villa göth: six introductory videos on the architectural style of Brutalism (previously)
underdogs: a funny Apple advertisement manages to cover its entire suite of devices
murder she drew: an interview with talented, veteran courtroom artist (see also) Marilyn Church, via Boing Boing
no conclusion: Trump is now vacillating on releasing the Mueller Report to the public
xarabank: Malta’s unique and colourful fleet of buses recently retired make a comeback fully electrified
Wednesday 3 April 2019
5x5
Thursday 13 December 2018
brutalist brussels
Renown for his portfolio of works that includes a pavilion on the flora and fauna of the Congo created for the venue’s 1958 l’Exposition universelle (the one the Atomium was built for) and the city’s cinema museum, Belgian-Polish architect Constantin Brodzki also designed an iconic headquarters for Cimenteries CBR (acquired by HeidelbergCement in 1999) in 1967—comprising seven hundred fifty-six prefabricated oval concrete modules that give it its distinctive faรงade. Abandoned for some time, the historic building has been restored and conserved—retaining many of the original elements and built-in furniture units—and is reopening as a multistorey coworking and conference space. The revival is being called Office Boitsfort/Bosvoorde, after the Brussels municipality, and you can see more at Curbed at the link above.
Thursday 6 December 2018
5x5
betamax xmas: we get reintroduced to a nostalgic, internet classic—via Waxy
optician sans: a sleek free font from ANTI Hamar and Fรกbio Duarte Martins
i heard you on the wireless back in ‘sixty-two: a whole universe of pre-MTV music videos
premiรจre arabesque: guitarist Kyle Schaefer arranges and performs Claude Debussy’s early masterpiece in progressive rock style
modernistmas: an updated gallery (previously) of Brutalist and Post Modernism gingerbread houses for the holidays
Thursday 29 November 2018
6x6
snow globes: a new holiday tradition to us—sending Street View Christmas cards
ammartaggio: a for the nonce Italian Word of the Day in tribute to the InSight touchdown
appellation d’origine contrรดlรฉe: a detail world atlas to explore gustatory landscapes in detail—via Pasa Bon!
condominium: a library straddling the US-Canadian border has become a venue for emotional family reunions for those (we all are) affected by the Trump administration’s immigration policies—via Super Punch
orden mexicana del รกguila azteca: the Mexican government presents Trump’s son-in-law with its highest honour reserved for foreign dignitaries
jantar mantar: an incredible eighteenth century Indian astronomical observatory whose architecture previsions Brutalism
catagories: ๐จ๐ฆ, ๐ฒ๐ฝ, ๐ข, ๐ญ, food and drink, holidays and observances, Mars
Tuesday 26 June 2018
narthex
Listed as a historic and protected building since 2000, the Brutalist-style Cathedral of SS. Peter and Paul of the Bristol ward of Clifton has just undergone a major refurbishment to restore it to its original 1970 vision by architect RJ Weeks in collaboration with the Vatican. See a whole gallery of images of this geometric marvel and learn more at the link above.
Thursday 31 May 2018
little birdhouse in your soul
Nag on the Lake acquaints us with Frankfurter clock-maker Guido Zimmermann who showcases his talents in a series of custom traditional cuckoo chimes housed in Brutalist, Plattenbau architecture—as a commentary on social housing gentrified and priced out of the range of its intended resident. His cuckcoo blocks also reference the original conceit of the clocks, not stowed away as a souvenir, were symbolic in themselves as a middle-class (spieรbรผrgerlich) signal of success. View a video of the whole range of his designs at the links above.
Thursday 26 April 2018
block party
Lukas Valiauga, designer of interactive installations and digital interfaces, pays a playful homage, we learn via Present /&/ Correct to the game of Tetris, but instead of the traditional tetrominoes, the geometric pieces are composed of the faรงades of Brutalist apartment towers. Players are invited to demolish or build up blocs as they see fit.
Tuesday 10 April 2018
6x6
never just a car: a supercut of automotive movie cameos
blue state: an exhibit in Los Angles structured around colour examines the many ways of casting shade
india pale ale: find out what which beer you’re partial to says about you, via the ever-brilliant Nag on the Lake
le bรฉton brรปt: with greyscale Lego bricks, a man and his son create miniature Brutalists architecture, via Present /&/ Correct
paleo-futures: 1926 interview with Nikola Tesla predicting our fraught relationship with our gadgets
midsweden 365: secret tunnels excavated in the granite mountains near the town of Gรคllรถ repurposed as a underground, year-round skiing range
Monday 19 February 2018
rรฉfectoire
Inscribed on UNESCO’s list of World Heritage in 2016, the priory on the hillside in รveux near Lyon was commissioned by the local order of Dominican monks from architects Le Corbusier and Iannis Xenakis back in 1953—construction concluding in 1960, with the compound Sainte Marie de la Tourette coming to represent one of the most exemplary structures of the late Modernist and Brutalist style.
Its one hundred cells and study halls still serve an active though declining population of friars but the with the convent having become one of the pilgrimage destinations of adherents of iconic architecture, it still attracts many visitors and offers overnight accommodations to help offset the costs of upkeep.
Friday 2 February 2018
choux de crรฉteil
Completed in 1974, Messy Nessy Chic acquaints us with the Brutalist concrete ensemble of apartment towers dubbed Les Choux (the Cauliflowers) due to the distinctive balconies, which residents were encouraged to grow gardens on in hopes that the community would become a self-sufficient utopia.
Indeed the neighbour that architect Gรฉrard Granval created for the south-eastern suburb of Crรฉteil had everything that its dwellers could want for—a cinema and a shopping centre—and was designed to uphold principles of minimising one’s ecological footprint and discouraged gentrification by admixing a population of students with people of various income levels and social support reliance. In 2008, the Ministry of Culture recognised the group of ten cylindrical buildings as piece of architectural heritage. See a vintage promotional video of the grounds and a few other structures created by Granval at the link above.
Tuesday 7 November 2017
bierpinsel
Via Messy Nessy Chic, we learn that after proving itself to be unviable as a commercial venue, the forty-six metre “beer brush” tower in Berlin will be on the auction block as a residential property.
The Brutalist, protected monument was originally conceived as suggestive of a tree was opened as a nightclub and restaurant in 1976 and after a succession of owners shut down finally in 2006 and remained vacant, later becoming an officially sanctioned canvas for graffiti artists. For the lucky winner, they’ll be in possession (hopefully as an actual abode and not some vanity backdrop for tourists) of a twelve thousand square metre, four room, four bath home.
Sunday 30 April 2017
bio-beton
Researchers at the Delft University of Technology are engineering a rather brilliant form of self-repairing structural concrete by mixing spores of calcifying (limestone-producing) bacteria into cement paste. Once cracks occur, the oxygen wakens the bacteria and triggers the healing process and after a few weeks the rift is again sealed.
In addition to vastly reducing the cost, the bacteria also leech carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in the process.
Forscher von der Delfter Universitรคt der Technologie arbeiten eine ziemlich brillante Form von selbstreparierendem Beton. Sporen von verkalkenden (kalksteinbildenden) Bakterien werden in eine Zementpaste gemischt.
Wenn Risse auftreten, wacht der Sauerstoff die Bakterien auf und lรถst den Heilungsprozess aus und nach einigen Wochen wird der Riss wieder versiegelt. Neben der erheblichen Reduzierung der Kosten, nehmen auch die Bakterien auch Kohlendioxid aus der Atmosphรคre.
catagories: ๐ณ๐ฑ, ๐ข, ๐ก, ๐, environment
Monday 13 March 2017
concrete feats
Via Dezeen we discover Spanish illustrator Marta Colmenero celebrating some of the distinctive landmarks of Brutalist architecture from across Europe and north Africa, including the iconic public housing estate Balfron Tower, completed in 1967, designed by Hungarian extract Ernล Goldfinger. Such residential towers saw the rise of the high-rise and it was Goldfinger’s early pioneering solutions limited urban space that really started the process, and caused one objector to the demolition left in the building boom’s wake, Ian Flemming, to name his Bond arch-villain after the architect. Goldfinger threatened the author with legal action but relented when Fleming offered to rename the character “Goldprick.”
Friday 18 November 2016
time and tide
Via Colossal, we are treated to wonderful, modern and almost brutalist at times sandcastles of sculptor Calvin Seibert. Spending part of the summer beachcombing at Rockaway in New York, Seibert reflected on the nature of his temporary edifices and how their construction is a race against time that defies advanced planning and develops rather organically. Explore more of Seibert’s amazing geometric sculptures at the link above.
Thursday 30 May 2013
alchemie oder mayence
An international team of alchemists have proven their metal and have explained in a repeatable and applicable way how liquid cement (Beton) can be magicked into a liquid glass-like conductive material.