I’ve missed out for not knowing more about Riken Yamamoto sooner. I’d always admired his 1977 Yamakawa Villa and never miss an opportunity to mention it, most recently in The Dispersed House. I recently borrowed a copy of the 2012 book Riken Yamamoto – it’s in English and Japanese and has the byline “A diary of […]
In the 2011 book, Angelique Campens compiled a list of projects and buildings that Lampens acknowledged, suggesting the existence of others either forgotten or unmemorable. I’ve combined her list with one from a 2019 Bachelor’s thesis by Andrea Ligao of the Politecnico di Milano and that includes some of the more obscure projects and competition […]
Since April 2017 there had been a draft post on Belgian architect Juliaan Lampens and, as I don’t follow online architectural media, only found out a week ago that he died last year – though knowing that at the time wouldn’t have changed anything. This post began as a career case study but it soon became […]
Every now and then, instead of taking my usual route to work, I’d head east on the E44 towards the oasis town of Hatta and hook up with the E611, the main inter-emirate freight-haulage route and exit at the Al Badi Interchange that’s now one fourth orbital. On Maliha Road now going in the direction […]
Beethoven, Schubert and Danzi all died about 1825, well into the Industrial Revolution. Invention was now valued in this new thing called industry, and increasingly so with music. Dainty Mozart wigs were out and tempestuous Beethoven hair was in. As the 18th century bore on, there was increasing pressure on artists and musicians to invent […]
The life of composer, cellist, and conductor Franz Ignaz Danzi (1763–1826) overlaps those of Wofgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert. Mozart died in 1791 aged 35, Danzi in 1826 at 63, Beethoven in 1827 at 57 and Schubert in 1828 at 31. Danzi and Beethoven’s lives overlapped for all but seven years […]
Many of the photographs in this post are owned by Edward Denison, co-author of the book that prompted this post, and where I first learned about Luke Him Sau. Many of the other photographs are from the family archive. An architect like Luke Him Sau would have had to exist. He was born in Hong […]
Remember when architects communicated via buildings?
Apart from everyone working in architectural media, architectural academia and architectural practice – and those that read Sunday newspaper arts & culture supplements – the sole practitioner is everyone’s image of the architect. It’s a person, usually male, working alone and freed from the commercial pressures and creative straightjackets of big business. We suspect this […]
The header image was also the header image for yesterday’s post on lighthouses. It’s from a book Coastwise Lights of China: an illustrated account of the Chinese Maritime Customs Lights Service by T. Roger Banister, published in 1932. You can read more about the book here. This image though, says the same thing I used 1,500 words to describe. Earlier this evening, […]
This fails to mention Ginzburg “came into contact” with The Futurists during his time in Milan. As a 20-year old architecture student, it’s unlikely he’d have been hanging out with them but, in arty circles Marinetti would’ve been as difficult to avoid as Alma Mahler in Vienna. Ginzburg disagreed with The Futurists’ total rejection of history because, for […]
Douglas Putnam Haskell (1899 –1979) For much of the mid 20th century, Douglas Haskell had a voice in the major architectural and urban debates of the day. As writer and editor, he weighed in on events and issues ranging from the 1932 International Style exhibition at MOMA to Expo ‘67 in Montreal, from public housing to suburban communities, […]
When Pasadena Heights was published in 新建築 in March 1975, the announcement included a statement from its architect, Kiyonori Kikutake. Now, try to imagine any contemporary architect A) announcing a project six months after its completion and B) that announcement containing a SELF-CRITICAL ANALYSIS of the strengths and weaknesses of the project, an APOLOGY for publishing a building before they thought it ready, and an […]
