Architecture

On Saturday, we went to Standen, the Natonal Trust house just outside East Grinstead. It's an amazing arts & crafts design, built I think in 1893 by Phillip Webb for some family of rich industrialists. In addition to lovely paintings/portraits of the period, the house itself is quite a work of art, in as much as, although no thing of beauty from the outside, the interior spaces are beautiful and fitted out with contemporary details like hand-beaten copper light fittings and fireplaces.

Anyway, it got me thinking about architecture in general - would have to say that the Arts and Crafts movement is one of my favourite styles, to the point that I did an essay on the subject at college. Seems to have the space and ambition of the Victorian without the claustrophobia - the missing link between the 19th and 20th centuries.

Like art and music though, I find I appreciate modern stuff more easily. I don't mean the 95% of modern residential building which is dull, unimaginary, backward-looking, lazy and offensive. What I mean is the occasional project that is designed and built with care and attention by an architect who has a sensitivity about location, doesn't follow vernacular slavishly but instead can produce a building which complements those around it. Standen is a great older example of this - Webb got hold of a period farmhouse and attached the new house to it. The styles and rooflines could be seen as a bit of a mish-mash, but overall the effect is interesting. Inside, the property as a whole works seemlessly.

Generally, I like things to develop organically. On a larger scale, in towns and villages which grow through the ages, the variety of styles combine to produce a unified whole which I feel is more attractive than a "preserved" town where it is as though life has been stopped in time and will go on in that way for ever. On the smaller scale, an ancient house which has been altered, added to and maintained in a modern way is, to me, more attractive than a house which has been "Jane Austin" ed, ie returned to a particular point in the past.

A good example is Kettle's Yard, the art gallery/museum in Cambridge, which was a terrace of old worker's cottages scheduled for demolition. They were bought by Jim Ede who was at the time the curator of the Tate, combined into one, extended and filled with wonderful art and objects by the likes of Ben Nicholson, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska and Lucie Rie. The foundation that run the gallery have since attached a new space that improves the exhibition-area and adds to the overall character of the buildings there.

Planning is another issue. Where I used to live in Hastings Old Town, there was a wreck of a church hall that needed to be knocked over. The Old Town is a coservation area where I would have expected the planners to be very careful about what they allowed on the site. Instead, they actively encouraged the developer to put up a contemporary building which made the most of the location, light and view. Far-sighted decision. Also, in Bruges, many of the ancient buildings have been developed and the classic flemish gable-ends are now glass. This adds rather than detracts from the character. Contentious I'm sure - it's just my view.

Enough.