Posts Tagged: architecture
Saltaire – 1 September 2014
Work’s an activity not a place: in Saltaire, Titus Salt’s model worker village of the 19th century.
There’s plenty of inspiration to be had here but me and Richard Foxley are 15 cycling miles from our meeting and looking for some conclusions.
We’ll come back.
Load, aim, fire – 13 June 2014
Lots on, loads to do, too many choices. We’ve been spending time with clients working out the right thing to do. A little less action, a bit more consideration.
Load, aim, fire, as Bernard used to say.
Looking around, people don’t seem to spend much time considering, they spend their time reacting, mostly to what’s on their phone.
This an office building for sale for residential conversion. There are loads of these around: we are working on four just now. The best ones make better flats than what we end up with when flats are designed from scratch: spacious, lots of light, generous ceiling heights. They’re the ones you want, avoid the others.
By some odd coincidence, I’ve got in three taxis over the last week, and it’s been the same driver every time…
On the Saltire Awards Judging Tour – 29 May 2013
“Don’t enter awards competitions. Just don’t. It’s not good for you.” Point number 26 in Bruce Mau’s fairly reliable Manifesto (http://www.manifestoproject.it/bruce-mau/). People do though and let’s hope it’s not too bad an experience. The Saltire Society is quite rigorous in it’s judging process, and we travel round to see everything we shortlist. Here’s what I saw this year (it’s not all of them). The meeting to try to work out what wins is in a couple of weeks so this is just my (edited) view.
Argyle Street & Shaftesbury Avenue: 
http://www.collectivearchitecture.com/
Moncreiff Avenue: 
http://cameronwebster.com/ 
Coffee stop
Charleston Square: 
http://www.fbnarchitects.co.uk/
Ledcameroch Crescent: 
http://www.studiokap.com/
North Gardner Street: 
http://cameronwebster.com/
1196 Tollcross Road: 
http://www.collectivearchitecture.com/
Commonwealth Games Village: 
http://www.rmjm.com/
Q10, Quartermile 
http://www.richardmurphyarchitects.com/viewItem.php
St Martin’s Church: 
http://www.isarchitects.co.uk/
A panel from diverse backgrounds discussing the qualities of this diverse bunch:
The whole shortlist is here: http://www.saltiresociety.org.uk/awards/architecture/housing-design/2014-shortlist/ The winners are announced in July.
Designs the Londoners Love – 29 April 2014
Sitting outside St Paul’s with HTA Sketchclub looking at two designs the Londoners love.
People tell me two things about St Paul’s: ‘it’s not really a dome’ and ‘imagine how amazing it was to see this 400 years ago’. It might be less awe inspiring to our eyes, but bathed in westerly sunlight on a spring evening it’s certainly arresting.
That’s my Brompton, a three speed, no titanium. I love Brompton: British manufacturing based on the continuous refinement of an inspired design. London congestion on a tube strike day is a reminder that we’d make much better places if we designed them around the bike: less pollution, better health, quicker travel, less expense, more space to do interesting things with rather than just park cars.
We’re working on it.
Drawing and Painting at the Architecture Club – 28 April 2014
These people are talking about how important drawing is for designers.
Will Alsop and George Saumarez Smith did some actual drawing. I enjoyed the stories from James Stirling’s office and the extracts from Ken Shuttleworth’s sketch book of the month.
Will Alsop was quite late, but was the most comfortable with an anecdote. Inspired by such high achieving company, I popped round the corner to bona fide starchitect Renzo Piano’s colourful Central St Giles. It’s not the best thing I’ve seen from Piano, but big, mixed use and see through, perhaps he was warming up for the Shard.
British Library with HTA Sketch Club 25 March 2014
The spectacular interior of the British Library. 
It’s being observed by our own Steve Newman on the left and the building’s designer, Colin St John Wilson, in the niche on the right. The dark in the distance is a wall of books. The foyer is a surprisingly comfortable and welcoming place to sit: lots of comfortable chairs and benches in lots of different nooks and crannies.
I went with HTA’s sketch club, who’s drawings will be here (soon):
Immediately after the sketch I got ill and went off to be sick on my own in a hotel 450 miles from home. I was ill when I coloured this up and I think that’s why I avoided the buildings attractive and welcoming warm brick colours and made it so cold and grey. Apologies to the designer, who took more than enough flak for this place when he was alive.
The Yard, Bristol 6 February 2014
Listening to the engaging Jackson telling us about this community of self build homes. It’s an inspiring story about what can be achieved when housing is designed by the people who’ll live in it.
We’d like to give people more choice over what they live in without having to overcome the obstacles that these guys did. We spent the afternoon discussing how to do this in the setting of our own Hanham Hall project. A very different approach, but significantly innovative.
Scottish Parliament Lobby 4th February 2014
These people are here for the cross party cancer group. I’m not, I just sat down to sketch this interesting lobby when they began turning up, so I am happy to draw them instead.
The space could feel like a theatre lobby or an airport departure lounge, but it doesn’t, it has a different atmosphere. The architecture contributes to that, but it’s largely the fact that people are here for serious business. Up in the chamber (where sketching is not allowed) they are voting Yes to gay marriage.
Architects on Sauchiehall Street 2 February 2014
Alexander Greek Thomson & Charles Rennie Mackintosh from a dry café on a soaked Saturday on Sauchiehall Street. Just how I remember it.
I lived round here but never drew these. The art school inspires awe as much for the list of inspirational characters who’ve come out of the place as for the qualities of the extraordinary building. I spend my time drawing the Scottish Parliament now, a similarly extraordinary place, though it’s early days for it’s own list of characters.
Hanging on for Christmas 2013
Everything changes in the week before Christmas: travel is less predictable, work is what happens between nights out, there’s loads to finish and there are things to reflect on. 
Santa was in the departure lounge when my plane was on time… …nobody quite so interesting when it was delayed, in Bristol.
We won a couple of cracking jobs in the last week, setting us up nicely for next year, and adding an extra level of excitement to the Christmas party. 
We need to learn from those we know who are doing things well around us, like Argent at Kings Cross. They work hard to keep the place busy and bustling whilst construction is going on all around. 
A few of the buildings are really attractive too. This has different proportions to most office structures you see, and attractive cast columns.
It’s all really busy, but if you want to spin your talents into a successful business career you could do worse than look to Jackie Stewart for inspiration. This is his Tyrell 003, in which he won the Formula One World Championship 40 years ago this year.
Then Alison, a few days past her due date, came round and we talked about far more important events all together.
Recent Comments