Category Archives: Aventinus

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

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and…and…and…and…

Venice Architecture Biennale 2008: A Movie See also our earlier review.

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Out there: The Venice Biennale

The vast exhibition of contemporary architecture which is the Venice Biennale (curated by Aaron Betsky) opened last weekend in a stormy atmosphere which made the exhibitions oases of rather damp calm, despite the unsettling, luxurious aspirations of some of the … Continue reading

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Serving up the city

  If, according to Alberti, a house is a small city …  can a tray be a small piazza? These table centres, designed by Fabio Novembre, are available from Driade. In this case the model is the city of Palmanova … Continue reading

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Final Cut

CiA Bachelor of Architecture 2007-2008. The final show.

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The Economics of the Ideal Villa

…or In a Recession Classicism is King Is it a sure sign of a housing market in crisis when innovative design gives way to a rather more bankable product? 2001, perhaps in retrospect the high-water mark of Cool Britannia, saw … Continue reading

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The Judicious Eye

For summer reading CiA recommends Joseph Rykwert’s “The Judicious Eye: Architecture against The Other Arts” (Reaktion 2008). Provoked by the discontinuity between the contemporary architectural environment and artistic practice Professor Rykwert charts the history of the relationship between architecture and … Continue reading

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Primitive – Rustic – Classical

CiA recommends a visit to Tate Liverpool to see the exhibition GUSTAV KLIMT: PAINTING, DESIGN AND MODERN LIFE.The Klimt paintings, including the reconstruction of the Beethoven Frieze created for the Vienna Secession in 1902, present a necessarily limited selection of … Continue reading

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Waterhouse and Harris – safe in their hands?

Further to a post earlier this year the potential fate of Manchester Town Hall (Alfred Waterhouse), its Extension and Central Library (E. Vincent Harris) becomes clearer. The Manchester Evening News story about the future of the most significant urban and … Continue reading

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‘Not manly enough’

Monday, 7 July 2008: ‘Not manly enough’: Berlusconi’s verdict on Libeskind work Perhaps, when the architect Daniel Libeskind produced his grand plans for an art museum and office tower designed to inspire civic pride in the heart of Milan, he … Continue reading

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Academic Generosity

The end of the academic year and the commencement of research time (that’s summer to the uninitiated!) was marked at the Manchester School of Architecture by a research presentation by Prue Chiles of the University of Sheffield School of Architecture. … Continue reading

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Small change for The Exchange

In a brief period of warmth during the Cold War a waggish Whitehall mandarin was no doubt responsible for the designation of the 1967 telephone exchange at 34 George Street in Manchester as Rutherford House, subtly indicating (with that reference … Continue reading

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