Happy 10th Birthday Dwell Magazine

This may be shameless plugging - but I like Dwell.


Architectural writing is often difficult to read, as most architects are under the absurd delusion that they are great writers. This theory has been proven false countless times.**



By my count, there have only ever been two great architects who also wrote well. I'll let you guess which ones. (Hint: John Ruskin is not one of them, I'm sorry he's just not.)



With Dwell, you get the most bang for your buck

-The writing style is accessible to both the architectural professional and the layman. Also, unlike other architectural magazines, it doesn't take itself too seriously.



The only real criticism I can give Dwell is that is does have a clear sense of self-satisfaction in the crispy cadence of its articles. Dwell is designed for a very specific clientele: someone who is interested in the appearance of looking like they know good, modern design. Dwell could also be called IkeaFancier.


That being said, if you're looking for a solid architecture periodical without too many made up or obscure words - go with Dwell

For an example, see this article regarding licensing:


http://www.dwell.com/articles/to-be-or-not-to-be-licensed.html


** Architects also think they are good at the following:

- Music
- Sports
- Film
- Drama
- Fashion
- Politics
- Economics
- Business
- Romance
- Everything

AutoCAD for Mac

Recently I have been thinking about "moonlighting" to scrounge up some extra income and to do some actual design work (rather than monkeying around with someone else's design). Anyway, the problem I am facing is that all of my trial/student-licensed software has expired or ran out. Therefore, even if I can get the work (I have 1-2 prospects right now), do I really have any way of doing it? I was contemplating working by hand, which I obviously will do anyway in the sketching phase, but in this tech-savy world, especially when everyone wants to see tons of options/variations, there are obvious benefits to some computer aided drafting.

Forgive the rambling, let me get to the point. I was thinking about getting ArchiCAD, since I'm semi familiar with it and it crosses multiple platforms (I use a Mac and most folks around here are PC). I used the student version in 2009 and it's ok, but I would probably need to get super savvy in it, or also get some Adobe software like Illustrator or PhotoShop so I could spice up certain drawings like if I want to show materials in floor plan or light studies in section. But the program with which I am most familiar is AutoCAD, which has always been a strictly PC program. Until now (or very soon).

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/pc/index?siteID=123112&id=15421056

I'm hoping that soon truly means soon, like maybe a month. But who knows. I signed up to be notified when the trial version is available. I await with a bated breath!

P.S. The video doesn't really show much about the program, but it still gets me fired up!

The debate rages on...

Click the image for a larger display.

Love Letters to Dead Architects: Driving Determination and Damned Dissapointment

My Dearest Fazlur Khan,

They call you “the Einstein of structural engineering” and while it may be true, I find the “Einstein of the human-heart” to be more correct. You understand that the height of a structure is not enough to compel the soul – though it helps – the real influence comes from stepping out of your self and looking through the unengineered eyes of a viewer. Never refusing the question “what was it like the first time I saw it?” and then re-creating that moment again and again. Take the framed tube, take the trussed tube, take the bundle tube, take the X bracing, take the concrete tube, all your creations, in the end they are all just burned rocks. You know that, and you love them, and all of us regardless.

So I guess I just want to say I love you back,

Retly Corm.


“The technical man must not be lost in his own technology; he must be able to appreciate life, and life is art, drama, music, and most importantly, people." Fazlur Khan

Mi Caro, Antionio Sant’Elia,

The say the good die young and I can say that the great die even younger. So how does it feel then, bright star, to be the John Keats of Architecture? Rather than the name writ in water, you wrote your monogram in raw, bare and violent colored materials. Or at least you would have.

This world was too small for you, my love, you who saw the world as the interweaving and overlapping of excitement and prosperity taken to the epic scale. Planes that park in garages, skywalks that are suspended over depths as daring as any tight-rope walker could imagine all nourished in your fertile brain. The future was within your grasp, tragically however, so was the present and it eventually claimed your life.

Now all I can do is sit in your future and sigh about our past.

With Love,

Retly Corm

Hello Bruno Taut.
Again, we find ourselves alone. You for your religious and social leanings, and me, well, me for my own reasons – do you remember not so long ago how it was, the sun would shine, the birds would sing and we would just lay around the garden city waiting for the earth to be engulfed in flames.

All that time, you would have thought we would have been prepared when it eventually happened.

We spent all of our time in brightly colored glass menageries- pushing the boundaries of the material. Back then we thought that the bright yellows and pastel blues and sharp reds of your Weissenhofsiedlung house would protect us. We laughed at the all white entries. But it seems the days of exhibition 19 are over.

I hope you make it out – I’m not sure I will.

Yours Affectionately,

Retly Corm.

Hermann, Hermann, Hermann,

Oh Hermann Finsterlin, what am I going to do with you? Not evil enough to be vilified, not virtuous enough to be deified. The right man? Possibly. The wrong time? Absolutely. You had so much potential:

Your sketches for a glass pavilion are worthy of post-post-modernists, paintings that almost smolder with passion, insightful writings, inspiring music, all of it unique and deeply personal. You are an expressionist thinker somewhere between art nouveau and something else, not defined quite yet.

Hard times became the crux of the problem, I suppose. Who would have seen the World War coming? You staved off the Nazis as long as you could, but you knew that couldn’t last forever. They would have you and your art eventually; and when that happened I was already long, long gone.

I understand, I do, you did what you had to in order for your life’s work to survive, but then the bombing took most of it away anyway – what was it all for Hermann, was it worth it?

-Retly Corm

Jokes? I Like Jokes

Since work has become for better or worse, completely insane - I have opted to pull a PJ and submit the brilliant work of others filtered through the blaaaahg.

http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=999
-PHD comics: Campus Architecture-

http://www.viruscomix.com/page450.html
-Subnormality: Paint it Grey-

http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=141
-Hark! A Vagrant! : The Greatest Engineer in the World"

http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=266
-Hark! A Vagrant!: Brunel is Tired of these time-traveling Assholes"