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[...] medium- and low-income residents can’t afford land, while the city’s wealth explodes and attracts economic activity that doesn’t keep its poor residents in the loop. This was the Hong Kong Greco wanted to show.
“Perhaps one should adopt a special lens in looking at Hong Kong, not only to see its superficial beauty, but also the social undercurrents that sustain its structures,” writes Dr. Ernest Chui in Greco’s book.
— CityLab
CityLab editorial fellow Karim Doumar presents the stunning black/white Polaroid shots from Swiss photographer and filmmaker Pascal Greco's new book, Hong Kong - Perspectives, Prospectives, Typologies, documenting the gritty housing environments of Hong Kong's population at the lower end of the... View full entry
Before the advent of AutoCAD and other drafting softwares, the engineering drawings were made on sheet of papers using drawing boards. Many equipments were required to complete a given drawing such as drawing board, different grade pencils, Erasers T-squares, Set square etc. — vintag.es
Check out this fun collection of photographs from the pre-CAD era... View full entry
Poland-based Zupagrafika has long made their fascination with Brutalism known, selling a range of pop-out and build concrete modernist structures from cities around the world. Now, the design studio has launched a new photo project for Brutalist fans to enjoy, that allows buyers to "remove the... View full entry
In some places, the tower block has never faded from view. The history of mass housing in eastern Europe is complex and uncomfortable. Yet what’s striking is how prominently the tower block features in the work of contemporary photographers from that territory. These artists have every reason to turn their backs on such buildings. They’re ugly and overbearing, not to say reminiscent of an authoritarian past. But the mass housing block is a recurring presence in their work. — Calvert Journal
Writer and critic Ekow Eshun provides a beautiful overview of the tower block as a recurring architectural, social, and aesthetic theme in the works of post-Soviet-era photographers in Russia, Serbia, the Baltic states, and throughout Eastern Europe. "However ugly and monolithic such buildings... View full entry
Leaving Pyongyang’s grand architecture, showcase avenues and spotless public spaces for the unvarnished reality of North Korea’s countryside is a sobering experience. Despite years of sanctions and increasing international isolation, Pyongyang looks wealthier in 2018 than I have ever seen it in 15 years of travel to the North. [...] But once the train rolls past the industrial belt around the capital, it’s a story of grinding poverty that clashes with the official image projected in Pyongyang. — Calvert Journal
Berlin-based travel writer Tom Masters gets the rare opportunity of a train ride from the bustling metropolis (by comparison) of Pyongyang through the northern backcountry of the secretive nation across the border to Vladivostok in Russia: "Every station along the way is almost identical, with... View full entry
Zaha Hadid Architects have released new Hufton+Crow photographs of the recently completed 520 West 28th Street development—and they're pretty stunning. Standing smack adjacent to Manhattan's famed High Line, the 11-story residential mid-rise is certainly a formidable first project in New York... View full entry
What’s the difference between a school, a library, and a police precinct? They’re all civic institutions designed to communicate their contribution to a well-functioning society.
[...] Kris Graves photographed every one of New York City’s 77 precinct station houses for Urban Omnibus. The blue and white car, the badge, and the uniform all communicate “police” on city streets, but the building, the police’s permanent home in the neighborhood, conveys a particular message. What does it say?
— Urban Omnibus
If you enjoyed photographer Kris Graves documenting the grid-disrupting topography of the Bronx for Urban Omnibus a while ago, you'll love his latest piece: Beacon / Bunker, a series of photographs of every one of New York City’s 77 police precinct station houses across the five boroughs... View full entry
[...] Richard Meier designed a house on a rocky site on Long Island Sound that exhibited many of the moves that would come to define his career. From the front, the Smith House—located in Darien, Connecticut, and completed in 1967—is a narrow, three-story white box. — Surface
Completed in 1967, Smith House was one of Richard Meier's earliest commissions and recently celebrated its 50th anniversary. Judging by a new set of images shot by photographer Mike Schwartz, the building with its light-flooded interior and floor-to-ceiling windows enabling stunning vistas of the... View full entry
Opening November 2018 will be London’s largest permanent home for photography, Fotografiska London. The 89,000 sq ft gallery will have ticketed entry, but since it can show up to seven separate exhibitions, this ticket will get you far. This new home for photography follows Fotografiska’s... View full entry
It’s this learned self-confidence that has become the center of Giulia’s graphic collages, allowing her to push boundaries regarding sexuality and censorship of the female form.
By strategically placing architectural elements onto images of the female body, Giulia is ever so slightly bypassing Instagram’s strict censorship rules, but while the Brooklyn-based artist’s near-pornographic collages are technically safe for IG, she says it hasn’t been an easy road on the platform.
— Highsnobiety
Highsnobiety interviews Giulia, the provocative Brooklyn-based artist who is better known by her Instagram handle @scientwehst. When asked what inspired her to create erotic collages by inserting architectural images in place of female genitalia: "It started with me creating random pornographic... View full entry
This post is brought to you by Ceramics, Portugal Does It Better Design, Innovation and Quality - primal attributes that are the baseline of the international success of Portuguese ceramics. It is from the symbiosis between the art, know-how and innovation, that the history of the Portuguese... View full entry
“I’m looking for subtle signifiers of an exuberant bygone optimism,” [Photographer Tag Christof] said. “Whether people realize it or not, the things I photograph are the direct result of a system that defines progress only in economic terms.” Christof...has spent the last five years crisscrossing the country in an effort to document architectural sites vanishing from the landscape. — The Outline
Whether you spent your teenage years moodily occupying the food court or have experienced malls primarily as ruin porn, the architectural significance of these former bustling commercial centers can't be overstated. A kind of high water mark of capitalism, the shuttered and demolished malls... View full entry
This post is brought to you by 100% Design. As part of this year’s London Design Festival, 100% Design, the largest design trade show in the UK, has teamed up with Picfair, a revolutionary new image library, and Icon, one of the world’s leading architecture and design magazines, to launch a... View full entry
In a scene from Dead Poets Society, Robin Williams' character, the English teacher John Keating, famously climbs on top his desk to remind himself, and his students, that "we must look at things in a different way. The world looks very different from up here." Thanks to satellite and drone... View full entry
Construction of the Zaha Hadid Architects-designed Leeza SOHO mixed-use tower in Beijing is making progress as newly released photographs document. Once the 46-story structure reaches its final height of 207 meters (679 feet) in September of this year, it will be home to the world's tallest... View full entry
