Blog Pick :: Design Observer

By: Curtis Robinson, BArch Candidate

Design Observer is a design site broken down into four categories which relate to all aspects of design.  

A rendering of the first curtain wall in 1909 and how it looks today.

Places is where you will find all articles on the built form, with topics that range from shelters that immigrant groups use to migrate their way into Europe, to the evolution of daylight in buildings that started with the invention of the glass curtain wall in 1909.

Make shift shelters used by immigrant groups through out Europe.

Observatory holds mostly design critiques. One article describes how the amazing 80's show, Miami Vice, changed the design world for a decade (not for the better). A more recent article is about how Philip Johnson's design for the Amon Carter Museum in Ft. Worth, Texas is under appreciated. The author writes, "If you can get beyond the rather dated polemics (admittedly, hard), what you find is an impeccably made building that is beautifully sited, scaled, and suited to its contents. "  

 Phillip Johnson's design for the Amon Carter Museum is under appreciated.

Change Observer is the miscellaneous section of the site. Some articles are critiqing the way students learn and how internship requirements should be redesigned. Meanwhile another author writes about the value of design disruptions that range from public art to flies in a urinal.  

 Before I Die, interactice public art project by Candy Chang invites people to share what they wish to accomplish.

The last section of the site is OBLOG, dedicated to postings on events in the design world as well as book suggestions and reviews. 

Check this site out, it has a great mixture of knowledgeable information with some fun thrown in for good measure.