Links / Architecture

  • Apple opens Apple Music Hall in London

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    Battersea Power Station seen from across the Thames, its four white chimneys against a cloudy sky

    Apple opened a 600-capacity venue inside Battersea Power Station yesterday. The room borrows from the power station it sits in—heritage brickwork, fluted arches, bronze balconies. In an age where concert venues are usually not much more than a black box with a logo over its door, this looks beautifully done.

    The hall seen from the side, with bronze balconies cantilevered over the floor
    A greenroom in the Apple Music Radio studios: red sofas on a red rug, brick walls, a turntable on the sideboard
    The foyer of Apple Music Hall: a red velvet sofa and a staircase under exposed brick and steel
    Apple Music Hall and the new Apple Music Radio studios, images courtesy of Apple

    There are two mix studios, a 48-speaker spatial system around the audience, and sixteen-odd hardwired cameras feeding a broadcast control room. An artist can play one intimate show and leave with a finished Spatial Audio recording, a broadcast mix and multicamera video.

    Very clever, and a very expensive way of funneling listeners to an Apple Music subscription. (I guess this explains the push notification I received for a new two-month trial.)

  • H-Bomb: A Frank Lloyd Wright Typographic Mystery

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    (The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives)
    Image from The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives

    A geeky typographic deep-dive into upside-down H’s.

  • Designing A 100-Year Home In Accra

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    3D model of the home

    A long read distilling two years of learning by Emmanuel Quartey, who designed a home for his family in Accra, Ghana. Fascinating peek at the design process—one can only hope to be able to dabble with a project like this at some point in life.

  • Building a modern home

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    A long summary of Johnny Rodgers' experience building a modern home in the woods. "It covers the 5 years from before we bought the land to after we completed the house and took residency." Inspiring read, reminiscent of the one by Emmanuel.

  • Eames Institute

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    Eames Institute

    The Eames Institute enlisted Instrument to "co-create a digital platform to unveil their vast collection to the world". A dream client if there ever was one, the folks at Instrument asked themselves: can a website have a soul? The answer is a resounding yes, and the accompanying case study documents that work beautifully.

  • Designing A New Old Home

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    Simon Sarris’ house, by Simon Sarris

    I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about and making improvements on our house in the past year. Our house is old (built around 1907) and, while we have some forward-looking plans, it is sometimes difficult to know where or how to start. In swoops Simon Sarris’ Substack. He built a beautiful home in New Hampshire and has documented the process, providing some useful guidance and recommendations along the way.