I was quite cultured this weekend as it was the fabulous Open House London, something I almost always miss but managed to be quite organised about this time round. How popular has this got lately?? I remember a few years ago no one seemed to even know it existed but this weekend the entire city seemed to be open house crazy – you should have seen the area around the Guildhall on Sunday; there were about 20 large walking tours starting off every 30 seconds or so and literally millions of people milling round the streets was amazing and very different to the usual weekend in the city experience which is more like a ghost town. Anyway I’m very glad this has become more and more popular although it does make it harder to get into things – half of it seemed to be booked up weeks ago. And before I go any further can I just say how incredibly impressed I am by all the hundreds of people who must have given up their time to organise and carry out the tours for free. The 2 I went on were absolutely brilliant, both proper job architectural historians and stuff – amazing, so thanks to them and everyone else involved.
Anyway, to the actual cultural experiences:
My boss (who is a big architecture buff) had been organised and booked herself onto about 15 tours which she then had to cancel due to a dodgy knee playing up again (which by the way I’m pretty sure was my fault) so I managed to nab her booking on Saturday morning for Highpoint in Highgate, a building about 10 mins walk from me which I have always wanted to see inside. I was going to do lots of research about this before writing my blog but frankly I have neither time nor inclination so I’m just going to make some stuff up and elaborate a bit from Wikipedia. Ahh, I love Wikipedia. Hmm so have just had a quick look on Wikipedia and its all a bit confusing as they differentiate between Architect, Structural Designer and Construction but I’m going for: ‘this building was designed by the Russian born architect Lubetkin’ who was, clearly, influenced by the great god Corbusier.
Highpoint was originally designed to be social housing for the white collar workers of the industrialist (I think) Sigmund Gestetner. By the time it was finished though as per usual these lot had been totally forgotten and it went to the great and the glitterati as always. Built in the mid 30s it is one of the finest examples of the International style – I think, is that true? I don’t know – I’m not totally sure of the difference between Modernism and the International Style. I do know that it’s definitely not Deco. The poor tour guide had to spend about 10 minutes explaining how Modernism really really wasn’t Deco to this bat shit stupid art student who was on the tour. She was very very good, very patient but eventually this idiot Hoxton twat obviously just wouldn’t get it and the poor women concluded with ‘I think Lubetkin would turn in his grave to hear you say this building had Deco influences’. Hahahahaha. Anyway, she was amazing, lived in the building and was dressed in full on ‘I’m an architect don’t you bloody know so fuck off’ costume of long shapeless black silk sack dress, black boots, architect glasses and abundant architect red hair stuffed into very architect black hat. She was fucking fabulous and v knowledgeable. Anyway, it really is a truly incredibly building and we got to look round 2 of the flats!!!! It’s so fun to be able to look round all these rich arty peoples houses. One a 2 bed and one a three bed and my god those places are nice –the 2 bed had a lot of the original features such as the gorgeous gorgeous concertina windows which stretch across the whole main room of all the flats and can be opened all the way across. They also had the original bathroom and kitchen fittings which is really important as obviously being Modernist these elements were designed as thoroughly as any other part of the building and are all fabulous. The 3 bedroom one we looked around didn’t have original features although they had recreated a lot including things like the original door handles and cork flooring but my god those people must have been RICH. They had commissioned a bookcase to be a cross section of the building for example – so yeah they had a fair amount of artistic clash floating round clearly. I have actually managed to find a picture of the bookshelf although looks like they have redesigned the flat since this was taken!! We also got to look at the beautiful gardens and most stunningly I think the lobby/foyer which must be the ultimate Modernist space, so so startlingly, arrestingly beautiful:
They talked a lot about the journey through the building and how much that was focussed on as part of the architectural design. I think I may start applying this to my day to day life.
We also had a quick look in the foyer of Highpoint 2 which is next door to Highpoint 1 and build a few years later. This is a much more luxurious space apparently and the flats are all duplex with lifts leading up directly into each like you’re always in Pretty Woman – amazing!! But it wasn’t nearly nearly as nice as the foyer for Highpoint 1 even though it’s much plusher. It’s funny how all my Open House visits seemed to revolve around class and social housing, maybe that’s an element always present in architectural design. I guess my weekend was a tour of different forms of middle class architecture for different purposes though.
I got so chilly on that bloody hill garden on Saturday morning that I ran home and got straight into bed (where I essentially stayed until going to see Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy that evening which by the way was beautifully shot, acted, written, made etc but was unbelievably boring – may be worth just reading the book I suspect) but I did make it out again on Sunday afternoon where I ran to the Guildhall and managed to pick up a ticket to a walking tour around the Barbican Estate. Yay me. I will go into the Barbican first. Our guide was a lovely architectural historian who lived there, lucky bugger. This time we didn’t get to go into any of the flats but we did get into some of the private garden/square things which was great and its always nice to walk round that part of London on a sunny autumnal afternoon looking at all the lovely angles and vistas created by the skyscrapers (well London’s version of skyscrapers). He didn’t dumb it down at all which was great and used lots of fancy architectural terms which I either didn’t know or had a vague memory of once knowing and then forgetting. I didnt realise that it was never intended to be council housing but rather affordable housing for a mix of social classes. He also made some really interesting points about the intentions and vision of Brutalism, something I have always rather detested, hence my lack of enthusiasm for the Barbican in the past. For example, although concrete is the name of the game the architects had always envisioned the space to be mitigated by the people living there. For example they wanted people to use their balconies to grow plants and flowers, thus ‘softening’ and domesticating the harsh sharp lines of concrete. I still think it looks like a multi-storey car park with or without the pot plants though, and not in a good way and I think it says A LOT that this building was created to be inward looking – the outside seeming impenetrable and uninviting.
It was fun looking round the tree filled squares which can only be accessed by residents – the guide went into some detail about how the architects had created these spaces to evoke the private squares of West London, which I think again says a lot. He also went into some depth about the socialist intentions of communal living and a multi-use urban space. This was very appropriate considering my tour of Highpoint the day before which was also infused with the socialist utopian ideas of the early part of the 20th century.
Last and by no means least; The Guildhall, although I was busy trying to track down my sister and get to my Barbican tour quickly so only got to run through and didn’t really find out anything about the actual building or design. It was great to have a look round though – it felt a bit like I was in Moria from the Lord of the Rings in some kind of endless complex of grand underground halls from various periods – seemingly never ending and for god knows what function. Anyway there was some fab glass work, painting and other stuff and it will be number one on my list for next year!! Sorry not much in-depth analysis and insight in this weeks blog oh well but hey 25 mins to write all the above not bad huh? HUH!!?!?
It was fun looking round the tree filled squares which can only be accessed by residents – the guide went into some detail about how the architects had created these spaces to evoke the private squares of West London, which I think again says a lot. He also went into some depth about the socialist intentions of communal living and a multi-use urban space. This was very appropriate considering my tour of Highpoint the day before which was also infused with the socialist utopian ideas of the early part of the 20th century.
Last and by no means least; The Guildhall, although I was busy trying to track down my sister and get to my Barbican tour quickly so only got to run through and didn’t really find out anything about the actual building or design. It was great to have a look round though – it felt a bit like I was in Moria from the Lord of the Rings in some kind of endless complex of grand underground halls from various periods – seemingly never ending and for god knows what function. Anyway there was some fab glass work, painting and other stuff and it will be number one on my list for next year!! Sorry not much in-depth analysis and insight in this weeks blog oh well but hey 25 mins to write all the above not bad huh? HUH!!?!?
