LIMITED BY THE TOOLS OF THE TRADE

July 12, 2019

For most architects, the design starts inside the brain. We are then challenged to extract that creative spark out of our head and on to paper, or these days, on to a computer screen. Urgently, we grasps at the tools of our trade to convert the abstract ideas into some visual form of communication, i.e., the sketch on the back of an envelope, the first computer drawing, or the crude paper model.

Often, our ideas are grander, more ambitious, than any tool can capture. Tools have limits, whereas our artistic spirits do not.

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PODCAST: HOLLYWOOD’S OBSESSION WITH ARCHITECTS

June 21, 2019

George Smart: Welcome to US Modernist Radio where we talk and laugh with people who enjoy, own, create, dream about, preserve, love, and hate Modernist architecture. Anthony Poon, our next guest, is an architect, concert pianist, artist, and author. His talk at Palm Springs’ Modernism Week was about architects in popular culture. There’s a lot more than you might think.

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NUMBER 101 AND THE MAKING OF A VIDEO

May 31, 2019

For myself, I applaud. Today I am publishing my 100th essay on this platform! In traditional terms, this effort would constitute a 500-page book. For this blog (web-log: for those who don’t know), I have avoided writing silly tweets, mere blurbs and convenient commentary. Instead, I have sought to author articles of substantial thought—researched, illustrated and well composed. To accompany this 100th article, a video was created on Poon Design Inc., by videographer, Grant Bozigian.

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FLOWER PAINTINGS: INTERVENTION AND SYNERGY

May 10, 2019

Most of my life, I have been painting. At age five in my parent’s San Francisco house, I painted an extensive landscape mural from the entry hall up the stairs—without permission or notice. My mother and father were excited, but not pleased—a parenting dilemma of pride and scolding. At age ten, I was invited by my elementary school to paint a larger-than-life Captain America on the courtyard wall. So many years ago, I preceded today’s fanaticism with the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

For the past year, I have been exploring painting as an activity of searching, finding and intervening.

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FENG SHUI AND CRYSTALS: THE ART OF INTENTION

April 19, 2019

Feng Shui: Some call it philosophy. Some call it art or science. And some call it superstition.

Crystals: Similar thing. Like horoscopes and fortune telling, some call the supposed energy from a rock either science or fantasy.

Architecturally, Feng Shui is often referred to as the art of placement. And the use of crystals, gemstones and geodes in architectural design can contribute in various ways to the experience of a room. For both Feng Shui and crystals, I call it the art of intention.

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COUNTERPOINT: MUSIC AND ARCHITECTURE, PART 2

March 29, 2019

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe famously proclaimed, “Music is liquid architecture; architecture is frozen music.” Thelonious Monk asserted, “Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.”

What is it about these two artistic mediums, music and architecture, that has philosophers, writers and fans so spellbound? Rather than get into the metaphysics, psychological, or ideological, I offer instead seven thoughts for seven minutes.

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© Poon Design Inc.