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The series that dominates the exhibition, the Seagram murals, arose from a commission for paintings to line the walls of a private dining-room in the Four Seasons restaurant in Mies van der Rohe’s Seagram Building on Park Avenue. In the fifth and seventh sections – both long letterbox shapes, both red on maroon – the fuzzy rectangles that are the central motif in all the canvases have risen towards the top, like bubbles in a thick liquid. The fuzziness, the darkness, the redness, the unevenness of the margins, make the pictures active and unresolved. The effect is romantic, quite unlike the reposeful geometry of abstract pictures in which something like the solution of an equation takes place. But there are limits to what even active, unresolved abstraction can communicate. From Rothko’s point of view it is a defeat if his pictures have come to be merely beautiful – not tragic, not poignant, just blissfully absorbing. On the first page of the catalogue a remark of his is set in large type: ‘If people want sacred experiences they will find them here. If they want profane experiences they’ll find them too. I take no sides.’ But he does, because to say that there are sacred and profane readings implies that his art will do more than finally float down to a level that may be solemn, but is essentially, and merely, aesthetic.

tag Rothko/Seagrams series
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"Wooden beams and trusses have been left exposed on the underside of the roof. They  connect with a system of new floor beams and columns that subdivide the interior, create three mezzanine levels and frame a staircase with a cupboard beneath its treads."


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"But the story of Krisel as inventor of the butterfly roof is actually "not true," as Krisel himself notes. While he did make the feature a Southern California mid-century trademark, it was another architect who first developed the butterfly roof. Twenty-eight years before Krisel designed tract homes for the Alexander Construction Company in Palm Springs, Swiss-French architect and Modernist pioneer Le Corbusier first came up with the soaring architectural feature."


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"The Typographische Monatsblätter was one of the most important journals to successfully disseminate the phenomenon of ‘Swiss typography’ to an international audience. With more than 70 years in existence, the journal witnessed significant moments in the history of typography and graphic design. Its contributors include some of the most influential designers. Although the issues before 1960 are extremely rich in revealing the development of modernist typography, the years 1960–90 correspond to a period of transition in which many factors such as technology, socio-political contexts and aesthetic ideologies, profoundly affected and transformed the fields of typography and graphic design. From this general turbulence, new forms emerged and new models were explicitly manifested. The examination of the Typographische Monatsblätter during these specific years enables a greater understanding of the development of late 20th century typography and graphic design."


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"Derived from an old Italian word, gabbione, meaning "big cage," gabions are enclosures that can be filled with any sort of inorganic material: rock, brick, or concrete debris. The cages were originally wicker, but now are usually a welded mesh made of sturdy galvanized, coated, or stainless steel wire that won't bend when filled with rocks. In landscaping, gabion walls can support an earth wall, stabilize the soil, prevent erosion, and more."


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"One summer day, Kensuke Kenmotsu stepped into his nine-month-old house and found a monkey standing in the laundry room. The airy single-story home hugs a wooded slope overlooking the city of Odawara and Sagami Bay. The monkey had walked out of a tangerine orchard adjacent to the house, slid open a screen door, and swaggered inside. “I think he was after our bananas,” says Kensuke, a construction labor contractor. His wife, Chika, who is terrified of monkeys, was not pleased. But for architect Masahiro Harada the story is the highest of compliments."

Tags: wood fiber cement ceiling panels, shelving room deviders, japan
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The Island House sits on a petite man-made island in 'Loosdrechtse Plas,’ a lake area near Amsterdam and Breukelen (from which the New York borough gots its name). The thin strip of land, a result of peat farming centuries ago, inspired the design of the cabin. Image courtesy of 2by4-Architects.

Tags: black, 225sf, glass wall
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of houses


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Alexander Girard pop-up show

via Justin
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nice beamage in traditional Portugal house with yoga chick


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a love letter to concrete


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$5k cabin

* price doesn't include everything
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Free book tells you how to insulate old brick buildings without them falling apart in a few years


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haut sh*t

Via Justin
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tension lamp


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brick red


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sandwich panel


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bridgmanite


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house designed around dining table Osaka


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roadkill metal working videos


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Claude Parent


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casa window w Alphaville


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brutal


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Alan Buchsbaum (originator of the Loft look and Hi-tek)


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