24 thinkers, books, and ideas connected to this field.
British-Swiss author who has built a career making philosophy accessible to general audiences — applying philosophical traditions to modern anxieties about status, work, relationships, and travel — and founding The School of Life.
Alex Haw is a British architect and actor who played Cobb, the manipulative burglar, in Christopher Nolan's debut feature 'Following' (1998), and later became a practicing architect known for speculative design.
Architect and grandson of C.G. Jung who has managed and preserved the Jung family properties — including the Küsnacht house and Jung's Bollingen tower — and who has collaborated on the documentation of Jung's architectural work.
American inventor, architect, and futurist who developed the geodesic dome and proposed a comprehensive design science approach to solving humanity's problems through technology.
A 2011 photographic book by Frederic Chaubin documenting monumental Soviet Modernist architecture across the former USSR.
A 2017 photographic book by Zupagrafika documenting Soviet-era Brutalist housing estates across Eastern Europe.
Irish-born designer and architect who created some of the most celebrated furniture of the 20th century — the E.1027 table, the Bibendum chair, the Dragon chair — working in Paris during the modernist era and largely overlooked for much of her career before late-life recognition.
Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect who developed the Prairie Style and organic architecture philosophy, producing over 1,000 designs including Fallingwater and the Guggenheim Museum.
Frederic Chaubin is a French photographer whose 2011 book CCCP documented extraordinary Soviet Modernist and brutalist architecture.
Italian painter, architect, and art historian — author of The Lives — architect of the Uffizi Gallery — Michelangelo's friend — who created art history as a discipline through his biographies of Renaissance artists.
Giovanni Battista Piranesi was an 18th-century Italian engraver and architect whose 'Carceri d'invenzione' (Imaginary Prisons) etchings depicted vast, impossible underground spaces with infinite staircases, chains, and machinery.
Italian Renaissance sculptor, painter, and architect who produced the Sistine Chapel ceiling, the Pietà, and David — widely considered the greatest artist of all time and the supreme exemplar of Renaissance humanism.
Italian industrial designer and architect known for the Memphis Group's radical design movement in the 1980s — designing the First Chair and other iconic Memphis pieces — and later for institutional design work for Deutsche Bank, Enel, and major Italian companies.
Peter Chadwick is a British photographer and designer who documented British Brutalist architecture in This Brutal World.
A 2016 photographic book by Peter Chadwick documenting British and international Brutalist architecture.
Third President of the United States — principal author of the Declaration of Independence — founder of the University of Virginia — architect of Monticello — who embodied the Enlightenment ideal of the Renaissance man while being a slaveholder who never freed his enslaved people.
American footwear designer and Nike VP of Design who created the Air Jordan III through VII and numerous other iconic Nike silhouettes — credited with saving the Jordan partnership after Michael Jordan had nearly left Nike.
William Wilkins was an English architect who designed several of London's major neoclassical landmarks, including the National Gallery and the original buildings of University College London and Haileybury College.
Zupagrafika is a Polish design studio known for publishing Eastern Blocks and other documents of Eastern European Modernist and Brutalist architecture.
Postmodernism was a cultural and intellectual movement that rejected grand narratives and universal truths, instead embracing diversity, complexity, and fragmentation.
Roman client king of Judea (37-4 BCE) — one of antiquity's greatest builders (Second Temple, Masada, Caesarea Maritima) and one of its most paranoid rulers (killing his own sons and wife).
English architect and scientist who rebuilt London after the Great Fire (1666) — designing 52 churches including St Paul's Cathedral — and was one of the founding members of the Royal Society.
Substack newsletter exploring urbanism, architecture, craft, and the relationship between how we build and how we live.
British structural engineer who collaborated with the leading architects of the High-Tech architecture movement — including the Centre Pompidou (with Rogers and Piano) and many Hopkins and Grimshaw projects.