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[Image: The Heathen Gate at Carnuntum, outside Vienna; photo by Geoff Manaugh.] Last summer, a geophysicist at the University of Vienna named Immo Trinks proposed the creation of an EU-funded “International Subsurface Exploration Agency.” Modeled after NASA or the ESA, this new institute would spend its time, in his words, “looking downward instead of up.” … Continue reading "Agency of the Subsurface"
a year ago

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More from BLDGBLOG

Institute for Controlled Speleogenesis

Recently, I’ve been looking back at a collaborative project with John Becker of WROT Studio. The “Institute for Controlled Speleogenesis” (2014) was a fictional design project we originally set in the vast limestone province of Australia’s Nullarbor Plain. [Image: A rock-acid drip-irrigation hub for the “Institute for Controlled Speleogenesis,” a collaboration between BLDGBLOG and WROT … Continue reading "Institute for Controlled Speleogenesis"

11 months ago 5 votes
The Reaction Area

“Enigmatic chemical reactions” have broken out underground inside two Los Angeles-area landfills, according to the L.A. Times. These “highly unusual reactions at Los Angeles County’s two largest landfills have raised serious questions about the region’s long-standing approach to waste disposal and its aging dumps.” If landfills are the extreme endpoint of a cultural practice of … Continue reading "The Reaction Area"

a year ago 4 votes
Lost Animals

I don’t normally link to my short stories here, but I’m proud of a new one called “Lost Animals” that went up earlier this week. It’s about a man hired by private clients to clear houses of ghosts, not using supernatural equipment but a baseball bat. He’s been storming into abandoned homes, haunted offices, auto-repair … Continue reading "Lost Animals"

over a year ago 5 votes
Every Room A Battlefield

[Image: Looking out over the center of “Razish,” a simulated city at the Fort Irwin National Training Center; photo by Geoff Manaugh.] I had an opportunity to revisit the Fort Irwin National Training Center this weekend as part of a series of field trips I’ve put together for the Los Angeles-based Berggruen Institute’s Antikythera program. … Continue reading "Every Room A Battlefield"

over a year ago 5 votes

More in architecture

Open Borders

A border is an idea so powerful that we never even have to see it to believe it. Or believe in it. Global borders can be sites of peace and conflict, violence and celebration, opportunity and confinement. And borders as they exist today – which is to say, increasingly militarized and clearly defined – are

21 hours ago 1 votes
The Irony of Nigeria’s Resilient Democracy and Growing Legacy of Urban Tyranny

Planning policies reflect a deep disdain for the poor, prioritizing elite aesthetics over social equity.

5 hours ago 1 votes
Outdoor Seating You’d Actually Want to Visit: Where Nature Is Wrapped in a Whimsical Birdcage

At the heart of San Francisco’s Mission Rock development, The Garden Party by Min Design transforms a bustling pedestrian path into something softer, slower, and more inviting.

yesterday 2 votes
Andrés Duany and Others on the Legacy of Léon Krier

With tributes from Witold Rybczynski, Gerhard W. Mayer, James Howard Kuntsler, and Jeff Speck.

2 days ago 2 votes
Exploring A House and Barn Where Raw Materials Meet Scenic Views

Worrell Yeung has designed a two-part retreat in the wooded hills of Columbia County, New York, for a young family looking to connect with the landscape. Set on an 88-acre ridgeline, the project includes Ridge House and Ridge Barn, two structures that balance clean architecture with raw, expressive materials. Blending land art, local references, and a pared-back palette, the Brooklyn-based studio created a place that feels both grounded and quietly sculptural.

3 days ago 3 votes