Tag Archives: Modern Architecture

Holy crystal meth, Batman!

Posted on December 19, 2016 by David Brussat

News out of Pyongyang via Dezeen reports that its construction boom is fueled by crystal meth. A drug that jacks up levels of energy, alertness and self-esteem might well be usefully fed to workers undertaking delicate work with rivets while … Continue reading →

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In like a rat, out like Jonah

Posted on November 5, 2016 by David Brussat

As I was searching for the original photo of old Penn Station hanging at the existing Penn Station, shown by Max Page at the Providence Preservation Society’s symposium on Friday, I stumbled across this hilarious cartoon on batmangotham city.net. It … Continue reading →

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Explore the world with AIA

Posted on September 28, 2016 by David Brussat

The American Institute of Architects has announced its sponsorship of a new set of tours that even I would be happy to take. They are not the tours I would expect the AIA to host, not with its almost exclusively … Continue reading →

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Krier on the people’s choice

Posted on September 2, 2016 by David Brussat

Leon Krier argues that people should be permitted to prefer architecture they like, and dismisses modernists who browbeat the public for the alleged ignorance it expresses in disliking their work. His latest piece in BD, Britain’s building design journal, is … Continue reading →

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Ugliest house in Vancouver?

Posted on August 20, 2016 by David Brussat

Some Vancouverites are upset over the house to the left in the photo above. “Vancouver’s Most Hideous Urban Design for 2016: Why residents are up in arms over this house,” reads the headline in The National Post. So why are … Continue reading →

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Duo Dickinson on Trump II

Posted on August 7, 2016 by David Brussat

Three months ago, Connecticut architecture critic Duo Dickinson warned architects that the crowds with pitchforks backing Donald Trump might someday come for them. “Architects’ Trump moment” was well conceived. His latest venture into that political gulch, “Donald Trump as Architecture’s … Continue reading →

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Video of the modernist city

Posted on July 25, 2016 by David Brussat

Here, courtesy of the website Kuriositas, is the city of modern architecture’s secret desire. The video of this imagined place is called “Spacial Bodies,” by AUJIK.  As described by Kuriositas, it “depicts the urban landscape and architectural bodies as an … Continue reading →

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Pollan deconstructs design

Posted on July 22, 2016 by David Brussat

Michael Pollan’s A Place of My Own (1997) is the story of how a successful author of well-known books on food tries to free himself from the grip words had on his life by building a cabin for himself by … Continue reading →

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Fallen angel in Charleston

Posted on July 12, 2016 by David Brussat

As mayor of Charleston, S.C., for some 40 years, Joe Riley was a hero to the preservation movement. But lately he has hopped in bed with preservation’s nemesis, modern architecture. An article from 2015 on the website Next Cities, “Southern … Continue reading →

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Less is more … or a bore?

Posted on July 5, 2016 by David Brussat

Happy belated birthday (it was June 24) to Robert Venturi, avatar of the postmodern movement in architecture and the self-appointed rebutter-in-chief to arch-modernist Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and his infamous dictum. In the battle of slogans, “Less is more” … Continue reading →

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