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 […]
Design
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. […]
The Custard Pie As Magical Theatrical Object
In honour of it’s appearance in this weeks Private Eye’s Pseuds Corner, here’s the piece I wrote for Icon about the custard pie in full for all you fan’s of over-thought and over-wrought cultural commentary: Battle of the Century – Laurel & Hardy I’m not entirely convinced that the custard pie even exists. Not a […]
Obscure Design Typologies: Fumigation Tents
I think I first saw a fumigation tent in an episode of the X-Files. Much later, they crop up as a plot device in Breaking Bad (maybe fumigation tents are an obsession of BB’s creator and ex-X-Files writer Vince Gilligan). Fumigation tents are thrown up over a house that has pest infestation. They provide an […]
S.P.A.M Office / Pieterjan Ginckels
Pieterjan Ginckels models his S.P.A.M At Home furniture collection Just a quick note: I’m in conversation with Pieterjan Ginckels (of Speedism fame amongst other amazing things) as part of his S.P.A.M OFFICE show at ANDOR this week. Expect to hear about the design lessons contained in the Viking Office Supplies Catalogue, the idea of just-enough, […]
Man Made Moon: St Paul’s as Selenosphere
Full Moon & Full St Paul’s Dome The dome of St Paul’s is arguably the most important object in London: a lead covered baroque sun around which the the rest of the city revolves. And perhaps its not so strange to think of this hemispherical thing as some kind of celestial body. After all Christopher […]
Old Flo House
Tower Hamlets have stirred up a hornest nest in their proposed sale of Henry Moore’s Old Flo (or as it’s officially titled, Draped Seated Woman). The statue had been essentially gifted by Moore to a post Blitz East End, sold way-below-market rate. Now valued around £20 million the council are eying the funds from the […]
Hausu Of Tomorrow
There is a Japanese horror movie called Hausu (1977) that as well as being a completely deranged, psychedelic stylized sweet comedy gore-fest is also the most eloquent description of the dark psychology that lurks in architectures unconscious. Even if it was important, I couldn’t really explain the plot, obscured, as it is by nutty cinematography […]
Anything to Feel Weightless Again, Again
This essay is one from the archives … it must have been a casualty in the great Strange Harvest meltdown of earlier this year, so I thought I’d post it up again. Originally it was a contribution to the book “Making the Impossible Possible: The Dream of Flying. The Dream of Paradise” It’s what you […]