van der Rohe
Most people know that one of the three world-historical founders of modern architecture, Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris, changed his name at age 33 to Le Corbusier (the crow). Not until I got to page 126 in James Stevens Curl’s Making Dystopia did … Continue reading
Preservation in Newport
Preservationists have a vital but relatively simple job that has been made more difficult, over the years, by preservationists. The purpose of preserving a historic building is to sustain the beauty it brings to its setting. How to do this … Continue reading
The architecture of the eye II
So whose eyes are these? Hint: She liked cat-eye glasses. Question: Is the beautiful pair of eyes behind these spectacles protected by lenses? Or could she have fun with her friends by wiggling her fingers through the frames? If so, … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture, Art and design
Tagged Cat Eye Glasses, Cataract Surgery, Dr. Jason Karo, Le Corbusier, Marilyn Monroe, Ophthalmology
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The architecture of the eye
Above are the specs that protected the eyes of Le Corbusier from the world. He and I have one thing in common: poor vision. That is about to change. A week from tomorrow I will undergo cataract surgery. My vision … Continue reading
Bulldoze or rebuild Mack?
A horrific second fire in four years at Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Glasgow School of Art, completed in 1909, has elicited predictably cockamamie calls to demolish rather than to again rebuild the Scotsman’s masterpiece. Its restoration had been 80 percent complete … Continue reading
Corbu’s rant at Neimeyer
Oscar Niemeyer, the Brazilian architect who died in 2012 at age 104, is best known for designing Brasília, the sterile über-modernist new capital city that arose in the Brazilian outback in something like three years in the late 1950s. Its … Continue reading
While we’re still on Corbu …
Came across a passage in James Crawford’s fascinating Fallen Glory, a collection of mini-histories of famous buildings, many ancient, and the societies that grew up around them and their implications for societies today. The chapter “Modernism’s Labyrinth” follows archaeological digs … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture
Tagged Archaeology, Arthur Evans, Crete, Fallen Glory, James Crawford, Knossos, Le Corbusier, Minotaur, R.G. Collingwood
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