Inside-out Architecture

The Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, was designed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano, the British architect couple Richard Rogers and Su Rogers, Gianfranco Franchini, the British structural engineer Edmund Happold, and Irish structural engineer Peter Rice. It opened on 31 January 1977. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture.

Inside-out architecture was innovative in having its services such as staircases, lifts, electrical power conduits and water pipes on the outside, leaving an uncluttered space inside.


The Lloyd's Building, London, was designed by architect Richard Rogers and built between 1978 and 1986. Bovis was the management contractor for the scheme. Modular in plan, each floor can be altered with the addition or removal of partitions and walls.

Ispiration
Both buildings were inspired by the work of Archigram in the 1950s and '60s. Plug-in-City is a mega-structure with no buildings, just a massive framework into which dwellings in the form of cells or standardised components could be slotted. The machine had taken over and people were the raw material being processed, the difference being that people are meant to enjoy the experience.

La Geode, Cite des Sciences, Paris

La Geode at the Paris Science museum is really very impressive. It's like a miniature planet that changes appearance with the weather, time of day and angle from which you look at it.


La Géode is a sphere with a diameter of 36 metres, consisting of 6433 steel triangles. It cost 130 million francs to build.

"Dreamlands" Exhibiton, Pompidou Centre, Paris

The title of this exhibition came from the name of an amusement park built in 1904 at Coney Island in New York. Dreamland marked the beginning of a sensational new movement in architecture. Dreams were becoming reality.

Dreamland Amusement Park, 1907. This was to be a high-class entertainment village with elegant architecture, exhibitions, rides and thrills however the park was destroyed by a fire in 1911.

The exhibition had a section about Salvador Dali's "Dream of Venus" pavilion for the New York's World Fair in 1939. This was a piece of installation art before installation art had even begun. You can guess that the pavilion was a very weird and wonderful place; topless mermaids swimming around, a leopard-faced mannequin covered in shot glasses, Venus in her boudoir....

"Skyline" by Kader Attia is a collection of fridges covered in tiny mirror panels.

"Delirous New York" original cover by Rem Koolhaas.

“Nothing Stops a New Yorker” by Malachi Farrell. This was a quirky piece of installation art, the cardboard skyscrapers were at first made to do a work-out then that was interrupted by news reports from September 11th, terror alerts broadcasts and exerts from Public Enemy songs. It was interesting how the artist had surrounded the skyscrapers by junk. It seemed to show the collapse of New York's infrastructure and the nature of our "disposable" way of life accumulating in the streets. The installation was cleverly placed by the panoramic windows of the Pompidou centre, showing the city carrying on behind as if forever into the distance.

Trellick tower's been calling

Trellick Tower in North Kensington, London: a work of art or just another ugly block of flats?

This famous tower was built by brutalist architect Erno Goldfinger. The building is now a Grade 2 listed building and features in the lyrics of "Best Days" by Blur. The wikipedia page about the tower is quite amusing and includes a story about a pirate radio station who managed to install a transmitter in the tower.

Freud Museum

The Freud Museum, London is actually in the house that famous pyschologist Sigmund Freud spend his last years in. He was a great collector of antiques from ancient Greece, Rome, Egypt and the Orient.

I was surprised to see a portrait of Freud by Salvador Dali who had likened Freud's cranium to the shell of a snail!

The museum was small but interesting, there was footage of him and his family and a lot of information about his sister, Anna Freud who was also a psychoanalyst, particularly interested in child psychology.

A lamp from his dining room that I rather liked.

One of the houses just down the road from the museum had a fantastic little diamond shaped window that had to be photographed.

Westfield Shopping Centre Roof

So I dragged my poor boyfriend round Westfield Shopping Centre in London for four, yes four, hours looking for shoes, but I couldn't help but notice the amazing ceiling.

Architectural Tour of Burley Road, Leeds

The journey from town back to my house reveals all sorts of different architecture, here's a photographic journey for you...

Leeds Combined Court Centre


Leeds Magistrates Court
The Leeds Magistrates Court was opened in 1993.

I think the railings may have been inspired by the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh.


University of Leeds, Worsley Building
The only building that manages to disguise itself as a radiator.


Leeds International Pool
Built in 1967, designed by architect John Poulson. The pool was inches too narrow to qualify as an Olympic pool. The facilities were closed in 2007 and have become subject to a lot of vandalism and the overhanging wall a shelter for homeless people. There are no plans to either reopen of demolish the buildings. This is a classic example of Brutalist and 20th Century architecture.

The term "Brutalism" comes from Le Corbusier's choice of material "béton brut" or raw concrete.

Some Office Block(!)


Leeds University, Roger Stevens Building...on a poster
70s futuristic architecture, brutalism.


Marlborough Street Flats and Liberty Park (distance)


Unknown


Park Lane College
South-facing solar panel wall


Fox & Newt
The last little bit of Victorian architecture


Opal One and Two
Looking like a futuristic kitchen appliance.


Not all of Burley Road is cladded...

Kirkstall Abbey

Today I went along to Kirkstall Festival down by Kirkstall Abbey and took the opportunity to enjoy the ruins of the monestry. The abbey really is beautiful, especially with the sunlight pouring through the archways. I learnt quite a bit about the abbey during my visit, it's got its own drainage system which you can see running through the ruins.

Interesting Facts:
-the abbey used to have a main road running through it
-monks used cabbage leaves as toilet paper!
-they had to have a separate kitchen for meat by order of the pope.
-when Henry VI came to power the monestry was shut down and looted for anything of value including the church bells
-when drinking alcohol, monks had to use two hands to hold their vessel as a symbol of humiliation.
-monks were only allowed to talk in the tiny parlour room.

Park Lane College Setting an Example

Park Lane College is setting a great example to other colleges and universities with its entirely solar panel south-facing wall. Very impressed.