February 2012
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chrysler = mid-century modern?
Today I stumbled on an interesting article about how architecture is used by automakers to sell more than the car.
While I surely am no expert in automotive design, even if I have friends who are, I do agree with this sentiment from the article [emphasis added]:
The value exchange depicted in the ads is obvious (drive this car, it will take you remarkable places), but what’s really...
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Origin: Less is More
Less is more
Meaning: The notion that simplicity and clarity lead to good design.
Origin: This is a 19th century proverbial phrase. It is first found in print in Andrea del Sarto, 1855, a poem by Robert Browning:
Who strive - you don’t know how the others strive To paint a little thing like that you smeared Carelessly passing with your robes afloat,- Yet do much less, so much less,...
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Mies is not a god. He’s someone with whom you can co-habit. Even if he’s dead. - Margit Kleber, Architect, Regular or Super
I’m beginning to feel this way every time I sit and reflect in my new space. It is as if I am outdoors, constantly subjected to the elements. I can’t hide from the direct sunlight that the two entire walls of windows lets in. I also feel a bit...
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Mies on Lafayette Park and Urban Planning
Never has city planning been so much talked about as today. But never have we been further from its real understanding.
Most of the discussion has been about its technical aspects.
Some see the problem simply as a traffic problem.
Others think everything could be solved by clearing the slums.
Still others think city planning is exclusively an architectural task.
But only a few see the city...
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January 2012
13 posts
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Mies van der Rohe Plaza
Mies van der Rohe Plaza PLY Architecture
This project is an installation to honor Mies van der Rohe, and was the winning entry for a two-stage competition to revitalize the central area of the pedestrian shopping center of Lafayette Park. The project creates a bas relief surface by placing a collection of customized pre-cast concrete tiles symmetrically within the plaza, yet asymmetrically in...
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one week to go
I thought I lived rather minimally, without a lot of “stuff” cluttering my life. Of course I have a collection of books, music, shoes…but I’m in a one bedroom apartment with no additional storage, so how much stuff can I really have?
Well, let’s just say I am good at using all the possible space in my closets and drawers! I know there will be less space in my new...
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Mies, Greenwald, and Caldwell’s original plan for Lafayette Park Residential Community
Lafayette Park marketing collateral, early 1960s
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Social History of Lafayette Park
Despite the National Housing Act of 1949, which encouraged private enterprise in urban redevelopment, Detroit builders remained wary of the city’s redevelopment plan. Convinced that middle–income families would never move into this area, especially in view of the older neighborhoods that still abutted it, they advocated high-density high-rises for low-income families. By 1952, the city had evolved...
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December 2011
2 posts
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Less is More
That’s what I keep telling myself anyway as I begin the process of going through my current apartment, separating what will come with me to live at The Pavilion with Mies, and what will be donated for someone else to find joy in.
Although, when I remember that two walls are composed entirely of floor-to-ceiling glass windows, I realize that the stuff in the space will not be important, the...