A great house.

This is the hobbit house that I read about in a daily mail article. It was built by Simon Dale and his family, at the cost of around £3000. Which is not bad at all I think.

I really love this little house.

 

Who wouldn't want to live here??

The original film version of Bilbo Baggins' house 

Simon Dale's project can also be found on his website.

In fact, I was so inspired by this project, that I have just put myself forward as a volunteer on the Lammas Project.... how exciting?!?!

Black Framed Glasses

The Architect Stereotype is becoming more and more obvious to me now. Our lecturer said a while back that the architecture course will lead us to become intrinsically part of an elitist group formed of 4am working people who "wear black polo-necks and drive around in Audis."  Though I thought it was an exaggeration initially, I am beginning to see the 'cult's' look when I am researching architects.

When we arrived at uni, one of the first things we found was a 'instant architect kit' which consisted of a cut out pair of round, thick black framed glasses. Now this is a funny joke once you start to become one of 'them'. The most famous architects  to wear these funny things are as follows:
(I've also noted their most famous buildings too)

Le Corbusier - Villa Savoye, which inspired
 those white box houses we see today

Peter Eisenman - Parc de la villette, Paris
 ( I actually went there on our study trip !)

Peter Cook - the Archigram* daddy - Kunsthaus,
Graz (austria)

Eero Saarinen - TWA terminal at JFK airport

Daniel Libeskind - London Metropolitan University.

Admittedly, Libeskind does not have rounded glasses, but you see the pattern here? Some of the greatest architects of all time are on this page.

I think this means that I need to lose my sight promptly and get myself a pair of these glasses in order to have fantastic sucess.  










* Archigram is a movement which looks like it could have been thought up whilst HEAVILY under the influence. It is a concept that thinks of the city as a movable beast, which can be added onto, changed around and then can just get up and go at will. 

Very yellow-submarine-on-a-big-trip, isn't it?

Paris

Paris was beautiful, but the trip was probably the most tiring week I have experienced

Old cars being used for a film .......

...Which means that a moggy was there <3

Cast

Proudin'ell of this shot

Classic puddle photo

Parc des Villettes

Cool Toilet at a Le Corbousier house

Notre Dame

The Arabe Institute. Beautiful building  - Iris style windows
which constrict or open depending on sunlight. Clever stuff!

Tonight's PADS Lecture

Ok, so there are probably a lot of things I would have to write about to inform of the coure so far. What I shall say is this: I love it. Today's workshops pushed me to create quick (mostly stupid) ideas, and work in ways that I would have never thought of before. I love Bob Brown's passion that he just lets flow into the studio. It is truly infectious.

Tonight we had our first PADS (Plymouth Architecture and Design Society) lecture, our speaker being the amazing Anthony Hoete of www.whatarchitecture.com:

"Hoete's  past projects, from a rooftop nursery in Hackney, to the architectural ‘hijacking’ of a suburban detached house, take problematic briefs and stringent red-tape requirements as an opportunity for innovation. His next project is a west London school with a Lego facade. The idea was a response to the Government’s Every Child Matters programme, and managed to include the pupils, as well as parents and local officials, in the design process."

Taken from Blueprint Magazine. ( I have included links to the work he went through with us)

Trust me, there is much more this guy has done. His talk has really pushed me to work harder and see the potential for creating something better, and not just going for the norm. As he said about the Lego school; just because the budget is small doesn't mean that you have to settle for a 'concrete box'. 

Check out his bloggy thing, which he intended to make architecture more accessible ( I believe?)

x

The mayor and a religious man with a great taste in colour  filling in some of the bricks.