Art Deco was the dominant style of the interwar era, coming out of Paris in the 1920's and ruling the roost until World War II broke out. Randy Juster's Decopix - The Art Deco Resource has enough pictures of Art Deco architecture to send one hurtling into The Gernsback Continuum. If that's not enough then there's always the 11000+ images of the Flickr Art Deco Pool. But Art Deco wasn't just about architecture. On the Victoria and Albert Musem's Art Deco site one can view Art Deco objects in great detail, rotating them and listening to audio lectures on each object. But before Art Deco was a design aesthetic it was an art-style. Illustrations for the Art Deco Book in France has more than 170 images from the proponents of that then-new style (some images are not safe for work, especially in the George Barbier section).
posted on Jul 22, 2008 - View this thread

Come, take a ride and look at some of the Islamic Art of the past. Or, you could call it Art of the Islamic World if you're so inclined. If not, then how about taking into account some of the major milestones of Islam throughout the centuries, from past till present (more examples here), including the art of Calligraphy and Architecture. Not to mention the Arab world's contribution to music, both old and new. [Previously mentioned, here, here, here, and here, with a wonderful comment from nickyskye as usual]
posted on May 29, 2008 - View this thread

Architecture, Restoration, and Imaging of the Maya Cities of Uxmal, Kabah, Sayil, and Labná - a new extensive exhibition site from Reed College (with nice large images available). See: Contents. The site includes "19th and early 20th century drawings, prints, and photographs, showing the appearance of these four cities before the extensive restoration campaigns of the twentieth century [..and..] over 1000 recent photographs."
posted on Apr 9, 2008 - View this thread

Tokyo By Night - Just one of the posts on ArkiBlog, a blog about architecture and design. {via}
posted on Apr 7, 2008 - View this thread

Superuse: Reusing can be beautiful, unusual, functional, and even illustrative of our culture of excess. (all links lead to the same site).
posted on Jan 19, 2008 - View this thread

MATSYS Based on the idea that architecture can be understood as a material body with its own intrinsic and extrinsic forces relating to form, growth, and behavior, the studio investigates methodologies of performative integration through geometric and material differentiation.

B_Complex, N_Table, Endless Ocean, Endless Sky (more), P_Wall. more.
posted on Jan 18, 2008 - View this thread

Hugh Ferriss: Delineator of Gotham. Through his charcoal renderings of dramatic, imaginary skyscrapers in early 1900s New York City, Ferriss influenced the aesthetics of numerous architects with his bold compositions.
posted on Jan 6, 2008 - View this thread

Tiny Buildings - "a collection of tiny buildings handcrafted from business cards, packaging and other nice papers."
posted on Dec 25, 2007 - View this thread

…you are brilliant and subtle if you come from Iowa and really strange and you live as you live and you are always well taken care of if you come from Iowa.
posted on Dec 18, 2007 - View this thread

The Temples of Damanhur. Behold the Eighth Wonder of the World (according to the Italian government). [Via Boing Boing.]
posted on Nov 23, 2007 - View this thread

An interview with Lebbeus Woods -- designer and illustrator of speculative futuristic landscapes and buildings. Woods just set up his own website, which has an amazing quantity of drawings, photographs, and text focusing on his lesser known projects [for those willing to deal with a frustrating flash interface and sound. It's better in IE than Firefox.]
posted on Oct 6, 2007 - View this thread

"First we kill the architects..." Photographer Danny Lyon [1, 2, 3, 4] offers ten suggestions for New York City. Suggestion #6: "Leave the World Trade Center excavation exactly as it is and use the space as a freshwater pond planted with pink, white, and yellow lilies..." His essay is only one of many from names you'll recognize in a book called Block by Block: Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York. An associated exhibition opened yesterday [museum, NYT review]. Is New York City moving in the right direction? Is your city? [via]
posted on Sep 26, 2007 - View this thread

Toy art: tribal scooters, spider car, little animal robots out of broken electrical parts, a color changing house designed by a 14 year old boy, of wood, wind-up, MunkyKing, Ugly Dolls, out of beer cans, with balloons, Cute Things, artoyz, toys from trash, tiny knitted dolls clothes and accessories, vintage and retro at Tick Tock Toys.
posted on Jul 7, 2007 - View this thread

The Cagliari Contemporary Arts Centre is a work in progress: "The vital metaphor governing the museum becomes clear within the phasing plans: as with living organisms, the growth of the museum will be self-regulated. It will happen naturally when the conditions of a mature balance between the economic atmosphere and philanthropic and cultural environment are reached." More from architect Zaha Hadid.
posted on Jun 9, 2007 - View this thread

Kirigami is an ingenius way of cutting and folding paper, creating designs in many styles, often with a captivating simplicity. Some are like geometric lace, some are marvelous 3-D modular, while some are amazing architectural creations.
posted on Apr 11, 2007 - View this thread

"This is a story of how the impossible became possible. How, for centuries, scientists were absolutely sure that solids (as well as decorative patterns like tiling and quilts) could only have certain symmetries - such as square, hexagonal and triangular - and that most symmetries, including five-fold symmetry in the plane and icosahedral symmetry in three dimensions (the symmetry of a soccer ball), were strictly forbidden. Then, about twenty years ago, a new kind of pattern, known as a "quasicrystal," was envisaged that shatters the symmetry restrictions and allows for an infinite number of new patterns and structures that had never been seen before, suggesting a whole new class of materials...."

Physicist Paul J. Steinhardt delivers a fascinating lecture (WMV) on tilings and quasicrystals. However, it turns out science was beaten to the punch: a recent paper (PDF) suggests Islamic architecture developed similar tilings centuries earlier.
posted on Mar 18, 2007 - View this thread

Clip/Stamp/Fold. The current show at the Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York City explores an era when architecture was actually interesting. We go from "an elephant attacking the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in Manhattan to a skyscraper made of Swiss cheese." On the way, we visit astronauts, bunkers, walking cities, and robots fucking – and it's all waiting for you inside these little magazines.
posted on Feb 7, 2007 - View this thread

Grandma's Kitchen (youtube), the Roller Toaster, the water-less washing machine, the sculptures of Gwon Osong, a crucifix-shaped mp3 player... some of the people and things found on CubeMe, a blog about "wonderful stuff".
posted on Dec 20, 2006 - View this thread

Russell W. Porter was an amateur astronomer who helped design the 200 inch telescope for Mount Palomar observatory. His pencil sketches of the finished mechanism are remarkably beautiful.
posted on Dec 12, 2006 - View this thread

Architecture and the Velvet Fist of Happiness - click 'view the book" in the top left. {Flash, slight sound, NSFW}
posted on Dec 11, 2006 - View this thread

The Central City by Steve Tanza
posted on Dec 10, 2006 - View this thread

Bourbonnais. No, not Bourbonnais, IL, but Bourbonnais, a historic province in France that flourished during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. In this area there are hundreds of churches built in the Romanesque style.

In 2004 Stephen Murray, an art history professor, and his students recieved a $500,000 grant to document, process, and archive data from the churches into a digital database, all available online.
posted on Dec 5, 2006 - View this thread

Another incredible cityscape drawn from memory by the amazing Stephen Wiltshire (previously featured). The same clip on YouTube for those who don't like wmv's.
posted on Nov 23, 2006 - View this thread

Being and Seeming: the Technology of Representation an essay by novelist Richard Powers
posted on Sep 24, 2006 - View this thread

Large scans of plates, largely for Robert Plot’s Natural History of Staffordshire (1686). You can view more of Burghers work here.
posted on Aug 9, 2006 - View this thread

The art of Hitler. For sale. What a roundabout way to up the value of your paintings.
posted on Jul 16, 2006 - View this thread

Schaulager, Basel, Switzerland. "If art is not seen it is dead. If art is not conserved, it decays. Schaulager - a new type of space for art." Originating from the Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation, whose collection is stored at Schaulager under optimal conservation conditions, Schaulager is an institution dedicated to contemporary art – its conservation, research and dissemination. Building designed by architects Herzog & de Meuron.
posted on Jul 12, 2006 - View this thread

Edward James (1907 - 1984) was a millionaire Scottish, art patron and surrealist who moved to Mexico in 1947 to grow orchids. After the orchids were destroyed by a freak snowstorm in 1962, he decided to switch to experiments in architecture. He built a monument to surrealism called Las Pozas, just outside of Xilitla. [more inside]
posted on Jul 11, 2006 - View this thread

The Works of Giovanni Battista Piranesi: high-resolution scans of all of Piranesi’s etchings. Also, the plates from Les Ruines De Pompei by François Mazois (1812-38), and, the complete 9-volume Le Antichità di Ercolano Esposte (The Antiquities discovered in Herculaneum) published in Naples from 1755-62. Also, at the same site (UT-PICURE: the Center for Research on Pictorial Cultural Resources, at The University of Tokyo), images from the Stibbert Collection of Japanese costume.
posted on Jul 4, 2006 - View this thread

Utopian Modernism In London: A Series Of Drifts... is a tour of modernist landmarks, tying architectural practice to politics and movements in art. Author Owen Hatherley also keeps a weblog chiefly concerned with art and utopianism in Weimar Germany and the early Soviet Union. Photographer Ludwig Abache's site contains more architectural imagery, from London and beyond. (via newthings)
posted on Jun 28, 2006 - View this thread

The Kingston Bridge, a neglected urban bridge in Glasgow was recently resurrected as a public work of art by Leni Schwendinger. Lighting was added under the bridge to highlight the architecture but it also reacted to use. The more traffic flowing on the roads above, the more red is displayed, as the tide rises, blues dominate, resulting in some pretty cool, ever-changing public art on a grand scale.
posted on May 23, 2006 - View this thread

The Site of Reversible Destiny is an "experience park" conceived on the theme of encountering the unexpected. By guiding visitors through various unexpected experiences as they walk through its component areas, the Site offers them opportunities to rethink their physical and spiritual orientation to the world. [via]
posted on Mar 13, 2006 - View this thread

The "D" stands for Demolition. In an attempt at building awareness of Detroit's rotting, decaying neighborhoods(as if one needed further awareness), the Detroit Demolition Disneyland project finds long-abandoned, neglected structures that the city has failed to demolish and paints them with Tiggerific Orange paint.
posted on Feb 15, 2006 - View this thread

Carlo Mollino [Polaroids section NSFW] A student of the occult, he was an Architect, Designer, race car enthusiast and photographer [NSFW]
posted on Feb 1, 2006 - View this thread

The Alvin Lustig Archive - "Alvin Lustig's contributions to the design of books and book jackets, magazines, interiors, and textiles as well as his teachings would have made him a credible candidate for the AIGA Lifetime Achievement award when he was alive...Lustig created monuments of ingenuity and objects of aesthetic pleasure." The archive collects over 400 examples of his book, architectural, and ad-design work (see also AIGA's list of Lustig's Top-10 designs). Via HOW magazine...
posted on Dec 20, 2005 - View this thread

Sir John Soane (1753-1837) was responsible for the design of quite a few of London’s public buildings (and to some extent, its phonebooths). His home, now a museum, is filled to the brim with architectural relics, sculptures, paintings, drawings, stained glass, and assorted curiosities. Almost unchanged since his death, it also contains the gravesite of his wife’s beloved dog Fanny, a mummified rat, an Egyptian sarcophagus, and an imaginary monk named Padre Giovanni. Best of all, on the first Tuesday of every month the museum has a candlelight tour which enhances the spooky splendor of the rooms.
posted on Dec 15, 2005 - View this thread

Yee is a Canadian Artist. His company Yee's Job is located in Montreal. He designs & handcrafts all kind of paper craft, such as a working V-8 engine made of paper, a paper biplane clock, the Cathedral at Notre Dame and more.
posted on Dec 14, 2005 - View this thread

Soft Cinema is a software+video project by media-theorist Lev Manovich, which 'mines the creative possibilities at the intersection of software culture, cinema, and architecture.' While perhaps more intriguing in prospect than in practice, it seems at least a noteworthy attempt at making something new. A DVD version of the project was released earlier this year.
posted on Nov 17, 2005 - View this thread

Angkor Wat guide. "Published in 1944 in Saigon, republished in 1948 and again in Paris in 1963, The Monuments of the Angkor Group by Maurice Glaize remains the most comprehensive of the guidebooks and the most easily accessible to a wide public, dedicated to one of the most fabled architectural ensembles in the world." Now online, updated, with maps and photos. (More Angkor Wat links in this previous post.) Via Plep.
posted on Nov 14, 2005 - View this thread

Under Foot and Between the Boards in the Laurential Library "Within the Laurentian Library, the enigmatic masterwork of Michelangelo, there exists a complex geometric pavement that is hidden from view, little known about and shrouded with mystery...Why had an immensely complicated pavement been constructed, only to be covered over?"
posted on Oct 23, 2005 - View this thread

Peter Feigenbaum is a model train enthusiast and Yale architecture student who designed & built a more realistic urban world for his train to go through. Full photo gallery here.
posted on Oct 17, 2005 - View this thread

Buildings that never were: Unrealized Moscow - grand scale architectural projects from the mid 1930s to the early 1950s.
posted on Jun 22, 2005 - View this thread

Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities is so called because it asserts that what makes up a city is not so much its physical structure but the impression it imparts upon its visitors, the way its inhabitants move within, something unseen that hums between the cracks. This, however, has in no way dissuaded people from attempting to give form to his works. One such example is the Hotel Tressants, a building in Menorca, Spain containing 8 rooms named after and inspired by various cities from the novel. Meanwhile, artists offer illustrations^1,2,3, installations ^1,2,3,4,5, music^1,2,3,4,5,6 and dance, hypertexts^1,2, computer programs and animations, even View-Master slides, while intellectuals offer readings and commentary^1,2, lectures^1,2, and critical texts^1,2,3 sparked by the man and his writings. It has been dubbed "The Calvino Effect". Do you know of any more?
posted on May 20, 2005 - View this thread

Design Observer and the New York Times (reg. req'd) on modernism.
posted on May 16, 2005 - View this thread

Meiji architecture The Meiji Mura is an open-air museum with many examples of Japanese Meiji-period architecture from between the mid 19th century and the early decades of the 20th. The buildings, often rescued from the threat of demolition, show how Japan developed its own distinctive modern architectural style during this period.
posted on May 14, 2005 - View this thread

Virtual Reality Tours of Seven European Churches Beautiful quicktime panoramas taken inside and outside of the churches. Navigate using maps or image hotspots. I really like the Sant' Andrea Mantova, built by Alberti between 1470 and 1476.
posted on Feb 26, 2005 - View this thread

Fabulous images of the Moscow Metro underground, also known as "the people's palaces". Click "M"s on the entry map to view gorgeous (often architecturally surreal) panoramic images, and visit the picture gallery for sweet details. Via Jorgen at Viewropa.
posted on Jan 14, 2005 - View this thread

Charles Eames (1907-78) and Ray Eames (1912-88) gave shape to America's twentieth century. Their lives and work represented the nation's defining social movements: the West Coast's coming-of-age, the economy's shift from making goods to the producing information, and the global expansion of American culture. This Library of Congress exhibit outlines major themes of the Eames' life and voluminous works, including architecture, furniture, and the film Powers of Ten. It is wonderfully illustrated with artifacts, photos of their life and work, and examples from the Eames' collection of 350,000 slides.
posted on Jan 12, 2005 - View this thread

Thomas Shine, a former Yale student, is suing David Childs for copyright infringement Mr. Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill for copyright infringement over the design of the Freedom Tower located at Ground Zero. Shine alleges in his lawsuit that the proposed Freedom Tower was "strikingly similar" to his "Olympic Tower" design for the proposed 2012 Olympic Games in New York.
posted on Nov 10, 2004 - View this thread

New! Fast! Automatic! Now! Archigram!
posted on Sep 30, 2004 - View this thread

IslamicArchitecture.org : Islamic architecture, Islamic patterns and Islamic calligraphy.
posted on Sep 5, 2004 - View this thread

Architecture pilgrimage. Sketches of the world's great architecture.
posted on Jul 2, 2004 - View this thread

Draft machine parts, not people! The Industrial Art Gallery is a collection of vintage engineering drawings. Perfect cover art for all you emo/math rock types. [via mimi smartypants]
posted on Apr 20, 2004 - View this thread

Insecula. As the Wiki says:

Insecula: L'encyclopédie des arts et de l'architecture is a French language art website containing images and descriptions of thousands of works of art from major museums and collections in France and elsewhere, including the Louvre, the Musée d'Orsay, the Palace of Versailles, the Centre Pompidou, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the MOMA.

But it's not just museums and art. It's got Mayan ruins, Manhattan and Brooklyn, and of course lots of Paris streets. I can't believe plep hasn't posted this already...
posted on Apr 10, 2004 - View this thread

Art In Ruins chronicles the economic and cultural transformation of Providence, Rhode Island through the eyes of artists, architects, and urban planners.
posted on Feb 7, 2004 - View this thread

The Mushroom House in Whistler, Canada, is the result of 22 years of work by artist/creator Zube. "The interior design is based on the anatomy of a tree. All aspects of the décor reflect this motif, from the womblike hues of the Jacuzzi room in the 'roots' to the vivid leaf greens on the walls in the 'canopy'." [Via Boing Boing.]
posted on Dec 9, 2003 - View this thread

Welcome to ArtServe: Art & Architecture mainly from the Mediterranean Basin and Japan.
posted on Nov 29, 2003 - View this thread

The Courtald Institute of Art , via Art and Architecture, has made 40,00 images, and much else besides, available online. One more reason to love the web.
posted on Nov 27, 2003 - View this thread

Chinese Pop Posters. More :- Guangzhou's racing track, patrolling despair, Cuba, under New York, Bombay bazaar, and Chinese rural architecture. All from the excellent Atlas magazine - more here.
posted on Jul 21, 2003 - View this thread

The monstrous fauna of the cathedrals... although less polished than the prev. mentioned A Love of Monsters, this collection of gargoyle photographs - largely from British churches - more than makes amends with its enthusiasm for its subject.
posted on Jul 15, 2003 - View this thread

The Vertically Inclined Photographer: Shooting Paris, Rome, the French Riviera and the Loire Valley from a low-flying plane is Patrick Durand's photographic obsession. It's an interesting flat alternative to Horst Hamann's [click on "Gallery" and go to "New Verticals"] tall vertical New York. There's something very exciting about looking at familiar sights from an unfamiliar point of view. [Both sites very, perhaps too Flash.]
posted on Jul 4, 2003 - View this thread

The Timeless Theater. Extensive guide to the cultures of India - architecture, arts, religion etc.
Related interest :- Indian Temples.
posted on Apr 28, 2003 - View this thread

"Bastarda"! What is it? Well, silly, it's a style of Gothic script, of course, used chiefly in the 14th and 15th centuries and so-called because it combines characteristics of the Gothic cursive style with the more formal "textura". Why do I know this? Because I've been surfing the mighty-wonderful Getty Art & Architecture Thesaurus. More...
posted on Feb 11, 2003 - View this thread

Hidden Mickeys: In designing, constructing or adding the final touches to a Disney park attraction, Imagineers subtly "hide" Mickey Mouse silhouettes in plain sight.
posted on Nov 9, 2002 - View this thread

The Russian Avant-Garde Book is an online version of the MoMA exhibit, featuring 112 books originally published in Russia during the intensely creative period between 1910 and 1934, before Stalin outlawed any style but social realism. The site is separated into three chronological themes and includes examples of futurist works, constructivist graphic design, children's books, propaganda, photography and photomontage, revolutionary imagery, architecture and industry, war themes, folk art and judaica...
posted on Oct 8, 2002 - View this thread

To be a great photographer, Garry Winogrand liked to claim during the 1970's, it was first of all necessary to be Jewish Why didn't they tell me this in art school? (via NYTimes)
posted on Jul 7, 2002 - View this thread

Things Fall Apart. Particularly in urban environments. Individually, the moments of entropy-in-action caught here may not mean much; collectively, they recite a visual poem about decay. A slightly melancholy site for you insomniacs out there. (By the way, you have to scroll right to get to the thumbnails.)
posted on Apr 3, 2002 - View this thread

A new temple for new technology (NY Times). The digital arts organization Eyebeam have chosen a design by the web-savvy firm of Diller+Scofidio to build their new Museum of Art and Technology, from a shortlist of thirteen. Any thoughts on architecture for new media? And iMac-colored buildings?
posted on Mar 21, 2002 - View this thread

Contemporary art, in general, seems to be rather risky. After seeing an example of modern architecture in the incubatory stages, I wonder why our buildings and spaces are so aesthetically traditional. [more inside]
posted on Jul 15, 2001 - View this thread