'The Handmade House: A Love Story set in Concrete'
Geraldine Bedell
Penguin Viking, 2005-08-07

For many people, seduced by the television programme Grand Designs, the dream of building their own house begins with a long and wearying search for land.  In Geraldine Bedell’s case the land more or less dropped into her lap; her problem was finding the £650,000 to buy it and almost as much again for the building.  This vivid, and at times unnervingly honest description of the construction of the RIBA award winning “Azman Owens House” charts the personal and emotional journey, as well as technical aspects of the project.  Echoes of the Honeywood File – but this time from the client’s perspective?

Bedell does not make light of the many problems which arose along the way.  She was initially unconvinced about the extensive use of concrete, but became enthusiastic after researching the work of Tadao Ando.  The project suffered delays at almost every stage, bringing the family to the brink of bankruptcy.  Interaction between Ferhan Azman and Joyce Owens was time-consuming and occasionally fraught, though Bedell concedes that the architects were generally right.  Finally the process of ‘de-cluttering’ to adapt to this totally new environment was a painful, but ultimately liberating experience.  Bedell and her “reconstituted” family ended up with a house they quickly grew to love and which successfully accommodates their needs. 

The book contains no photographs, though the curious reader can find out more from the RIBA website, and from relevant articles in the architectural press.  For those in the London area, the house will also be open at the 2005 Open House weekend on 17/18th September.  And on 20th September 2005, Geraldine Bedell is giving a talk about the project – details below.

ET/PT

Geraldine Bedell - the client side revelations uncut!

Geraldine Bedell, homeowner and journalist, shares her experience of working with Azman Owens Architects to build her family home in Islington, the 2003 RIBA Award winner and subject of The Handmade House, published by Penguin 2005.

Date:               20 September 6.30pm
Venue:             Allgood Gallery, 72-73 Warren Street, NW1
Tickets             £5 inc glass of wine
To book visit www.openhouse.org.uk

If you are generally interested in such perpectives, also try Tracy Kidder’s ‘House’ (1997). And Michael Pollan’s Place of My Own (1997). There is also Ann Cline’s ‘A Hut of One's Own’ (1998). These are all American.

The Dictionary of Urbanism
by Robert Cowan
Streetwise Press, 2005-07-26

Today I journeyed from the Prince of Wales to Hampstead Garden Suburb via the Monstrous Carbuncle and Modernism , Robert Venturi and Post-Modernism, and Sir Edwin Lutyens. En route I learnt that 10 Italians create as much urban activity as 100 Australians (Gazzards Law of Urban Vitality).

From this you will gather that Robert Cowan's Dictionary of Urbanism is no dry, academic lexicon, aimed solely at the "urbanist" professional. At one level it is a light-hearted romp through the urban wordscape, but one which is nevertheless able to go into depth on occasion and to draw out the linkages between important concepts and movements. The mini-essays on Community, Neighbourhood and Sustainability, for example, make a distinction between the underlying importance of these terms for place-making, and their annexation by politicians and other vested interests. Cowan is Director of the campaigning Urban Design Group, though his wry commentary is seldom polemical.

This book will engage and inform all those with an enduring interest in the built environment. And buyers can further amuse themselves by accessing (or indeed contributing) updates at www.urbanwords.info. Who knows, perhaps the next edition will accord Open House the 2-page citation it so richly deserves!
PT

PENTHOUSE LIVING (Interior Angles)
by Jonathan Bell
Wiley-Academy, 2005 (available in hardback and paperback)

For those who thought that Richard D'Oyly Carte's sole claim to fame was as promoter of Gilbert & Sullivan operettas, it may come as a surprise to learn that London's first penthouse apartment was created for his daughter atop Claridge's Hotel. Jonathan Bell's sumptuously illustrated book traces the history of the penthouse from the birth of the skyscraper through early modernism and contemporary design, and concludes with some speculative ideas on the penthouse of the future.

The book's four chronological sections each open with an introductory essay outlining the social and technological context that shaped urban living in our major cities. Each essay is followed by a series of project descriptions, 31 in total, complete with photographs and floorplans. About half the projects are in London, with the remainder split equally between the USA and the rest of the world. The great strength of the book is in demonstrating that good architects can create elegant and exhilarating living spaces from even the most unpromising of rooftops. This is not a great problem for new-build apartment blocks on the Thames embankment, but how to tackle a Beaux Arts skyscraper in New York or an Edwardian apartment block in London? Personally, I would have liked more discussion about the relationship between form and function; to what extent were these schemes influenced by the lifestyle of the probable occupants?

Of course this is a coffee table book; but it is not just a coffee table book. The introductory essays are a serious attempt to explore some of the inherent contradictions of penthouse life. Is it a home or a showcase? Is it an elitist bubble or a legitimate aspiration for the many? Can we combine today's security requirements with seamless transition between inside and outside? The selected projects represent the pinnacle of penthouse design over the past 100 years. As such they inspire awe and admiration for what can be done, though that will be cold comfort for the recent buyer of a 1200 ft2 shell in Clerkenwell with a limited budget!
PT

Review of "Pavilions of Splendour"
An Architectural History of Lord’s
Edited by Duff Hart-Davis
Methuen, 2004

In a series of essays edited by Duff Hart-Davis, the contributors to this elegant book chronicle the key events and decisions which have shaped the Lord’s estate from earliest beginnings through to the present day. By way of illustration, the decision to entrust Herbert Baker with the design the WG Grace memorial gates was to influence all building at the ground in the inter-war period. And the article about the (mis)management of the residential properties to the West and North of the ground conveys a rare insight into the pitfalls which must face anyone having to manage such a diverse mix of core and non-core assets.

About one-third of the book deals with the structures that are evident today – the Victorian pavilion, the Mound Stand (Hopkins) and Grandstand (Grimshaw), the Indoor Cricket School and Nursery Pavilion (both Morley), and most recently the NatWest Communications Centre (Future Systems). Each of these is engagingly described in chapters that devote as much space to the processes of building acquisition as they do to the architectural merits of the buildings themselves. One is aware throughout of the MCC’s determination that Lord’s should remain a cricket ground and not be transformed into a “stadium”.  Lord’s evolution into what must surely be home to one of the finest collection of contemporary buildings anywhere in the UK bears witness to their success.

A couple of minor gripes: some sloppy proof reading has led to at least one photograph being wrongly captioned, and an index would have been helpful. But overall this is a book which does what it says on the tin; it is not really a book about architecture per se, still less one about cricket. It is indeed an architectural history of one of the nation’s most treasured venues.
PT

Review of "City Reborn" Kenneth Powell (foreword by Renzo Piano)
Merrell 2004
Sub-titled: Architecture and Regeneration in London, from Bankside to Dulwich.

Compiled with the support of Soutwark Council's regeneration team, this is a highly accessible account of the central role of good architecture in Southwark's extraordinary renaissance over the past 20 years. The book showcases 40 projects ranging from landmark developments such as Tate Modern and City Hall, to warehouse conversions and private homes, to infrastructure initiatives such as the new stations on the Jubilee Line extension, and the Millennium Bridge. Together, these projects paint a picture of a vibrant and colourful, if slightly incoherent Borough - one willing to take bold steps without worrying too much about where they lead. The projects are well chosen, the introductory essay is informative and the book is well laid out in a series of 2-page spreads (the format will be familar to those acquainted with Kenneth Powell's earlier works, New London Architecture and New Architecture in Britain). The text accompanying each project is at times on the meagre side, and a decent map of the borough would make navigation easier. But these are minor qibbles set against the enjoyment anyone interested in urban regeneration should derive from this excellent book.
PT