Category Archives: Dominic Roberts

Most people just go to see the building

Richard Meier’s new Arp Museum sits on a wooded slope overlooking the Rhine near Remagen. It is conceived as an annexe to the existing Rolandseck railway station which is also mostly converted to exhibition space, although the trains still stop. … Continue reading

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The great gates of Preston

Original detailed drawing of the gates to the Harris Museum, Preston 1882-1893. “The architect was the widely unknown James Hibbert”*. Compare the repeated star/sun motif with this house. More pictures of the building… * N. Pevsner in “The Buildings of … Continue reading

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Recession v Depression

Following recent depressing job losses in Manchester architecture practices, a useful definition from Greg Mankiw’s economics blog: A student asks, What makes a recession officially turn into a depression? There is no official designation of depression. The NBER business cycle … Continue reading

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A fragment of the Arts & Crafts city

Travelling to London from the north-west of England and faced with Euston Road on emerging from the railway station, it is tempting to turn around and get back on the train. Luckily it is first possible to stand and admire … Continue reading

Posted in CiA, Dominic Roberts, Precedents | 1 Comment

Wasser

Some pictures from Germany this summer: Above: Neue Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart (completed 1984). Spalling of stone associated with metal fixings. Above and below: Museum of Modern German Literature, Marbach am Neckar (completed 2006). Movement caused by water penetration/frost? At Marbach am … Continue reading

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Old Manchester

In the period before Manchester’s recent building boom Leach Rhodes and Walker was the finishing school for a number of Manchester School of Architecture tutorial staff (not me!) and was the source of countless amusing anecdotes about commercial architectural practice. … Continue reading

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Eisenman in Liverpool!

OK, the main event is obviously the opening of the Corb exhibition in Lutyens’ crypt (the subtitle ‘The Art of Architecture’ doesn’t inspire) but Peter Eisenman has got to be worth a trip. Peter Eisenman: Architecture and the Cultural Project … Continue reading

Posted in CiA, Dominic Roberts, Edwin Lutyens, Le Corbusier, Liverpool, Name Dropping | 3 Comments

The White Church

The White Church is a familiar sight to those travelling along the old road to Blackpool through Lytham St Annes. It is one of a number of Anglican and Non-conformist churches vying for prominence along the route, set back from … Continue reading

Posted in Churches, CiA, Dominic Roberts | 2 Comments

Tales from the woods

One of Five Columns for the Kröller-Müller by Ian Hamilton Finlay, 1982. The suspected remains of a WWII airman discovered in a jungle region of Papua New Guinea have turned out to be the moss-covered branches of a tree… (BBC … Continue reading

Posted in CiA, Dominic Roberts, Travel | 1 Comment

Basilika, Trier

The building now known as the Basilika in Trier, Germany was actually the throne room of the Emperor Constantine and formed part of a wider palace complex when the city was a capital of the Roman Empire. The footprint of … Continue reading

Posted in Churches, CiA, Dominic Roberts, Mitteleuropa, Precedents, Travel | 3 Comments

An English pursuit

Postcard from The Museum of Modern German Literature, Marbach am Neckar, Germany. Architect: David Chipperfield. Batsman: Ivan Roberts. Bowler: Harry Miller.

Posted in CiA, Dominic Roberts, Friends & Acquaintances, Mitteleuropa, Travel | 1 Comment

Holiday viewing

wannes deprez / ony one maintains one of the most consistently interesting and entertaining photostreams that I have found on flickr. Scans from books and magazines depicting visionary modernist projects are interspersed with pictures of the architects themselves. Photostream

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