The state of Late Period Modernism.
Ed's Shed, the story of a house, a neat box of timber and concrete. Utterly contemporary (designed by
David Adjaye, no less), yet also timeless, with a vague sense of drifting from era to era. Or try
Camp Bastion, the story of a military base. Recent winner of the Judges Special Award at the
British Construction Industry awards, Camp Bastion cost £53m and was completed in 4 months. The site, in Helmland Province, contains barracks for 2,350, a 50-man hospital, helicopter base and 1,000m runway (that £53m cost gets rounded up (?) to £1bn by the
Independent). Finally, '
One man's grand ambition gives veneer of bling to an ancient land', the tale of (life) President
Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan and his attempts to build a new Brasilia on the steppes. Pearman wrote fairly eloquently about the aesthetic fiasco that is Foster's '
Pyramid of Peace', but the official site of
Astana City is right on the money, a combination of
SimCity Societies,
Second Life and
Ebeneezer Howard, replete with
graphs and
tables,
optimistic announcements with a ring of the Five Year Plan about them.
*Two from
Pruned, a
post about Ferropolis, the theme-park / graveyard of retired digging machines, and the
ensanguinated Trevi fountain / nice to appear on this list of the
Top 100 UK blogs, although we're poised right at the bottom of the league table /
Normal Bias, 'scanned' audio tapes (via
me-fi projects) / a set of images of
Arcosanti, looking rather ravaged and forlorn.
DNA Art UK, splash your genetic fingerprint about. Related, the
man with the magic box gets his comeuppance /
home-made helicopters /
Pasta and Vinegar, a weblog focusing on user experience /
Glancey on BMW Welt,
W* on Welt / a collection of
Estonian Schoolbooks, at
Fed by Birds /
amp power, snappy culture reviews /
electronic audio nostalgia at
hollow sun / the
10 most fabulous key fobs /
violins and starships, a weblog /
infinite thought, a weblog /
The Midnight Bell, a weblog.
There's not enough online about
Rapid Eye Magazine, save the occasional tribute to its maverick and detached take on pop culture in all its more twisted manifestations (an anthology can still be bought through
Creation Books. In the pre-internet era, Dwyer's stream-of-consciousness writing, densely layered with references to arcane practices, myths, drugs and general strangeness was like dipping into a mysterious world, a place of the imagination, not Google-induced instant gratification.
posted by things at 20:27 /
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