The Craftsman

by Richard Sennett The American Craft Museum changing its name to the Museum of Arts & Design in 2002, British … More

Pan Am, 1970-1971

My research project on Ivan Chermayeff’s posters for Pan Am has just had its fourth incarnation: after presenting my findings … More

Who’s your cereal bar?

Whether you missed breakfast, need a workout power boost or a mid-afternoon snack, there’s always a cereal bar to get … More

Metropolis magazine, redesigned: when less is still too much

The printed version of Metropolis magazine has shrunk as of last September. The result of a publishing crisis-induced redesign (in … More

Alvorada

From today, and for a month, follow me at Alvorada. Até já!

Safety as Entertainment

My favourite part of the Delta Airlines flying experience is seeing its inflight security video. Seriously. Inflight security videos (if … More

A Bad Type Idea is a Worse Architecture Ideal

Ramses the Great, the Republic of Venice, Napoleon III, John D. Rockefeller Jr, the University of Harvard. The history of … More

Best Intentions Cast Adrift

While delving through the turbulent history of Brooklyn Bridge Park, I found inspiration in the words of Frederick Law Olmsted, … More

That’s what it’s all about

When we met a few weeks ago, Susan Yelavich suggested I read Cornel West’s essay “The New Cultural Politics of … More

Tactics of Change

True change is coming to New York’s streetscape. Not rhetorical speech change, but the kind of change that inspires … More

Vision Building

In 1928, Joseph Urban created an architectural vision for William Randolph Hearst’s headquarters in New York. A building that would … More

Coming Together: 48 hours of European Creativity

Creativity, innovation, regions, clusters, mobility, funding, education, risk, opportunity, competitiveness, sustainability, networks, integration, culture, fertile grounds, Europe, America. This simultaneously-translated, … More

Betty Grable

Countering the one-way street of mechanical and structural determinism, [Raymond Loewy] declared that ‘there is as much [to be gained] … More

Progress

“There are times when we are perhaps visited by a mild nostalgia for the harmless and leisured times before the … More

Proprietary Eponyms Catalogue

I chose 12 Proprietary Eponyms out of all these suggestions that arrived from all over the world to my inbox: Kodak, Xerox, … More

Cold Glass

Our visit to Philip Johnson’s Glass House was great, but it was a very cold Connecticut Fall day and I … More

Playtime

Last Wednesday I went up Park Avenue with Ada Louise Huxtable’s guide in hand. All this is pure Jacques Tati. … More

I heart Lewis Mumford

“There are moments when separation is advisable for even the most loving couples — when there is illness, or when … More

Shake Shack

Last night I had my first hamburger on American soil: having arrived in New York exactly two weeks today, one may say it took me quite a while to eat one.