You can certainly wonder whether blogs should really be called blogs, but they are here to stay. To a large extent, this is due to the efforts of a few truly outstanding individuals whose blogs have become beacons of quality. People like Josh Marshall come to mind, or Ed Winkleman, and, of course, there is Geoff Manaugh and his blog BLDGBLOG.
As much as I like to look at modern architecture - well, at least some of it - I've recently noticed that one of its problems appears to be that the some of the buildings develop very mundane problems (often right from the start).
Yale University's "Rudolph building, designed and constructed from 1958 to 1963, shares a vertiginous history with another important mid-20th-century landmark, Boston's City Hall, a competition-winning design by Kallmann, McKinnell & Knowles also built in the 1960s. Initially celebrated and subsequently reviled, both buildings are in the same Brutalist style. The name Brutalism -- from the French béton brut, the raw concrete used by Le Corbusier and favored by modernists -- is more commonly used today as a term of opprobrium by a public that profoundly dislikes the style's rough textures and powerful forms." - story
Somebody shares this blogger's disdain for soulless concrete architecture: "Le Corbusier will do for me. This vain, mercurial megalith of Modernism wouldn't have given the average architect a glance. Only a fool would attempt to emulate his work. Thousands have - the public calls it 'Modern Architecture', a concrete desert where simple souls bend to an architect's arrogant will." - story
Turns out the father of brutalism was an extremely interesting character.
As much as I detest (yes, detest) some of the architecture that went up in the 1960s and 70s - I mentioned brutalism earlier - when it comes to tearing it down I actually am very much opposed to it. There lately has been a discussion in Britain about a place called Robin Hood Gardens, a thoroughly disgusting piece of architecture, which, it has been determined, is not worth protecting (as "English Heritage").
"Four months ago the architect Daniel Libeskind declared publicly that architects should think long and hard before working in China, adding, 'I won’t work for totalitarian regimes.' His remarks raised hackles in his profession, with some architects accusing him of hypocrisy because his own firm had recently broken ground on a project in Hong Kong. Since then, however, Mr. Libeskind’s speech, delivered at a real estate and planning event in Belfast, Northern Ireland, has reanimated a decades-old debate among architects over the ethics of working in countries with repressive leaders or shaky records on human rights. [...] Architects face ethical dilemmas in the West too. Some refuse to design prisons; others eschew churches. Robert A. M. Stern, who is also Yale’s architecture dean, drew some criticism last year when he accepted an assignment to design a planned George W. Bush Library in Dallas." (story)
"The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has filed a negligence suit against world-renowned architect Frank Gehry, charging that flaws in his design of the $300 million Stata Center in Cambridge, one of the most celebrated works of architecture unveiled in years, caused leaks to spring, masonry to crack, mold to grow, and drainage to back up." (story)
"These photos are from a small book called 'Bauten der Arbeit und des Verkehrs' (buildings of work and transport) 1925, one of 'Die Blauen Bücher' (the blue books), a series of thin paperback books on art and architecture. Apart from depicting interesting expressionist or mordernist architecture, the pictures also seem to have a great 'Neue Sachlichkeit' appeal." - link
"With its dramatic angles, Daniel Libeskind's new art gallery is lighting up Denver. There's just one problem: you can't hang much on those walls." - story
I hate to tell you this but this page was the only one I could find that shows some of Frederic Chaubin's photos of unusual architecture in the former Soviet Union.
For people who love "best of" lists - don't we all, as cheesy as they might be? - here is C.C. Sullivan's The World's 12 Best New Buildings; some more images can be found at Ed Winkleman's art blog.
I'm filing this under architecture even though strictly speaking it's "just" a car factory. But then have a look at VW's new Gläserne Manufaktur (Transparent Factory), where the workers wear white overalls. Larger photos can be found here.
