it's all gone.

interior view of the home of MoMA’s chief curator of media, klaus biesenbach.

look through any window.

let's admit it, siberian windows are way cooler than whatever else you are currently interested in. just look at all of that beautiful carved wood and the window inside of a window!

{via vlad}

pale clouded light.

photographer blake gordon has documented the effects of light from buildings on low hanging clouds.

{via BLDG}

panton pad.

the verner panton furnished and designed spiegel publishing house in hamburg, germany.

panton designed the entrance area with courtyard and lobby, the canteen and the bar areas, the swimming pool for the employees in the basement of the building, the rooms for the editorial conferences and the lounges, as well as the colour schemes for the hallways of the administration or editorial highrise buildings. all designs were his own – lamps, textiles and wall claddings, only the furniture had to be ordered from knoll international according to his contracts. the specially designed mirror lighting used on walls and ceilings was of major importance. while the swimming pool area was destroyed soon afterwards by a fire and the entry and lobby saw major redesign in the 1990s, the canteen has so far remained in the original version.

that swimming pool is killing me. and those chandeliers! the carpet! the ceiling!!!

{found at but does it float}

house of windows.

muji's prefab mado no ie {house of windows}. won a good design award, 2008.

{via spoon and tamago}

stair porn.

this blog only showcases pictures of beautiful steps. it might just be my favorite new blog out there.

glass houses.

the mies van der rohe farnsworth house before and after the recent flooding in the midwest. the water rose about 18” above the floor level.

{found at reference library}

architectural ancestor.

marion mahoney* griffin was the second woman to graduate with a degree in architecture from MIT, the first licensed female architect in history and a contemporary and colleague of frank lloyd wright. she is also my great-great-aunt. although she is considered a member of the prairie school, many of her contributions to the art and architecture world are sadly under-represented. throughout her life she pursed democratic ideals community planning and maintained an outspoken position on environmental matters. many of her presentation drawings were based on the style of japanese prints and are exceptionally beautiful. working as she did, in a collaborative way and with extraordinary men in a male dominated profession, must have taken quite a bit of gumption. must be why she is described over and over again as being 'fiery'.

{*pronouced may-oh-nee, don't say ma-hone-ee or my grandmother will get mad}

saarinen slideshow.

slate has a nice slide show about some of eero saarinen's 'forgotten' works. it's a nice short read.

margate memories.

in keeping with the beach theme today, this post is about margate, the old sea side resort town in kent, england. my junior year of college i received a scholarship to travel and do "research" for my senior thesis, which was on 'the lives of the individual within a youth culture' aka mods {art school is weird}. so i traveled to london by myself and wandered around for two weeks. i visited carnaby street and talked with tailors on saville row. i saw two movies every day at the british film institute's british sixties film fest and just generally tried to soak it all up. one of the big reasons that i went was to attend an all-nighter in the town of margate, which is basically 48 continuous hours of soul dancing, scooter rallies and soccer matches. i got to see the creation play, pick up some 45s and cute dresses, gape at the scooters and since i was alone i got sort of adopted by some 30 something scottish guys who showed me around the town. when i marveled at how beautiful i thought the place was i was told that "it was complete shite now" and that it had gotten really run down. it's true that in it's heyday it was a destination for the rich {and a spot for clashes between the mods and the rockers ala brighton beach} but as i found on the margate architecture blog there are people in the town trying hard to keep the old england feel while also revitalizing the area with new shops and museums. i think that's great because someday i'd really like to go back there and see how it's changed. hopefully next time i'll remember to book a room and won't end up sleeping on a bench in the train station wearing a short white a-line with hot pink tights. yikes.

{photos via margate arch and modculture}