LE CORBUSIER AND ‘TAMING TECHNOLOGY’ LE CORBUSIER’S MACHINES FOR LIVING Unlike most architects, Le Corbusier did not simple accept the new technological advancements. He ‘tamed’ technology with architectural techniques entrenched in tradition so it becomes elegant in form and function. The concept of objet-type also signals the fact that a functionally determined object can be […]
RESPECTING VICTORIAN DESIGN. Despite the fusty, excessive, old, impractical, self-indulgent, snobbish, aloof architecture, the embellished mania of Victorian Architecture, I must admit – I love it. Soft spot for the 19th century architectural replicas of Arthur, Camelot, and Knights marvels. The synthesis of architecture and technology_ Case Study: Crystal Palace. Designed by Joseph Paxton (renowned […]
THIS WEEK’S TEXT IS “THE BEAUBOURG-EFFECT: IMPLOSION AND DETERRENCE” BY JEAN BAUDRILLARD (SPRING, 1983) JEAN BAUDRILLARD ON THE POMPIDOU CENTER Jean Baudrillard (1929 – 6 March 2007) was a French sociologist, philosopher, cultural theorist, political commentator, and photographer. Frequently associated postmodernism, more specifically post-structuralism and he is best known for his analyses of media, contemporary […]
FROM SALT WORKS TO IDEAL CITY. LEDOUX’S FIRST DESIGN FOR CHAUX VERSUS HIS SECOND DESIGN. CLAUDE NICOLAS LEDOUX (1736 – 1806) Ledoux was one of the earliest exponents of French Neoclassical architecture. He was architect to Madame Du Barry (Louis XV’s mistress and former prostitute), numerous Parisian clients, to royal tax collectors, Ferme Générale. Accused […]
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, (1886 – 1969) worked as an architect, like many of the famous designers of the 20th century and is well known for his designs of exhibition pavilions and his chairs received the most attention and acclaim. A modernist Classic: the Barcelona Pavilion The Barcelona Pavilion was the German Pavilion for […]
MARSHALL MCLUHAN’S “THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE”. ‘The medium is the message. This is merely to say that the personal and social consequences of any medium – that is, of any extension of ourselves – result from the new scale that is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves, or by any new […]
THIS WEEKS READING IS ‘THE MATHEMATICS OF THE IDEAL VILLA AND OTHER ESSAYS’ BY COLIN ROWE Colin Rowe was a British-born, American-naturalised architectural historian, critic, theoretician, and teacher; acknowledged as a major intellectual influence on world architecture and urbanism in the second half of the twentieth century and beyond, particularly in the fields of city […]
WRITING FROM THE LAST DECADE PART 2 JONATHAN MEADES ON ZAHA HADID: ‘THE FIRST GREAT FEMALE ARCHITECT’, INTELLIGENT LIFE 2008 Jonathan Meades is also a well-known writer, food journalist, essayist and film-maker. JM has written and performed in more than 50 television shows on predominantly topographical subjects. And as for Zaha Hadid, no introductions necessary. […]
Speculative Cities 