First of all, I needed to research whether to use follow-up or follow up. Follow up functions as a verb as to check or pursue. Follow-up is used as a noun as in a review. So, let’s review, shall we?
This is to follow-up from my post last Friday concerning the reworking, rather than the demolition, of certain buildings. If I could’ve had another life that ran parallel with the path I’ve already used up since high school, I would’ve gone for an architecture degree. Didn’t do it, however, but I have designed and built a few structures…youtube videos are my friend.
Anyway, there was another article by the same writer I quoted Friday, Oliver Wainwright from the Guardian, that I wanted to post but didn’t have room with all the political shouting I was doing. Heh.
John Outram is a British architect and I find his designs amusing and inviting.
I know, they’re certainly not for everyone nor for every occasion. In the Guardian article, Wainwright discusses Geraint Franklin’s new book on Outram which explores the deeper background of his work in architectural history, metaphysics and mythology.
Franklin says the English have never quite known what to do with Outram. His buildings are hi-tech, neoclassical and postmodern all at once, yet they fit neatly into none of these categories. His chubby columns house sophisticated mechanical systems for ventilation, wiring and drainage, while simultaneously alluding to ancient mythologies in their richly layered ornament.
Wainwright says that Ornament was a crime for most of his peers, but he reveled in architecture’s ability to tell stories, densely “scripting” his buildings’ surfaces with meaning – even if it was in a language that only he himself could understand.
I hope you enjoyed seeing these entertaining buildings. Just for grins, here is something you see in force in every town, USA. Compare and contrast…
Also, just for grins, just because:
When I see pundits and politicians arguing that we have an obligation to soothe the raging right-wing id by bending the rules, indulging the crimes, agreeing to their version of reality, I see this kind of pandering, this kind of jumping on the toboggan of the slippery slope, this kind of obeying in advance. A Trump indictment is only partisan because his party now fully supports crime and lies. – Rebecca Solnit, Aug 23, 2022
And now…
What, you don’t love the modern strip mall? Don’t see many like that here in Ecuador!
I love this kind of architecture! Wish there were more of it.