Monthly Archives: November 2010

Boot sales, slums and hand-made railway lines

From a history of Suck.com: “HotWired had this crazy policy where they didn’t allow tertiary links, is what they called it. A tertiary link was when you linked to something that wasn’t explicitly referred to in the text. If I … Continue reading

Posted in ephemera | Leave a comment

Things that might or might not work

Why the iPad newspaper might not be doomed versus Why the iPad Newspaper is Doomed. An ongoing debate. From the latter: ‘Since The Daily is an iPad app, there will be no inbound links, and reportedly no outbound links to … Continue reading

Posted in architecture, collections and archives | 1 Comment

Highs and Lows

The American Way of Death versus the Danish Way of Death, Blueprint on the Diamant coffin designed by Jacob Jensen, ‘a cut and polished gem that [the company] hopes will lay to rest the traditional, kitsch, grotesquery of the faux-brass … Continue reading

Posted in esoterica | 1 Comment

Random links and things

Anathema Delights, a tumblr / Singer Vehicles re-engineer and rebuild old school Porsche 911s (via Autoblog) / Stuxnet worm ‘targeted high-value Iranian assets’. Worms as economic warfare / the Bookie, a contemporary update of the classic Isokon donkey / nk91, … Continue reading

Posted in linkage | Leave a comment

Another brick in the wall

Few ‘analogue’ companies have managed to splice their product so convincingly with the digital world as Lego (we’re still puzzled by the pluralisation of the word in the US. After all, “Lego” already encompasses the plural). This appears to be … Continue reading

Posted in collections and archives, nostalgia | 1 Comment

Cuts and zooms

We’ve been waiting for something like this: 80GB panoramic photo of London (via me-fi). First impressions are what a colossal ungainly lump Central Saint Giles is, as well as how ungainly the interface is (surely all you really want to … Continue reading

Posted in collections and archives | Leave a comment

Lost villages

Why are there so many abandoned villages in the UK? Inspired by this call for imagery of lost settlements in connection with the forthcoming Times Atlas of Britain. A new print atlas is a hard sell in the age of … Continue reading

Posted in architecture, nostalgia, ruins | Tagged | 4 Comments

The idea of a rhinoceros

Albrecht Dürer’s Rhinoceros is one of the most celebrated drawings ever made (the BM link is to the woodcut). According to the British Museum, the animal depicted was originally a gift from Sultan Muzafar II of Gujurat, who presented it … Continue reading

Posted in architecture, collections and archives | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Complexity and Contradiction in Criticism

Mammoth has a series of images from Simon Kennedy’s Heygate Abstracted, all taken at the monumental and doomed South London housing estate. Mammoth splices the misty, moody walkways – all empty – with the cosy domesticity found within another ‘sterile’ … Continue reading

Posted in architecture, ephemera, linkage | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

An approach of upbeat curation

It’s worth point out at the outset of this post that this particular weblog is not a forum for critical writing. Reading through a recent Blueprint article on the apparent lack of online architectural criticism (‘Critical Response’, not yet online) … Continue reading

Posted in architecture, things magazine | Tagged , , , | 8 Comments

Everything is permitted

Herb Lester is doing sterling work in the recreation of 60s London. As well as their new ‘Wish You Were There‘ guide, a kind of time-traveller’s atlas (‘our guide to London, 1960-66. It includes 130 of the best clubs, shops, … Continue reading

Posted in architecture, collections and archives | 3 Comments

Utopias imagined

Il Girasole, a a rotating house, a film by Marcel Meili and Christoph Schaub / related, the sliding house / a house within a house, an apartment within an apartment / Urine, You’re Out, SLAB magazine on the anti-urinary strategies … Continue reading

Posted in architecture, technology | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Space frames and patina

The Rietveld Collection / photographs by Kyle Scully (some nsfw) / photographs by Steve Fitch, via Old Chum, a tumblr / The Romance and Pain of Penn Station, at (what is this?). A sad demolition / urban computing, Anti-Mega on … Continue reading

Posted in architecture | Leave a comment

Come fly the friendly seas

Minimal Details, an ongoing series that fetishises/lauds the simple, unpretentious and functional architectural detail (via Space Invading). A sort of ascetic companion to this / The Pixies have a new website / Madame Saqui at Vauxhall, 1820, at Uncertain Times, … Continue reading

Posted in architecture, ephemera, technology | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Crash

The cliched idea that European cars are small, poky deathtraps is gradually subsiding in the American consciousness (although occasionally it pops up in relation to things like the smart car and the new Fiat 500). However, this story from Design, … Continue reading

Posted in ephemera | Tagged , , | 3 Comments