The Modern Study

More electronics than paper...

From House of Cards (US) S01E01

Thinking About Chairs

Chairs. Young designers design chairs earlier in their careers. It not their fault it is how they were trained. I am so convinced by this tutorial that I will not design a chair this year.

NO-CHAIR-DESIGN Year 2012! from Eero Y on Vimeo.

Alternative Washingtons

In the movie Fatherland 1960's Berlin was furnished with buildings designed, but not built, by Speer. Not to compare the two capitals but here is alternative but here is a short video of alternate designs for Washington.

(link from oshronin in AH.com in 

Things that look like alternate history, but aren't)

Ikea Kit for Stonehenge

From How To Be a Retronaut via Adfreaks.

The Kitchen as Workshop

The Tool Cabinet

The Work Bench

This is from a German kitchen equipment company bulthaup (sic). On Dwell, a design blog, one of their kitchens is referred as costing as much as a small house. Still it is in interesting concept may be picked up by others in the future.

Columns, Specs by Vitruvius

I read Vitruvius' De Architectura (or should that be Vitruviorum De Architectura) a long time ago. One of the sections of the book is the proper proportions and spacings of columns. The above illustration is from a 1914 translation. After reading this book you notice buildings with "classical" accents that look wrong, with columns too thin, too widely spaced. I am aware that the look of Greco-Roman classical architecture was a result of limitations of building technologies and material science.

Pacific Columns is a company that provides custom made columns. Check out their column maker.

Midcentury Modern: Another View

Jeez, it looks like an Italian hospital.

Freddie Rumsen getting hired at SCDP,
Madmen S04E02

Lego House for a Lego World

Another Japanese House Designed for House Cats

Here is some more felinocentric Japanese architecture. The designers believe in the future houses will be made built for cats as much as for humans.

Cat Architecture

In Monty Python's far off days there was an episode where the team were cat entertainers. The Japanese have designed buildings around our feline friends. Here are some images of Japanese cat habitats.

"Used" Houses

It's great but there are nine foreclosures on our street. Why can't we buy one of those? They're half the price.

Will Schuester

I'm not raising our baby in a used house. They're not clean.

Terri Schuester

The Schuesters in Glee S01E02

More Ruins of Old Detroit

Last September I came across a site devoted to photography of the Hell that is Detroit, Ruins From Old Detroit. Here is another photographer, James Griffioen, who also has been wandering around the living museum of Detroit. Instead of focusing on decayed landmarks he looks for absence, the empty blocks, the caved in houses, the feral dogs. The archeology record of grand buildings, palaces, shrines is glamorous, but the analysis of humbler buildings is also very useful.

(from a link from Boingboing)

Site Devoted to Abandoned Places

Artificial Owl is a site "dedicated to provide on a daily basis a selection of the most fascinating abandoned man-made creations". They also provide exact locations of these sites. The above is a US antiballistic missile site that was built but never used.

Abandoned Buildings - The Ohio Edition

Illicit Ohio is a site devoted to photo explorations of abandoned buildings in Ohio. I came to my attention after Boingboing linked to images of a derelict mansion supposing owned by noted criminal Mike Tyson. However the site has images have some other logo than the original phototographer pasted over Illicit Ohio watermark. A very sleazy practice.

Scene Almost out of movie The Day After Tomorrow

The above looks like a giant ice stalagmite formed when a pipe burst in a abandoned shopping mall. In reality this is a mass of ice purpose built in a Swiss stadium for Ice Cimbing championships. If you look at image below you can see a climber and tiers of spectators.

(from Pruned)

Ruins From Old Detroit

While reading the comments in another blog, The Death of Johannesburg, I came across another blog of urban decay. Forgotten Detroit is about the great marooned and abandoned builgings of downtown Detroit. I have only visited Detroit once but it is hard not to impressed by these empty buildings surrounded by empty sidewalks, with non stopping/slowing cars speeding by. The site also includes before and after photos and floor plans.

Angry South Africa Expats and Wrecked Buildings

Following a link in some comments I came across a blog The Death of Johannesburg, that chronicles the deterioration of that city since the ANC took power. South Africa, in the bad old days, was pointed as an example of racial oppression. It was also one of the richest cities in Africa if not the world. Now "Free" South Africa has a sky high murder and rape rate and many downtown Jo'burg buildings have been abandoned for security concerns and occupied by squatters.

The Drains of Canada

The BLDGBLOG has an interview with urban spelunker Michael Cook. Read the interview then go to Michael blog Vanishing Point and look at sewers.

Mr Glasses - Architect

The Modernism movement wanted buildings to be machines for living. Unfortunately we humans are not merely cogs building should be built for us not the other way around. Here is a fictionalized version of Philip Johnson as Mr Glasses.

Missing Masterpiece

This was part of campaign by an architectural preservation group in Chicago.