Le Corbusier Villa Savoye

My first takes on Villa Savoye - trying to get a feel for a building I have not visited. Using my pen and continuous marks to try and get feel for the movement of the building. A sense that although the building seems very static, the design takes you on a continuous journey.

Suzhou Museum, China

Founded in 1960 and originally located in the national historic landmark, Zhong Wang Fu palace complex, Suzhou Museum has been a highly-regarded regional museum with a number of significant Chinese cultural relics. A new museum designed by world famous architect I.M.Pei was completed in October 2006.

"...channels of water crisscrossing the granite wall, tumbling down as a pool. Chinese water mazes are usually horizontal, allegedly designed to transport floating cups of wine to poets composing poems.." [Architects Review Oct 2007]

Jumble of carefully placed geometric shapes, each gallery is self-contained, garden courtyards are visible along passageways, framed though hexagonal windows or glass walls. The original palace, Prince Zhong's mansion built in the 1860s served as the museums original home and remains integral to Peis design of the neighbouring new building. Interior courtyards, pools and trees. Cubist forms stark against meticulously planted trees and bamboos. Nature an integral part of Pei's design. No clear divide between interior and exterior spaces.

Kirsten Hamilton: Copper Awards winner

Kirsten Hamilton's winning student proposal for the creation of an art and architecture school in Scotland, based on the organic and irregular form of a leaf (see the generative sketches). The stem acts as the entrance, with the veins representing the movement and flow of students into the three separate 'leaf' canopied areas.

I love the organic nature of this design. This almost futuristic building is taken from a natural form. I am really interested in the idea of natural forms as a starting point; interpreting natures structures and relating them to new proposals. Kirsten's building is designed to sit within an area of natural beauty. The copper leaf roof will age and weather with time; as organically as the leaf it was based on. The copper roof reminds me of autumn leaves, natural tonal beauty, warm colours. The way the leaf roof curls down protectively over the outside walkways could be likened to insects taking shelter under a fallen leaf.

September 27 2007: Tinners Hound beheaded with hacksaw

The hounds have not cost residents of Redruth a penny, funded by a European programme helping to regenerate public places in urban Cornwall. planners, architects, politicians, engineers, ex-miners, artists and the workforce coming together to regenerate the fabric of public places; reflecting Cornish history and addressing its future.

Something really appealed. Appealed enough in fact to return to Tattie Square with my camera. I love the design, I love the story behind the design, I love the hounds for being the only sparky thing I encountered on that very grey day.

Do these hounds have a point? Do they need to have a purpose? They made me happy, they made me go back to Redruth when I swore I wouldn't....

The Tinners Hounds

Not expecting to find anything inspiring about that day, or Redruth, the welly boot dog scuptures made me think about who put them there, who created them and why bother trying to cheer up Redruth in the first place?

the tinners hounds: sculptor david kemp, st just.

When Geevor mind closed in the 1980s, he decided to to find a use for the hundreds of mining boots that were being ploughed in as landfill. the original 'Hounds of Geevor' toured museums and art galleries as: "relics of a subterranean workforce that rarely saw the light of day, each of these hounds fed three and half families (seven boots). released from thier underground labours, they now wander the clifftops, looking for a proper job." [david just]

Very grey day, Redruth.

Overslept, no milk, nearly late for bank manager, bad meeting, inedible bacon sandwich (part thereof), bumped into these guys...

As a starting point...

Since the spread of the Industrial Revolution, design has internalized the century’s reigning economic, technological, and social influences. The entire vocabulary of the design language reflects this: We talk about practicality, cost-effectiveness, new materials and manufacturing processes, and human benefit. Good design is often synonymous with design that “works.” Nonfunctional objects, on the contrary, are automatically banished from the field. Such a view, however, may no longer be adequate. In a new world where culture has become a major determinant, design will have to find a new paradigm, a different mode of “working”—one based less on performance and more on communication, emotion, and joy.

A version of this article originally appeared in Metropolis magazine in November 1995. The text was included in the book Curious Boym: Design Works, published by Princeton Architectural Press in 2002.