Avant-garde journal design: Building Moscow [Строительство Москвы], 1927-1931
Stellar avant-garde journal designs by Gustav Klutsis, Vasilii Elkin, and El Lissitzky for the journal Building Moscow. Continue reading
Search Results for: Le Corbusier
Bauhaus master Walter Gropius’ submission to the Palace of the Soviets competition, 1931
A cache of outstanding images of Gropius’ 1931 submission to the Palace of the Soviets competition in Moscow. Continue reading
Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer, competition entry to the Chicago Tribune tower (1922)
For an international competition hosted by the newspaper Chicago Tribune in 1922, Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer submitted an exceptionally modern glass and metal high-rise, transcending all historic forms of architecture. Continue reading
The modernism of Charlotte Perriand
Charlotte Perriand is one of those rare figures from history (not just architectural history) about whom it is possible to say immediately and without reservation was a genius. Continue reading
Architecture and political commitment
“If we want to change society, we must know exactly what is to be done to solve its problems and commit ourselves politically to effect the solutions we devise.” Claude Schnaidt Continue reading
Instrumentality, “habitability,” and the city
With theorists like de Certeau and Bourdieu, praxis is fractured into so many “practices,” politics reduced to micropolitical “acts of resistance,” subjectivity deflated into a flaccid feeling of “agency.” Continue reading
Architecture in revolutionary times
“The architecture of the French Revolution was a first rehearsal for modernist architecture, similar to how French culture around 1789 was the rehearsal for the events of 1917.” Gennadii Revzin, 1989 Continue reading
Walter Benjamin and architectural modernism
Never realized before just how plugged-in Walter Benjamin was with the avant-garde architectural scene in Germany, France, and Austria during his day. Continue reading
Trellick Tower: The fall and rise of a modern monument
Condemned by conservative newspapers for its alienating, dehumanizing qualities, it was cited in disaster movies. By the end of the 1970s the building had already been baptized “the Tower of Terror.” Continue reading
Yesterday’s tomorrow is not today
It’s an odd feeling one gets from time to time, that the future we remember was more futuristic than our own. Continue reading