B L O G

Now to oil painting

2012-01-30T09:04:00.000-08:00

30" x 48"

Beautiful table

2011-11-17T09:43:00.001-08:00

For a chapel by Braga, Cerejeira Fontes Architects, Portugal.

1951 Alfa

2011-09-13T21:30:00.001-07:00

My favourite Dinky Toy, in the flesh:

The 1951 Alfa Romeo Tipo 159 Alfetta

Today's:

2011-07-30T19:00:00.000-07:00

My few rules: very few strokes, no messing with it, done in about 20 seconds with watery paint, one size brush and a palette knife, allow for the chance flow of paint, and only two colours.

Back to painting

2011-07-30T08:06:00.000-07:00

One watercolour every morning is a sane way to start the day

How can this possibly be?

2011-07-28T22:18:00.000-07:00

'Cancer' is excluded for compensation in the now passed Zadroga Health and Compensation Act for 9 11 responders. So many deaths were obviously attributable to their exposure during those months of selfless toil. Diabolical.

Thinking outside the box

2011-07-24T08:37:00.001-07:00

Jurgen Maher H's Seville market cover is the largest wooden structure n the world.

LA Bridge and Franz Kline

2011-07-17T19:02:00.000-07:00

Remarkable painterly abstract image of the bridge being torn down during Carmageddon.

Riot love

2011-06-16T20:46:00.000-07:00

At least two people from Vancouver can score on the road.

Yugoslavian War Memorials

2011-06-08T15:53:00.001-07:00

Tsunami mayhem

2011-06-05T08:45:00.000-07:00

Containers flowing inland.

Double take

2011-06-05T08:39:00.000-07:00

Relaxed handrail requirements? It's a 'sculpture' unfortunately.

Saving one's home

2011-05-20T06:22:00.000-07:00

The flooding Mississippi has evoked some serious sandbanking

Structural Fail

2011-05-15T15:37:00.001-07:00

From our breakfast table

2011-05-15T15:36:00.000-07:00

Sometimes Vancouver can be beautiful

Electric Fail

2011-05-15T15:24:00.000-07:00

Keltie, RIP

2011-03-22T22:00:00.000-07:00

Getting good at lifting modular buildings

2011-03-22T21:54:00.000-07:00

This is part of an apartment building in Vancouver.

The ferry home

2011-03-22T21:49:00.000-07:00

There were a hundred dolphins alongside the ferry.

Old tube TV as it shuts down

2011-03-22T21:46:00.001-07:00

Excellent photographs by Stephan Tillmans.

Underwater sculptures

2011-02-21T21:07:00.000-08:00

I'll find the sculptor's name soon.

Bill and Hilary. Who'd have guessed?

2011-02-21T21:06:00.000-08:00

Impressive Greenland National Gallery winner

2011-02-11T15:41:00.000-08:00

I like BIG Architects' adherence to the modernist principle that walls are solid and voids are windows. No holes in walls. Not once. (Even Mies succumbed at the Barcelona Pavilion, in the 'other' building, or was that slipped in after, when it became a gift shop?)

A skylight trick that works every time

2011-01-29T12:16:00.000-08:00

It's a matter of hiding the skylight by extending it far past the hole and reducing the apparent ceiling virtually to the thickness of drywall.

This one is the T House by Barqueretta.

Favourite 'Songs' 4

2011-01-22T19:51:00.000-08:00

Steve Reich: Piano Phase

(Performed by Peter Aidu)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKXy1FPTdvg

Favourite Songs 3

2011-01-22T19:46:00.000-08:00

Post 2000

Black Lips: Cold Hands

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJojRf6Kf8o&feature=channel

Favourite Songs 2

2011-01-22T19:37:00.000-08:00

Pre 2000

David Bowie: Heroes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYjBQKIOb-w

Favourite Songs 1

2011-01-22T19:31:00.000-08:00

Pre 2000:

Talking Heads: Heaven

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zNdMc6wGtU

The world's most expensive photograph

2011-01-16T09:23:00.000-08:00

Andreas Gursky's "99 Cent 11 Dyptich" sold for $3.3 million in 2007.

Ralph's Garage

2011-01-11T20:39:00.000-08:00

Ralph Lauren, that is.

And the odd hill climb

2010-12-30T11:28:00.000-08:00

For that K2 cocktail party

2010-12-30T11:23:00.001-08:00

Manhattan Traffic Jam

2010-12-27T16:26:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas to all

2010-12-25T17:59:00.000-08:00

Feeding glass to mother architecture

2010-12-20T23:27:00.000-08:00

In China

Largest killing creature?

2010-12-12T14:15:00.001-08:00

Yes, the mosquito. Sharks, hippos, spiders, elephants etc. all rack up only about 100 per year each, compared to the untold numbers through the spreading of disease.

The tedious process of making Googlemaps

2010-12-12T14:13:00.000-08:00

"It was thirty years ago today...."

2010-12-08T09:42:00.000-08:00

RIP John Lennon

He'd be 70 today

Life gets easier

2010-11-26T17:37:00.001-08:00

Zaha's new copulating frog building

2010-11-23T20:38:00.000-08:00

Certainly looks like a concrete frog trying to have its way with the sidewalk, to me. Architecture has to be about more than a (pretty?) shape.

Paul Rudolph's prefab highrise

2010-11-21T13:36:00.001-08:00

Built recently, and not prefabbed, but a nice concept from the sixties, to slot in boxes on a frame.

Melnikov's house during construction

2010-11-20T08:28:00.000-08:00

A rare view of Melnikov's 1929 house during construction. Like the fluid Potsdam tower by Mendelsohn, also in brick, construction technology had not caught up with Constructivist and Expressionist dreams.

Crop circles go digital

2010-11-19T17:25:00.000-08:00

Martians move into the 21st century.

Sick Piggy Bank

2010-11-13T19:04:00.000-08:00

Yes it is a real piglet. 12 month delivery, which means they must rear one just for you. And where's the cork, do you think?

The first Ferrari

2010-11-13T13:46:00.001-08:00

1947. Here's the engine, above, that utilized mouse trap springs. There are contenders to this throne, though, as the first use of the horse motif was the 1935 Alfa Bimotore, on which Enzo Ferrari worked.

Street address

2010-11-09T17:24:00.000-08:00

But where's the gate?

Theo Jansen's amazing walking sculptures

2010-11-06T12:35:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSKyHmjyrkA

Eerily crab-like and intelligent, but not.

More images of Tofino House

2010-10-31T12:08:00.001-07:00

Amazing pics from the client's Uncle John:

Tatlin's tower

2010-10-23T10:17:00.001-07:00

Of course it was never built. This is a fake vintage pic, but it creates the kind of aura the structure might have had.

(Thanks Deb)

Mmm the new Mac Air

2010-10-20T22:04:00.000-07:00

It will be mine.

The $1billion house

2010-10-17T20:45:00.003-07:00

World's most expensive house built for the richest man in India, Mukesh Ambani, (whilst poverty reigns at his door).

100 million ceramic sunflower seeds

2010-10-14T09:03:00.000-07:00

At the Tate. Each hand painted (in China) as an art piece by Ai Weiwei. 5 million may have done it? Saved several villages a lot of hard work.

The Unilever Series: Sunflower Seeds 2010.Photocredit: Tate Photography © Ai Weiwei

Green Man Group

2010-10-09T04:40:00.000-07:00

Biofuel solution:

2010-10-09T04:30:00.000-07:00

One bag of grass.

Note the pretenders in the cab, probably playing Patsy Kline

Chris the blind architect

2010-10-06T20:31:00.001-07:00

“The interesting riddle for me, then, is: if you take sight out of the equation, what makes for good architecture?” Chris Downey, who finds blindness simply a new credential in the making of architecture.

The drawings remind me of Jacques Rousseau's drawings from his Rome Studio, drawn with a stylus, dented into watercolour paper and only visible in side light. Beautiful.

Sanaa's lovely Rabbit Chair

2010-10-05T22:21:00.001-07:00

Where cheese comes from

2010-10-03T12:49:00.001-07:00

Cheddar, anyway. And Montgomery's cheddar actually comes from North Cadbury, down the road. Seriously good 12 year old unpasteurized cheese, apparently.

Venice Biennale Dutch exhibit

2010-10-02T17:56:00.000-07:00

Showing the amount of vacant Government real estate

Lest we forget

2010-10-01T22:49:00.000-07:00

about Europe.

The remarkable Ningbo Historic Museum

2010-09-19T09:07:00.000-07:00

By Wang Shu, Amateur Architecture Studio, photos by Iwan Baan

You have to laugh

2010-08-29T22:22:00.000-07:00

What's wrong with Nebraska?

What could possibly go wrong?

2010-08-14T11:28:00.000-07:00

Friday 13th at 13.13 and a 13 year old boy is standing in a storm on the beach? Yes, he was struck by lightning.

Daily Telegraph 14.08 2010

The quintessential rug

2010-08-14T11:21:00.000-07:00

Latest house (in Tofino)

2010-07-31T22:05:00.000-07:00

The Guest House

$11m Ferrari

2010-07-23T21:50:00.000-07:00

"A 1961 Ferrari California Spyder, originally owned by actor James Coburn, sold for close to $11 million at auction in Italy. The sale was reported to be the highest price ever paid for a vintage car at auction according to RM Auctions and Sotheby’s. Saturday’s sale topped the previous record set by a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO which sold in 1990 for $10,756,000."

Vintage Ferraris are in high demand in Europe, where private sales of the vehicles have routinely topped the $11 million mark. The 1961 California Spyder, one of only 56 ever built, was sold to British television and radio personality Chris Evans."

Transworld News.com

Fighter Planes

2010-07-23T19:29:00.001-07:00

Fiona Banner's art and the real thing.

Dog makeover

2010-07-13T08:40:00.000-07:00

What have we done!?

2010-07-13T08:34:00.000-07:00

The US Government has now banned such pictures from being shown by the media.

Now that's an infinity edge pool

2010-06-29T22:22:00.000-07:00

What on earth will they fill it with?

2010-06-23T20:00:00.000-07:00

This is a thirty storey pot hole!

Air traffic from space

2010-06-23T19:56:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99nmJ3mqXXg

Could helicopters be this strong?

2010-05-24T11:01:00.000-07:00

Wall of knowledge

2010-05-02T17:56:00.001-07:00

This amazing rendering is of the future Stockholm Library. No other facts yet, nor who designed it, but I love the relationship between the books and the space.

The first sound ever recorded

2010-04-19T20:25:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Vqvq-f-UtU

Nice (thin) house by Pitman Tozer

2010-04-09T08:48:00.001-07:00

Quite taken with the feel of this house. Love the private outside space.

Peninsula living at Baku

2010-04-07T08:39:00.001-07:00

Aerial photo of houses on the lake:

Bus ad in Copenhagen

2010-03-18T21:15:00.000-07:00

The very first Superman comic

2010-02-23T07:53:00.000-08:00

One of only two very fine copies of the first Superman comic just sold for $1m.

Ink used

2010-02-13T16:17:00.001-08:00

The amount of ink used by different typefaces, actually drawn by these pens and here's what's left. What a great visual, authentic graph.

Airport Security's answer

2010-02-13T16:11:00.000-08:00

Shoot the laptop. You know, just in case.

Latest house, near UBC

2010-02-07T12:42:00.000-08:00

(Click on this one above for a larger version)

Pictures from Magazines 1

2010-02-04T19:33:00.000-08:00

You can come out when you can properly explain the differences between Modernist architecture and postmodern ornamentation.

From the Unhappy Hipster blog, pic by Craig Cutler, Dwell Magazine

The remarkable Hiroshi Sugimoto

2010-01-23T20:46:00.000-08:00

I was reminded of this (or a similar) image yesterday. Haunting.

Click on it to enlarge.

William Burroughs' shoes

2010-01-18T23:09:00.001-08:00

As photographed by Peter Moss

IPod Dock

2010-01-16T16:29:00.001-08:00

By Matt Richmonds.

Porsche speed

2010-01-09T09:26:00.000-08:00

Their latest runner

Latest house underway

2010-01-07T20:34:00.000-08:00

A house in the Gulf Islands is underway in the factory right now. It will be clad in rusted steel:

Cold Great Britain

2010-01-07T20:32:00.000-08:00

Remarkable NASA shot of the icy conditions in the UK right now

A great clock

2009-12-13T10:13:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VW5PByaR2EQ

Precisely 12 hours of work.

If sharks had human teeth

2009-12-11T22:25:00.001-08:00

1953 Electric Truck

2009-11-28T21:34:00.000-08:00

The Tama was an early Datsun. Too bad it took 50 years to further the quest for non fossil fuel vehicles.

Protruding sign

2009-11-26T21:29:00.000-08:00

Getting hit by a train... twice in 3 seconds

2009-11-18T20:10:00.001-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBD3fMNGI98&feature=player_embedded

One of the two qualifications for a Train Track Inspector: the ability to watch for trains. Looks like he's done some wild leaping before now.

AK-47

2009-11-11T15:36:00.000-08:00

Not in any way to condone the production of these, but it's the 90th birthday of its designer, Kalashnikova. He received no royalties. It has endured as the VW Beetle of weapons, with 100 million sold, because it is so well and simply designed. It is idiot-proof, obviously a valuable criterion for amateur militia use.

Its name? A(vtomat, meaning automatic) K(alashnikova) (19)47

(I'm guessing all but a few dozen of its owners know the root of that infamous name)

Bare Bear

2009-11-07T14:47:00.001-08:00

A little too much information! I prefer them cuddly.

World's Tallest Building

2009-11-02T21:40:00.001-08:00

Until 1876, that is.

St.Nicholas' Church in Hamburg

Around our necks

2009-10-18T10:39:00.000-07:00

http://www.chrisjordan.com/current_set2.php?id=11

Albatross chicks are dying en masse from being fed plastic items mistaken for food. Another example, apart from bad parenting, that the time has come to get real about how much we're screwing up.

To document this phenomenon as faithfully as possible, not a single piece of plastic in any of these photographs was moved, placed, manipulated, arranged, or altered in any way. These images depict the actual stomach contents of baby birds in one of the world's most remote marine sanctuaries, more than 2000 miles from the nearest continent.

James May's Lego House

2009-10-16T20:58:00.001-07:00

Our prefab units have been called Lego Housing, but this is the real thing. 3.2 million bricks.

Prioritizing house and car.

2009-10-12T12:37:00.000-07:00

I see the car wins.

Creative staircase

2009-10-10T22:50:00.000-07:00

It works, but perhaps not after a glass of wine.