Luminhaus

Luminhaus is a modern prefab house in Virginia, designed by Rocio Romero. It's about a four hour drive from DC and is available to rent. I spent a pleasant afternoon here in a Le Corbusier chaise lounge reading Tom Wolfe's From Bauhaus to Our House, which isn't as ridiculous as I expected it to be.

Here are some more shots of the house.

Paul's Boutique Samples

The covers of some of the albums sampled on Paul's Boutique. Compiled by Zed.

Monticello

Comparing the back of the nickel with the original, originally uploaded by Nat Hansen.

My dad compares the currency with the original.

This is apparently a common reaction to seeing Monticello.

NACIREMA TRA

NACIREMA TRA, originally uploaded by Nat Hansen.

View from the terrace cafe at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art.

Summer Breeze

There was a faux-rock monolith and a smoke-snorting mechanical bull on the U of C quads yesterday.

58th and Woodlawn

One of the pleasures of being in Chicago is walking past the Robie House every day on the way to school.

Koolhaas Houselife

The movie Koolhaas Houselife was showing at the The Storefront for Art & Architecture on a continuous loop. Houselife is a study of Rem Koolhaas's Maison à Bordeaux (see photos of the house here).

The movie follows the Bordeaux House's housekeeper around as she cleans the whimsical and bizarre features of the house. She vacuums a narrow metal spiral staircase she can barely fit the vacuum on, she complains about the modular, removable storage in the kitchen (drawers would be better, she says), she points out how the house doesn't have faucets that mix hot and cold water. There are brief segments on the variety of other workers who are responsible for keeping the house in shape: the gardener complains that the way the lawn is placed, it will inevitably get burned by reflected sunlight from a large metal door; the "house doctor" explains the operation of a glowing bollard, the "joystick", that you pull on when you want to open the front door; in the best scene of the movie, a whole crew of bureaucratic French handymen try to determine where leaks are coming from by turning on a hose, producing a massive waterfall that cascades down the living room wall and onto the TV. They then argue about what to do about the leak, and conclude that it's the responsibility of some other crew.

At one point, the TV is showing a scene from Tati's Mon Oncle featuring the absurd modern house with the metal fish fountain. There was some argument after the movie whether it, like Mon Oncle, is poking fun at modernism. The perspective on the house from those who have to maintain it is discouraging, and might suggest a criticism of modernism. But I doubt the problems of maintaining a house, especially a house as large as the Maison à Bordeaux, are uniquely modernist. Though it seems modernist architects should develop a way to keep those gigantic windows clean.

Liberty City

Liberty City, originally uploaded by Nat Hansen.

Taken from the Brooklyn Queens Expressway.

Photo by Melody.

Spring at the U of C

I was back in Chicago last week. It was good to be back. I'll be back again in two weeks.

Mobile Lounges

Mobile Lounges, originally uploaded by Nat Hansen.

At Dulles airport, these shuttles effect a dramatic break from the hectic, stressful space of ticketing and security to the more serene world of the departure gates. In Eero Saarinen's plans for Dulles, he called these shuttles "Mobile Lounges", and according to Eero Saarinen: An Architecture of Multiplicity, they "became the basis not only for the functional scheme Saarinen developed for the whole Dulles Terminal, but also for the stylistic concept he created for the building, both inside and out".

There is a special variety of mobile lounge, distinguishable in terms its two masts, called the "Plane Mate", that is able to dock directly with aircraft.

I'm flying out of Dulles tomorrow, and I'm looking forward to the ride on the mobile lounge.

College Bar Blamed for Poor Exams

Oxford Mail: College Bar Blamed for Poor exams, originally uploaded by Nat Hansen.

Melody discovered this old advert for the Oxford Mail when she was going through her old stuff.