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Alexander Luckmann @aluckmann.bsky.social · 21h

Looking extremely normal there sir

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Alexander Luckmann @aluckmann.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

He’s gonna be so mad when we throw out this box

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Alexander Luckmann @aluckmann.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

vermutlich, aber immer noch verwunderlich! Muss mal zur Ohiodeutschen katholischen Presse forschen!

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Alexander Luckmann @aluckmann.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Was für eine Gruppe Niederlassungen

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Alexander Luckmann @aluckmann.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

#312: Heinrich Dölken, Resurrection of Christ, Bonn-Röttgen (1968-71)

A rectangular, flat-roofed brick church with a narrow band of clerestory windows and a heavy fascia above. On the left is just visible a rectangular stone church tower; on the right are auxiliary buildings. Photo via Bestattungshaus Hebenstein & Kentrup, https://abschiednehmen.de/listings/kirche-christi-auferstehung-bonn/

Church interior. Three rows of pews on a stone floor in front of a modest stone altar. The walls of the rectangular space are of red brick, there's a narrow clerestory band and the ceiling is of folded concrete. There's an organ on the far left. Photo via glockenklaenge.de, https://www.glockenklaenge.de/orte/d/bonn_roettgen.html#

A stained-glass window with blue, red, and blue swathes. Window by Franz Pauli, 1971. Photo via Forschungsstelle für Glasmalerei des 20. Jahrhunderts e.V., https://www.glasmalerei-ev-web.de/pages/b6789/b6789.shtml

An exterior view showing the church in winter, with its raw stone tower against the church: two rectangular masses, bare and simple. Photo via Forschungsstelle für Glasmalerei des 20. Jahrhunderts eV, https://www.glasmalerei-ev-web.de/pages/b6789/b6789.shtml

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Alexander Luckmann @aluckmann.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

#311: Fritz Kreidt, Church of Jesus Christ, Duisburg-Buchholz (1962-64; renovated by Kastner Pichler, 2010-18)

On the right, a church building with a roof that comes up to a point at one side and has walls that alternate between (concret?) bricks and glass blocks; in front of it is a low accessory building of dark red brick with a clerestory window. On the left, a tall, rectangular church tower with an open stair up to the fourth story, where the bells are housed in a louvered space. Photo by CaptainEinsicht via Wikimedia Commons

A view of an empty worship space dominated by the mesmerizing pattern of repeating glass and concrete blocks. The ceiling is of wood and gabled. Photo by Kastner Pichler via Evangelische Gemeinde Trinitatis, https://trinitatis-duisburg.ekir.de/inhalt/die-botschaft-der-jesus-christus-kirche/

A view of the worship space toward the altar, which is set in a niche of a brick wall. To the left is an organ, lodged in a mzzanine that has its counterpart on the right. Seating consists of white chairs arrayed either side of a wide central aisle. Photo by Kastner Pichler via Evangelische Gemeinde Trinitatis, https://trinitatis-duisburg.ekir.de/inhalt/die-botschaft-der-jesus-christus-kirche/

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Alexander Luckmann @aluckmann.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

#310: Hans Schilling, St. Michael, Lantenbach (1960-62)

A stucco church exterior with a clerestory window separating it from a wooden roof volume. There's a round concrete tower on the left and a taller concrete round church tower on the right. Photo via Kirchen Oberberg Mitten, https://www.oberberg-mitte.de/ueber-uns/unsere-kirchen/st-michael/

The church interior, with a curved choir behind the altar. There is a band of stained-glass clerestory windows, the ceiling is faced in wood. The altar is raised a few steps. Photo by Harald Blondiau from Karl Josef Bollenbeck, ed. Neue Kirchen im Erzbistum Köln 1955-1995

A side view showing the concrete tower and the rounded block of the church. Photo by Harald Blondiau from Karl Josef Bollenbeck, ed. Neue Kirchen im Erzbistum Köln 1955-1995

An exterior photo showing the rounded apse of the church. Photo by Lorenz Teschner/Lo. via Wikimedia Commons

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Alexander Luckmann @aluckmann.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

#309: Martin Koerber, Paul Gerhardt Church, Cologne-Lindenthal (1950-51; renovated by JRL Architekten, 1993-2001)

A light red-painted church located as a traffic island between the two sides of the Gürtel. On the left is a church tower, rectangular with a gabled roof. On the right is a gabled worship space. Photo by Achim Raschka via Wikimedia Commons

A view fown the central aisle, flanked by a row each of white-painted pews, to a slightly raised altar under a green glass cross. There is a row of rectangular, vertical clerestory windows. Photo via JRL Architekten, https://www.jrl-architekten.de/Soziale-und-kirchliche-Bauten/Paul-Gerhardt-Kirche-Lindenthalguertel-Koeln/

A view back to the entrance of the church showing the organ in the mezzanine. This organ has since been replaced. Photo via JRL Architekten, https://www.jrl-architekten.de/Soziale-und-kirchliche-Bauten/Paul-Gerhardt-Kirche-Lindenthalguertel-Koeln/

a view of the church's back side, showing a small entrance building by JRL Architects. Photo by Raimond Spekking via Wikimedia Commons

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Alexander Luckmann @aluckmann.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

#308: Max Clemens von Hausen and Ortwin Rave, Chapel of the Arnold Janssen Kolleg, Münster (1965)

A black-and white exterior photo showing, on the right, a round chapel building in front of a narrow pyramidal tower and, on the left, a concrete plaque that reads "Arnold-Janssen-Kolleg." Photo via German Postwar Modern on Tumblr, https://germanpostwarmodern.tumblr.com/post/165890993964/arnold-janssen-kolleg-1965-in-m%C3%BCnster-germany

A round worship space with incised concrete walls and two levels of stained-glass clerestory windows. The roof structure is star-shaped, with a sculptural central block that looks to my eyes a bit like lego. Two rows of pews approach the altar, in a way that suggests the space may actually be oval rather than round. Photo by Angelika Brockmann-Peschel/LWL-DLBW via Heinrich Otten, Knut Stegmann, and Michael Huyer, "Kirchenbau nach 1945. Entwicklung und Bestand in Westfalen-Lippe"

An exterior photo of the chapel and, behind it, the impossibly skinny tower. The rest of the Kolleg was torn down in 2011, and the chapel is now a Seventh-Day Adventist church. Photo by Hobusch via Wikimedia Commons

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Alexander Luckmann @aluckmann.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Once again reading the perfect article on Steely Dan www.salon.com/2000/03/14/s...

Steely Dan slid like a malevolent ice cube through the '70s, their complex music and insidious lyrics burning a cold tunnel through the decade's soft, fatty tissues. The antithesis of punk, they were just as necessary:
Both were antidotes to the hormone-driven fatuity into which rock is always threatening to collapse. Against such California emptiness, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker represented the revenge of darkest New York. Hipsters from the metrop, sneeringly urbane wise guys with nasal accents, they set their recondite, pessimistic lyrics -- equal parts
"Mean Streets" and Bob Dylan -- to dazzlingly accomplished, hook-happy, jazz-inflected tunes. From the opening notes of their first hit single, "Do It Again," with its cryptic tale of eternally recurring foolishness accompanied by a typically virtuoso electric sitar solo, it was clear that these guys had something new under their porkpie hats.
That something was technique. It wasn't just about playing well - tons of rockers could do that -- but an obsession with, almost amounting to a fetishizing of, musical sophistication.
This obsession took two different but related forms: drop-dead, lapidary perfectionism in the recording studio and an unprecedented use of the idioms (and players) of jazz, which they seamlessly transformed into kick-ass rock 'n' roll. The jazz influences in their songs range from the superficial, like the quotation from Horace Silver's "Song for My Father" in the bass line intro to "Rikki Don't Lose That Number," to the profound, like the tricky time signatures on "Your Gold Teeth Il" or the harmonically audacious title cut on "Aja," with its thundering tenor solo by former Miles sideman Wayne Shorter

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Alexander Luckmann @aluckmann.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

#307: Wolfgang Nickolay, Maria Snow, Winterberg-Altastenberg (1971-72)

A gabled concrete church on a mountain side (it's the highest church in North Rhine-Westphalia). There is a small forebuilding with large clear glass windows in front of the gabled worship space. Photo by Wilfried Kräling, Winterberg-Siedlinghausen/ Verlag Foto Kräling via Heinrich otten/Knut Stegmann/Michael Huyer (LWL), Kirchenbau nach 1945. Entwicklung und Bestand in Westfalen-Lippe, p. 33.

A gabled church with a wooden ceiling looking toward a raised altar under a clear glass triangle clerestory. There is a row of pews either side of a central aisle, and there are also pews either side of the altar. A large golden cross hangs above the altar. Photo by Rüdiger Maas via Rumabel, https://www.kirchen-galerie.de/de/?m=kirche&p=13671

A view looking diagonally back from the choir to the entrance of the church, showing the two rows of pews. There's a mezzanine with an organ over the entrance, which is accessed by a spiral staircase. Round concrete columns carry the roof. Photo by Rüdiger Maas via Rumabel, https://www.kirchen-galerie.de/de/?m=kirche&p=13671

Another exterior view showing that some of the concrete has been painted white and a slate-roofed church tower has been constructed since the original photograph. Photo by Jörg Braukmann via Wikimedia Commons

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Alexander Luckmann @aluckmann.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Norman Foster's models for possible Reichstag cupolas, 1993. Photo by Richard Davies, from Julia Walker's "Berlin Contemporary"

26 different models for the Reichstag cupola arrayed on a dark background.

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Alexander Luckmann @aluckmann.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Original design was white, but at least it accurately rendered the vibrant surroundings…

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Alexander Luckmann @aluckmann.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Lmao I’m at Daniel Libeskind’s son’s dogshit Mario Kart-themed apartment building in Phoenix

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Alexander Luckmann @aluckmann.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Phoenix largely confusing so far but I do have a sick love for this kind of stuff

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Alexander Luckmann @aluckmann.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Just arrived: beautiful copies of the catalog “Modern Architecture & its Sources” from my alma mater, Vassar College. I contributed “Amerikanismus and Architecture,” an essay on books by Wright, Richard Neutra, and Erich Mendelsohn

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Alexander Luckmann @aluckmann.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Not as well-situated but I was delighted to find a Tim Horton’s in Mexico City

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Alexander Luckmann @aluckmann.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

sorry to be this guy aber ausgerechnet in Ohio haben sie Rheinländer zu Hause

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Alexander Luckmann @aluckmann.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Shouts to the Madrid derby referee, Miguel Ángel Ortiz Arias, who has one of the moustaches of all time

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Alexander Luckmann @aluckmann.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

#306: Ludger Kösters, St. Albertus Magnus, Mülheim on the Ruhr (1955-56, demolished c. 2025)

A tree in front of a red-brick church with a shallow gable and no visible roof. There are trees in front of the entrance, which is at the junction of a single-story flat-roofed auxiliary building and the main church building. Photo by FUNKE Foto Services | Michael Dahlke via Wetsdeutsche Allgemein Zeitung, https://www.waz.de/lokales/muelheim/article409618502/kirche-st-albertus-magnus-abriss-laesst-auf-sich-warten.html

A church interior. There are low side aisles under white walls, a large stained-glass window on tehe left, and a choir with a brick wall and a wooden ceiling. Photo by FUNKE Foto Services | Michael Dahlke via Wetsdeutsche Allgemein Zeitung, https://www.waz.de/lokales/muelheim/article409618502/kirche-st-albertus-magnus-abriss-laesst-auf-sich-warten.html

A photo looking back toward the entrance with a row of pews eithr side of a central aisle, a mezzanine on a very thin concrete plate with an organ on it. Photo by Deutschlands Kirchen on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/p/DbpIOTWiFf3/?img_index=5

A view of the church exterior showing the church as a polygonal volume behind a low forebuilding with clerestory windows. In the very back is a small tower with a pyramidal roof. Photo via Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, https://www.waz.de/staedte/muelheim/article234789411/Muelheimer-Katholiken-suchen-solvente-Kaeufer-fuer-zwei-Kirchen.html

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Alexander Luckmann @aluckmann.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Tomorrow the Cologne Opera will reopen after a thorough restoration and renovation that has added 2 theater spaces. The renovation by HPP Architekten (w/ theapro & BRB Lindlar) was planned for 2 years & €253 million ; it has taken 15 yrs & €1.5 billion. But it is magnificent, as Jann Holz writes

small (experimental) black box Theater. photo Jann Höfer

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Alexander Luckmann @aluckmann.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Thinking this as I skip an introduction that I very much plan to read after the rest of the book

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Alexander Luckmann @aluckmann.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Pleased to have a note on The Sea Ranch in this week’s Punch List Architecture Newsletter alongside a great interview with Sekou Cooke www.punchlistmag.com/p/the-educat...

On the Sea Ranch front, Alexander Luckmann, whose recent Architect's Newspaper essay. on Ungers we linked to two weeks ago, sent along this usefully contrarian view on the development and its origins: "To me, the really interesting aspect of The Sea Ranch has always been the impossibility of realizing its utopian vision within its actual status: a developer's project that had to make money. It's a series of paradoxes: A sustainable, ecological way of living-as long as you drive three hours from San Francisco. A democratic, middle-income community-of second homes (I have a hard time believing anyone, except maybe Boeke, actually thought this was achievable). A development that kept the land free from building-but wanted to privatize the beach (it remains my opinion that TSR's most valuable legacy is inadvertent: public beaches throughout the state). The old narrative of Sea Ranch as a beautiful project that got ruined later when money became all-important is either blind or willfully blind; it was always going to be that way."

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Alexander Luckmann @aluckmann.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

#305: Heinrich Loos, Church of the Resurrection, Bad Salzuflen (1964-66)

An ensemble of rectangular buildings with white walls, clerestory windows and pyramidal roofs. On the right, the smaller volue is a congregation center. On the left, the larger one - with a copper roof - is the church. On the far right is a tall, rectangular church tower with a cross cut into a vertically projecting top. Photo by wewoewi via Wikimedia Commons

A church interior taken from the back corner. In the unified worship space, there are two wide rows of chairs separated by a black stone aisle. The white walls are surrounded by strips of stained glass. There is a curved mezzanine and the ceiling is faced in wood. Photo via Stadt Bad Salzuflen, https://www.stadt-bad-salzuflen.de/stadt-und-rathaus/stadtplanung/ev-luth-auferstehungskirche

A wider view of the raised altar, which is in front of a curbed white wall and flanked by bright stained-glass windows. Photo via Zentrum Lichtblicke, https://zentrum-lichtblicke.de/leben-braucht-raeume/

Another ensemble view showing more clearly the church (left), community center (right) and tower (behind). Photo by Günther Seibold via Kirchbau.de, https://www.kirchbau.de/300_datenblatt.php?id=1933&name=keiner

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Alexander Luckmann @aluckmann.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Incredible sentence from the Guardian roundup of AI books

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Alexander Luckmann @aluckmann.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Lmao how did I miss the Henry Kissinger/Eric Schmidt/Niall Ferguson AI book

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Alexander Luckmann @aluckmann.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Pleasure reading thread 2026 #26: Ivana Bodrožić, The Hotel Tito A bad book. It’s a memoir of growing up in Croatia during/after the Yugoslav wars, and the intentionally child-like tone of doesn’t translate well into English. Also the author’s childhood support of Tudjman is never problematized.