Interior of Microsoft offices in London.
This weekend, my timestream on Twitter was full of a specific hashtag: #ukgc12. I had intended to be there but a fortnight beforehand realised that I had to withdraw from it.
I was glad to see that everyone was having a great time there, but had the kind of feeling of missing the popular kid’s birthday party. I had looked forward to the event all year, planning what to wear, anticipating which friends and acquaintances I could meet, and even thinking about camera angles. Six months ago, I had hoped that I might be able to upgrade my camera by the time this unconference came round. I am very conscious that my current camera does not do a great job in relatively low lighting.
I was trying very hard not to feel envious of those tweeting their journey and arrival in London, then at the unconference, and then providing link to photographs of the event. As I was looking through the photographs again at the end of the second day, I realised that those there seemed not to focus much on something I found it impossible to ignore last year: the building.
It is a big building, and the architects made the most of the splendid view of another large and more distinctive piece of architecture. It is a building with good quality finishes, and maintained to a high standard. I have been in quite a lot of office buildings that do not have that level of quality, so notice the difference more.
One of the reasons that I get excited about going to London is the architecture. One of the reasons I miss London when I have not been able to visit for a while is the architecture. There are so many buildings that are such a larger scale than elsewhere in the UK. Yes, there are some large buildings elsewhere but very few that are ‘Look at me!’ big ‘designer’ buildings on the same scale, and there are not large numbers of them.
The positive side of the lack of big architectural showpieces elsewhere is that the centres of towns and cities outside London tend to be on a human scale. This is a generally a good thing. It is possible to get around most of the main shopping and entertainment districts on foot for most people. Many of the UK cities are still essentially medieval in their central layout. York is a nice example of this (compare 1617 map with current Google map).
Natural History Museum doorway, Janet E Davis 2011.
Some of the grandest architectural statements of the late 18th and 19th centuries were the industrial buildings, the transport structures and the waterworks. The modern industrial buildings are often dull. Modern retail architecture can be even duller. My heart sinks a little as soon as I spot the corrugated structures of industrial and retail ‘parks.’ I feel an almost overwhelming urge to give street artists a large quantity of paints, scaffolding towers, hard hats and masks and let them clothe the horridly bland structures in wonderful images. It is the implication that the landlords or developers of such ‘parks’ are more interested in making as much money as quickly as possible than in investing for the future that annoys me as much as the ugliness of the buildings.
Although my professional focus during the past couple of decades has been on pre-20th century buildings and designed structures, I really enjoy good modern architecture. I would love to see more top quality contemporary architecture. British architecture has often been far too conservative in style: essentially variations on the Classical theme or Gothic.
I was rather sad when Newcastle City Council decided to demolish its 1968 Central Library, designed by Sir Basil Spence Glover & Ferguson in association with the City Architect, George Kenyon. It was in a rather sad state of repair but I am not sure whether any serious consideration was given to whether it could be repaired (I had thought that it might have great potential as specialist shops, such as designer clothes and commercial art gallery, with restuarant and cafés). Not many seemed to appreciate its style and be concerned about its loss (my job was based in the building when the decision to demolish and replace was being taken).
More recently, I have watched and recorded the demolition of another great, earlier 20th century building on Tyneside: Spillers Mill (or Buildings). The white mill had been such a familiar landmark on the Tyne. I was sorry to see it go, rather surprised that it was not considered sufficiently important to save, and I dread that something horribly undistinguished will be built on the site in the future.
Interior of the Sage, Gateshead during the Thinking Digital Conference 2011.
The Tyne’s Quayside deserves good buildings. The Sage still looks rather out of proportion in its mass but its lines do echo the curves of the famous Tyne and Millennium Bridges. Both the Sage and the Baltic Mill have some big vertical spaces that allow one to view from a distance, to get a sense of perspective. There is some space to think, views of the river and the bridges and, in the distance, one can see the great award-winning and Grade II listed Byker Wall.
These would still seem rather modest buildings if placed in the middle of London, however. Amongst the blog posts and tweets about UK Govcamp 2012, someone mentioned that the views on the way to were part of the great experience for them. There are so many big buildings, in so many architectural styles in central London. If one visits the docklands area, there is a cityscape unlike anywhere else in the UK, with so many tall towers of glass. I have yet to see the Shard, although other people’s photographs suggest that this would be well nigh impossible to photograph except from a great distance. I would not want a Shard by the Tyne. It would dominate the view too much and be totally out of scale. I would love to see more high quality buildings in other cities, but not too many really large ones.
Being unable to attend UK Govcamp 2012 naturally meant I missed the people whom I had been looking forward for months to seeing. I also miss experiencing the spaces of good large-scale architecture. It is good to be in spaces that enable different perspectives and longer views. For that kind of experience, size matters.
