Monthly Archives: October 2008

Le Zep

To Liverpool for one of the talks in the Le Corbusier Lives! season hosted by Liverpool John Moores University, and for a second look at the Corb exhibition in the Metropolitan Cathedral crypt. The talk was actually a series of … Continue reading

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Olivetti Showroom

Carlo Scarpa was commissioned to design the Olivetti Showroom in 1956 and the work was completed over the next couple of years. The site was awkward, long and thin, and at about four meters high, hardly able to support a … Continue reading

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City to the left, staircase to the right

Illustration from Hans Vredeman de Vries : Pictores, Statvarii, Architecti, Latomi, Et Qvicvnqve Principvm Magnificorvmq[ue] Virorvm Memoriæ Æternæ Inservitis….link to e-book at the University of Heidelberg See also: Science and Art; True Science or Science Fiction? #1: Tinguely, Oliver Byrne, … Continue reading

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Most people just go to see the building

Richard Meier’s new Arp Museum sits on a wooded slope overlooking the Rhine near Remagen. It is conceived as an annexe to the existing Rolandseck railway station which is also mostly converted to exhibition space, although the trains still stop. … Continue reading

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The great gates of Preston

Original detailed drawing of the gates to the Harris Museum, Preston 1882-1893. “The architect was the widely unknown James Hibbert”*. Compare the repeated star/sun motif with this house. More pictures of the building… * N. Pevsner in “The Buildings of … Continue reading

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Insight

This delightful little structure was discovered on a recent trip to Morecambe, a small seaside town on the north-west coast of England. The structure is sort of reminiscent of some of the archetypal structures in Seaside in the Florida panhandle. … Continue reading

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Recession v Depression

Following recent depressing job losses in Manchester architecture practices, a useful definition from Greg Mankiw’s economics blog: A student asks, What makes a recession officially turn into a depression? There is no official designation of depression. The NBER business cycle … Continue reading

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Le Corbusier: The Art of Architecture

To Liverpool for the architectural event of the autumn – the collision between Lutyens and Le Corbusier in the Metropolitan Cathedral Crypt. Unfortunately the overbearing and labyrinthine staging of the exhibition makes what might have been an interesting combat between … Continue reading

Posted in Aventinus, CiA, Edwin Lutyens, Le Corbusier, Liverpool | Comments Off on Le Corbusier: The Art of Architecture

A fragment of the Arts & Crafts city

Travelling to London from the north-west of England and faced with Euston Road on emerging from the railway station, it is tempting to turn around and get back on the train. Luckily it is first possible to stand and admire … Continue reading

Posted in CiA, Dominic Roberts, Precedents | 1 Comment

Wasser

Some pictures from Germany this summer: Above: Neue Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart (completed 1984). Spalling of stone associated with metal fixings. Above and below: Museum of Modern German Literature, Marbach am Neckar (completed 2006). Movement caused by water penetration/frost? At Marbach am … Continue reading

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