On Tavistock Place there’s a stretch of Victorian terraced housing that is now (mostly) a string of hotels and B&B’s. You might wonder if any of those budget travellers, while trundling their suitcases up from Euston Station look up to see the blue plaque on no. 36. It reads “Vladimir Ilyich Lenin 1870-1921, Founder of […]
Culture
Obscure Design Typologies: Brick Making Machines
Here is a glimpse into the world that makes the world: A selection of brick making machines gleaned from the global B2B marketplace Alibaba, that Aladdin’s Cave of mysteriously exotic banality. These are the machines that manufacture the things we manufacture the world out of, devices that are interfaces between the raw material of geology […]
Art Review Live
Just a quick note about an event for Art Review this coming Thursday evening, part of their Art Review Live programme in their basement space in Honduras Street. I’m talking about A Clockwork Jerusalem, the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, people walking ducks in Peckham, and showing videos … and there will be specially […]
A Clockwork Jerusalem, The Soundtrack
Optimo * A Clockwork Jerusalem Mix. (Optimo In Venice) by Thoughts On Love And Smoking. on Mixcloud Here is the soundtrack commissioned by The Vinyl Factory and 180 The Strand for the Clockwork Jerusalem party at the Venice Biennale. Mixed by JD Twitch and JG Wilkes aka Optimo the mix brings together such seemingly disparate […]
Stonehenge as Historico Futurism
To coincide with the summer solstice, here is a little extract from my essay in the Clockwork Jerusalem book published alongside the show I’ve co-curated at the British Pavilion. The book is beautiful – burt sadly only available from the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale right now, We’re hoping to have a little wider […]
The Architecture of: Breaking Bad / The Room / Antarctica
A round up of writing elsewhere: Over on BD is a guide to the Architecture of Breaking Bad. Here is an excerpt: The Crystal Ship It’s the image Breaking Bad opens with: an RV careering though the desert and crashing into a ditch. A wild eyed man in underpants and a gas mask emerges and […]
London Design Festival Roundup
[instapress userid=”_SamJacob” url=”http://instagram.com/p/eW6uy1iMbm/” size=”500″] [instapress userid=”_SamJacob” url=”http://instagram.com/p/eW7RErCMcE/” size=”500″] [instapress userid=”_SamJacob” url=”http://instagram.com/p/eW7FFJCMb7/” size=”500″] [instapress userid=”_SamJacob” url=”http://instagram.com/p/eKZKPZiMQQ/” size=”500″] This year is a busy LDF for me and FAT We have contributed to Cathedral’s Dolls House project. It’s a piece called Tower of Fables that we’ve made with Grayson Perry providing the furniture, decoration and a little Alan […]
In Pursuit of Architecture / Vers Un Climat / Landscape Futures
I’m in New York the weekend of the 21st Sept as part of Log’s In Pursuit of Architecture conference at MoMA. In Pursuit of Architecture: A conference on buildings and ideas Saturday, September 21, 2013, 10AM–5PM The Museum of Modern Art New York, New York To mark its 10th anniversary and 29th issue, Log presents […]
Marginalia #2
[instapress userid=”strangeharvest” url=”http://instagram.com/p/aD11tRiMUM/” size=”500″] Thamesmead Apartment [instapress userid=”strangeharvest” url=”http://instagram.com/p/aD0871iMTB/” size=”500″] Horse, Thamesmead More on a trip to Thamesmead over at Love London Council Housing. “The Pantheon: You build a gigantic thing and it rains inside” – A quote from San Rocco’s call for What’s Wrong With The Primitive Hut? Watch your back James Dyson: CIA […]
Send Me The Pillow, The One That You Dream On
Over on Dezeen, I’ve written something about the Etsy-fication of Modernism – the way that big, social projects of the 1960’s like Park Hill and the Trellick Tower have reappeared as modern domestic chintz. And how this perhaps reveals that historical ideological battles have become contemporary pillow fights … “There’s something strange going on here. […]