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 | 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 | Aug 23, 2019 | Modern life, Urbanism
“I love Paris in the spring time”–Cole Porter
by Witold | Jun 29, 2019 | Design, Modern life
When I went to school in England in the fifties we were obliged to wear blue blazers with the school crest. I came across this photo of a class of the Interior Design Department of Northumbria University taken in the Bauhaus building in Dessau. Apparently strict dress...
by Witold | Jun 20, 2019 | Modern life
While James Holzhauer was making his impressive run on Jeopardy I read several articles that suggested that his aggressive and risky mode of play had changed the game forever. Well, he certainly changed it for me–after more than a decade or more I’ve stopped...