Russia's aesthetic revolution: How Soviet building still influences today's architects - Architecture, Arts & Entertainment - The Independent: "In the courtyard of London's Royal Academy of Arts stands the 20th century's most avant-garde strand of architectural genetics. The veering red spiral, intersected by a girder jutting through it like a rocket launcher, is a copy of the original model of the Monument to the Third International, designed by Vladimir Tatlin in 1920. Had it been built to its intended scale as the headquarters of the Communist party, it would have dwarfed the Eiffel Tower. In a world awash with "iconic" architecture, nothing comes even close to radiating the raw potency of this truly revolutionary form."
Nobody is designing for a time when roads and oil and cars will all be part of the history we want to forget. And if function really does follow form, this retro NYT piece flags the apex of visionlessness, hardly an influence one would wish to emulate.
