Archinet

Architectural Review, The, June, 2000

www.archinect.com/about.html

You can get the flavour of Archinet as soon as you open it from its subtitle 'pimpin' architecture since '97'. Cheerful, eclectic, often irritating (try the opening graphics), sometimes fun and illuminating, the site is a contemporary descendant of '60s California, a sort of grandchild of The Whole Earth Catalog with Bill Gates somewhere in the lineage. Contents are often remarkably similar to what granny used to show 30 years ago: Arcosanti (the Venice workshop), Urbanizing Bamboo, Mobile Architecture and so on. Some of it is jolly good (very interesting to know what's happened to Arcosanti after all these years for instance, and there's a lot of potential in bamboo). Some entries are rather turgid, and others wonderfully pretentious. But if you've got the time to battle through the graphics, it's worth a visit; you'll certainly find surprises.