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Tag Archives: modernism
Modern architecture as spin
An article in the Guardian on the rise and fall of London’s Millennium Dome sums up much of what ails modern architecture. “20 years on, revisiting a very British fiasco,” by Rowan Moore, describes the pitfalls of treating architecture not … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture
Tagged Labour Party, London, Millennium Dome, Modern Architecture, modernism, Richard Rogers, Rowan Moore, Simon Jenkins, The Guardian, Tony Blair
8 Comments
“Modern” or “modernist”?
Occasionally I am urged to stop using “modern architecture” and use “modernist architecture” instead. The complaint, which issues from some of architecture’s top thinkers and makes considerable sense, is that the word modern normally means “of today” or “up to … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture
Tagged Calder Loth, Henry Hope Reed, Jetsons, Language, Leon Krier, Modern, modernism, Rhetroic
7 Comments
“Two Lesbians,” by Corbusier
I have just started a book, newly published, that I’ve been awaiting for ages: Le Corbusier: The Dishonest Architect, by Malcolm Millais. It is a critique of Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris, better known as Le Corbusier, or Corbu. One of Millais’s earlier … Continue reading
Modernist fundamentalism
Soon after I posted “General Motors’ America” yesterday, I yearned for a deeper understanding of the reason why GM so avidly embraced modernist concepts of design and planning. So it was good to receive from architectural theorist Nikos Salingaros a … Continue reading
From Bauhaus to Coolhaus
The definition of “to brand” must be to promote a product as the opposite of what it is. For example, take Coolhaus Ice Cream. It riffs on the Bauhaus, the Weimar German cult of artists from which emerged modern … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture, Art and design
Tagged Bauhaus, Ben & Jerry's, Coolhaus, Ice Cream, modernism, Sealtest
2 Comments
Tom Wolfe and Henry Reed
I have been finishing up my book Lost Providence, girding my loins on the adrenaline rush of Tom Wolfe’s 1981 bestseller From Bauhaus to Our House. How to select a great passage to quote? Well, one way is to quote … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture
Tagged From Bauhaus to Our House, Henry Hope Reed, ICAA, LEED, Mies van der Rohe, modernism, Tom Wolfe
7 Comments
Who owns Europe’s night?
Videographer Luke Shepard and a companion traveled through 36 cities in 21 European countries to film “Nightvision: The Brilliance and Diversity of Euoropean Architecture.” It captures buildings of both chief types, old and new, traditional and modernist They are different. … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture
Tagged Beauty, Cities, classical architecture, Luke Shepard, modernism, Night Lighting, Nightvision, Video
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Better ideas not worse, pls!
Yesterday I sent in my monthly blog post for Traditional Building magazine, and today I’m thinking, well, I left out some really important stuff. My TB post was a reply to TB’s Forum in which the architectural historian Paul A. … Continue reading
Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Landscape Architecture, Preservation, Urbanism and planning
Tagged Ann Sussman, design, Forum, Freud, Michael Mehaffy, Michel Foucault, Modern Architecture, modernism, Nikos Salingaros, Ornament, Paul Ranogajec, Philosophy, Psychology, Traditional Building
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Skandalkonzert vindicated?
A post on the website Artlark, “Skandalkonzert: The Battle for Modernism,” describes a riot that had classical concertgoers in Vienna battling amongst themselves in the pits and with the musicians and the even the composers. Pieces by Schonberg, Weber and … Continue reading
Architect, bury your mistake
Yesterday I ran some passages from the late critic Lewis Mumford and thought I recalled having written a column on him years ago after reading a biography. I cannot find it. But here is one column from June 1994 in … Continue reading
Posted in Architects, Architecture, Architecture Education, Architecture History, Art and design, Blast from past, Development, Preservation, Providence, Urbanism and planning
Tagged classical architecture, Frank Lloyd Wright, GTECH Building, Henry Hope Reed, Lewis Mumford, modernism, Old Stone Square, Peter Blake, Postmodernism
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