The United Kingdom’s House and Garden Magazine recently celebrated their 60th anniversary – that is a great many years to be telling people how to decorate their homes! To commemorate the occasion, they have chosen some highlights from the six decades they have been around to wallow in nostalgia over … adverts, food dishes, fabrics, designs, household objects and famous designers from each decade are listedon their website.
While at least half the decades are rather more recent than our door hardware would match, 50s and 60s homes often do well with a bit of period-style! Their list is great value, both for design ideas and just curiosity and poignancy. The fifties advert, for example, highlights ‘Formica: The Pride of Your Kitchen!’. Ah, how things change… Check it out for a giggle and a bit of wonderment.
One that Internet regulars among us will appreciate Although perhaps, from the photo, it should say ‘Door Handle not Found’?! Funnily, this would no doubt be a lovely metaphorical interpretation of what actually happens when a web page is not found – there simply is no way to get into the site :-) And finally, we definitely know where you can get a door handle!
God bless academics, that can make the simplest and most beautiful of things into an adventure into the dictionary. Did you know that door knobs are also ‘cognitive affordances’?
I’m going to have to use some direct quotes here, as the language is impossible to paraphrase:
As you’ve no doubt realised, (although only since discovering the Architectural Classics blog!), the Internet is occasionally useful for something other than sales and advertising! Our gem of a site for this month is The National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (NIAH), an effectively and simply designed register of architectural heritage in Ireland – home of our headquarters. In the future we’ll be looking at similar sites in other countries … but for now there are enough gorgeously composed, traditional buildings to satisfy any one of you!
Part of being a great website is not only having a great idea, but executing it properly according to what is easiest for the web. This site does that so well – with an easy to navigate homepage, a nicely limited number of options, with easy-to-spot links and a great use of colour to direct your eye. If you want to look at beautiful buildings, go straight to the Building Surveys link at the bottom left of the page. If gardens are more your thing, go for the green box. There are also quick links on the home page to the building of the month (so many to choose from!), to NIAH publications, as well as a whole bunch of resources regarding architectural history.
Thank goodness they haven’t yet invented one of these for your home! We would be out of a job.This is a disappearing car door – and I challenge you to see how it works the first time you see it … or even the third time! It really does seem to disappear without a trace the first few times you see this door open.
The United Kingdom’s House and Garden Magazine recently celebrated their 60th anniversary – that is a great many years to be telling people how to decorate their homes! To commemorate the occasion, they have chosen some highlights from the six decades they have been around to wallow in nostalgia over … adverts, food dishes, fabrics, designs, household objects and famous designers from each decade are listedon their website.
