These seem very fashionable right now

 
I keep saying that 2022 was a lot like 1973 stylistically, so now that it’s 1974 I find myself strangely compelled by these Audi 50 press shots. You might know this car better as the Volkswagen Polo, which it later became, though with a lower specification initially. It lasted longer than the original Audi.

There was a 50 in Wellington many years ago, though I imagine it’s since gone to the scrapyard in the sky.

You’d think that an efficient, front-wheel-drive car would be the in thing but one departure from 1974 is that most people seem to want massive, energy-consuming vehicles. (I don’t care if it’s an EV: you’re going to spend more time charging the thing if it’s heavy with a big frontal area.)

When will the industry rediscover aerodynamics and efficiency?
 
Speaking of 1974, how about this cover by Italo Lupi and Liliana Collavo for the September issue of Abitare? Photograph by Maria Vittoria Corradi. It looks wonderfully fresh other than the method of typesetting in the masthead. Even the topic would feel at home in 2023.
 

 

Of course, not everything from that year feels fresh, but these are particularly good examples of modernist design that appeal to me right now in 2023.