a city of mirrors

In the public eye, the success of architects is inextricably connected to the scale and number of buildings they have erected. Monumental architectures are the most obvious kind of legacy. However, in the fight against climate change and ecological devastation, theoretical plans for the future have often contributed more than immediately attainable ones. Paolo Soleri’s 1969 book, “Arcology: The City in the Image of Man”  is filled with incredibly complex plans for buildings that were never built. Despite this, Soleri significantly contributed to the world of climate change design by expanding the public consciousness, demonstrating the importance of architectural storytelling when advocating for a greener future. Climate change media is often judged by its relevance to the modern day. Yet, the transformative societal shifts that must happen in order to prevent climate disaster necessitate a lack of “practicality” when imagining climate solutions. Solari himself saw only one pat...

The Crystal Palace interior, public domain        The Great Exhibition of 1851 lasted five months and left behind a completely transformed society. Heralding several monumental shifts in design and architectural theory, The Crystal Palace [Paxton, Hyde Park, London, 1850-1851] was a new sort of exhibition space- one defined by massive scale and innovative materiality. Around half a century later, Frank Lloyd Wright would employ many of the same technologies and ideas when designing the Larkin Administration building [Wright, Larkin Administration Building, Buffalo, NY, 1904-06] Both buildings exemplify the use of architecture as a tool to standardize human behavior and productivity within the constraints of the machine. This is achieved through the introduction of mass produced building elements, as well as the development of new systems of organization and the introduction of new structural technologies that allow for open-plan, easily surveilled interiors. These co...

  © Dover Publications      All across Europe, scrolling vines and metal flowers weave across iron railings and carved doors . Art Nouveau is a movement that is often associated with a brief moment in the past. Yet, if one looks closely, is it clear that Art Nouveau continues to influence and inspire the present and future of the design world.       Originally, Art Nouveau was meant to be the style of the future. Its swirling, vining forms twined through the most forward-thinking architectural works of the time, from the Eiffel Tower cafe to the spires of La Sagrada Familia. It was like it suddenly sprouted from the pavement of the most avant-garde cities of the age. Contrary to this first impression, there was an unseen web of factors behind the popularity of Art Nouveau. Art Nouveau exterior of the Pavilion Bleu, a cafe that was located on the Eiffel Tower site for the 1900 World's Fair      Like every design movement, Art Nouv...

      Recently, I visited Barcelona. What I saw there completely changed my view on the value of Art Nouveau as an architectural style. Before, Art Nouveau seemed like a strange and lovely historical oddity, beautiful but impractical for the modern world. Now, after seeing Art Nouveau bloom and vine its way across facades and banisters, I believe that Art Nouveau, or rather a new  form of it, is the future of architecture. I am working on a longer post on this topic, but in the meantime,  here  is a collection of some of the details that caught my eye.  Facade, Palau de la Música Catalana Metalwork detail Ceiling detail, Casa Batll ó Stairwell,  Casa Batll ó Attic Hallway,Casa Batll ó Glass panel detail, Casa Batll ó  Skylight detail, Casa Batll ó  Rooftop view, Casa Milá   Roof detail,Casa Milá  Gate Detail, Casa Milá  Ceiling painting, Casa Milá Facade, CosmoCaixa Science Museum  Outer wall, Parc Güell

    Once I observed a spaceship building, I couldn't stop seeing them . The Miller Outdoor Theater (above) is aimed directly upwards, poised delicately on a grassy slope like a paper airplane of steel. It is a dream of the future, a form that wouldn't look out of place soaring through the void in a sci-fi.      While this theater is a particularly dramatic example, I began noticing that buildings constructed in the sixties often pointed directly upwards in sharp, angular lines.       What were they reaching for?      This is a question that sent  me into a rabbit hole of architectural research. It all leads back to the sixties.     The sixties began with the first man going to space, and ended with the first astronauts setting foot on the moon. Suddenly, space was a place of strange and infinite worlds that existed beyond the imagination. It was a decade defined by dreaming of far away stars.  So perhaps it ...