Just casting around. The new shelton wet/dry, a weblog / Vintage Logos, a photoset / Vintage Science, a photoset / the Peckham pool / The Worst of Perth, a blog chronicling the excesses of Australian town planning and civic design / last chance to see: Wonderland: The Curious World of Frinton-on-Sea / see also England: The Land Of Subtle Idiosyncracies, a photoset.

The best and worst of architect's websites, which barely even scratches the surface. We'd recommend Sutherland Lyall's Webwatch column in the AJ instead / new magazines tracked by the Colophon Symposium / a healthy dose of media schadenfreude courtesy of the entertaining Private Frazer's Doomed Magazines, looking at the ups and downs (mostly downs) of the UK media scene.

Painted cars by Patrician van Lubeck. DIY dazzle patterns / Efimera, a Spanish weblog / images from Belgrade / 2 or 3 things I know, architecture weblog / The Office as Architectural Touchstone, NY Times on the fading glories of mid-century modern office design. Slideshow. / Car Blue Prints, exactly what it says / The Bioscope, 'Reporting on the world of early and silent cinema' / Press here if you think that the cake is a lie.

Material World, a material culture blog, especially 'Commodity Branding Far Predates Modern Capitalism', which traces the origins of branding goods back to ancient Egypt and Iraq, linking branding with mass production and consumption (thanks to Sarah for both of those).

China's Forgotten Parks, photos by Kurt Tong / more Pawley / 1974 Citroen Brochure / Four Minutes to Midnight / Russian Mobster tombs. Heavy symbolism / Made in England by Gentlemen / Tessellar, a weblog / the Mini de Ville website / Earth Architecture / a gallery of London's Commonwealth Institute, soon to be refurbished by OMA.

Retro-fitted architecture taken to the extreme: Serero Architects' winning idea to erect a temporary cantilevered carbon fibre platform on the summit of one of the world's best-known structures. The viewing platform certainly creates some spectacular imagery, more reminiscent of a unlikely film set than a project with genuine potential. The addition inevitably makes the tapering structure top-heavy, and the actual function - bringing more people up to what is a pretty cramped and functional space - seems less important than the structural gymnastics.

Update: It seems the whole concept of a new platform is not only unofficial but possibly even a hoax on the architects themselves. Reminiscent of the rumour that the Americans thought they were buying Tower Bridge. There aren't many architectural hoaxes out there (although the wartime masquerades of Jasper Maskelyne come close, as do the perpetual drip feed of improbable works purpoted to be built in the Middle East and the former Soviet Union).

Labels: linkage

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