LI Yu (李漁; Lǐ Yú) 1611–1680 was a Chinese playwright, novelist and publisher. He was born 19 years after Michel de Montaigne died and five years before William Shakespeare died. Montaigne wouldn’t have known about Shakespeare because Shakespeare’s first play was written between 1589 and 1594 and Montaigne died in 1592. However, we do know that […]
If Misfits’ Guide to TOKYO #1 was about my recommendations to see buildings that are probably going to be around for a long time to come, then this post is about those that I’m not so sure about so, if you’re in Tokyo and wanting to see some buildings, you might want to take a […]
Houses having only one stair going from the hallway to the upper floors seem like a hangover from houses such this one where, upon entering, guests were immediately ushered upstairs to the drawing room. Even before neo-Palladianism, having the staircase in front of the front door was probably an affectation owing something to the European […]
Villa Rotonda and Haus am Horn don’t look very similar on the outside and even less similar on the inside, but both are biaxially symmetrical and both have a large, top-lit space of increased height where those axes intersect. Here’s those two central spaces. On the right is that Haus am Horn study niche (nische) […]
The first second thought has to do with orientation. At approx. 45°N, Villa Rotonda has no problems with view and no problems with illumination although the last of the setting sun in winter may be blocked by those trees to the south west and that are known as the Southwest Grove. They were intentionally planted, […]
According to the New York Times, the architects of Reversible Destiny Foundation believe that comfort is a precursor to death and that what they design is intended to lead their users into a perpetually tentative relationship with their surroundings due to multiple levels, oddly angled switches, uneven floors, and a riot of colour. I agree […]
The first time I noticed something was about to happen was when I saw two white-on-blue signs amongst the rows of vegetables (looking west, below), asking the growers to harvest them befofre the end of the month as “works” were going to commence for this bank of the river. Works commenced two months later. Early […]
Last year’s 3rd Misfits Triennal featured many adaptive re-use projects, conversions and additions. The first week had the relaxed T-House Renovation by Fumiaso Architect and Associates, the repurposing of a former shop into House with a Small Library by Hiroshi Kinoshita and Associates, the elegant Renovation of Somekh Building by SHISUO design office, and the […]
This last week of the year when the architectural internet is celebrating the ten best buildings of 2025 as is its custom, I’d like to consider the worst buildings a particular architect has put their name to. It’s too late to be an office party game or a Christmas party game but you can limit […]
A November 24 article on Dezeen and probably everywhere else screamed outrage because, in the US from 1 July 2026, architecture is on track to no longer being considered a professional degree. Its opening sentence was Loans available to architecture students in the USA will be reduced under the terms of president Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, […]
This problem of efficiency of language conversion into unicode – and hence anything computer-related and especially AI related – isn’t going away. I’ll continue using the same Unicode Converter and pick up from I❤️U where I left it last week. It’s often the case that I❤️U2 is the response, so I added the newly-minted logogram 2 that […]
According to a story making the rounds a couple of years ago, if you asked AI to identify what the image below is an image of, the answer would be “apple” whereas any child of reading age could tell you it’s an orange with the word APPLE written on it. The glitch has probably been […]
As far as large Japanese architectural design companies go, NIkken Sekkei [日建設計] doesn’t have the history of Shimizu/Shimz Corporation that completed the Hotel for Foreigners in Tokyo in 1876 and that the company was chaired by a member of the Shimizu family from 1804 to 1966. This website shows some of the Shimz history and […]
This image below left was the first I saw of the Chinese city of Wenzhou where I now live. The bridge in the photo is the one disappearing off the top edge of the frame in the map on the right and the mountains are the big green patches at the bottom. They’re not alps […]
