Mika Savela

Google Maps without maps. Fata Morgana by Damon Zucconi (2010).

Sun, 03 Jun 2012 21:19:00 +0800

Google Maps without maps. Fata Morgana by Damon Zucconi (2010).

King’s Park in Hong Kong, is not really a recreational...

Sun, 03 Jun 2012 18:34:00 +0800

King’s Park in Hong Kong, is not really a recreational park as I found out the other day, but more of a hard to access forested hill of staircases, weather station equipment and a very small and boring exercise track on top of the hill. (In the forest, I also found a makeshift mahjong / beer tent inhabited by local elderly men.) Anyway, on my way down, I took this picture. It really looks like Rem Koolhaas. Coincidence?

Illustration for Creative City by Don Mak.

Sun, 03 Jun 2012 18:18:44 +0800

Illustration for Creative City by Don Mak.

Modernist austerity in Le Corbusier’s Rathenaustrasse 1-3,...

Sat, 02 Jun 2012 14:19:37 +0800

Modernist austerity in Le Corbusier’s Rathenaustrasse 1-3, in the Weissenhofsiedlung (1927), Stuttgart.

There’s really a huge, and amazing difference between what you see in black and white photos of modernist architecture, and the real life view you get in modern photos, or when you visit the sites in person. Somehow, the white gleaming pureness fades away, and you really pay attention to the antiquated qualities of the everyday way of living they suggest. Like, you really take yourself away from the architecture viewing state of mind and begin to think how awkward it would be to live in a house like that. And so it all becomes rather funny. That sure they had sliding doors in the cabinets, but there was actually no sliding mechanisms to do it, and you are just trying to move a thick slab in a slot.

From Le Corbusier’s drawing of Ville Contemporaine (1922),...

Sat, 02 Jun 2012 13:02:43 +0800

From Le Corbusier’s drawing of Ville Contemporaine (1922), to the real estate ad of One Lytle Place Condominium in Cincinnati (1984), to the renderings of the Jätkäsaari district (2010) in Helsinki, the modern way of life seems to really appreciate the coffee break on the balcony.

This Pontiac car ad from 1958 plays with many sides of modern....

Sat, 02 Jun 2012 12:20:31 +0800

This Pontiac car ad from 1958 plays with many sides of modern. Sure there is some state-of-the-art architecture in the background, but so modern is the situation here that it’s the woman who is driving and picks up his pedestrian husband.

The Real Glass House. This glass company ad from 1955 takes its...

Sat, 02 Jun 2012 12:14:00 +0800

The Real Glass House. This glass company ad from 1955 takes its cues, landscape-wise and more, from Philip Johnson’s Glass House (1945-49) and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House (1945-51).

Go Chicagoing ad, 1980.

Sat, 02 Jun 2012 11:55:53 +0800

Go Chicagoing ad, 1980.

(and the code leads to…)

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 15:17:00 +0800

(and the code leads to…)

Have a seat.

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 15:14:30 +0800

Have a seat.

Photo

Thu, 31 May 2012 15:39:08 +0800

Photo

Thu, 31 May 2012 15:36:57 +0800

The WDC Pavilion in Helsinki.

Wed, 30 May 2012 18:54:45 +0800

The WDC Pavilion in Helsinki.

Norman Holmes Pearson’s postcards and letters to...

Wed, 30 May 2012 12:37:31 +0800

Norman Holmes Pearson’s postcards and letters to ‘Fido’ - ‘Mrs. W. Bryher’, sent in January 1964 from Hong Kong.

Over the course of summer, I’m taking part in something...

Tue, 29 May 2012 19:56:10 +0800

Over the course of summer, I’m taking part in something called Season of Urban Vignettes – Everyday Living in The City. It’s a project just starting out, run by a group of postgraduate students at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), and supported by the Urban studies and research at LSE.

In addition to the first batch of regular contributors, there’s also an open call for weekly contributions that center around changing themes. So, something for everyone living in the urban world today.

A woman was burning some offerings in the pedestrian alley right...

Tue, 29 May 2012 00:14:10 +0800

A woman was burning some offerings in the pedestrian alley right in front of my house. It took me at least 30 seconds to understand what was going on, because it’s been some months I’ve seen an open fire, and even longer that I’ve seen it on city streets. With the graffiti on the wall, there was this popularized ghetto imagery going through in my head. But I think the next thought I had, was how truly uncommon for me it is to see technically a neighbor of mine performing a spiritual ritual in public. And, how I would automatically assume she was barbecuing.

“From catalogues you could take your pick of exotic...

Mon, 28 May 2012 10:47:00 +0800

“From catalogues you could take your pick of exotic styles.”

Images of iron-and-glass trade palaces in New York, at the time facing an uncertain future, in Life Magazine, August 1970. Photos by Evelyn Hofer.

The mid 19th century buildings took advantage of a new prefab cast iron technology, enabling the effect of opulent facades inspired by the Italian palazzi, at a very moderate cost.

These days, some of the palaces have been preserved, as the Street View shot from the cast-iron heavy Greene Street in SoHo testifies. Though, it’s of course a little funny how so many things that were once thought to be old and worthless, have become major gentrified shopping streets and leisure environments. In fact, so many that it alone should probably justify the conservation of any old lump of buildings in the eyes of real estate developers looking for long term money-making opportunities, wink wink.

Frames from a Bell System film of the 1962 Seattle World’s...

Mon, 28 May 2012 10:17:47 +0800

Frames from a Bell System film of the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair.

The backyard driveway to Expo ‘67 Biosphère at Parc...

Mon, 28 May 2012 10:14:21 +0800

The backyard driveway to Expo ‘67 Biosphère at Parc Jean-Drapeau in Montréal in Google Street View.

"No greater harm is done to the true advancement of architecture than this insistence that exterior..."

Sun, 27 May 2012 15:42:00 +0800

“No greater harm is done to the true advancement of architecture than this insistence that exterior effect is the sole end to be desired. More than any other cause it has operated to depress the art, and helped to make people question the utility of entrusting their interests to the architects. It has spread abroad the impression that these gentlemen, who might be very useful, are unnecessary luxuries, and that a much more comfortable dwelling can be built by indicating one’s own desires and following one’s own suggestions and views as to convenience, than by paying large sums for ‘pretty’ façades that very likely conceal more discomfort and dissatisfaction than the most vivid imagination can conceive of in a twelvemonth.”

- From “Utility in Architecture” by Barr Ferree in Popular Science, June 1890.

The essay by Ferree is actually an early call for modern architecture, but this particular quote doubles as a timely reminder for the modern day designer. While we made it to the bold and modern, I sometimes feel too that design is not really integrated enough into contexts where it could benefit everyone. We are seeing a lot of design ethos, sometimes not really reaching much deeper than the façade.