World’s Fairs and the Death of Optimism
The innocence one might think World’s Fairs have lost in recent years depends on how much one believes they had to begin with.
The Zany, Playful Brilliance of Will Alsop
You knew a building was his the second you set eyes on it and yet he still managed to surprise.
A Brexit Bridge Too Far
Boris Johnson’s recent proposal to build a span between the U.K. and France recalls a long history of ambitious construction fantasies with uninspiring origins.
The Perils of Diagnosing Modernists
Two researchers recently suggested that autism and post-traumatic stress disorder led to the minimalist stylings of Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius. Their questions and tools are useful, but there’s danger in mistaking one piece of a puzzle for its entirety.
The Prophetic Side of Archigram
It’s easy to see the controversial group’s influence in left field architecture from High-Tech to Blobism 50 years later, but it’s easier still to see it in emerging technologies and the way we interact with them.
Frank Lloyd Wright, Urban Visionary
For all his criticisms, America’s most celebrated architect wasn’t intrinsically opposed to cities. Instead, he urged us to examine what they had become and recognize that none of their failures were inevitable.