While visiting Rosarito in Baja California, friend of the blog, Fancy Notions, stumbled upon a most usual six-storey beach house bedecked with gargoyles and monstrous statuary and crammed to the brim with antiques that is yet uncompleted obsession of a real estate developer called Tony Wells. This Gothic residence chocked full of period furnishings, coffins and chandeliers has become quite the draw for tourists and there are plans to convert property into a museum, relenting to the throngs of visitors who wanted a peek inside. Much more at the link above.
Saturday 1 October 2022
Friday 30 September 2022
7x7 (10. 180)
ron’s house: a bid to save an immersive, eccentrically decorated apartment—via Strange Company’s Weekend Link Dump
hermetic students of the golden dawn: an honest-to-goodness magic duel between William Butler Yeats and Aleister Crowley—via Boing Boingthere’s a hole in my head where the rain gets in: medieval wound man, a medical diagram meant to assist surgeons of yore—see also
it’s been zero days since the last catastrophic hurricane: more stats from Neal Agarwal (previously)
self-paced: an AI powered language learning tool—via Web Curios
photosculpture: a century before 3D printers, there was the rotoscoping technique M Franรงois Willรจme
mid-management mezzanine: a tour of the S.C. Johnson Wax Headquarters building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright
catagories: ⚕️, ๐, ๐ช, ๐จ, ๐ฌ, ๐, ๐งฟ, architecture, Middle Ages
Sunday 25 September 2022
muography (10. 168)
BLDGBLOG’s Geoff Manaugh, contributing correspondent for the Financial Times, introduces use to the physics of the elementary particle called the muon (ฮผ), how like the more elusive and slippery neutrino penetrates temple and turnpike alike (and even volcanos or exploring ruins) and gives civil engineers a new inspection tool to assess the internal state of infrastructure, a sort of structural x-ray, to help triage, prioritise repair and upgrades and identify imminent failures.
catagories: ๐บ, ๐งฒ, architecture
Thursday 15 September 2022
7x7 (10. 136)
ernie-vilg: Baidu enters text-to-image generating AI—reinforces government censorship
kusugibashi: a rebuilt bridge washed away in 2018 combines traditional carpentry (see also) with computational design technology
naysayer: exocentric verb-noun compound agentsif you give a bot a cookie: pop ups are ruining the internet experience—see also—outside of walled gardens, via Digg
we’re making earth our only shareholder: founder of Patagonia gives his billion-dollar company away to combat the climate emergency
bademaschinen: floating saunas for Oslo harbor—see also
nervous laughter: researchers hope to deliver more natural human-robot conversations
catagories: ๐จ๐ณ, ๐ฏ๐ต, ๐ธ๐ช, ๐ก, ๐ฌ, ๐, ๐ค, architecture, networking and blogging
Monday 5 September 2022
7x7 (10. 110)
ch-ch-ch-chia: University of Virginia research team 3D prints living walls and roofs
the road to rhรปn: more interactive LOTR maps to explore—see previously
defenestration: accident-prone energy executivesdoctor doolittle: translating non-human animal vocalisations into language with artificial intelligence
the hunt for the golden walnut brain of ronald reagan: an adventure from John Hoare (previously)—via Things Magazine
lady woman: a sample track from Boris Midney’s reimagining of 1979 “Evita” as a disco opera
reefer madness: researchers make an advance in the race to save Caribbean coral, whose health also affects hurricane intensity
catagories: ๐ช, ๐ฑ, ๐, ๐ถ, ๐บ, ๐บ, ๐ช, architecture, the Caribbean, Tolkien
Wednesday 24 August 2022
7x7 (10.082)
the traffic cone preservation society: a venerable and conserved web artefact—see also—via Weird Universe
red light, green light: authorities in China are not changing traffic-control scheme despite rumours to the contrary
harmonices mundi: listening to Johannes Kepler’s music of the spheres—see previouslywagahai wa neku de aru: selected sayings about cats and dogs in Japan
45°, 90°, 180°: after more than half a century, Michael Heizer’s lost desert city is complete
perfect impasto: ongoing research into Rembrandt’s Night Watch—see previously
happy belated blogoversary: Miss Cellania turns seventeen
catagories: ๐จ๐ณ, ๐ญ, ๐บ, ๐, architecture, networking and blogging
Saturday 6 August 2022
6x6 (10. 043)
blue plaque special: a curation of the City of London’s Blue Plaque scheme—via Nag on the Lake (see also)
harry potter and the chamber of narcissism: McMansion Hell (previously) show a yassified property in the Atlanta suburbswarwolf: a closer look at Edward I’s siege machine—via Strange Company
i² = -1: the fundamental realness of imaginary numbers
pferd is the word: some AI-generated horse-hybrids from Janelle Shane (previously)
delft on a shelf: a house on Fournier Street with some animated tiles
catagories: ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ณ๓ ฃ๓ ด๓ ฟ, ๐, ๐ค, ๐งฎ, architecture, networking and blogging
Saturday 30 July 2022
7x7 (10. 025)
conlang: fluency in Esperanto—see previously
122 CE: a colourful gate house installed at Hadrian’s Wall
the electric lucifer: the musical stylings of Bruce Haack
civic duty: a resonant “I Voted” sticker for Ulster County, New York
isochrone: an interactive map illustrates how far one can travel from any European train station in under five hours
la maison sculptรฉe: Jacques Lucas’ hand-sculpted home in Rennes
catagories: ๐ซ๐ท, ๐ถ, ๐, ๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ณ๓ ฃ๓ ด๓ ฟ, ๐, ๐, architecture, ⓦ
Thursday 14 July 2022
7x7
nag on the lake: a new viewing platform with spectacular views of the Falls
smart brevity: the prevalence of bulletin-point journalism
light cycle: the lost TRON (previously) arcade documents—via Things Magazine
true colours: Metropolitan Museum of Art presents statues from Antiquity with their original paint jobs—see previously
granite & rainbow: the book jackets of Virginia Woolf
restored to its polynesian/craftsman/medieval-colonial revival/queen anne glory: an architectural doppelgรคnger of the Little House
bonne fรชte nationale: images from Bastille Day from over a century ago
sluicehuis: a cantilever housing bloc in Amsterdam’s IJburg district
catagories: ๐จ๐ฆ, ๐ซ๐ท, ๐ฌ, ๐พ, ๐, ๐, architecture, libraries and museums
Monday 11 July 2022
band shell
Situated in a natural amphitheare in a shaded canyon just below the Hollywood Hills—a popular picnicking spot called “Daisy Dell” that also saw a number of outdoor performances and pageants, the Hollywood Bowl was officially opened on this day in 1922 with a concert by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by Alfred Hertz, playing the overture from Richard Wagner’s Rienzi, der letzte der Tribunen (after the Edward Bulwer-Lytton novel of the same name—the author best known for his coinage of stock phrases like “the great unwashed masses,” “dweller on the threshold” and the opening “it was a dark and stormy night”), movements from Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony, a selection of Hungarian Dances from Brahms, a suite from Peer Gynt and the overture from William Tell—regular theme tune fare from the perspective of this centenary. The distinctive arched proscenium—later remodelled due to acoustic problems—was first added in 1926.
Sunday 3 July 2022
8x8
el vehรญculo compartido: personal aerial shots by photographer Alex Cartagena in pickup truck beds reveal the hidden lives of day labourers off-duty
skate expectations: concrete sculptural parks by Amir Zaki—via Present /&/ Correct
rosรฉwave: a playlist from NPR to invoke relaxed summer afternoon vibes
press key when ready: the 1985 British children’s sci-fi series The Whizz
i am your atypical neighbour: in an exhibit, Her Window, artist Dayu Ouyang broadcasts bold statements from her bedroom’s view
hot slot: the escapingly small feasibility that Jeff Goldblum could have uploaded a computer virus to alien technology and win Independence Day plus other dei ex machinis
friend-shoring: reprioritising globalisation and a metallic NATO to ensure critical rare-earths supply chains are kept viable
a rising tide lifts all boats: laid out in a grid meant to resemble brain coral from above and protected by the sinking atoll, the Maldives is building an ingenious floating city that will rise with the oceans as perhaps a model for other threatened communities
Saturday 25 June 2022
8x8
morning chorus: a suspended hotel suite in Sรกpmi cladded with three-hundred fifty birdhouses
meanwhile margaret atwood says hold my beer: teach and student, Aldous Huxley and George Orwell, spar over which dystopian vision is more plausible
don’t say g*y: Disney introduces its first openly closeted cast of charactersmakeup and monobrow: a quick survey of the female eyebrow in art
border and backsplash: the mosaic tile museum of Gifu—over ten-thousands exemplars, many rescued from buildings slated for demolition
i had hoped that god would work one of his signature miracles and spare me from is also signature “horrible pain in childbirth” curse: the Virgin Mary reclaims her nativity narrative
stonk-and-go: the US Securities and Exchange Commission weighs sweeping change to curtail meme-driven trades
a doghouse for eddie: charmingly, Frank Lloyd Wright (previously) builds a home for a canine and his human companion
catagories: ⚖️, ๐ธ๐ช, ๐จ, ๐ณ️๐, ๐ฑ, ๐, ๐ชถ, architecture, libraries and museums
Wednesday 22 June 2022
5x5
amelia bedelia: reading suggestions for adults informed by one’s favourite children’s literature
the suwaลki gap: Lithuania blocks some supply trains that transit its territory to the Russian exclave Kaliningradmall rats: a huge collection of 1990s consumer aesthetics
fluxburgh: a selection of offerings gamifying architecture
children’s television workshop: a lost, pulled episode of Sesame Street with the neighbourhood terrorised by Margaret Hamilton, the Wicked Witch of the West—via Super Punch
Saturday 4 June 2022
7x7
2slgbtqia+: a calendar of Native American and First Nations’ Pride events—the 2S is for “Two-Spirits”
about the damn end: DJ Cummerbund (previously) mixes Lizzo and Linkin Park—via Waxy
sacred modernity: McGregor Smith explores Europe’s superlative post-war churches—via Things magazinewhy ernest saves christmas: wholly machine-generated articles on any number of topics—the logorrhoea of infinite neural networks producing infinite copy, via Web Curios
signature sound: a 1957 musical horoscope album (see also here and here) orchestrated by Hal Mooney
the endangered california bumbletrout: court declares bees are fish to afford them better defence under the state’s species protection act
night of a thousand judys: a tribute concert for charity on what would have been Garland’s one-hundredth birthday
catagories: ♏️, ✝️, ๐, ๐ถ, ๐ณ️๐, ๐, ๐, ๐ค, architecture
Friday 3 June 2022
bergpark wilhelmshรถhe
H and I had visited the sprawling landscaped park outside of Kassel some time ago but neglected to blog about it here, so we were happy to have the occasion to revisit and share impressions of the Baroque giardino all’italiana built for Landgraf Karl I von Hessen beginning in 1696 on the anniversary of the presentation of the water elements (Wasserspiele) by Giovanni Francisco Guerniero in 1714, switching on the cascades and waterfalls for the first time. The landgrave had met the architect in Rome whilst on a Grand Tour and engaged him to realise his grand plans for the largest garden on the continent, and though making a solid first impression which delighted his patron, Guerniero fled back to Italy once it became clear that planning errors and cost-overruns meant that the project could not be finished. Atop a pyramid, atop on octagon, is a copper statue of Hercules, surveying the watercourse. Successive occupants of the palace expanded and contributed to the character of the park over the years, adopting new styles and eventually veering away from the French formal style to more of an English garden and it was finally completed after a century and a half of construction. Open to the public, it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2013.
catagories: ๐ฉ๐ช, ๐ณ, ๐ง, ๐ , architecture
Monday 30 May 2022
let us discard all these things and unite as one people
Dedicated on this day (the then fixed date for the Memorial Day federal holiday, also known as Decoration Day) in 1922 at the western terminus of the National Mall in Washington, DC, the Beaux-Arts neoclassical temple by architect Henry Bacon and featuring colossal marble statue of the United States sixteenth president by Daniel Chester French and executed by the Piccirilli family, the Lincoln Memorial has always been a draw to visitors and since its early days throughout the past century has been a symbolic focus for race relations and social justice in America. Planning begun in 1910 to erect a suitable monument to the individual whose administration and sacrifice helped preserve the union and ended chattel slavery as a government sanctioned institution and many felt that the Doric temple was too ostentatious for an individual of humble character and championed a log cabin shrine though Paris’ proposal ultimately passed. Chief Justice William Howard Taft (who had been appointed president of the memorial’s planning commission during his term as president of the United States), president Warren G Harding and Robert Todd Lincoln, the statesman’s eldest son, officially opened the venue with a delegation of prominent Black politicians of the day, including Mississippi congressional representative Perry Howard, journalist and editor Emmett Jay Scott and real estate businessman Whitefield McKinlay, invited—only to discover that they were cordoned off in a segregated section guarded by a contingent of marines. Its reputation as a sacred and aspirational place has since been established, with one of the first instances being Eleanor Roosevelt offering the venue in 1939 to contralto Marian Anderson when the Daughters of the American Revolution refused her to perform to an integrated audience at Constitution Hall.
catagories: ⚖️, ๐บ๐ธ, ๐ , architecture, ⓦ
Sunday 15 May 2022
land of fire and ice
Architect Arnhildur Palmadottรญr revealed a monumental lavaforming proposal that would harness and redirect volcanic eruptions in order to create durable and sustainable buildings and pavements. While there are scaling and technical hurdles—plus ensuring that these controlled eruptions don’t release more carbon into the atmosphere than they save and sequester, this radical reassessment of geothermal potential as something bold and innovative, engineering a closed system, like a reverse Dyson Sphere.
catagories: ๐ฎ๐ธ, ๐, ๐ก, ๐ฅ, architecture
Friday 6 May 2022
blitzcrete
Via the always intriguing Things Magazine, we quite enjoyed this introduction to the architectural vernacular of John Outram with news of his long overdue revival. Active since 1974 and producing a series of polychromatic public spaces that reference the temples of Antiquity. Commissions include the Pumping Station on the Isle of Dogs, projects for Cambridge and Rice University in Houston, Texas, the refurbished Old Town Hall of the Hague plus an unrealised shopping promenade for Battersea Power Station.
catagories: ๐, ๐, architecture
Wednesday 4 May 2022
8x8
saved: Diane Keaton’s coffee table book of quirky photography
broadacre city: Frank Lloyd Wright’s experimental community of the future—via Nag on the Lake
23 skidoo: enhanced footage of flappers from 1929
senator palpatine needs to flip just five seats to take back power: a fund-raising solicitation from the galactic majority leader (previously)
spelunking: surveyors discover the largest cave system in North America
they’ve got an awful lot of coffee in brazil: the novelty song as performed by Frank Sinatra
homage to the squares: a rhythmic revisiting of the art of Josef Albers via Pasa Bon!
vacansopapurosophobia: an assortment of very cromulent vocabulary
catagories: ☕️, ๐, ๐ท, architecture, Star Wars
Sunday 1 May 2022
7x7
chairportrait: thirty iconic designer styles of seating depicted minimally by Federico Babina
der pate technos: a celebration of the career and legacy of Klaus Schulze (RIP)
recursive: vending machine gachapon—see previously
the wretched, bloody and usurping boar: architecture and monumental authoritarianism in places like the Battersea Power Station—via Things Magazine with more on the property
reverspective: the illusory paintings of Patrick Hughes
eye-chart: JWST is now fully-focussed and calibrated and primed for new discoveries (previously)
lookbook: a collection of sculptural furnishings that match their residence