Yesterdays Technology, Today



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Back to the fabulous Modern Mechanix magazine, or rather the superb online archive maintained here ("Yesterdays technology, today"). Its pages are like a 1940s version of Dezeen, with a dash of Neaorama, a dollop of WMMNA and a sprinkle of BldgBlog - like looking at a satire of our own obsessions through the lens of nostalgia.

It's full of ideas that have kept on surfacing in the guise of 'new' over the last half a century: Houses of the future, homes made from converted industrial equipment, ingenious labour saving devices, insane solutions to everyday problems, and a hysterical feeling that we must be nearing the outer limits of the kind of objects it is possible to imagine.

I've cherry-picked a few of my favourites, but these are just a sample of the incredible array of Neo-Dada-ist tactics, surreal material pallets, ingenious mechanics and much much more.

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Posted by sam at January 10, 2008 11:23 PM



Previously trans_blank.gif

A Cubist Copse: Gehrys Serpentine Pavilion trans_blank.gif

Olympic Model Protesttrans_blank.gif

Spouting Off: Some Thoughts On The Fountainheadtrans_blank.gif

Form Follows Dysfunction: Bad Construction & The Morality of Detailtrans_blank.gif

Floating Homestrans_blank.gif

Vintage Tradeshow Surrealism: International Grune Wochetrans_blank.gif

Moving Houses: Buildings In Motiontrans_blank.gif

Desktop Study: The Strange World of Sports Studio Designtrans_blank.gif

Married to the Eiffel Tower: More Objectum Sexualstrans_blank.gif

60 Years of The Crazy Horse Memorialtrans_blank.gif

Married to the Berlin Wall: "The Best and Sexiest Wall Ever Existed!"trans_blank.gif

Inflatable Icebergs: Sublimated Guilt Has Never Been So Funtrans_blank.gif

The Cinderella Effect: Phantom Architectures of Illuminationtrans_blank.gif

Two Deaths and a Retirement: The Strange Shape of British Architecturetrans_blank.gif

If London Were Like New York: Antique Schizo-Manhattanismtrans_blank.gif

If London Were Like Venice: Antique Geo-Poetic Speculations and Hydro-Fantasytrans_blank.gif

41 Hours in an Elevator: The Movietrans_blank.gif

NASA: Mapping the Moon with Sporttrans_blank.gif

Lemon Squeezy: Design Tendencies after the Juicy Salif trans_blank.gif

Stadium Seat Mosaicstrans_blank.gif

The Nihilistic Beauty of Weapons Arranged in Patternstrans_blank.gif

Light Vessel Automatatrans_blank.gif

Dogs: Britains Greatest Design Obsessiontrans_blank.gif

Madison Avenue Moderntrans_blank.gif

Detroit Sucks: The Motor Shows Last Gasptrans_blank.gif

Mies' Grave: Cut Out Modeltrans_blank.gif

All You Can Eattrans_blank.gif

Valentine Machinetrans_blank.gif

The Tools of Re-Geographytrans_blank.gif

Floating in a New Town Skytrans_blank.gif

Authentic Replicas: Football and the Franchising of Placetrans_blank.gif

Folk Football: Landscape, Space and Abstractiontrans_blank.gif

Haystack Housetrans_blank.gif

A Wishing Well with a Fat Up Pipetrans_blank.gif

The Camoufluers and the Day-Glo Battleshiptrans_blank.gif

Pseudoccino: Instant Coffee Foamtrans_blank.gif

Yesterdays Technology, Todaytrans_blank.gif

Blown Up: More Inflatable Military Stufftrans_blank.gif

On Christmas Trees, Folk Forests and Staples Office Suppliestrans_blank.gif

Hampton Courts Shrouded Sculpturestrans_blank.gif

Named Fabric: 20 Sponsored Pieces of Architecture at the New Museumtrans_blank.gif

Form Follows Felony: The Secret Home of the Un-Dead Canoeist.trans_blank.gif

Architectural Magazines: Paranoid Beliefs, Public Autotheraphy - More on Clip/Stamp/Foldtrans_blank.gif

Little Magazines Seen Todaytrans_blank.gif

James Bond Lives Next Door: Suburban Imagery as Industrytrans_blank.gif

The Ghost of Christmas Futurismtrans_blank.gif

Petrified War Machinetrans_blank.gif

Military Deceptionstrans_blank.gif

Chapters for an Imaginary Book About Architecturetrans_blank.gif

Shrouded Plinth - Urban Stripteasetrans_blank.gif

In the Night Garden - Surreal Landscape of Nostalgia trans_blank.gif

Kim Jong II, The Great Architecttrans_blank.gif

Pill Box Picturesquetrans_blank.gif

Un Clear Monumenttrans_blank.gif

Place Faking: Instant Heritage for the Thames Gatewaytrans_blank.gif

The Marc Bolan Memorial Crash Barrier. trans_blank.gif

Warped Domesticitytrans_blank.gif

The Nuclear Heritage Coasttrans_blank.gif

Enjoy The Silence: Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones trans_blank.gif

The Story of O (2) trans_blank.gif

Telly Savalas Looks At Birminghamtrans_blank.gif

X100: A Design Exercisetrans_blank.gif

How to Plan A New Towntrans_blank.gif

Carpet Bombertrans_blank.gif

In Search of Britains Vehicular Historytrans_blank.gif

Scenes in Cartoon Desertatrans_blank.gif

Scary Suburbanism: Why Horror is at Home in the Suburbstrans_blank.gif

Re-Make Re-Modeltrans_blank.gif

I Like Your Manifesto, Lets Put it to the Test-otrans_blank.gif

How to Become a Famous Architecttrans_blank.gif

Northampton - Sci-fi Pop Planning Promotiontrans_blank.gif

Advertising Central Milton Keynestrans_blank.gif

Baltic Exchangedtrans_blank.gif

Festival of Nostalgiatrans_blank.gif

The Clapham Trainwashtrans_blank.gif

Airports as Musictrans_blank.gif

Test Card Dummiestrans_blank.gif

The Velvet Underground at the Glass Housetrans_blank.gif

Duplikate: Kate Moss on the Production Line of Individuality trans_blank.gif

The Museum that Ate Itselftrans_blank.gif

Hollow Inside: Starbucks Foam and the Rise of Ambiguous Materials trans_blank.gif

Revisions to the Architecture of Helltrans_blank.gif

Crufts: Dogs, Design and Aesthetic Genetics trans_blank.gif

Eos Airlines: Executive Bubbles over the Atlantic trans_blank.gif

London's Ugliest Buildingstrans_blank.gif

1.51 Miles Of Stringtrans_blank.gif

Google Earths Vertiginous Mapping trans_blank.gif

Church of the Ascension and Descension trans_blank.gif

Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles trans_blank.gif

Replica Bombs trans_blank.gif

The Invisible Bungalow trans_blank.gif

House / Boat trans_blank.gif

Reading Lines: Skateboarding and Public Space trans_blank.gif

Mountain Sculpting trans_blank.gif

Sint Lucas in BD trans_blank.gif

Bat House Competition trans_blank.gif

Old Walton Bridge trans_blank.gif

Kiruna: The Town That Moved trans_blank.gif

Spray On Magnetic Defense trans_blank.gif

Chris Cornish: Prototyping History trans_blank.gif

The Jubilee Gestalt Vase trans_blank.gif

The Most Visited Location in the UK trans_blank.gif

Anything to Feel Weightless Again: The Cargo Lifter and the Tropical Island Resort trans_blank.gif

'Its beauty will know no season' trans_blank.gif

2000 Years of Non Stop Nostalgia. Or How Half Timbering Made Me Whole Again. trans_blank.gif

Inside-out Aldwych trans_blank.gif

Backpeddling into the Future: The Historical-Futurism of British Architecture trans_blank.gif

Miss Selfridges' Feeling for Fake Snow. The Oxford St. Lights and Why We Need Artificial Winter trans_blank.gif

Nelsons Cavern trans_blank.gif

Foam Gargoyle trans_blank.gif

New Tory Logo: A Hazy Shade of Politics trans_blank.gif

Jeff Koons, Rem Koolhaas, Hans Ulrich Obrist at the Serpentine trans_blank.gif

Souvenir Empire trans_blank.gif

Celebrity Scents: The Bittersweet Smell of Success trans_blank.gif

Imperfect Pitch - Football, Space and Landscape trans_blank.gif

Product Placement: Making the Impossible Possible trans_blank.gif

Suburban Growth: Matthew Moores Field of Dreams trans_blank.gif

Perfect Sound Forever: The Secret Function of High End Stereos trans_blank.gif

Picture of the Week 1 trans_blank.gif

A Little Light Product Placement trans_blank.gif

Some Advice To A Young Designer trans_blank.gif

London and on and on trans_blank.gif

In the Gallery of Ice Creams trans_blank.gif

Useless Proclamations for a Beautiful City trans_blank.gif

Mini Mies Chair trans_blank.gif

Topsy Turvy VSBA: Inverted Heros of an Upside Down Avant Guard trans_blank.gif

Harvest III: Buried Things trans_blank.gif

The Harvest II trans_blank.gif

The Harvest I trans_blank.gif

Estuary Urbanism trans_blank.gif

The Royal Families Trees trans_blank.gif

Everything Flows: ideological cartography trans_blank.gif

How Geostationary Was My Valley? trans_blank.gif

The Psychotic Utopia of the Suburbs and the Suburbanisation of War. trans_blank.gif

LegoLand London Cluster trans_blank.gif

In a Lonely Place - Under Construction trans_blank.gif

Design Will Eat Itself trans_blank.gif

Mach 3 Nitro Gel - Design that's foaming at the mouth. trans_blank.gif

Marchitecture. Architectural things to do in London this March trans_blank.gif

Metallic Jet Powered Cloud trans_blank.gif

"When we got married I had no idea he would do something like this, he just said he was going to do some decorating." trans_blank.gif

The Electric Cenotaph trans_blank.gif

Russian Rok trans_blank.gif

Commitment ... trans_blank.gif

Dinner in the Iguanadon trans_blank.gif

Trace trans_blank.gif

What happens when you cross a pen with a car? trans_blank.gif

Leg Table Leg trans_blank.gif

Florentine Building Sites trans_blank.gif

Good Morning Britain trans_blank.gif

Football Pitch: Best of British trans_blank.gif

The Sad Photographer trans_blank.gif

The First Cut is the Cheapest - Blenheim Palace: pop architecture that goes for the jugular trans_blank.gif

Book Now For Christmas trans_blank.gif

Requiem for a Toilet Seat trans_blank.gif

Architecture that Destroys trans_blank.gif

TomTom Mobile 5 / GO 700 trans_blank.gif

Winning Design trans_blank.gif

Another Croydon trans_blank.gif

Holiday Snap II : Giant Glowing French Balls trans_blank.gif

Holiday Snap: Canadian War Memorial, Vimy, France trans_blank.gif

Pecha Kucha London trans_blank.gif

Anatomy of an Architectural News Story trans_blank.gif

Big Bens trans_blank.gif

First Cut - Case Closed trans_blank.gif

The Texas Tower trans_blank.gif

Its All About the Big Benjamins trans_blank.gif

G8 Security Tower trans_blank.gif

White Cubed Blues trans_blank.gif

Poundbury, unexpectedly, in the rain trans_blank.gif

The Exploding Concrete Inevitable. Lou Reed and the Casa da Musica trans_blank.gif

Swingball trans_blank.gif

Untitled (Plastic Sack and Timber) trans_blank.gif

Berlin 1945 - The Obscene Picturesque trans_blank.gif

Pizza Planet trans_blank.gif

Goal Sculptures trans_blank.gif

Interview: Jeremy Deller & Alan Kane trans_blank.gif

Previewing Cedric Price trans_blank.gif

The Mardas Touch trans_blank.gif

Building a Lionel Richie Head trans_blank.gif

Ornament is Grime 2 trans_blank.gif

An Incredible Smell of Roasting Coffee trans_blank.gif

Flatpack Frenzy at New IKEA trans_blank.gif

Langlands & Bell - The House of Osama Bin Laden trans_blank.gif

Labour is kind of working trans_blank.gif

Happy Death Men trans_blank.gif

Build to Let trans_blank.gif

Architectural Criticism gets Sharp trans_blank.gif

Niagara Falls trans_blank.gif

Ornament is Grime trans_blank.gif

FA(ke) Cup trans_blank.gif

Q&A: Wouter Vanstiphout trans_blank.gif

X-treme urinals trans_blank.gif

Unigate Cowscape trans_blank.gif

Spray-on Snow trans_blank.gif

From the Baffler ... trans_blank.gif

One in a Taxi trans_blank.gif

The Queen Machine trans_blank.gif

The Knork trans_blank.gif

Venturi, Scott Brown and my love that dare not speak its name. trans_blank.gif

Polictical Placards trans_blank.gif

The Ketchup Conumdrum trans_blank.gif

Douglas Coupland: Design and Fiction trans_blank.gif

It's a Small Worldtrans_blank.gif

Images de Parfums trans_blank.gif

Soft Carcass trans_blank.gif

Christopher Dresser at the V&A trans_blank.gif

Blow up Pub trans_blank.gif

Municipal Mummification trans_blank.gif

The Matt and Ron Show trans_blank.gif

Semi - detached trans_blank.gif

Half Timbered Van trans_blank.gif

Feltham Future trans_blank.gif

Favorite Things trans_blank.gif

Fugitives and Refugees' - Chuck Palahniuk trans_blank.gif

The Pop Vernacular trans_blank.gif

Design by Chefs trans_blank.gif

Just What is it That Makes Yesterdays Homes So Different, So Appealing? trans_blank.gif

Archigrams Pastoral Futurism trans_blank.gif

Sorry Mies trans_blank.gif

Everything Counts - The Sound of Geography Collapsing. trans_blank.gif

Carlton Terrace Extension trans_blank.gif

Projects trans_blank.gif

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Highways

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Fork Hook

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Rest In Peace

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California Dreamin'

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