Modernism – Commodity Fetishism

Betondorp; Amsterdam’s concrete village

Betondorp is a garden village in Amsterdam Oost, constructed between 1923 – 1927 during a period of intensive house building across the city in which thousands of homes were constructed by cooperatives, associations and the city council. It is part of the larger Tuindorp Watergraafsmeer garden village which consists of two distinctive areas. One halfContinue reading “Betondorp; Amsterdam’s concrete village”

Duncan Hallas at 100

Duncan Hallas was born on the 23rd December, 1925 into a working class family in Manchester. I shared a flat with Duncan for 2 – 3 years at the end of the 1980s and early 1990s. He was a good flat mate; democratic, fair and egalitarian. And of course, if you wanted a discussion aboutContinue reading “Duncan Hallas at 100”

Gateways

A Bulgarian shopkeeper who gave me a box to recycle paper, a physiotherapist from Kerala who described the history of the Communist Party there, a Rumanian woman on the street who explained she has always worked and paid her taxes and doesn’t care much for the way some people go on about immigrants, an AfricanContinue reading “Gateways”

…the Great Atlantis (that you call America)

Through a process of simultaneous events, mystified into the idea of ‘coincidence’, this arrived earlier – A Concrete Atlantis: US Industrial Building and European Modern Architecture by Reyner Banham. It is not really ‘about’ the working class of the USA. But without that class none of the grain elevators, car factories, print works and otherContinue reading “…the Great Atlantis (that you call America)”

The Modern Lovers

I have visited the Städel Museum in Frankfurt am Main on several occasions It is a favourite space and something new is always discovered. But bizarrely I have only just discovered there is a basement full of ‘modern’ or ‘contemporary’ art. Is it new? I dare not enquire for fear of further embarrassment. It generallyContinue reading “The Modern Lovers”

IG Farben Building

I thought for a change to spend the day in Frankfurt am Main. I took the S bahn to the Hauptbanhof and then walked around the West End. There are many examples of bourgeois modernism and Gründerzeit (used as an architectural period). The IG Farben Building has a complex history, but as with most buildingsContinue reading “IG Farben Building”