On books, beards and the architectural debate. Nothing ever changes. The Sesquipedalist digs into the archives of The Builder magazine, uncovering a discussion from 11 June 1948, chaired by Hugh Casson, of '100 years of architectural journalism'. Not only were the publications of the day criticised for being 'scrappy,' 'uncritical' and 'visually unimaginative', but that they 'discouraged originality and encouraged plagiarism'. One could say much the same thing about today's design magazine market, and that's without even considering the tidal wave of weblogs.

The post was also fascinating for its reference to the the moustache movement, that pivotal moment in the mid C19 when facial hair became not just socially acceptable (after a long spell in the cultural doldrums - the beards of the C16th having been supplanted by wigs) but almost essential. Facial hair was even the subject of a play (pdf, hosted at The Victorian Plays Project, an electronic catalogue of Thomas Lacy's Collected Volumes of Victorian Plays).

The book At the Sign of the Barber's Pole, by William Andrews (1904), contains a chapter on the moustache movement: "About 1855 the beard movement took hold of Englishmen. The Crimean War had much to do with it, as our soldiers were permitted to forego the use of the razor as the hair on the face protected them from the cold and attacks of neuralgia. About this period only one civilian of position in England had the hardihood to wear the moustache. He was Mr George Frederick Muntz, a member of Parliament for Birmingham. He was a notable figure in the House of Commons, and is described as manly in appearance, with a handsome face, a huge black beard, and moustache. He died 30th July, 1857, and is regarded as the father of the modern moustache movement." A more recent book on the history of hair is One Thousand Beards: A Cultural History of Facial Hair. Another review.

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Other things. The Rummage Drawer / how to describe Marketing Speak that alerts the unwary / Tchochkes, on the unessential object / Fotofacade, on architectural photography and conservation / Partamian Report, from the frontline in Afghanistan.

Scamp, the Irish illustration blog / the mid-century illustration pool, including posts from Daily Bungalow / Archdaily has a crack at reassessing the popularity of various 'architecture' weblogs.

Big Alba, photography / David Barrie's weblog, design, architecture and regeneration, all from a position of some insight / Russia wages war on goths / antique books from Janette Ray / the Dog Bark Inn, puns on every level / Donnachie, Simionato and Son, this is a weblog about this is not a magazine / Jude Calvert-Toulmin, a life on a weblog,

Alice the architect on Robin Hood Gardens, now almost certain to be demolished. Although the profession was - for the most part - up in arms about the loss of this seminal slab of Smithsonism (nice bit of alliteration there), few people sounded genuinely convinced that they were doing anything more than simply shoring up the good ship modernism in a time of crisis. If anything, the relatively horrific proliferation of stuck-on coloured blobs, superficial splashes, slashes, slats and voids that resulted from the BD's Robin Hood Gardens design competition confirmed that there was no realistic architectural response this structure; it was a binary object, either on or off. Now it will be switched off.

The Book of Accidents: designed for young children (via, especially this comment). Proto-Belloc/Gorey and the intersection of both, etc. / the Field Tested Books book is really rather good, if we say so ourselves.

Labels: design history

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