St James the Less 1858-61 by George Street in the Gothic Revival style and the Brompton Oratory 1880-84 by Herbert Gribble in the Italian Baroque. London has always been uniquely mad. An Italian Baroque church begins in 1880 mid build up pops a Gothic Revival church in the same city.
The view from the sky garden at Rafael Vinoly’s “Walkie Talkie” building looking towards Renzo Piano’s Shard. I just love London and it’s ever changing skyline.
Research project 3. How does one live in a true collage city where the ancient sits cheek by jowl next to the avant-garde, where a two storey bamboo hut sits next to a thirty storey glass sky scraper. Where history is constantly repackaged and re-themed to sell food or soap or love by the hour. The graphic novel and cinema-space become just as real as the high street. Virtual and real become indistinguishable further augmented by characters wrapped in fluorescent crinoline, carrying heart shaped bags and wearing rabbit ears. So mad I love this fiction. Was the Samurai in the noodle shop real?
Now for some time out over the Christmas Break at Buxted Park Hotel in the middle of Ashdown Forest, East Sussex. The Orangery is a favourite spatial type.
Open day at the Norman Foster studio in SW11 and a chance to see the layout of the office and to admire the many models on display.
I’ve flown in to Vienna from Milan to view the Vivienne Westwood shop. There wasn’t much time to see a lot outside of work, but I did get to see works by Olbrich, Hollein and Wagner. The Secessionist building in Vienna by Olbrich is a must see and is usually on every tourist to do list. The works of Otto Wagner are less well known. The buildings are stunning and the detailing could well be used as a useful typological reference today, as I’m sure Herzog and De Meuron fully appreciate.
Images left to right – 1-2 Olbrich, 3-6 Wagner, 7 Hollien.
A day out at Syon House by Robert Adam built in 1760 here the Great Conservatory mixes science and classicism. Laboratory and porticos.
I have lots of time for Foster’s work. I have buildings that I admire and details that I enjoy but most of all I love the way Fosters work has evolved. Ideas develop from project to project and often can be traced back to the very beginnings of the practice. This constant refinement and development is very similar to the methodology of Porsche or Apple three firms I really admire. At the Swiss Re building we have stacked villages, spiraling atriums, tripe glazed vented skin, triangulated external structure forming the double curves of the tower. The true beauty of Fosters building is that it is the conclusion of a team effort from a team of the highest caliber. Today we (husband and I) are looking at all the pieces that have multiple functions like the street benches that are also security barriers, the urban space drainage system that both recalls the Piazza Del Campo in Sienna whilst creating a safety moat and collecting and clearing litter. The moat itself collects all the water from the piazza and building and all grey water is reused. It does all these things and many more without anyone noticing. It is a building with understated dignity.
Whilst in Glasgow I pass the Charles Rennie Mackintosh School Of Art and I am reminded of the recent fire of May 2014. I last saw this building when I was a student. Sadly the damage is considerable and will require a lot of work to repair.
Images – Glasgow School Of Art, 1897-1909
Today my work takes me to Glasgow. The interior of the hotel room for my stay looking and feeling very much like an interior of Kisho Kurokawa’s Tokyo Nakagin Capsule Hotel of 1972 or a one hour love hotel of recent decades. The bed abuts the view of Glasgow from my window wall.
Japanese Metabolism addressed the fiscal and land availability issues of 1970’s Tokyo. The target market for each capsule was the ‘bachelor salary man’. In todays society we are all ‘bachelor salary men’, unable to buy and fed up of renting. Sadly the recent resurgence of interest in micro homes is market led and yield driven, this is a shame as the Capsule Hotel is an archetype that is very relevant to todays congested inner city urban life.
