Really Big Windows

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Continuity in Architecture direct you to an article published in this week’s Architects Journal that is co-authored by lecturers from the college. Eamonn Canniffe and Sally Stone discuss the new terrace of social housing designed by dMFK Architects in New Islington, Manchester. It is only the second complex of housing to be completed in the area (after FAT’s gabled courtyard houses), but work on Will Alsop’s master plan for Urban Splash is moving fast. Much of the infrastructure is in place and the foundations of the infamous “Chips” building have, I believe, been laid.

Posted in CiA, Manchester, Press, Sally Stone | 1 Comment

An architectural tree

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Demolition work in a garden has exposed a Cotoneaster plant growing in a gap
between buildings. At one point it leant a woody elbow on a projecting rock
as it twisted to find the light. (April 2007, Askham, Cumbria)

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From the bottom drawer

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I found these photographs (taken c.1988?) in the bottom of a plan chest drawer. They show James Stirling’s Runcorn Housing which was designed in 1967, built 1970-1977 and demolished in 1990. Read what Stirling had to say about the original brief for the project and the subsequent decision to demolish: Link to article in Building Design.

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James Stirling 22 April 1926 – 25 June 1992

Posted in CiA, Dominic Roberts, James Stirling, Nostalgia, Travel | 3 Comments

Card No.18

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An egg drawn with compasses. A circle drawn without them.

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Groovy bricks

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This rusticated brick wall effect is achieved with just three specials, (allowing for cutting). Holkham Hall, Norfolk, Architect, William Kent, c.1765.

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Edgar Wood Skating Mystery

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A book of great architects skating would be necessarily brief but would certainly contain this splendid image of the dashing Edgar Wood. Uncovered by CiA in the Manchester Art Gallery archives this photograph has been mutilated possibly to cut off his now unknown companion. Who could it have been?

Posted in CiA, Crompton, Edgar Wood Vigilantes | 2 Comments

Parliamentary Architecture

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To comply with Part M and the DDA Act these University offices have been equipped with tasteful and convenient ramps. If styles of buildings and clothes may be compared this building is a portakabin in a striped shell-suit with a Zimmer frame. (Booth St East, Manchester)

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MOdAM Research

Continuity in Architecture Year 5 studio projects for a Museum and School of Fashion in Milan, an element of the Citta della Moda masterplan. This film shows excerpts from the students’ research work with the design projects to follow shortly.

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Card No.19

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What the client doesn’t know…but fortunately you do

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Sir John Soane’s Coloured Glass

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The current fashion for coloured glass and plastic in buildings goes backfurther than Donald Judd coloured boxes from the 1960’s. Sir John Soane usedsheets of yellow tinted glass to give a warm glow in his Dulwich mausoleumand red glass shown here in his house in Holborn.

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Gentle ribbing

Some gentle ribbing of Manchester boosterism in The New Yorker this week.

Posted in CiA, Dominic Roberts, Manchester | 1 Comment

Card No.20

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