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/

Great videos on a range of subjects

IaI: The Institute of Art and Ideas » The Institute of Art and Ideas

The Communist legacy in architecture

A nice article on some of the more interesting pieces of communist architecture in Eastern Europe.

This cladding on the Chemnitz Stadthalle looks quite reminiscent of the Selfridges in Birmingham, except that it was built in the early 1970s. OK, you don't know where Chemnitz is either: the former East Germany, now Saxony.

There's more about these Communist era structures in the piece at www.theawl.com/2012/12/the-sublime-sci-fi-buildings-that-communism-built. Also lots more photographs and drawings in a follow-up piece at The Verge.

Catslide Roof

This is a term I'd never come across until a few days ago. What is a catslide roof? Well, it's a roof that covers the outshot by a continuous extension of the main roof, often ending up six feet or less from the ground. Why is it a catslide: supposedly because cats get out on the roof, and when it rains they slide down to the ground. Hmm...

Here's an illustration:

(from www.localhistory.co.uk: a good  resource for other building definitions)

What's an outshot? It's a building extension that gets covered by a catslide roof. As opposed to a lean-to, which doesn't: it has it's own roof which abuts the end wall.

On the more general subject of roofs, there's a great listing of types, with illustrations at: http://www.geograph.org.uk/article/Roof-Types. And more illustrations of common UK building definitions too.

Why do people feel more comfortable in one space than another?

The impact of neuroscience on architecture. Well it seems to be impacting on everything else, so why not?

This article Corridors of the Mind, reports on a conference in La Jolla, California, organised by the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture.

Architects “understand about aesthetics; they know about psychology. The next depth to which they can go is understanding the brain and how it works and why do people feel more comfortable in one space than another?”

This is an admittedly abstract concept. To help explain, architects often tell this story: Early in his career, when he was still struggling to find a cure for polio, Jonas Salk retreated to Umbria, Italy, to the monastery at the Basilica of Assisi. The 13th-century Franciscan monastery rises out of the hillside in geometric white stone, with Romanesque arches framing its quiet courtyards. Salk would insist, for the rest of his life, that something about this place—the design and the environment in which he found himself—helped to clear his obstructed mind, inspiring the solution that led to his famous polio vaccine.