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I was flipping through Owen Jones’s Grammar of Ornament a couple months ago, and my eye was caught by this handsome pattern I had not noticed before. This is Jones’s Plate XLII, in the chapter on designs from the Alhambra in Granada, Spain. He calls it, “Part of the ceiling of the Portico of the … Continue reading Constructing the Pattern on the Sala de la Barca Ceiling →
(This is the math geek part about the Sala de la Barca ceiling. For instructions on constructing the pattern with compass and straightedge, go over to Part 1.) In the process of figuring out how to draw this pattern, I ran into a lot of questions, and had to do more than a little math … Continue reading The Mathematics of the Pattern on the Sala de la Barca Ceiling →
Nord de Guerre Here’s a survey plat made in 1919 by a US Army unit in France. In the aftermath of WW1, teams of American military surveyors produced these as they went around France mapping the grave sites of fallen soldiers. On this plat we can see a number of bearings and distances from the … Continue reading Transforming French WW1 Lambert Coordinates to WGS84 →
This story begins one day when I was assembling a map of the city of Edmonton, Alberta from OpenStreetMap data. It was going to be a big map, a 42″ (106 cm) wide poster for a wall. The data was good, but the standard OSM colours were not. They would work fine for a street … Continue reading Cartographic palettes and colour harmonies →
Now that we know our way around the pattern (go back to Part 1), it should be fairly straightforward to construct with a compass and straightedge. But be aware: any pattern that requires you to construct a pentagon is an advanced challenge. They are trickier to make than squares or hexagons. Here’s what we want … Continue reading Constructing Bourgoin’s Figure 171 – Part 2 →
More in architecture
Architects and Urbanists Unveil 2025’s ‘Ugliest Buildings in America’ Ignominious winners to be ‘dishonored’ at the International ‘Aesthetic Atrocity’ Awards this May (New York, NY) An international panel of architects and urbanists has determined that Simmons Hall at MIT is winner of the 2025 Aesthetic Atrocity Award. The dishonorable title will be awarded to the... The post Press release: Is this the ugliest building in America? appeared first on The Architectural Uprising.
I’m a backpack person. Whether for everyday carry or for travel, I’ve always preferred backpacks to sling, messenger, duffel, and, above all, roller bags. But after I severely injured my right arm, I was forced to cycle through alternatives, particularly for day-to-day purposes. I found smaller, single-shoulder bags uncomfortable to wear for long periods; most
Jan Žaloudek Architekt has recently completed a home that was built by the architect for himself and his family. Together with his wife, art historian and writer Jolanta Trojak, they long dreamed of a place where one could connect with the landscape or retreat inward.
The rise of artificial intelligence will challenge architects to rediscover their unique value.
You may know John Green as a Youtuber, a podcaster, or the mega best-selling author of Looking for Alaska, The Fault in Our Stars, Turtles All the Way Down, and The Anthropocene Reviewed. His latest book is called Everything Is Tuberculosis. It’s a deep-dive into one of the oldest and deadliest threats to humankind. “If
