Here are a couple of photos I photoed earlier in the month, of a rather handsome building just off Sloane Square, just past the tube station as you leave, in the direction of Pimlico, Victoria and such places: A moment later, I tried photoing a detail at the top of the building, of where the … Continue reading Keeping up appearances (however odd they were) just off Sloane Square
I don’t know exactly where this was, only approximately. It was somewhere in the vicinity of Leicester and Trafalgar Squares, these being the places where I photoed the photo just before this one and just after this one: But I do know for sure when I photoed this photo: April 30th 2015. And I know … Continue reading Keeping up appearances with scaffolding and pictures
I have something I need to stick up here and then forget about. There’s an architectural thing that I write about here, which I refer to as “keeping up appearances”. The best photo I have ever taken of this kind of thing is this one, which is of a quite tall but not at all … Continue reading The biggest exercise in keeping up appearances that I have so far heard about
Photoed by me in Oxford Street late this afternoon: What this tells you is that architectural modernism has utterly conquered indoors, but that out of doors, modernism is only popular because its totalitarian impulses have been held at bay, by what you might call ancientism. The Modern Movement founders would have been disgusted by the … Continue reading Keeping up appearances
I finished reading The Ape That Understood The Universe about a week ago now, but there is one further bit from this book that I want to scan into this blog, because I think it is my absolute favourite. At the beginning of the second half of the book devoted to Man, “The Cutural Animal”, … Continue reading Steve Stewart-Williams on the evolution of the Breton fishing boat
I have done no copying over of postings from the Old Blog to the New Blog recently. This is because recently, I have not been experiencing the Screen of the Red Death (although me mentioning this now may cause it to return just out of spite). However, today I embarked upon transferring a posting from … Continue reading I was writing about Modernism versus Ancientism back in 2014
Some Australian architects called Bates Smart have completed a very skinny skyscraper in Melbourne. Skinny skyscrapers are now a definite trend. I recall speculating that this trend might have something to do with views having become a bit more desirable. But it is clear that what is really happening is that plots of available urban … Continue reading A smart and skinny skyscraper in Melbourne
Today I was at the Royal Marsden, having a scan in a device that looked like this: In other words it looked like a time travel portal in a rather bad movie. That photo’s a bit blurry, but they only allowed me one go at photoing it. But that’s not my point here. What my … Continue reading Architectural modernism: Its triumph indoors and its battle out of doors
Le Corbusier famously described homes as machines for living in, and if this Property Reporter piece is anything to go by, it would seem that London’s machines for living in have been getting better lately: Traditionally, period London property consistently outperformed new build in terms of desirability and price. However, times are changing and now … Continue reading London’s machines for living in are getting better