palais bulles

Originally commissioned for French industrialist Pierre Bernard, the villa overlooking the bay of Cannes designed by Hungarian architect Antti Lovag (*1920 - †2014), the Bubble Palace (see also), an ensemble consisting of various swimming pools, water elements, an amphitheatre and ten living units in Théoule-sur-Mer, was acquired by recently departed fashion mogul Pierre Cardin as a holiday home. It is now up for auction. Much more to discover at the link above and the property’s French language web site.

hausnummer

As the scaffolding came down and realising that my workweek apartment (previously here and here) had after its latest exterior paint job also embraced the trend, we appreciated these monumental numbers on the housing estates of Singapore—albeit these are funkier and more personable—captured by photographer Peter Steinhauer, via the always excellent Present /&/ Correct (check out their sundries).
One’s address writ-large makes for an interesting contrast and we’re noticing all the new blocks going up in the city recently. Much more to explore at the links above.

7x7

hello, little friends: Ryoji Akiyama transversed China in 1981 and 1982 capturing images of young people in a rapidly changing country

a class divided: a powerful, pivotal lesson in discrimination revisited

the plot to overthrow america: a round-up of fear-mongering ploys baited by Trump’s declaring an acronym a terrorist group, plus a case of deicide

simrefinery: Chevron commissioned the makers of SimCity to make a training programme for workers at their petroleum plants back in 1992

little green men: investigating the anonymous, unaccountable army policing Washington, DC—via Pluralistic

subjective cityscapes: Natalie Christensen focuses her lens on the intersection of architecture and automobiles in the US Southwest—via Plain Magazine

heavenly palace: more details surface regarding China’s space station, with construction beginning next year

8x8

🚏: the ad hoc bus stop benches and chairs of suburban Tokyo has personality—via Super Punch

pop! six! squish! uh-uh: an homage to Chicago’s Cell Block Tango for confining times

crenellation: a virtual tour of some fortified cities around the world—we’ve been to a few of these places ourselves

as was the style at the time: a treasury of Old English customs and superstitions

sneezeguard: personal barriers designed to lure diners back in restaurants

signs point to no: ProPublica charts out the trajectory on America’s states’ road to recovery and a safe reopening—via Maps Mania

pilot programme: the shareware history of Photoshop’s prime competitor and driver of innovation

🏝: reminiscent of this exotic travelogue, we are enjoying these Pacific voyages—via Boing Boing

ranch style

We are enjoying these inspiring Mid-Century Modern backyard and balcony roosts for our avian friends crafted by Douglas Barnhard (see also here and here). Besides the standard accoutrements of feed, seed, pitch, perch and shelter there are water elements and landscaped succulent gardens for some models. See more at the link up top and at Barnhard’s shop.

over the hedge

Clad in eight kilometres of hardy, living hornbeam (Hainbuche Hecke) local architectural studio Ingenhoven has recently completed its landscaping of an office block in the heart of the city of Düsseldorf (previously), creating Europe’s largest green façade. Although as is the problem with most bold architecture is that it’s mostly lost on the occupants and can only be properly appreciated from afar, above, it is nonetheless the sort of innovative intervention that we need to see developed and while probably not half so sustainable, the neat hedgerows askance look like a vineyard and seem ideal for the city.

the candy-stripe of incident tape

We’ve encountered several compilations of tape measures, interventions (see also) to remind people to practise physical distancing in order to lessen the spread of COVID-19 and found this round-up from My Modern Met to be one of the more comprehensive and visually compelling. For as much as we seem accepting and even complicit of the figurative and literal velvet rope for enforcing order and norms, it is truly outstanding how we can turn on a dime and respect those marks laid out for us.

touched by an angle

Our gratitude to Things Magazine once again for catching this fantastic update we overlooked from our friends over at McMansion Hell (see previously here and here) with this vintage 1973 edition and this garrulous real estate listing that hits all the resounding features and elements: lawyer foyer, Olive Garden bar, trypophobic wine rack, etc. Check out both Kate Wagner’s blog for a tour of the entire property and the source link up top for much, much more.

6x6

paracosm: Things Magazine digs through its rough drafts to bring together a montage of private homes that represent the complete, the self-contained

your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should: researchers isolate a sample of possibly viable dinosaur DNA, via Slashdot

ursine alignment chart: lockdown coping levels gauged by cartoon bears

вечеринка на балконе: solo techno raves are the latest challenge in Russia under social distancing rules

covid corridor: absent leadership on a national level, new names proposed for regional alliances forming in the disunited states

domus: Sony World Photography Awards winners and runners-up announced in the category of architecture—via Coudal Partners’ Fresh Signals

7x7

610 wagon: Salvador Dalí was once commissioned to paint an advertising campaign (see also) for Datsun Motors

dénouement: the Hero’s Journey during lockdown—see also

location scout: exploring how tax regimes and local ordinances limn the imagination in film and television adaptations

coade stone: the weather proof wonder material that’s the stuff of statuary and architectural embellishments

home office: not free to go out, Banksy gives the guest bathroom a makeover

now witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational battle station: NASA under Trump struggles to deliver even the solace of science with exploration becoming exploitation

the ever-changing motor car: 1965 animated short for Ford of Britain by the same collaboration behind Yellow Submarine

crinkle crankle

Despite their far older heritage, first attested to Dutch engineers that helped drain marshlands in The Fens in the 1600s—whom referred to the retaining walls as slangenmuur, snake walls—it was not until the eighteenth century that the vernacular brick architecture (see previously) received this common designation, which sounds fairly Dutch itself too for its reduplicative derivation.
For all the apparent fussiness and ornamentation of the construction, this serpentine arrangement is a highly economical one since long expanses can be covered using a single layer of bricks, whereas one that proceeded in a straight line without any curving buttresses would be far weaker and easily topple. As garden enclosures, most crinkle crankle walls were aligned east-west in order to capture the rising and setting sun (see also) for home orchards. Learn more with TYWKIWDBI at the link above.

8x8

expansion pack: kit and ideas for remixing new board games by combining pieces and platforms of classic games one already owns—via Kottke’s Quick Links

video phone: the teleconferencing tool that’s being forced on many of us is a privacy and security nightmare whose long-term liabilities far outweigh the benefits of seeing colleagues in pyjamas

razliv haystack: a look into how the mythos of Lenin fuelled the early Soviet tourism industry

stay sane, stay safe: a graphic design community’s rapid response to promote positivity

at home everywhere: with at least a quarter of the world’s population under at least partial lockdown, a design duo has turned national flags into houses

utica club: beer steins Schultz and Dooley (voiced by Jonathan Winters) advertise Matt Brewery’s flagship beverage

tossed dallas: Tuna Antipasto and assorted silliness—see previously

mashrabiya and mezzanine: a celebration of balconies

a clean, well-lighted place

While this meme of the iconic Nighthawks in the time of quarantine has been circulating, it is worthy to note how the artist Edward Hopper (*1882 – †1967) survived some pretty tumultuous and transformational times—including World War I, the 1918 Flu pandemic, the Great Depression, World War II and the onset of the Cold War—and through that lens regard his portfolio, many of those works—Nighthawks included address the subjects of loneliness, privation and isolation.

urban lagoon

The global architectural and civil engineering group MVRDV, evoking follies of artificial ruins with the remnants of pillars and pylons, has transformed the sub-basement foundations of parking garage of an abandoned mall in the centre of Tainan into an aquatic public square and park. This sort of intervention that restores some greenery and gathering to a municipality rather than replacing one commercially zoned space with another is quite refreshing and breaks up the frenetic monotony of the cityscape.

k-briq

A Edinburgh firm called Kenoteq in collaboration with the city’s university is taking on the dirty business of construction by reclaiming materials that would otherwise end up in landfills and reconstituting the building blocks (see previously) without firing them in a kiln—making the process even more sustainable and environmentally friendly. Moreover the basic units can be created in situ from the salvaged material—saving on pollution caused by transportation.


 

urban oases

Via Present /&/ Correct, we really enjoyed the calming and inviting symmetries from on high from photographer Hoi Kin Fung with this aerial study of the now sadly endangered fountains and common areas of public housing estates in Hong Kong. The Housing Authorities’ policy dates back to a devastating fire in 1954 that consumed thousands of makeshift buildings leaving many homeless and prompting the government to intervene. Many of the apartment towers were constructed at that time with prefabricated designs referred to as Old Slab/New Slab, Cruciform and Ziggurat.

6x6

à la russe: a guide to Russian Paris

turntabling: musical pairings of diverse songs that sound the same

grow apple trees and honey bees and snow white turtle doves: soft drink giant ravages communities already water-insecure to produce more of its product and raise the next generation of loyal customers—see also

#beardedbuttigieg: many people are advocating for US presidential candidate Mayor Pete to grow facial hair and helpfully previewing his new look

two-up two-down: a home in Osaka with sixteen levels   

the beauty of real food is that it gets ugly: to promote its cutting of artificial preservative, one fast food giant features a mouldy hamburger, as compared to this exhibit

shortlisted: a gallery of some of the images to advance to the next round of judging in the Sony World Photography Awards

9x9

royal gift: George Washington’s convoluted scheme to set the new Republic (see also) on course through mule breeding, via Miss Cellania

fiddle-free: a functional mobile phone with a rotary dial to cut down on distractions

we’ll fire his identical twin, too: Tom the Dancing Bug takes on Trump’s impeachment acquittal

no man is an island: an exploration into the most isolated individuals through history

bird’s eye view: travel around the globe through some of the superlative telemetry captured by Google Earth, via Maps Mania 

 🈁: the lost and found bureau (see previously) of Japan, via The Morning News

pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun: minimalistic advertising

double helix: a look at the remarkable Bramante Staircase (previously) of the Vatican museum

 💌: a look into how the heart symbol (see also) came to represent love

federalist style

The American Institute of Architects are expressing grave displeasure and concern over a draft plan has surfaced to mandate all government buildings adhere to the principles of “classical architecture,” (certainly the the stuff of the L’Enfant Plan but also the plantation house and anything modern such as this would never be built) decrying this sort command, top down planning that would severely curtail creative licenses and the input of the host community. Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again revises a 1962 guide commissioned by John Kennedy (see also) and composed by New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a recognised and respected scholar and critic, that encouraged experimentation and for buildings to be reflective of contemporary movements.

el bosque

We are presented with the verdant, vertical urban forest concept of the architectural firm of Stefano Boeri to be built in the near future on a tract of land just outside of Cancún that was formerly zoned for development as a sprawling shopping centre.
Happily the area will instead be home to new model city (see previously), one hundred and thirty thousand human residents cohabitating with some seven million carbon-sequestering plants. Project leaders plan for the settlement, campus to become a showcase hub of research and education with facilities focused on redressing coral reef degradation, lessening the impact of agriculture as well as demonstrating the integration of mobility, robotics and renewables into civil engineering and urban planning, backwards planning to bring these reforms and innovations to communities and infrastructure already extant. Much more to explore at the link up top.