drawing room culture

architecture + interiors + urban design + culture

[drawingroomculture]

FOOD CULTURE: Our favorite Italian Seafood Dishes

Wednesday signals seafood day as we are able to get fresh seafood in our small hill town village in the south of Italy.

Our favorite dishes aside from the staple fried seafood would have to be seafood risotto and a simple pasta dish with mussels in tomato sauce. Both dishes are tomato based with seafood cooked separately to avoid overcooking. Broth from fish or mussels and clams are highly desired to achieve great flavors from these dishes!

Tips: Anchovies melted into the pot with olive oil compliments these simple seafood recipes while lemon zest gives the dishes a hint of sweetness.

[drawingroomculture]

FOOD Culture: Antipasto

Antipasto dish for a small gathering in our Italian home.

Homemade salami and salsiccia, prosciutto, olives, artichokes, carrot salad and selection of cheeses on the plate and rustica at the center of the table.

Traditional food is right at home in our modern kitchen!

[drawingroomculture]

FOOD Culture: Pasta con le zucchine and ricotta

Summer is here and in the south of Italy, we are craving for a refreshing pasta dish. This dish is cooked but is good to be eaten cold too.

Just sauteed zucchini in onions and olive oil, seasoned and with a bit of pasta water and white wine added to the pot. Ricotta is then cooked together with the zucchini and finally cooked pasta is tossed into the pot. Serve with a bit of olive oil and fresh parsley.

[drawingroomculture]

Culture

FOOD!

In our kitchen, we cook and work at the same time. So with Lio -our resident in the Italian kitchen, we will feature his favorite dishes under the Culture page.

Here at Drawing Room Culture, we...

[drawingroomculture]

Its more about the river than the beer, though. But I am all for saving and revitalizing polluted rivers and making them navigable to ease urban transportation woes and developing quality open public spaces along urban water systems. Hopefully year 2020 will see more revitalized rivers and their promenades in urban centers in both developed and developing nations.

[urbangeographies]

A DICTATORS GUIDE TO PUBLIC SPACE

The violent and tumultuous chain of recent events on Ukraine’s Independence Square in Kiev, shown above, underscores the continuing debates over urban design and public space.  While grand squares often serve as cradles of democracy, we should remember that authoritarian forces can also redesign such public spaces to crush grassroots social movements. 

Matt Ford’s recent article in The Atlantic on “A Dictator’s Guide to Urban Design” points to the enduring tension between the square as democratic symbol and authoritarian tool:  ”the public square [serves] as an epicenter of democratic expression and protest, and the lack of one—or the deliberate manipulation of such a space—as a way for autocrats to squash dissent through urban design.”

Read the full article here… 

[oahficw]

Public space matters, not just for everyday urbanism, but for the very heart and soul of democratic societies. 

[drawingroomculture]

On historical squares and plazas

[aredotna]

There have been many drawbacks to solar engery, including high cost and little yield, but an entirely new one has emerged: birds

[drawingroomculture]

I foresee glass domes to be the norm in 20 years to protect these disastrous yet indispensable architecture.

[drawingroomculture]

On the road #southofitaly #countryside #roadtrip #campania #italy (at campania region)

[drawingroomculture]

On a tegula roof #collesannita #benevento #campania #sannio #italy #sunnywarmwinter #guardiancities #viewfromroof #southofitaly (at Colle Sannita)

[pieratt]

Naming a project is always an awful experience.

An earworm that won’t stop tapping your skull from the inside. A tenacious pop jingle with teeth and a paycheck.

As a freelance designer, I do a fair amount of this for clients. Generally, my process has been a garble of notes and...

[drawingroomculture]

A fairly simplified creative method in branding and product naming.

To some this is the easiest part while the logo design becomes the tasking part. But to us who are more into graphics and design, this tool can help in the brainstorming for a new product name when faced with this task.

[drawingroomculture]

Learn Italian Gestures with Dolce & Gabbana Models

Male models from Dolce and Gabbana star in a fun “hand gestures tutorial video"

For my crude Italian, this works just fine!

[oahficw]

The 100 Best Books on City Making Ever Written?

After looking over his extensive library of books on urbanism, Brent Toderian selects the 100 best books on city-making that he’s collected and read over the years.

From Jacobs to Gehl, here’s a one stop shopping list for all of your urbanism reading needs. 

Any prized books in your collection that are missing from this top 100?

[drawingroomculture]

100 seems quite a lot! But as the author writes, "...why would I stop at the top 10? Why not the top 100?"

[drawingroomculture]

The Tree (at Colle Sannita)

[justbmarks]

Flatiron Building - New York City

Source: .:Axle:. (flickr)

[drawingroomculture]

Just love how the tables and chairs are on a shaded area and sunlight where people walk about and cars pass by and vice versa on another time of the day...

[drawingroomculture]

Last autumn - Assisi stones (at Assisi)

[drawingroomculture]

Last autumn - tegola (at Assisi)

[drawingroomculture]

Last autumn -a street in Assisi (at Assisi)