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  C'est moi

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• Search Blog

• That essay on colonial heritage hipsters

  When hipsters dream of the 1890s

• Read this on cities

  I recommend this article on cities, because design alone will not save us.

• No ads or sponsored content

  This blog is, and always has been, ad-free. No sponsored/external content, and no, I don't want you to help me "monetize" it or improve my SEO. No solicitation emails please. Thanks for your attention to this matter.

• This Blog

  This blog is a long, somewhat messy photo essay on the history and politics of design. Design's socio-historical context—that is, the constraints and influences on the way we make objects, dwellings and cities—seems too often ignored. We no longer know where our styles, tastes or objects really come from, and this damages our creativity and sense of meaning. Historical knowledge is so fugitive in the New World, with everything so decontextualized in the rapid flow of commodities and images. Don't even get me started on tumblr and pinterest.

  As Fran Lebowitz said, "Designers now, they all have these things called mood boards. I suppose they think a sense of discovery equals invention. It would be as if every writer had a board with paragraphs of other writers—'Oh, I'll take a little bit of this, and that, he was really good.' Yes, he was really good! And that is not a mood board, it is a stealing board."

  As for the sort of design I'm personally interested in, full disclaimer.....read more

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• Book in progress: Habitat

  
  To read about my book project on Vancouver's UN-Habitat Forum event of 1976 concerning just and sustainable urban settlements, click here. Few know that Buckminster Fuller, Margaret Mead, Mother Teresa, Paolo Soleri and Maggie & Pierre Trudeau, along with many thousands of others, came to Vancouver in 1976 to talk about better, safer, fairer and greener cities worldwide. In fact it was the founding conference of UN Habitat, an agency built around a foundational document called The Vancouver Declaration. My book is about what happened that year and is a snapshot not just of Vancouver but of how people around the world began to view cities and themselves differently in the wake of, among other things, the first oil crisis. ____________________________________

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• Popular Posts

  
  Settler & pioneer “heritage hipster” styles in the age of Idle No More, Chinatown gentrification, &c.
  
  The Hitler Youth haircut
  
  So you think you'd like to live in a church.
  
  Eileen Gray's e-1027 house
  
  How rooms and architecture affect creativity
  
  The Cowichan sweater of Vancouver Island
  
  "Contempo," my least favourite design style
  
  James Wines and SITE – art, architecture & enlightened business
  and
  Still-unsurpassed box store architecture: SITE
  
  Aalto’s Villa Mairea in Finland
  
  Whatever happened to the seating platform, the conversation pit?
  
  Werner Herzog on advertising
  
  Everyone loves an indoor swing.
  
  Dave Eggers and his Pirate Supply Store/Tutoring Centre
  
  The ladies of 20th century furniture design were offered to pose on fur rugs or ponies.
  
  I am a jackeroo in the ebay.
  
  I have no clue why they dance so madly.
  
  Donald Judd's loft.
  
  Terunobu Fujimori
  
  Handmade Houses in Christiania
  
  You Know Things Are Messed Up When Librarians Start Marching
  
  Occupy Vancouver
  
  The Holly Hobbie Retrenchment.
  

• Archives

  Archives Select Month April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 August 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 May 2008 April 2008 November 2007 January 2007

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