Month: March 2009

  • Architect job losses soar as crunch hits construction

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    Architects are joining the ranks of benefit claimants at a faster rate than any other profession, according to a Guardian analysis of figures for the last 12 months…. full article here Scary stuff for our UK colleagues – I am sure many of us know people affected by this crisis…? Any live reports from the frontbreadline? …

  • Urban petitions (or the things we care about)…

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    Yay for participatory democracy… Obviously, the demise of our green recycling bins matter, with almost 10 000 signatures already on the Council hosted ePetition (how ick is that particular moniker?), which doesn’t close until May 13. This was one issue that spread like a virus through the pc’s of most Wellingtonians some weeks ago. I am…

  • Wellington: Cycle-friendly City – yeah right

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    The ambitions of our council are admirable – a cyclist and pedestrian friendly city – but this is maybe a situation of the “Devil being in the Detail.”   A case in point could be Mt Vic tunnel.  Built in 1930-1931, it is a key part of Wellington’s transport route, and one of the few…

  • Video of the Week IX: Le Corbusier’s Mediterranean cabanon comes to London

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    The blurb says:  Le Corbusier’s summer cabin – a tiny bolthole built in the south of France for his wife – has been reconstructed at the Royal Institute of British Architects in London. Jonathan Glancey steps inside to discover what it tells us about the architect’s other monumental buildings It’s kind of mind-blowing that it is in this space…

  • Art Deco

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    The Art Deco Trust in Napier, has recently celebrated its 21st annual Art Deco Weekend, which has grown every year since its inception in the 80s. I was lucky enough to have attended the latest one, with several thousand attendees – a far cry from the very first Art Deco Weekend that I helped organise,…

  • The craft of boat-making

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    If you are keen on craft, this weekend’s Plimmerton Boating Club will likely be the place to be. In addition to an exhibition of boat-building and artistic use of boat-building techniques, the annual Classic and Wooden Boat Festival will be a chance to see some unique and beautiful boats in action. I have to admit…

  • An incredible hulk?

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    though I hate to be a conservative stickler, does anyone else see a similarity here? Jakob + MacFarlane project for the docks of Paris (click here for more)

  • The architecture of the automobile

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    OK, so we have already discussed cars on this site, but that was regarding the ever-expanding girth of both us, and the automotive metal which we wrap around ourselves before hurtling through the landscape at great speed (OK, much less speed through the cityscape…). But what about the relationship between architecture, and the car itself…? Those…

  • Video of the Week VIII: Mister Glasses (episode 1)

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    This is actually the first episode of 6 short stylishly noir Mister Glasses film clips (although for some reason episode 5 is missing). Never before has the relationship between love, sex, patricide, and Modernist architecture been so clearly expressed – it’s enough to make contemporary Modernist revivalism look hollow and superficial in comparison to the seriousness with…

  • 20 under 40 – and the winner is….

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    The winner of the First Prize is this very tasty looking orange blob! … More details later on the others – in the mean time, to keep you happy, here are some pictures of the entries and the entrants in the competition… … … …

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