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Architecture

Vintage Photos of Bizarre World’s Fair Architecture

By Claire Cottrell on

A few weeks ago we took a look at some of the most bizarre buildings we’ve ever seen: the strange Soviet architecture that emerged during a fascinating era of extreme artistic inquiry fueled — as so many are — by social revolution. Now that we’re officially obsessed with far-out retro-future design, we literally fell off of our chair when we came across the progressive pavilions built for two World Expos that we would have loved to attend. From a building that looks like a giant blue Jell-O mold to a larger-than-life paper forest, click through to take a quick virtual tour of some of the most incredible structures we’ve ever seen. … Read More

Architecture

The Most Beautiful Opera Houses in the World

By Alison Nastasi on

Rising from the Oslofjord inlet like an iceberg is the Oslo Opera House. Co.Design recently wrote about a faceted wall installation inside the modern performance space created by Danish-Icelandic artist, Olafur Eliasson. Glowing walls line the foyer, adding a striking effect. We felt inspired by the design and went searching for some of the most beautiful opera houses in the world. These grandiose venues conjure the drama, history, and craft associated with the art form. Take a trip around the world in our gallery, where we’ve selected 15 of the most stunning spaces for opera aficionados and architecture/design lovers. … Read More

Art

Early Saul Bass Poster Sketches for ‘The Shining’

By Alison Nastasi on

Designers are often faced with demanding clients, and we can’t think of a bigger perfectionist an artist would be rattled to impress other than Stanley Kubrick. It’s a well-known fact that Kubrick put actors and crew through their paces, often shooting dozens of takes for just one scene. It looks like Kubrick was no different when it came to the posters for his iconic horror film, The Shining. Famed designer Saul Bass, who created the original poster for the movie, worked with Kubrick to perfect the artwork. The Fox is Black noted: ”I’ve read online that Kubrick made Bass go through at least 300 versions of the poster until finally ending on the extremely alien looking version we now know.” The greatest parts about the images are the notes Bass (or Stanley?) made and the fish doodle next to Bass’ signature. Take a closer look in our gallery. … Read More

Architecture

The Most Beautiful Wellness Retreats in the World

By Claire Cottrell on

A New Year is upon us and now that the holidays are over, it’s back to business as usual (supposedly) all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Recovering from combative cousins, tedious travel, and the countless cocktails that got you through it all is admittedly hard when you’re readjusting to the daily grind. Enter the wellness retreat. If you feel like you’re needing a vacation from your vacation, then set some time aside to join us in one of our favorite virtual pleasures: restorative research in the form of globe-trotting to rejuvenating retreats. From the world’s largest natural mineral spa in Turkey to Pritzker Prize laureate Norman Foster’s luxe and lavish spa in Switzerland, click through to check out the most beautiful healthy havens in the world. … Read More

Books

The 20 Most Beautiful Bookstores in the World

By Emily Temple on

[Editor's note: In celebration of the holidays, we're counting down the top 12 Flavorwire features of 2012. This post, at #1, was originally published January 31.] With Amazon slowly taking over the publishing world and bookstores closing left and right, things can sometimes seem a little grim for the brick and mortar booksellers of the world. After all, why would anyone leave the comfort of their couch to buy a book when with just a click of a button, they could have it delivered to their door? Well, here’s why: bookstores so beautiful they’re worth getting out of the house (or the country) to visit whether you need a new hardcover or not. We can’t overestimate the importance of bookstores — they’re community centers, places to browse and discover, and monuments to literature all at once — so we’ve put together a list of the most beautiful bookstores in the world, from Belgium to Japan to Slovakia. Just so you know now, all you bookstore fiends: neither the Strand nor Powell’s is on this list. They’re both great bookstores, of course, but not particularly pretty (at least in our minds), and thus disqualified. Click through to see our picks for the most beautiful bookstores in the world, and as always, if we’ve left off your favorite, be sure to add to the collection in the comments! … Read More

Books

The 25 Most Beautiful Public Libraries in the World

By Emily Temple on

[Editor's note: In celebration of the holidays, we're counting down the top 12 Flavorwire features of 2012. This post, at #3, was originally published April 16.] We’re suckers for beautiful libraries here at Flavorpill, as you might have noticed from our lists of beautiful college libraries and beautiful private libraries from all over the world. But public libraries are probably even more important to the culture at large than either of these — they’re places where anyone can enter and partake of knowledge they offer, where anyone can engage with history, literature and culture. And while we know it’s the books that are important, everyone likes to read in a beautiful space, so we decided to take a look at the most beautiful public libraries in the world. We excluded some very beautiful libraries that may be open to the public as museums or tourist attractions but with limited function as actual libraries, like the Vatican library (which to use, you must prove your qualifications and research needs) and the library of Dutch Parliament, but we think there are enough public libraries proper to make up for their loss. Click through to see our choices for the twenty five most beautiful public libraries in the world, and let us know if we’ve missed your favorite in the comments. … Read More

Design

The 20 Most Extraordinary Hotel Rooms in the World

By Claire Cottrell on

[Editor's note: In celebration of the holidays, we're counting down the top 12 Flavorwire features of 2012. This post, at #5, was originally published February 29.] As much as we love virtual globetrotting, we live for real world travel adventures. If you’re like us and spend weeks obsessively planning every last detail of your trip to ensure that your not-often-enough vacation is maximized to the hilt, consider this our gift to you. We’ve scoured every inch of the great world wide web to create a guide to designed sleeping experiences that are anything but ordinary.

The English writer G.K. Chesterton, notably George Bernard Shaw’s frenemy, said “there are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds.” From the surrealist creation of our favorite discreet Belgian fashion designer to pillows made of chocolate and ice to a toon shaded room by a German comic book artist that will make you feel like you stepped into the world of Jessica Rabbit, click through to see what strange and wonderful places await the next time you’re trying to maximize your unconscious dreamstate. We want to try them all, but let us know in the comments which one you’re dying to stay in! … Read More

Architecture

Stunning Photographs of Vintage Parisian Architecture

By Claire Cottrell on

The big-screen adaptation of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables opens in theaters tomorrow, and we couldn’t be more excited. Considered one of the greatest novels of the 19th century, the five-volume, 365-chapter tale is as much a meditation on the complex moral and social struggles of humanity as it is a historical study of France and the architecture and urban design of Paris. The tome was first published in 1862, just before the beginning of the beguiling Belle Époque, or beautiful era, France’s golden age of affluence and artistic creativity that occurred before the turmoil of the First World War. From the architectural wonders built for the same World’s Fair that gave us the Eiffel Tower to the most famous, elaborate Art Nouveau restaurant, click through to be reminded of the design epoch that gave us one of the world’s most whimsical and romantic cities. … Read More

Architecture

The Most Spectacular Buildings That Were Never Built

By Claire Cottrell on

From Frank Lloyd Wright’s daring design for a resort high atop the Hollywood Hills to Antonio Gaudi’s grand, unrealized hotel in Manhattan, click through to check out some of the world’s most spectacular buildings that never made it off the drawing board.… Read More

New York

The History Behind New York City's Most Iconic Holiday Decorations

By Courtney E. Smith on

Visitors descend on New York City during the holidays to eat highly suspicious roasted chestnuts from food carts, take in the holiday storefronts along Fifth Avenue, and see some of the most iconic decorations in North America in and along Rockefeller Center.

Between Thanksgiving weekend and New Years Eve, you can view a slew of bigger-than-life-sized art exhibits simply by walking up Avenue of the Americas between 48th and 52nd Streets. The tradition started during the Depression and became solidified as an annual event in 1933 when the plaza at 30 Rock first opened. Since then, an array of decorations have been added to the plaza and now bleed out to the rest of the buildings in the Rockefeller Group, running along Sixth Ave. Some of the works out this year have been on display for decades, finding themselves the background scenery in movies and TV shows, while others are relatively new additions. … Read More