Category Archives: Uncategorized

Beaux Arts architecture and planning suggests a very formal and rather sumptuous form of classicism in which grand axes and monumental buildings combine to create magnificent civic spaces. The Mall in Washington DC is a prime example, along with Hausmann’s Paris and Imperial New Delhi. The style was developed in the 19th century at the impressivelyContinue reading “Blog 58”

The extraordinarily realistic effects of current 3D rendering are quite astonishing but it remains a technical process, rather than an art. Before CAD, the only route to a three-dimensional representation of a proposed building was to set up two vanishing points and laboriously create a perspective drawing and in the early twentieth century, the productionContinue reading “Blog 57”

Albert Hodge My latest book on British Architectural Sculpture examines the work of and relationships between British architects and the sculptors who together produced the extraordinarily rich British architecture of the 19th and early 20th centuries. In most cases, architects established long-term relationships with particular sculptors who were sympathetic to their approach and with whom theyContinue reading “Blog 56”

Alvar Aalto – Modern Master One of the most interesting aspects of Alvar Aalto’s career was that he was a distinctly average architecture student and a follower for many years before he became a leader of his art and profession. Most of his contemporaries that remembered him at all as a student, recalled only thatContinue reading “Blog 55”

The Amsterdam School The nineteen twenties in Holland (perhaps more than any other European country) was a period of architectural ferment, in which several tribes of architects offered very different responses to the changing world around them. In Amsterdam, Michael De Klerk established what has become known as The Amsterdam School, whose extraordinary expressionist, brick,Continue reading “Blog 54”

Frank LLoyd Wright If there is such a thing as an architectural genius – someone who appears to simply have an innate ability to produce outstanding original art – then Frank Lloyd Wright surely qualifies. From a relatively conventional architectural education and apprenticeship there emerged a revolutionary young architect who completely rethought the meaning ofContinue reading “Blog 53”

The Palace of Westminster The Houses of Parliament, or to give them their correct title, the Palace of Westminster, are currently at an early stage of a long overdue refurbishment. Their official title reflects the purpose of the original buildings on the site which served as the palace of the Kings of England from theContinue reading “Blog 52”

Baker and Lawrence The architect Herbert Baker has always had something of an image problem. Edwin Lutyens and his supporters consistently referred him as “a dull committee man” but the reality could not have been further from this rather cruel characterisation. Baker was much better educated and better read than Lutyens and was also muchContinue reading “Blog 51”

Edwin Lutyens Any discussion as to the greatest 20th century British architect must now include the brilliant Edwin Lutyens. His reputation has risen from the ashes of complete contempt in the decades after WW2 to being widely regarded as a title contender. His best work is now well known but his rather extraordinary career is lessContinue reading “Blog 49”