I had a ticket to go to a well-known sustainability trade fair yesterday and had booked the day out of my diary. But then I remembered the depressing experience of my last attendance at this show. In its original incarnation it had the 'hairy hippy' feel about it, which at least made it different, if slightly eccentric. Now it has been fully main-streamed, to use the management-speak noun-to-verb conversion. My last experience could not be differentiated from any other construction industry event: the narrowly-defined demographic; decontextualised, heavy-handed product marketing (bolt-ons); and uncritical, rhetorical talks. It should simply be renamed 'Build'.
Having worked through the weekend to clear the decks, I had a day free and simply couldn't bring myself to spend it in an artificially-lit cattle-shed, so I cycled out to see this building instead.
Erected in 645AD by St Cedd on the eastern edge of Essex, overlooking the sea, it fulfills Christopher Alexander's notion of building typologies arising mainly from a recognisable set of relationships. He gives the example of a church as a general proportion of space (width, height length), rows of seating and a hierarchical structure, etc. This building emphasises the point, being little more than a brick barn (the apse has long since gone and the building truncated), punched with small windows. Inside, though its remarkably light and a simple, but beautiful space. Overlooking the Dengie nature reserve: a shifting cockle-shell 'beach' providing highly important habitat; it seems to say more about sustainability than I'd be likely to uncover in a trade-fair brochure. If any of my buildings are still standing in 1,369 years time I'll be very surprised.
Time to update my CPD record
Having worked through the weekend to clear the decks, I had a day free and simply couldn't bring myself to spend it in an artificially-lit cattle-shed, so I cycled out to see this building instead.
Erected in 645AD by St Cedd on the eastern edge of Essex, overlooking the sea, it fulfills Christopher Alexander's notion of building typologies arising mainly from a recognisable set of relationships. He gives the example of a church as a general proportion of space (width, height length), rows of seating and a hierarchical structure, etc. This building emphasises the point, being little more than a brick barn (the apse has long since gone and the building truncated), punched with small windows. Inside, though its remarkably light and a simple, but beautiful space. Overlooking the Dengie nature reserve: a shifting cockle-shell 'beach' providing highly important habitat; it seems to say more about sustainability than I'd be likely to uncover in a trade-fair brochure. If any of my buildings are still standing in 1,369 years time I'll be very surprised.
Time to update my CPD record
No comments:
Post a Comment