#an architectural history

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

Books of 2024: OBSOLESCENCE: AN ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY by Daniel M. Abramson.

This year is the year I finally read the architecture books that have been chilling on my shelf for [REDACTED]! Unlike WELCOME TO YOUR WORLD, this one is very firmly A Textbook™, but it's a shortie (only 156 pages of text plus notes and index), AND the introduction comes out swinging hard at capitalism, which I'm here for.

[bebs-art-gallery]

Dog sculptures turned golden from tourists petting them throughout the years

[illustratus]

Transept of Tintern Abbey, Monmouthshire by Joseph Mallord William Turner

[zegalba]

Although located in the heart of Chongging, one of China's mega cities, Luohan Temple was constructed over 1000 years ago. Its ancient corridors lead to worn stone depictions of the Buddha while its wooden halls wafts with incense and are adorned with hundreds of local colourful deities.

[die-rosastrasse]

Analogues I took at Versailles last Summer

[internetiquette]

Mill ruins from 1786

[requiem-on-water]

Palais Garnier by Alessia Cocconi

[daily-spooky]

These are called Witches Stairs. Allegedly, witches can't climb up them.

You will occasionally find them in very, very old New England homes.

[michelle-blue]

Vietnamese architects and historians consider the years from 1940 to 1975 the golden age of Vietnamese modernism. In that period, major modernist public buildings such as hospitals and hotels were designed and constructed.

- Mel Schenck via Saigoneer, "How Vietnam Created Its Own Brand of Modernist Architecture"

[enriquemzn262]

I really like how many of the world’s most iconic structures and places are just right next to some of the most mundane stuff imaginable, for example

Stonehenge

Is right next to a busy road

The Pyramids of Giza

Are at the outskirts of Cairo

Niagara Falls

Are part of the town of the same name

And Agrippa’s Pantheon

Is crammed inside downtown Rome

It just so interesting to notice.

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

Unplanned Obsolescences; Or, End-of-Year Impulse Buys.

I saw the one on the left on a Goodreads list, I think, and I was SO intrigued that I immediately went to my local bookstore's website seeking it--dark weird shit is exactly my jam, and this anthology is technology-oriented, and it sounds cool!

When I plugged "Obsolescence" into their search engine, though, the first thing that popped up was the book on the right. Since I have more than a passing interest in architecture (I'm not sure where it came from or why), I figured I could get both of them, and I was delighted that they wound up being the same dimensions!

[landsccape]

[vanpeltfoto]

15th century church I stumbled across in northern Sweden. Because it has never been heated, the original colours have been preserved.

(Photo: d.)

[illustratus]

Full moon behind the Temple Expiatori del Sagrat Cor, on the summit of Mount Tibidabo in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.

[livesunique]

Margravial Opera-House, Bayreuth, Germany

Don’t be fooled though, it’s completely made only of wood!

@michaelthecanadian

[actual-haise]