Category Archives: Art & Design

Denoyer-Geppert Polar Air Age World chart

detail of Denoyer-Geppert Polar Air Age World chart

Denoyer-Geppert Polar Air Age World chart. Over the past decades I have collected maps and expanded my collection to a degree that it has literally ended up covering each wall of my home office, which I fondly call the map room (without any aspiration to Churchill’s war room!) Most maps in my collection feature cities that I have either lived in or visited and continue to admire as part of my autobiographical experience as an urban flâneur.

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Rajasthani handmade stuffed animals

Rajasthani handmade stuffed animals. Now that the holiday season is rapidly approaching—and as I skipped Halloween this year like many of my friends—I have already brought down from the attic some of my favorite holiday decorative items. Over the years, I have collected Rajasthani handmade stuffed animals and made a point to add to my collection every time I return to India.

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Hubert Robert copying paintings at the Louvre

detail of the 1796 painting by Hubert Robert

Hubert Robert copying paintings at the Louvre. I remember the day when I was a student of architecture, and was asked to deliberately copy a drawing (e.g. plan and section). At first, the faculty’s request took me off guard as I thought the act of creating came solely from an inner calling—my genius, my intuition, and my talent!

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Staircase at the National Telephone Company of Spain in Madrid

Detail of staircase at the National Telephone Company of Spain in Madrid

Staircase at the National Telephone Company of Spain in Madrid. I have written many blogs on staircases and have always found delight in showcasing their identity. This blog is not dissimilar and will highlight a staircase that I stumbled on years ago while visiting an exhibition on the work of British architect Richard Rogers.

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Netton Bosson, Gruyères, Switzerland

instagram detail of Netton Bosson

Netton Bosson, Gruyères, Switzerland . If there was ever a work of art that I could say had accompanied me during my youth, it is the frescoes that adorn the dining room walls of the Institut La Gruyère, Switzerland; a boarding school located next to the medieval town of the same name. During breakfast, lunch, and dinner, Netton Bosson’s art, with its moral wit and decorative playfulness, gazed protectively over the main room.

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Antique carpet stretchers

Detail of carpet stretcher

Antique carpet stretchers. A colleague of mine once said that I am a collector of collections. A flattering statement that I take with great pride, as in a certain way, his comment validates my interest in collecting distinct objects that I have an emotional connection with. Some of my collections may be called material culture, a term that refers “to the physical objects that people create, use, and value within a specific society.”

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Jacques Gubler: what does an elegant solution mean in architecture?

detail of staircase

Jacques Gubler: what does an elegant solution mean in architecture? During a visit to Basel, Switzerland with a colleague of mine and architecture students, I rekindled my relationship with Jacques Gubler, an esteemed history and theory faculty who taught at the EPFL when I was a student there. It was a wonderful fully-packed afternoon, with visits to key architecture projects, a critique of the new annex designed by Christ & Gantenbein, followed by a tour of the Kunstmuseum Basel (Image 1).

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Prague: a lesson in stairs (Josef Plecnik)

instagram detail of staircase

Prague: a lesson in stairs (Josef Plečnik). There has always been for me delight in discovering in-situ urban places when studying famous, or not so famous, and, even better, relatively unknown architects. I will admit that I favor anonymous architects, as many of them have created stupendous works in silence; away from the unnecessary disturbance surrounding today’s star architects.

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