Can we call this vernacular architecture?

Some fantastic examples of earth houses here.

"An earth house (also known as an earth berm or an earth sheltered home) is an architectural style characterized by the use of natural terrain to help form the walls of a house. An earth house is usually set partially into the ground and covered with thin growth. Modern earth houses are built with concrete walls and insulation. Earth houses are some of the most energy efficient."

The White Star Building, or Albion House

Albion House, or the White Star Building, from a Flickr set by R-P-M

Looking back across the road from the Museum of Liverpool, I exclaimed: "That must be Norman Shaw".

Well, it is: the White Star Building, the head office of the White Star Line, owners of the Titanic.Properly named Albion House, it is instantly recognisable as Norman Shaw if you have ever seen any Ealing Studios films about London coppers: the original New Scotland Yard on the Enbankment and this building are siblings.

The interior is apparently "remarkable for its raw display of iron girders, stanchions and jack arches lined with fireproof bricks, with all the rivets and bolts emphasised for effect, although it is currently hidden by suspended ceilings and partition walls.

This would not have been possible in London where regulations required the cladding of structural ironwork for fire safety, but under Liverpool's more commercial and laissez-faire regimen, such restrictions were not applied."
(courtesy of Liverpool's World Heritage Site: http://www.liverpoolworldheritage.com/visitingthewhs/areas/castlestreet/whitestarbuilding.asp)

That Model

Finally got to the Museum of Liverpool to see the model of the design for the unbuilt Lutyens Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral. It's quite a thing! There's more material on the model, its discovery and conservation at these links:

• Andrew Cusack: The Greatest Building Never Built
• A model of what could have been: Lutyens’ cathedral in Liverpool
• Conservation of the model

La Luciole Concert Hall, France

La Luciole Concert Hall, France.

Certainly looks arresting, but I wonder how well it works as a concert hall?

Ruskin Watch: an occasional series

Inspired by our visit to the Ruskin library, I thought I might keep track of some relevant and not so relevant things from the pen and hand of John Ruskin. Perhaps slightly off-topic, but in anticipation of an end to the balmier weather, I couldn't resist this quote from John Ruskin:

Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather

Not found a source for this yet.

First visit: the Ruskin Library at Lancaster University

Early arrivals at the Library.
More pictures on the Trips page.

On Monday 25th February, the U3A Architecture group made a foray to Lancaster University to see the Ruskin Library, a building designed and built about ten years ago, with extensive help from  Lottery funding. The building's architect was Sir Richard MacCormac, of the MJP practice, and has been favourably reviewed and given awards. There are many allusions to Venice and Ruskin's love of the place, which Sir Richard was keen to note in his talk on the subject in a video on Vimeo ten years after the opening, and a few that he didn't mention, but which Hugh Pearman in his review piece does. There's also a lecture given by Sir Richard which is available from the website of his architectural practice: Architecture, Memory and Metaphor.

We were lucky to be given an introductory talk by Stephen Wildman, the current Director of the Ruskin Library, who talked first about the design and use of the building (and some of the things which are not ideal about it...), and then introduced us to the exhibition  'A Noble Invention': Ruskin's Daguerreotypes of Venice and Verona. A rather under-appreciated element of Ruskin's output. Our grateful thanks to Stephen for his time and erudition..

More Classic Reading

The webpage below links to a series of articles from the Architectural Record, the US equivalent of the Architectural Review. The articles include:

Frank Lloyd Wright on What Style Means to the Architect

Lewis Mumford on Mass Production and the Modern House

Louis Sullivan on The Most Beautiful Office Building in the World (the Eliel Saarinen entry for the Chicago Tribune Buiolding competition in 1922?)

And another thirty or so: http://archrecord.construction.com/inthecause/