Tag Archives: Nikos Salingaros

The Mehaffy/Salingaros way

Posted on January 29, 2015 by David Brussat

Here is a set of related passages from my early reading in Design for a Living Planet: Settlement, Science and the Human Future, by Michael Mehaffy and Nikos Salingaros. I will offer a more comprehensive review when I’m done reading … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Art and design, Books and Culture, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Scruton’s lonely candlestick

Posted on December 6, 2014 by David Brussat

Roger Scruton’s 1995 collection of essays, The Classical Vernacular: Architectural Principles in an Age of Nihilism, begins with an essay, “Reflections on a Candlestick,” in which he describes an objet d’art sitting in a Brutalist conference room: My eye came … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture Education, Art and design | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Fundamentally insecure

Posted on October 3, 2014 by David Brussat

After reading my blog post on the destruction of Mecca, Nikos Salingaros sent me Chapter 9 from his book A Theory of Architecture, in which, writing with Michael Mehaffy, he describes modern architecture as a phenomenon parallel to religious fundamentalism. … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Art and design, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Column: The mathematician vs. the modernists

Posted on September 4, 2014 by David Brussat

Science and modern architecture have gone hand in glove for decades. Buildings of steel and glass are filled with high technology to protect office space and living space from sun and climate. Hermetically sealed cartoon futurism must be scientific, right? … Continue reading →

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

Knockdown knockabout

Posted on August 14, 2014 by David Brussat

Many years ago, no later than the mid-90s, I was invited by Providence Preservation Society director Arnold Robinson to sit in on a meeting of the facilities planning staffs of Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design. By … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Preservation, Providence, Urbanism and planning | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Biophilia and biomimicry

Posted on July 26, 2014 by David Brussat

Deep in the trenches of architecture, classicists and modernists are battling for the right to don the mantle of science. If you google “architecture biophilia” you will see a lot of stuff – including buildings – covered with greenery. That’s … Continue reading →

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

Architectural ‘myopia’

Posted on June 29, 2014 by David Brussat

Michael Mehaffy and Nikos Salingaros – respectively a design consultant and a mathematician/architectural theorist – wrote a piece for Guernica magazine in 2011 called “The Architect Has No Clothes.” It delves deeply into the phenomenon probed often in this blog … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture Education | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

An ecclesiastical mood

Posted on June 8, 2014 by David Brussat

Something of an agnostic myself (and a Jewish one, to boot), I used to take my son to various churches not to give him a taste of theology (he was only 2 then, and we lived near Grace Church in … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Art and design, Providence | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Details, details, NYC edition

Posted on May 11, 2014 by David Brussat

Manhattan at its best may be seen at that level of scale – the very small, the small and the submedium – that modern architecture eliminates almost entirely from its works. That’s why modernism is impressive only from a distance, … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Art and design, Photography | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

“The Monster-Builder” – the trailer

Posted on February 2, 2014 by David Brussat

Nikos Salingaros, the University of Texas mathematician and architectural theorist whose thought has influenced Amy Freed – the playwright who wrote “The Monster-Builder” – has sent me a trailer of the play now being performed at the Artists Repertory Theatre … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Architecture Education, Art and design, Book/Film Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment