Modernism sometimes gets a bad wrap, being called soulless, elitist, or even barbaric. But gosh it can be awe-inspiring. These pics of Mies Van de Rohe’s Lafayette Park (in Detroit of all places) are from Dwell.
Lafayette was the first urban renewal project in the US and remains an intimate, dense community of differing scales within a suburban, yet shrinking, city.
The annual MCA Bella Dinner will soon be held in Sydney. An annual event, the dinner also hosts a prize draw which costs $1000 to enter, but entrants are guaranteed to win one of 30 fine contemporary pieces. This year they even have a Kusama in the mix (see below).
The Kusama is by far the most valuable piece – and a stunning work in its own right – but for sheer beauty,whimsy and originality, my favourite has to be the Lionel Bawden sculpture made from coloured Staedtler pencils (above).
You can view all the works here. If you want to enter, you’d better be quick, as the draw is notorious for selling out before you can say “Bargain”.
It could be said that architecture is one of the most humanist pursuits, existing solely to make humans happy.
The always clever BLDGBLOG this week features the Bat Spiral, a project by UK architecture firm Friend and Company which shows that animals can get just as much enjoyment from architecture.
Based just outside of London, the Bat Spiral is designed to provide a roost (cave?) for the 17 bat species that are native to the UK. The 45 square metre structure can house about 330 bats who are attracted to the structure for its dark spaces, and for the warmth generated from the black timber walls.
It is also surprisingly beautiful with its simple, reed-like support columns raising it above the swamp, and its graceful painted timber curves.
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