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WHAT WE’RE SEEING

WHAT WE’RE SEEING: Dr Lucy Worsley on An Intimate History of the Home at the V&A

May 20, 2013
WHAT WE'RE SEEING

WHAT WE’RE SEEING

6:30pm – 7:30pm, Tuesday 21 May
Victoria and Albert Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 2RL

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The entertaining and idiosyncratic Dr Lucy Worsley has made a name for herself chronicling the social and aesthetic history of the home as a TV broadcaster, historian and chief curator of the Historic Royal Places. In this evening talk tomorrow 21 May at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Worsley will be presenting the more intimate details associated with the domestic interior and the ways in which rooms so often reflected their owners interests and lifestyles. Good place to get some ideas on how to influence the design of modern houses today.

For more information and to book tickets, visit: V&A

WHAT WE’RE SEEING: Open House 2013 last day

May 19, 2013
WHAT WE'RE SEEING

WHAT WE’RE SEEING

Open House 2013, County Street, Elephant & Castle, SE1 4AD

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Housing the people of London is a growing problem. This unique bottom-up community-led nine day event Open House 2013 deals exclusively with the problem of housing in London. It brings together people facing the housing crisis to organise and take action around collective housing needs through a skill share on legal observing, a workshop on how to set up a housing co-op, a Q&A session on tenants’ rights, a talk on gentrification, crowdversations as well as talks by high-profile thinkers on what is happening with housing around us – architecture critic Owen Hatherley, professor Danny Dorling and senior economist at the New Ecomonic Foundation James Meadway. Today is the final day and to round up The Community Food Growers Network is presenting the talk Land and Housing Struggles: Past and Present from 5pm. Head over for also for a chat with the event organisers and for more information on any aspect of housing. For more information, visit: Open House 2013

WHAT WE’RE SEEING: C20th Society tour of the Modernist housing at Frinton-on-Sea

May 13, 2013
WHAT WE'RE SEEING

WHAT WE’RE SEEING

Saturday 15 June, 9:45am meet

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On 15 June, the Twentieth Century Society is organising a walking tour to Frinton Park Estate in Frinton-on-Sea, Essex. Mentioned in Jonathan Meades‘ The Joy of Essex, Frinton Park Estate is a partially complete 200 acre speculative housing development which was begun in 1934 by Coast Property Investment Company, who planned to build a whole new small town. The tour looks at the collection of Modernist houses on the Estate including those by the lead masterplanner for the estate, Oliver Hill. This all-day event, led by John Barter, Rachel Baldwin and volunteers of the Frinton and Walton Heritage Trust, also looks at the best houses in the ‘select Edwardian Avenues’ on the Powell Cooper Estate, for which Frinton is also famous. There will also be interiors and other surprises on the day and Liz Bruce, the Trust’s Archivist, will open the Trust’s Railway Gatekeeper’s Cottage Museum to be viewed at the end of the visit. For more information, visit: The Twentieth Century Society

WHAT WE’RE SEEING: A talk at the RIBA on the ‘Four Elements of Ornament, Meaning and Eloquence in Architecture’

May 9, 2013
WHAT WE'RE SEEING

WHAT WE’RE SEEING

Free
21 May 2013, 6pm – 7pm
RIBA, 66 Portland Place, London

Garland Court, London, SE17 by dRMM

Garland Court, London, SE17 by dRMM

Evelyn Road, London, E16 by Niall McLaughlin Architects

Evelyn Road, London, E16 by Niall McLaughlin Architects

While not strictly about houses, this talk at the RIBA titled the ‘Four Elements of Ornament, Meaning and Eloquence in Architecture’, will provide a crucial understanding into the removal of ornament from architecture that shaped modern housing in the twentieth century. In the last century, Oliver Domeisen believes ‘architecture lost an entire language that was uniquely able to convey intrinsic and extrinsic meaning beyond the categories of proportion, material and space.’ This talk attempts to trace and argue that there is a re-emergence of decoration, pattern and architectural ornament underway in contemporary practice. The talk will propose a theoretical framework that defines the core elements of ornament based on historical precedent in an attempt to provide a shared platform upon which this renewed design discipline may thrive.

Oliver Domeisen is the Curator of Contemporary Architecture and Urbanism at the V&A. He is also a thesis advisor and history and theory course lecturer for the MArch and BSc programmes at the Bartlett, UCL. He is the founder of dlm architectural designers Ltd and previously worked as a Unit Master at the AA and as a project architect for Zaha Hadid Architects. He has lectured and published on the topic of architectural ornament in the UK and abroad.

For more information and to book a free place, visit: RIBA

WHAT WE’RE SEEING: 2 Willow Road by Ernö Goldfinger

April 29, 2013
WHAT WE'RE SEEING

WHAT WE’RE SEEING

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2 Willow Road is one of only a handful of National Trust properties built in the twentieth century. Designed by Ernö Goldfinger for his family, the house was completed in 1939. Located in Hampstead, London, adjacent to the heath, it has recently restarted its opening season and is open Wednesdays to Sundays. 2 Willow Road is part of a terrace of three houses. No. 2 is the largest, and features a spiral staircase designed by Danish engineer Ove Arup at its centre. The house has a concrete frame and is faced with red brick. Most alluring feature of the house, however, is its interior. The structure has been drawn into the house away from the walls to demonstrate that they are not load-bearing. Largely an open plan living space design, areas of differing functions are distinguished through varying levels and floor surfaces. For more information, visit: The National Trust

View the Goldfinger property currently on the market with The Modern House, here.

WHAT WE’RE SEEING: Discover fideicomiso at a talk at the RIBA

April 15, 2013
WHAT WE'RE SEEING

WHAT WE’RE SEEING

23 April 2013
6:30pm – 7:30pm

Image from accompanying exhibition Venice Takeaway: Ideas to Change British Architecture

Image from accompanying exhibition Venice Takeaway: Ideas to Change British Architecture

Fideicomiso is a new type of urban housing development emerging out of Argentina. This talk on 23 April held at the RIBA investigates this model as a possible solution to incite housing development in the UK and whether it is the most appropriate way to create new and original housing while improving design quality. Fideicomiso is a type of legal trust that has come out of economic crisis over the last few years. The trust allows architects to initiate and develop their own projects and has come to represent a business model for architects to develop housing blocks with multiple investors, who are often future occupiers of the building. The discussion is chaired by Alastair Donald of the British Council with:

Elias Redstone – Independent Curator
Sebastian Adamo – Adamo Faiden architects, Buenos Aires
Dickon Robinson – Chair, Building Futures
David Kohn – Kohn Architects, London

For more information and to book tickets, visit: RIBA

WHAT WE’RE SEEING: ‘Are tall buildings blighting our skyline?’ talk at the RIBA

April 8, 2013
WHAT WE'RE SEEING

WHAT WE’RE SEEING

6:30pm – 8:00pm, 16 April
RIBA, 66 Portland Place, London W1B 1AD

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Skyscrapers are being given planning permission in London at breakneck speed; many are now complete, many are under construction and many are in the pipeline. Allegedly driven by foreign money, ego and the pressure to build homes and offices, these towers are changing not only the skyline, but London itself at ground level and the way people live in particular. What is perhaps less known is that in contrast to existing skyscrapers, many of the ones in progress are either fully or partly residential. The Shard has been designed with high-spec residences, and St George Wharf Tower in Vauxhall will be 181 metres of exclusively residential property. This talk at the RIBA on 16 April takes up this issue, inviting key people in the profession including broadcaster Kevin McCloud, The Observer‘s architecture critic Rowan Moore, City of London chief planning officer Peter Rees, author/journalist Simon Jenkins and architect Julia Barfield to discuss: are we boosting or blighting our capital? Book now at: RIBA

WHAT WE’RE SEEING: Darbourne and Darke’s house, London

March 25, 2013
WHAT WE'RE SEEING

 WHAT WE’RE SEEING

18:15-20:30
Wednesday 27 March
Darke House, 25 Montpelier Row, London, TW1 2NQ

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This coming Wednesday 27 March, Darke House, designed by Geoffrey Darke of Darbourne and Darke as his family home in 1968, will be open to receive visitors in a rare and exclusive event. The new owners have renovated the house with the help, advice and support of the Darke family. Designed and built on infill land, it has been described as a ‘modernist gem’ boasting a Georgian-proportioned front elevation with a more avant-garde ‘turret’ design at the rear. Nearly all of the original features remain including extensive Peter Nelson lighting, original glass mosaic bathroom tiling, solid wood kitchen and all fittings, integral teak bookshelves in the living room and Danish triple-glazed wooden windows throughout. The house was grade-II listed in the mid 2000s as the country’s ‘best example of a modernist house in a Georgian setting’.

The event is organised by Open City. For more information, including tickets, visit: Open City

WHAT WE’RE SEEING: Legacies of Le Corbusier’s Ville Radieuse on housing worldwide

March 18, 2013
WHAT WE'RE SEEING

WHAT WE’RE SEEING

RIBA, 66 Portland Place London W1B 1AD
26 March 2013
Talk at 6.30 and 7.15pm (30 mins each)
Free

Le Corbusier's designs for La Ville Radieuse

Le Corbusier’s designs for La Ville Radieuse

A week on Tuesday, 26 March, is what promises to be a fascinating talk about the legacy Le Corbusier‘s Ville Radieuse had on subsequent housing in Britain. Designed in 1924, La Ville Radieuse was a grandiose plan for a city of the future, set in Paris. The plan involved synchronising high-rise buildings with open green spaces and motorways. The overall intention was to build a city efficient for the modern age. Whilst the designs were never realised, their influence on architecture worldwide is well versed – from Marseille to Brasilia. Their impact on British architecture, however, is quite unknown. This talk attempts to address this lack of research and it should provide interesting insight into the heritage of modern architecture in Britain, particularly no doubt that of the 1960s. For more information visit: RIBA

WHAT WE’RE SEEING: Reassessing reputations of Britain’s 20th-century architects

March 12, 2013
WHAT WE'RE SEEING

WHAT WE’RE SEEING

Gibberd

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The Twentieth Century Society is holding a series of lectures to reassess the reputations of some of Britain’s most prolific modern architects. The first talk of the three-part series is about the architect, planner and landscape designer Frederick Gibberd. Frederick Gibberd (1908-84) was one of the major figures of his generation, with a large and varied practice that included housing, planning and the design of the Catholic Cathedral in Liverpool. (He also happens to be the grandfather of Matt Gibberd, one of the Directors of The Modern House.) Christine Manley, who is studying for a PhD in Architectural History at the Mackintosh School of Architecture, will be discussing Gibberd’s planning and design at Harlow New Town. The following lectures will focus on Richard Seifert on 21 March and and Denys Lasdun on 26 March.

The lecture series will be taking place at The Gallery, 70 Cowcross Street, London EC1M 6EJ between 6:30pm and 8pm.

For more information and to book, visit: Twentieth Century Society

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