Category: #sundayscraps

That French tacos piece is good, I wonder if we have any in London yet? / a call for submissions on topics of speculative education / a lovely little residency reimagining a shed / a participatory development toolkit / a new friend told me about…

Serge Chermayeff’s book Community & Privacy / I cannot get enough of James Baldwin and need to go see the site where his house used to be in Provence some day / a 2019 paper visualising how food flows through America / a shaky tour…

I wonder if The Corridors of Power were over 2m wide / I didn’t know Hello Dolly was originally sung by Carol Channing / the touching photography of Charlie Phillips / Edgar Allan Poe’s A Dream Within a Dream / Better Living was an internal…

Ann Behringer became an addiction therapist after being Tina Turner’s backup dancers / Japanese libraries and their evolution / about listening to new music / Director of Strategy for COP26 role is open / Lewisham Small Sites Design Guide is being developed / Designing London’s…

Branch magazine are looking for an assistant editor / Municipal Dreams is a book about the heyday of council building projects / I didn’t know Pamela Anderson had starred in a short film about cyber security theft / the colonial story of art in our…

A couple who took photos of each other during the same photoshoots is very beautiful / Betty Ford danced for Martha Graham it turns out / Space and Place / Schwitter’s Mertz Barn / The Transparency Society / Olivetti’s book The Political life of the…

I’m not sure I can remember the last time I did anything fun on Valentine’s Day so I played cupid for some people and am reading about the rose trade and climate change impact of flowers all year long which makes me want to support…

A 1970 documentary of James Baldwin in Paris / Ada’s List are looking for a new CEO / the couple who took over one of my flats make these amazing silk scarves and I’m trying not to buy another one / Parissi make a killer…

The London Design Festival are looking for a producer / about the food in In the Mood for Love / under the cosh is an expression I didn’t know but quite like / the Modernist Society have published some lovely films / a IWD auction…

More people have died of COVID-19 than in the Plague of London / how to propose something for COP26 / how people ate in the Middle Ages / 6 grades of sting / the story behind a table / the rate of vaccination doesn’t fill…

Interesting take on the problem with environmental literature for children / the origins of restaurants (broths for the rich who didn’t want to chew) / the rural photography of William Christenberry /  Sharon Eyal the choreographer and dancer in The National’s videos / the photography…

Went down a rabbit hole of Arthur Cravan thanks to this BBC Radio 3 show by artist Ross Sutherland / Frank O’Hara’s lunchtime poetry looks great / This is him in his home reading a poem to his lover about having a Coke / a…

Kenneth Frampton’s archive of architecture courses / a 1986 BBC documentary about architecture of social housing in the modernist era / Maiden Lane Estate which, just like Central Hill, looked a little run down but wasn’t worth completely redesigning / on Meredith Frampton’s work which…

The history of automats, the first acceptable restaurant where women could have a meal alone in the 1920s / Diet for a Small Planet /  an English philosopher who made Zen Buddism quite popular but died of alcoholism / Life begins at 40 in the…

On being sick of cooking / a universal sign language by the author of The Saint books that never took off / the Women’s Design Service charity is being wound down / Hidden London (virtual) tours / did Newton go mad in Lincolnshire? / the…

I was insulted on Professor Gilbert’s behalf when her raising her twins was framed alongside the fact that her husband had quit his job to care of them. The reverse happens every single day and noone writes about it. / Didn’t realise Brassaï had taken…

I have spent most of my time in London in the south (living west at the moment – which I’m still getting used to after over five years) and I would say it does have a different feel. I have probably said before, but there…

How to be alone, a poem / Stag Horn’s Sumach which I spotted in my neighbourhood/ Economics for the people / On the theory of ghosting / Cambridge University Moral Sciences Club / the Australian immigration system has updated its values to describe religious laws…

Diamonds made from the carbon in air / Dr. Jessica Taylor’s fantastic 30 lessons learnt for her 30th / the New York Times equivalent of Radio 3’s Slow Radio / Remembering ‘Turning the place over’ by Richard Wilson / his Italian Job bus on top…

It’s been 20 years since IDII opened its doors and 14 since it closed them (and I graduated). The founding team is giving a talk about it next month. / Rachel Syme from the NewYorker has started a pen pal thing / Public Practice is…

Loved the work of José Luis Vargas at Carl Freedman Gallery / Beehive design company whose logo Medium stole / The ‘head tooling’ section of Ken Isaacs 1974 book on self builds / A Vogue article on menopause featuring a 48 year old Gwyneth. Whatever.…

My talented friend Jeremy drove us to ‘Temple of the Winds’ walk in Surrey after popping in to see Mary Fraser Tytler incredible terra cotta chapel. We also drove around the modernist  Alton Estate on the way back into town. Strange that it was designed…

A Radio 3 show that touches on Sylvia Plath’s multiple biographies including the controversial 1990 one / I was given a tiffin tin for lunch at Leila’s which I ate on Arnold Circus, staring at Marlowe House/ Walter Hopps who ran an important gallery in…

Can’t believe Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre is being demolished / The interiors of 222 Strand which was ventilated by two women cycling / I wore a keffiyeh I bought in Jaffa in 2008 and looked up the Palestinian version which is now mostly made…

The campaign to save Central Hill Estate, a modernist gem in Crystal Palace I tweeted about yesterday / the Vanburgh Park Estate in Blackheath was designed by Chamberlain, Powell and Bon who designed the Barbican / Someone’s been collecting the modernist homes in Lambeth, might…

A guide to modernism in Metroland / Mike Davis talks about coronavirus / A french podcast about Eileen Gray (yet another book came out back in Feb) / Making art work / Why Is the West So Powerful—And So Peculiar? / The impact of Brexit on food…

Senscommon overcoat / Why facts don’t change our mind / Travelling Salesman Problem / If the Chair Fits: Sexism in American Office Furniture Design / Happy Rainy Days long raincoat / A Message from your University’s Vice President for Magical Thinking / Designerly Ways of…

Long Barn, Vita Sackville-West first prototype garden 15 years before Sissinghurst / What to do with leftover fabric (I’m sewing and can’t believe how much waste there is) / Thai style omelette / another Steigler talk this time in January at Transmediale / The law of…

Attachment theory / Design in innovation report that was just published by Innovate UK (my quick critique on Twitter) / Grace Dent‘s perfect commentary on eating out in a pandemic / Dr. Joan Sinner gives me hope that you can become someone completely different later…

The story behind that burning man photo on the Pink Floyd Album / I don’t have a lot of time for Nick Cave as a politically literate person but at least he wrote a nice thing about Nina Simone / Brenda Vale on Autonomous Houses…

Caresse Crosby‘s mad life (no decent biog yet) / On whether there’s a sense to history / The history of California based Architectural Pottery (yes that’s the name of the business) whose founders interviewed J.B.Blunk / Pain scales / Immunology and intuition / Dos and…

Sam Chermayeff (his father was a graphic designer, his grandfather was a product designer) is an architect talking about collective housing like his grandfather’s peers used to / the art of Constant (there doesn’t seem to be many video interviews which is annoying) / a…

A deep clean of some phone tabs which have been opened since last November. HoroHoro Cookies (found in Kanazawa) / Katrien de Blauwer’s exhibition at the Foto Museum in Rotterdam (one of my favorite artists) / I didn’t necessarily agree with this NYTimes article on…

Human Systems (Berlin) / The home and ‘digital glimpsing’ / The first 1968 First Things First graphic design manifesto / Arthur Pieper’s House / Jonny Hill’s house for the wealthy Corbetts /First Things First 2020 podcast on climate change education / the now demolished 60…

(Office deep clean kind of day) The problems of restoring light art / The open society and its enemies / Japan Dome House / Mr Straw’s House / the architect Charles Holden / Excellent pecorino and almond biscuits / Allan Octavian Hume who ran the…

Phil made a list of music videos shot in the Barbican/ Google stopped describing gorillas because it couldn’t figure out how to identify black people / decolonising design / cosplay innovation through patents / indie magazine economics / Bernard Leach (potter) / cats instead of…

Post-pandemic workplaces 1 2 / a book about sentient lightbulbs / Kevin Kelley turned 68 and gave young people some advice / Bela Banathy’s book on changing social systems / furniture music (coined by Erik Satie) / the paper that coined and defined ‘wicked problems’…