The best of the Cosmic Inspiro-Cloud 2017

1 January 2018 | blog, comment

Pier Luigi Nervi - Ex-Manifattura Tabacchi, Bologna, Italia, 1960

Pier Luigi Nervi – Ex-manifattura Tabacchi, Bologna, Italia, 1960 – a personal favourite

Introduction:

Our daily image published on Tumblr under the banner of the Cosmic Inspiro-Cloud continues to grow its audience with around 13,500 followers on Tumblr and Twitter. In 2017, the 365 images received just under 43,000 notes, comments, likes or retweets.

Cosmic Inspiro-Cloud in 2017

Cosmic-Inspiro-Cloud-2017
The monthly themes for 2017 were:

  • January 2017 – Contemporary houses in Belgium
  • February 2017 – Gio Ponti
  • March 2017 – Christoph Schaub: Films on architecture
  • April 2017 – Arne Jacobsen
  • May 2017 – Architectural models
  • June 2017 – Japanese Houses
  • July 2017 – Marcel Breuer
  • August 2017 – Ian Hamilton Finlay
  • September 2017 – Richard Neutra
  • October 2017 – Modern gardens in the landscape
  • November 2017 – Die Architektur der Donaumonarchie
  • December 2017 – Abandoned, minimal, unfinished

The most popular theme for the year was the collection of thirty Richard Neutra buildings in September with 6,600+ notes. Neutra was followed by Gio Ponti on 5,873 notes and Arne Jacobsen on 5,262.

  1. Richard Neutra
  2. Gio Ponti
  3. Arne Jacobsen
  4. Marcel Breuer
  5. Modern Gardens in the Landscape
  6. Japanese Houses
  7. Contemporary Houses in Belgium
  8. Architectural Models
  9. Die Architektur der Donaumonarchie
  10. Christoph Schaub: Films on Architecture
  11. Abandoned, Minimal, Unfinished
  12. Ian Hamilton Finlay

The performance of the bottom three themes is disappointing but not surprising. The big names in architecture have been consistently more popular than other themes for the past three years. The work of Christian Schaub, Ian Hamilton Finlay and a collection of minimal interior works across Europe, courtesy of Divisare, were never going to compete.

Serge Chermayeff with Christopher Tunnard - Chermayeff House, Halland, Sussex, England, 1937-60

Serge Chermayeff with Christopher Tunnard’s Chermayeff House – a personal favourite but not popular

Of course, the site isn’t looking for massive numbers – if it was it would be simple to post a year of themes that included Le Corbusier, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Frank Lloyd Wright and OMA.

One of the surprises in 2017 was the fifth place position of the ‘Modern Gardens in the Landscape’ theme. Of course, there was a great deal of representation from highly regarded modernists including Skidmore Owings and Merrill, Luis Barragán, Gunnar Asplund and Serge Chermayeff which doubtless helped. As ever, the millisecond attention span of the Tumblr user has a negative impact on more reflective imagery.

Cosmic Inspiro-cloud on Tumblr

The top ten rankings for individual images on Tumblr were are as follows:

  1. Gio Ponti – Casa Laporte, Via Benedetto Brin 12, Milano, 1935-36
  2. Edward D Stone – United States Embassy, New Delhi, India, 1958
  3. Gio Ponti – Villa Donegani, Strada Nazionale Aurelia, Bordighera, Liguria, Italia, 1940
  4. Richard Neutra – Singleton House, Los Angeles, California, 1959
  5. Arne Jacobsen – Munck Sommerhus, Arild, Sverge, 1944-45
  6. Richard Neutra – Kaufmann House, West Vista De Chino, Palm Springs, California, 1946-47
  7. Marcel Breuer – Alworth-Starkey House, Duluth, Minnesota, 1954-55
  8. Gio Ponti – Villa Planchart, Caracas, Venezuela, 1953-60
  9. Marcel Breuer – Courtyard From The Livingroom, Hooper House II, Towson Near Baltimore, Maryland, 1957-59
  10. Richard Neutra – Miramar Naval Station Chapel, California, 1957

Cosmic Inspiro-cloud on Twitter

On Twitter, Marcel Breuer was the big success with four entries in the top ten The complete top ten rankings for individual images on Twitter were as follows:

  1. Marcel Breuer with Robert F Gatje – IBM Research Centre, Laguade, Nice, France, 1960-62
  2. Richard Neutra – Bucerius House, Navegna, Switzerland, 1966
  3. Konstantin Melnikov – Soviet Pavilion, World Fair, Paris, 1925
  4. Arne Jacobsen – Service station, Kystvejen, Skovshoved Havn, Danmark, 1936
  5. Marcel Breuer with Mario Jossa – Saier House, Glanville, France, 1972-73
  6. Marcel Breuer with Walter Gropius – Breuer House, Lincoln, Massachusetts, 1938-39
  7. Marcel Breuer – Alworth-Starkey House, Duluth, Minnesota, 1954-55
  8. Gio Ponti – Casa Laporte, Via Benedetto Brin 12, Milano, 1935-36
  9. Le Corbusier – Villa Savoye, Poissy-Sur-Seine, France, 1930
  10. Interior of Gekko-Den, Gokoku-Ji Temple, Tokyo, 1681

Summary

If you want to look at the range of work published in 2017 on the Cosmic Inspiro-Cloud perhaps the most accessible starting point is the Archive page which sets out the publications by month in a masonry grid. The Cosmic Inspiro-Cloud also has a Facebook page and Twitter feed which publishes the native images rather than just a link to the Tumblr page – so if you are interested you might find it easier to follow the Twitter account.

We have started 2018 with a series of images of buildings by Albert Frey, the first architect in America to have worked with Le Corbusier. He practised in mostly in California from the 1930s to the 1950s.