Category: project & building histories
The Manufacture of architecture: Joseph Paxton and the development of the Great Stove
9 November 2023
The Manufacture of architecture: Joseph Paxton and the development of the Great Stove9 November 2023
This film is part of series of posts of selected papers from the study symposium at Shatwell Farm, hosted by Drawing Matter and convened by KU Leuven and TU Delft on 27 and 28 April 2023. More about the symposium, and other films and written papers, can be found here. Joseph… Read More
Fragments of a Polychrome Mosaic of a Roman Bath Building
8 November 2023
Fragments of a Polychrome Mosaic of a Roman Bath Building8 November 2023
This polychrome mosaic, discovered in 1872 in Rome near Termini train station, is the only mosaic depiction of a plan of a bath building known from the Roman period. Only three fragments were recovered, representing less than five percent of the original mosaic whose dimensions approximated 3.40 x 5.70 m. Two… Read More
Connor Street: Made by Many Hands
3 November 2023
Connor Street: Made by Many Hands3 November 2023
The following text is the first in a series by architect Kieran Hawkins, Director of Cairn, tracing the design and construction of an extension to a Victorian House in East London, recounting the everyday realities of the project and, in the green text, the broader environmental issues incumbent on architects to address. The texts have been developed… Read More
Repton does a Bernini – A crescent for The Ham
24 October 2023
Repton does a Bernini – A crescent for The Ham24 October 2023
Ever since 1743, when John Wood failed to get backers for his vast Royal Forum, the area to the south of South Parade has been treated like the campus of a nondescript university. The chequered gardens of Abbey Orchard have been supplanted by Manvers Street car park, while to the… Read More
Upper Lawn Pavilion: Strategy and Detail, Drawing / Feeling everything at once
20 October 2023
Upper Lawn Pavilion: Strategy and Detail, Drawing / Feeling everything at once20 October 2023
In this film Stephen Bates discusses a group of drawings by Alison and Peter Smithson for the Upper Lawn Pavilion, dating from the late 1950s when the Smithsons bought the site, and the 1970s when the architects proposed several alterations—only some of which were realised. Stephen Bates’ relationship with the… Read More
François Cointeraux: the Architect of the ‘Agricultural Proletariat’
5 October 2023
François Cointeraux: the Architect of the ‘Agricultural Proletariat’5 October 2023
François Cointeraux was born in Lyon in 1740 and was introduced to agriculture and construction at an early age through his family’s business ventures. When his uncle designated him the ‘universal heir’ of his company, Cointeraux inherited several buildings in Lyon and around 24 houses in the area. His marriage… Read More
Trevor Dannatt: St Mary’s Grove — Garage door trio
18 September 2023
Trevor Dannatt: St Mary’s Grove — Garage door trio18 September 2023
No sooner had I written about the door hook than my mother, sharp as ever at 98, revealed that the original had been stolen, along with parts of the front gate, presumably for their metal value. This hook was definitely her replacement, from Franchi on the Holloway Road, whilst the first… Read More
Alberto Ponis: Drawing Landscape
30 August 2023
Alberto Ponis: Drawing Landscape30 August 2023
This is film was made by team SHICHAI拾柴 for the exhibition ‘Drawing Landscape: Alberto Ponis,’ exhibited at Tongji University, Shanghai, 10 April—20 May 2023. It concludes a series of posts on Drawing Matter pairing team SHICHAI拾柴’s films with drawings from our collection; find these in the ‘related reading’ below.
Trevor Dannatt: St Mary’s Grove — Hook & Extension
28 August 2023
Trevor Dannatt: St Mary’s Grove — Hook & Extension28 August 2023
Liza Fior, whose phone was used to take these snaps (I still refuse the portable-telephone obligation), was particularly taken by this hook for the garage door, the way it hangs, the perhaps deliberate chipping into the stone, ‘I am sure he planned it’. That minute attention to the smallest thing,… Read More
Capilla Pajaritos
24 August 2023
Capilla Pajaritos24 August 2023
The following text was written by Alberto Cruz as an account of the project for a small chapel outside of Santiago (1952–3; first published in Spanish in 1954). It describes an unfolding process of design, framed around the guiding principles of observation, act, and, form—the key tenets of Cruz’s architectural… Read More
Diplomatics and Instrumentality of the Drawing / William Butterfield
21 August 2023
Diplomatics and Instrumentality of the Drawing / William Butterfield21 August 2023
This film is part of series of posts of selected papers from the study symposium at Shatwell Farm, hosted by Drawing Matter and convened by KU Leuven and TU Delft on 27 and 28 April 2023. More about the symposium, and other films and written papers, can be found here. In… Read More
Architecture and Real Abstraction: Adler & Sullivan
12 September 2023
Architecture and Real Abstraction: Adler & Sullivan12 September 2023
– Francesco Marullo
This film is part of series of posts of selected papers from the study symposium at Shatwell Farm, hosted by Drawing Matter and convened by KU Leuven and TU Delft on 27 and 28 April 2023. More about the symposium, and other films and written papers, can be found here. The… Read More
DMC industry & infrastructure construction drawing symposium april 2023 (series)