Core77’s editors spend time combing through the news so you don’t have to. Here’s a weekly roundup of our favorite stories from the World Wide Web.
Meet the Designers Behind the “Ethnically Ambiguous” Bratz Dolls
Like the rest of the world we applaud Barbie’s new realistic looks, but still see Bratz as the true totemic condensate of our society’s current swirl of cultural values.
-Eric Ludlum, Editorial Director
Scarf Season
Watching someone weave is a mesmerizing event. In this short film we get the rare opportunity to see the process from llama to market. Documenting the creation of a scarf over the course of a week, the film captures quiet moments with the Yupanki Mamani family set against the majestic landscape of the highlands of Peru. The natural dyeing process and backstrap loom used by this weaver represent a deep knowledge of both material and craft.
-LinYee Yuan, Managing Editor
The World’s Longest Weekend
Surely I’m not the only one who regularly resolves to spend less time online—because obviously it would make me calmer, happier, more prone to deep insights, and so on. Well, Internet-addicted journalist Matthew J. X. Malady gave it a try over New Year’s, going offline for a full 72 hours. The result? Not what you might expect.
-Mason Currey, Senior Editor
Designing for Strength and Beauty
It’s fascinating to see how houses were framed prior to the development of modern fastening technology, and the open-plan spaces yielded by timber framing seem perfectly relevant today.
-Rain Noe, Senior Editor
How Did Burgundy Become the Color of Officialdom?
The mysterious symbolic lore of colors and their function within design is explored in this article for Print Magazine. The article navigates this question via the color burgundy (think of wine, catholic school uniforms, grubby carpets), touted as a “muted, backgrounded, rendered symbolically reverent while graciously ignorable” color—also apparently highly dirt-proof!
- Allison Fonder, Community Manager
Spite Houses: An Architectural Phenomenon Built on Rage and Revenge
What happens when people manifest their anger and frustrations into architecture? Whether it’s to block a neighbor’s views or stand in the way of new construction, this article chronicles the curious typology of “spite houses” across the US, expressly designed to provoke and protest.
-Alexandra Alexa, Editorial Assistant
Saving Ye Old Taco House
Los Angeles has long been famous for its programmatic roadside architecture, but how about the humble burger stand? There are still approximately twenty historic stands remaining in downtown, and they serve everything from cheeseburgers to tacos, but as this article in The Guardian points out, their days are sadly numbered.
-Rebecca Veit, Columnist “Designing Women”
http://www.core77.com/posts/45898/What-Were-Reading-On-Weaving-the-Curious-History-of-the-Color-Burgundy-LAs-Iconic-Fast-Food-Stands-and-More