All Things Considered

Rural architecture
Posted by Simon Lewin

Angie and I are travelling in Spain at the minute. Yesterday we took a favourite walk in the Pyrenees. 

Here's a modern refuge on the route, part of the GR-150, close to Santuari del Boscalt, near Ansovell. No idea who designed it - I'll try to find out.

The first photo shows the hut at the start of the circular route we took - the second towards the end of the day when a thunder & hail storm allowed us to make proper use.

Posted by Simon Lewin on May 19th, 2011

East Coasting
Posted by Simon Lewin

At his last St. Jude's exhibition, printmaker Christopher Brown created a series of 14 linocut prints entitled East Coasting - A Journey Through East Anglia.

Designer Brian Webb explains...

“If Chris Brown’s postcard size pictures of East Anglian landmarks were picture postcards they would be the ones you would send to your closest friends.

The lino cuts that illustrate East Coasting, following on from Cuts from Memory, are full of incident and detail - look out for Edward Bawden, portfolio under his arm, walking out of the picture of Brick House.

Bawden, Chris Brown’s tutor at the Royal College of Art wrote, “you are a line chap just as I am and as you know there is nothing that gives greater vivacity to a drawing than quality of line”. Bawden could have added colour which Chris now uses with delicious delicacy. ”

Produced in an edition of 25 copies, numbers 1-10 have been sold as complete sets. We still have a few of these complete sets available.

And for a limited period we're offering these at a reduced price and will include a copy of the linocut Chris produced of our gallery in Norfolk. View the set of East Coasting prints.

Posted by Simon Lewin on May 17th, 2011

The Dune House, Thorpeness
Posted by Simon Lewin

We took a walk from Thorpeness to Sizewell and back earlier today. Got to have a look close up at the The Dune House in Thorpeness, Suffolk.

It's one of the properties the Living Architecture present - offering the chance to holiday in buildings designed by leading architects including Peter Zumthor, Michael & Patty Hopkins, NORD, Jarmund/Vigsnæs Architects & MVRDV.

Living Architecture is the brain child of Alain de Botton who had the idea for the company whilst working on a book on architecture.

The Dune House is designed by Jarmund/Vigsnæs Architects who are best known for their work in and around Oslo.

View the other properties offered by Living Architecture.

Posted by Simon Lewin on February 14th, 2011

Mark Hearld at home
Posted by Simon Lewin

One of the many perks of working with Mark Hearld is getting a chance to visit his home in York. We're due to visit again in a few weeks to discuss all sorts including another fabric design for St. Jude's.

Mark recently worked with the Tate on a range of products, and senior product developer Jo Mazzotta talks about her collaboration with Mark over on the Tate blog.

Photos by Jane Sebire

Posted by Simon Lewin on February 12th, 2011

Barbara Jones
Posted by Simon Lewin

Regulars to All Things Considered will know that we're fans of the work Barbara Jones.

We're trying to help a friend identify the property that features in this watercolour and pencil piece by Jones. If you recognise it, please leave a message on our Facebook page.

Posted by Simon Lewin on January 29th, 2011

Ed Kluz
Posted by Simon Lewin

We've had the pleasure of exhibiting a series of new works by Ed Kluz at our St. Jude's In The City exhibition at the Bankside.

It's been a busy couple of years for Ed with commissions from the V&A, Faber & Faber, Little Toller and others. We're also working with Ed on his first textile design for St. Jude's.

At the time of writing, here's one of the few remaining pieces from our Bankside exhibition - a mixed media & collage piece entitled "Old St. Paul's Cathedral". It's a large work (images size 64cm x 84cm) and this photograph (taken when framed) doesn't quite do it justice.

Priced at £1,750.00, as we're selling at The Bankside Gallery, the Own Art scheme (10 monthly interest free payments) is available (to personal callers). To purchase, please call The Bankside Gallery on 020 7928 7521. You can also view a larger image.

But do come and take a look at the work - the St. Jude's In The City closes 6pm on Sunday 21st November at The Bankside Gallery, 48 Hopton Street, London SE1 9HJ. Or view the complete series online

Posted by Simon Lewin on November 19th, 2010

Ed Kluz & Little Toller Books
Posted by Simon Lewin

Here's a wonderful collage by Ed Kluz, commissioned by Little Toller Books for the cover of The Journal of a Disappointed Man.

They've been using some great images for the covers of their classics of nature writing and rural life. View the series online

Ed Kluz will be exhibiting a series of new collages at our St. Jude's In The City exhibition opening at the Bankside Gallery (next to Tate Modern) next week.

Posted by Simon Lewin on November 2nd, 2010

Chandigarh
Posted by Matthew Loukes

Earlier this year Matthew Loukes visit Chandigarh, India's modernist dream designed by Le Corbusier.

When the armed soldier smiled for the first time I finally started to relax and take in what was around us. We stood on the roof of Le Corbusier’s immense Secretariat and looked down towards the front of a justice building held up by enormous coloured pillars. To the left of the court, a vast sculpture of an open hand turned slowly in the hot wind, waving us welcome to the Capitol in Chandigarh, India’s modernist dream. The soldier smiled again and, with his gun barrel, pointed to the hand.

The reason for the military presence is that, due to an apparent terrorist threat, one can’t visit the Capitol without several signed letters of introduction from the Tourist Office, interviews with several stern-looking officers and an armed escort. The letters charmingly presented my partner and me as representatives of British Architecture, which could hardly be further from the truth. Fortunately, nobody asked us searching questions about pilotis or buttresses. The nearest we got to being embarrassed was when a group of soldiers all stood to attention and saluted as we approached the building. I was about to reciprocate when a man with braid on his shoulders strode past, glaring at the tourists spoiling his moment of superiority.

Following independence in 1947, the Indian government, and Pandit Nehru in particular, were keen to show that the new country was just that. Nehru called Chandigarh a city “unfettered by the traditions of the past, a symbol of the nation's faith in the future”. That faith was largely invested in Le Corbusier, who took over the project when the American architect Albert Mayer pulled out following the death of his partner. Students of Le Corbusier would probably point out that, despite the unflinching modernity of the buildings, the architect was far from unfettered by the past. Academics drool over the placing of buildings in the asymmetric tradition of classical antiquity and so on (and on). Unburdened with all that knowledge, we just wanted to look at the buildings and do a bit of gaping.

And there’s plenty to make the jaw drop. The Assembly building contains a debating chamber that’s a treasure trove of modernist furniture – enough painted, bent ply to fill all the loft apartments in Manhattan and then some. This vast chamber is decorated with abstract blobs of colour, reminiscent of Miro’s tapestries and irregular shaped acoustic panels. Sadly one’s not allowed to take pictures inside but if you can imagine our own House of Commons given a make-over by a surrealist with a yen for rocking furniture you may get the idea. Outside, the roof along one side forms a scooping curve looking down on some garages (yes plain old garages) that are decorated with perforated concrete panels and bright splashes of primary colours. The High Court building with its immense slabs of concrete colour and a wild geometric shell is entered by a series of sloping pathways rising to give a view of the Open Hand and the other two huge monuments to modernity.

Guidebooks to India are often rather sniffy about Chandigarh. It’s not uncommon to see it called “Un-Indian” (whatever that is supposed to mean in a country with more than 20 languages) or to imply that the place is somehow a failure, because Le Corbusier’s designs have proved impractical in some ways. It’s true that the concrete structures have problems in the heat and that the city itself seems to be reliant on a series of interconnected roundabouts that mean walking is a nuisance. But Chandigarh is one of the cleanest and richest cities in India, with good housing and a good deal of civic pride. Compare that with the truly horrific shanty dwellings in turbo-capitalist Delhi or the embarrassingly twee colonial representations of “The Old Country” in hill stations like Shimla and Chandigarh emerges pretty well. It has an Open Hand. All we need is an open mind.

To view further images visit Matthew's Flickr album from the trip.

Matthew Loukes is a London based Crime Writer. His novels ESTRELLA DAMN and GOOSE FLESH are available from the usual outlets. More information from www.soulbaypress.com

Posted by Matthew Loukes on October 19th, 2010

Southwold town sign
Posted by Simon Lewin

Our friend Brian Webb of Webb & Webb has just designed a new sign for this Suffolk coastal town.

The sign is a ‘slice through the sea making a plinth for the town name, stacked on the waves. People walking over the bridge will see the golden-eyed fish in the waves’, Brian told the Eastern Daily Press.

Find out more about the work of Webb & Webb.

Posted by Simon Lewin on August 12th, 2010

Angie Lewin’s latest linocut
Posted by Simon Lewin

Here's the first block of a new large linocut that Angie is working on for our St. Jude's in the City exhibition at the Bankside Gallery in November. To receive further details nearer the time and an invitation to the private view please do join our mailing list.

Posted by Simon Lewin on July 4th, 2010