Cathy's Art Diary

Dull exhibition at the RIBA highlighting winners and those shortlisted for these awards for students nominated by schools of architecture across the world. The exhibition was very wordy as projects were represented by a poster, I counted 50 in all, outlining the project with a few pictures. There was very little which caught your eye in the dense presentation. Some of the projects were quite esoteric and an academic idea rather than a practical proposition.   I did love a design for a building in Soho which would be a market in the day and a theatre at night. I so hope this one is real! I was most interested in those projects which looked at research into a topic such as one looking at how combat accommodation in war zones could be designed to minimise PTSD and another looking at quarryman’s barracks in Wales in the early part of 20th century. Closed on 11 February 2018.

Strange exhibition at the RIBA using the art of Pablo Bronstein to examine the longevity of the Georgian style. The highlight of the show were the drawings by Bronstein of contemporary buildings constructed in the Georgian style. These were delicate pictures drawn with an interesting eye for detail. Some of them took on a fantasy feeling as buildings were moved to new locations or mounted on Georgian detailing. The drawings were shown with items from the RIBA archive chosen by Bronstein to look at original Georgian ideas and how these have been used as a classic English style ever since. These were interesting items and with other works would have made an interesting exhibition in themselves, however equally the drawings would have stood on their own and I think mixing the two diluted them both. The exhibition however was beautifully designed, creating the look and feel of a Georgian house in the space. I loved the yellow and white striped rooms and the use of Georgia...

Confusing exhibition at the RIBA of the ten final proposals for designs to rebuild areas in the North West of the USA following Hurricane Sandy. I say confused because I thought at first it was just about the organisation which held the completion. Rebuild by Design was formed as a way to bring governments and communities together with designers to imagine innovative ways to help safeguard the area against the consequences of climate change. However I then couldn’t work out what the photos were of. Eventually I got that they were competition finalists! The show was displayed via a series of large banners with a description on one size and a large photo on the other. They fitted the space well but each one had a lot of information and I found them quite difficult to read and follow. However I did find some of them interesting, particularly those based near Asbury Park. I know the area from Springsteen trips and it’s great to see more redevelopment work being done there. ...

Intriguing exhibition at the RIBA looking at how major disasters in a city can present a radical opportunity to rethink the townscape. The exhibition was divided into two sections one on historical examples and one on contemporary.   The historical ones began with London after the Great Fire in 1666 and showed five alternative plans for its redevelopment. There was also a good section on the rebuilding of Chicago after their 1871 fire which although the main plans were not developed saw the start of steel frame building and the birth of the sky scraper. I did not know about an earthquake which hit Lisbon in 1755 which created a tsunami across Southern Spain! This led to   the world’s first seismic protected buildings in Europe. The show included a lovely large model of one of these Pombalino buildings. The modern section looked at events in Nepal, Nigeria, Japan , Chile and Pakistan. These focused more on quick rebuilding after the event, as a guess the longe...

Confused exhibition at the RIBA looking at how areas which are nominally public but are owned and managed by commercial bodies use camouflaged surveillance for security and possibly to manipulate behaviour. This is what the leaflet told me anyway but I didn’t feel any sense of this being the theme. It all seemed a little random. There was an emphasis on a series of photographs by Max Colson which explored these themes but in rather a tangential way. OK I know I go to anything and therefore sometimes there are off things I end up at which have little relevance to me but this did as I live on a development which is also being promoted as a destination with museums and pubs so I should have got something from it but I didn’t!

Delightful exhibition at the RIBA exploring the principles of Palladian design and how they have been interpreted, copied and reimagined. There were some wonderful drawings and plans in this show and a few models. It was nice to have busts of Palladio and Inigo Jones watching over the proceedings. As a non-architect I would have liked a little more on the principles to take forward round the rest of the exhibition but I guess most of the audience for this show will already know a lot about this so I can see why they didn’t labour this aspect. I was most interested to see how the principles had been interpreted in later years such as how it was used in America 18th century houses such as Drayton Hall (which I have been to!) as well as modern homes. I had never associated Palladianism with post-modernism but there was a good section on how post war architects have reduced the style to abstract elements. I loved the design of the show with the drawings shown round t...

Stylish exhibition at the Royal Institute of British Architects on the architectural career of Charles Rennie Mackintosh. This was a well described and presented exhibition which aimed to put Mackintosh in his professional context and to look at the factors which influenced his practice such as function, budget, process and aesthetics. I loved the timelime at the beginning which included artefacts and photographs and two interweaving lines of his life and world events. I loved the section on his early career and to see what his early style was like plus what projects he worked on which we no longer associate with him. I was interested to see that he had worked on most of the competition drawings for the firm he worked for, Honeyman and Kepple, including an unsuccessful submission for Liverpool Cathedral. The section on houses he built was fascinating with nice short videos showing the buildings now. His architectural drawings are works of art in themselves. There were...

Interesting exhibition at the RIBA of photos by Edwin Smith who concentrated on buildings and the social make up of Britain. I loved his atmospheric 1930s work looking at London working class life such as a Café in Poplar and a study of a Worcester sauce bottle. All his images were very sharp and focused. There was a section on “The Saturday Book” an annual compilation book he produced with his wife including articles, photographs and poems. Also displays on his architectural books for Thames and Hudson. He was a part of the 1950s debate about architectures relationship between the past and the future and the conflict between building new works and preserving the historic lending wait to the idea of preservation. My favourite picture was one of a roof-scape at Whitby where he photographed the town over the curve of a roof. Reviews Telegraph    

Fascinating exhibition at the RIBA looking a Tonkin Liu’s construction technique called shell lace structure. The technique is based on the structural principle of shells with holes in to make it light. There were nice displays showing the structure of shells and how it builds strength. It is a computer developed design so that material is minimised and costs are cut. I liked the fact it looked at different buildings which had been designed with this technique showing all stages of them including a lay out of how to cut the material like a big dress pattern. I wasn’t sure how many of the designs had been realised but I will certainly look out for buildings using it.

I nteresting but slightly worthy exhibition at the RIBA looking at 20th century Lithuanian architecture. It looked at three periods in the country’s recent history and then under themes such as housing, leisure etc took an example from each period. I thought the modern period came out of it best and I loved the Zarasas Lake panoramic path, although I am not sure I’d be brave enough to walk on it! I also liked the 1940s house. There was a lot to read in the exhibition but not so much to see which seemed a strange balance, It was worth reading to see some of the stories of the buildings such as the church the country clubbed together to build by buying stamps at the value of a brick but by the time it was built the soviet era had started and it became a factory! The two videos were interesting but I would say if there is no sound track just annoying music please turn it off!

Interesting exhibition at Somerset House looking at ideas for regeneration projects for neglected sites sin London as well as a look at schemes that had happened. In the section on schemes that had happened I loved the mobile Cricklewood town square. As the town didn’t have a square there is a town hall on wheels which contains tables and chairs which travels round the area settling up at different spots. In the imaginative projects I loved the idea for street structures around London which would put high flares in the street powered my methane from the sewers.   I also love the concept of a Centre for Forgotten Beers! My favourite was the ideas for resurrecting the Fleet River at St Pancras and I was particularly attracted as it used Seurat’s Bathers to show what it might be like. I wasn’t so convinced by the idea of ladders up trees to sitting places, I feared a health and safety nightmare! However best of all was the use of the Deadhouse at Somerset House ...

Lecture at the Royal Institute of British Architects to accompany their current exhibition of Le Corbusier’s Cabanon . The lecture was given by Arthur Ruegg, a co-curator of the Corbusier exhibition at the Barbican which I saw when it was in Liverpool. The lecture focues on Le Cabanon, a holiday house Le Corbusier built for himself on the Cote d'Azur, the only structure he built for his own use. I must admit I found the lecture heavy going partly because I was tired but also because the lecture had a very heavy accent and I found it hard to understand all that was said. I probably needed to bring a bit more knowledge to the event. I did not get a chance to look at the recreation of the hut so I do want to go back.