by Witold | Jan 4, 2020 | Architecture, Modern life
“Classic designs have the charm of a good pair of brogues. They last for years and the older they are the better they fit.” So begins the abstract to a recent article in New Design Ideas on the advantages of architecture that is built to last. The advantages are...
by Witold | Dec 10, 2019 | Architecture
An article in the New York Times Real Estate section is titled “The Charleston You Haven’t Seen” and it describes a “gem” of a house that I certainly hadn’t seen on my visits. It’s a cartoon version of a gable-roofed house. There is a front yard (typically houses in...
by Witold | Nov 28, 2019 | Modern life
As a confirmed Anglophile I can’t resist another season of The Crown. But the episode “Dangling Man” that dealt with the Duke of Windsor left me dissatisfied. In a BBC interview, the Duke (played by Derek Jacobi) gives the impression that he was forced to abdicate in...
by Witold | Oct 18, 2019 | Modern life, Urbanism
I recently received my new passport. The pages for stamps and visas are decorated with images, as they have been in the past, but this is the first time I looked at them closely: a windjammer and a lighthouse; a steam engine pulling a train in a Western landscape; a...
by Witold | Oct 4, 2019 | Design
On January 8, 1958, a fire broke out on the Norwegian ship Earling Jarl while the vessel was docked in Bodø, a small coastal town north of the Arctic Circle. The ship was part of the Hurtigrutten (Express Route), which serves small isolated communities up and down the...
