Looking Up – Who Notices Buildings?

Most infants open their eyes to the whole world, however what they notice is soon culturally defined. They look up – until they can sit up by themselves they have little choice – and see places and objects beyond the faces looking down at them, but then they begin to notice what other people respond to, so they learn to act accordingly. The rest becomes background.

My earliest memory is of a garden, where I was placed on a rug spread by my mother. The rug, red tartan, and the twiggy hedge that released a strong smell are things which I’ve never forgotten. But everything else of my first home is lost in the mists of time, because I took no notice of it. I don’t know what that house looked like, or the second house, or the third although I have been told that one was a flat; we moved a lot.

Those who grew up living in one place will have memories of that particular building and the surrounding ones. They will be more likely to notice houses which remind them of where they lived, other styles of houses will quite possibly create a negative reaction, because of an unconscious rejection of the unfamiliar. Many buildings other than homes are often beyond their known space. They don’t use them therefore they don’t notice them.  

What Is An Architect For? A light-hearted look at Construction’s most Misunderstood Professional.

A YouGov survey carried out between 6^th and 9^th July 2017 revealed a disturbing level of ignorance on the part of the general public about what an Architect actually does. Two thousand and thirty one adults were surveyed. Why that number? Who knows with surveys, but apparently 15% didn’t even know that an Architect designs buildings. That’s three-hundred and four-point-six-five people, which shows why percentages (and therefore surveys which sum up with percentages) often make little sense to whole people. Taking the breakdown of the survey figures further reveals that in in the lowest age group (18-24 year olds) an even more surprising 24% didn’t know this basic fact, but as they don’t tell us what proportion of the group were younger people, this still makes little sense. These younger people probably do know that an ‘architect’ designs computer operating systems and game scenarios.

So what is an Architect actually for? There are plenty of opinions out there in the worldwide aether, far too many of which are hugely inaccurate. The internet is full of lay-persons who still regard the architect as merely the one who draws initial ‘pretty pictures’ for a building project.  Others just know that architects are the ones to blame for everything that ever goes wrong with a building, from a roof that blows off in a once-in-a-hundred-years hurricane to a badly fitting door.

Wealthy individuals commissioning vanity projects suppose ‘their’ architect is a slave to their whims, who can radically alter designs at the drop of a hat, naturally without increasing the cost. Then people looking at modern spec-built houses grumble that the architect has made the porch and windows hideous, when it’s highly unlikely an architect ever went near the plans, let alone the window specification.

Computer ‘architects’ now usually earn far more than the average working Architect in the construction industry. Yet UK Architects are unprotected, unlike elsewhere in the EU, as it isn’t mandatory to actually employ an Architect on a construction project. Their resentment of the computing industry grows as, year on year, their remit and their incomes have been affected by the unqualified not merely abusing their professional name, but also using CAD to create misconceived building designs. The concept of the Architect as Master Builder is in serious decline.

Many inaccuracies are generated by the press, who also can’t tell the difference between an Architect, a spec builder and an interior decorator. To the Sun newspaper, Architects are silly elitists who don’t know what the ‘Great British Public’ wants and insist on building carbuncles, to the horror of the Royal Family, beside ‘Much Loved’ National Treasures such as The National Gallery (which the Sun never expects its readers to actually enter). The Daily Mail’s view is the same except for an expectation that their beloved readers might occasionally like to visit the place.

Zaha Hadid, Architect and Dame, dies in Miami.

Zaha Hadid is one of far too few women who have managed to rise to the very peak of the profession. Her creativity has been a sock in the eye for the conventional and the staid. She was only 65 and will be greatly missed. 

Angela Brady, a former president of RIBA, described Zaha Hadid as “one of our greatest architects of our time”.

She added: “She was a tough architect, which is needed as a woman at the top of her profession and at the height of her career. She will be sadly missed as an iconic leader in architecture and as a role model for women in architecture.”

Evelyn Grace Academy, Brixton, London.     Photograph: Luke Hayes

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/mar/31/star-architect-zaha-hadid-dies-aged-65

What changes? Albion Street, Leeds 40 years ago - Picture of the Week 21 June 2015

This is not a picture of buildings in a city centre, it's a picture of people, in a city centre. Without people, cities don't exist. Fashions in clothes will change a bit, as illustrated. In Leeds today, flares are probably even les socially acceptable than fur coats, however baby buggies are still current, as are pedestrian precincts, shoe shops and 'To Let' signs.

This photo of mine was used on the cover of the book - Planning Cities, Legacy and Portent by Architect, Author, Town Planner and Lecturer at the University of Leeds, Bill Houghton-Evans, 1975 (pub. by Lawrence and Wishart.)
Today (June 2015) if you Google 'Albion Street, Leeds' you are directed to a car park. However, the real Albion Street, Leeds, is still a pedestrian street. There are still no cars and the area is still full of shoppers, with or without flares. Does London's Oxford Street have a lesson to learn?

Happy New Year! Picture of the Week 2 January 2014

   Roll on summer and we can all sit in the sun.

Aden; Fishermen and liner; Picture of the week for 17 May 2013

Photograph taken by my father, John S. Gilbert, probably in 1962, the print has deteriorated with age.

I have been told the ship looks like the Oronsay, which visited Aden in that year.

The fishermen appear to be mending their nets on the shore.

The City by Olga Moscow (updated) ; Picture of the Week 19 Jan 2013



The City, by Olga Moscow, oil on canvas

A splendid composition by a talented artist who sadly died on 24th February 2013 at the age of one hundred years and three months.

Originally a ballet dancer, Olga trained at the Nottingham College of Art after serving as a WAAF during the second world war. She taught art in Nottingham and Coventry. She has lived in Leeds for more than forty years. She has been an enthusiastic supporter and participant at the Swarthmore arts and education centre, where she took up creative writing after failing eyesight forced her to stop painting. Her work has been exhibited in Leeds and in Paris.

This picture was painted in the 1990's. It was used by her son Robert Evans, architect and director of ArchiFACT Ltd., for the cover of his book, Well Built? A Forensic Approach to the Prevention, Diagnosis and Cure of Building Defects, published by the Royal Institute of British Architects. The book is available through construction publications provider www.blissbooks.co.uk (and other online retailers).

Knife Grinder in Tripoli, Picture of the Week 24 Oct.2012

Here is another of my father's photographs, taken in Tripoli, Libya in the 1950's. I think he was particularly pleased with this picture, I've seen several copies of it over the years. It is a great image.

Photograph by John Sinclair Gilbert, C1955

Bricky On the Job

 Working it out on the job. I wonder how many other materials the poor bricky was required to put into this one wall. Hope he remembered to drink his tea before he immured the thermos flask.

Scaffolder On the Job: Picture of the Week, 3 October 2012

I have decided to begin another category of pictures of tradesmen On the Job.

There are reasons why certain jobs require expertise, and not all expertise depends on paper qualifications.

When a 200 year old chimney in the middle of a row of historic buildings needs extensive work, scaffolding is the first essential. And for scaffolding, you need scaffolders.

Spot the scaffolder.