The Great Exhibition of 1851 initiated a series of 19th-century fairs and exhibitions that would for the first time put the worl d on display, and, in doing so, cultivate an unprecedented spatial configuration of extent scale and immateriality wherein, among other things, modern consumer relations were born. Contained within the jewel box of Paxton’s Crystal Palace were rows of pavilions, gardens, and substructures which framed dioramas and displays beholding the cultures of the world. Historical and indigenous architectures alike were reproduced to be consumed as easily as the other exhibited artifacts and artistic objects, appearing as a field of Potemkin-like edifices–”near-architectures”–arrayed within the palace’s interminable glass walls.

Fellow Fellow has a step-by-step guide to recreating a similar collection of would-be structures that rest on your night table. The quick and easy process involves cutting retro photographs of buildings–castles, churches, stone houses (in black-and-white) seem to work best–and wrapping them so as to form a hollow cylinder in which a battery operated tea light or candle-in-glass-jar (anything else would burn the paper) can be set. Cut out the buildings’ tiny windows to make apertures through which the light passes and radiates outward. Assemble entire cityscapes or make your own!

by Architizer Editors

posted in Uncategorized

tagged bauble, decoration, diorama, DIY, miniature cities, night light, ornament

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