At last!

Well it seems my pronouncement of the demise of the Community Right to Build two weeks ago was indeed premature! This week my CRTB Google-alert brought me this document from the Department of Communities and Local Government – their own ‘how to’ guide. Continue reading

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Kilmeena Village: Regionally Distinctive?

I was at RIBA HQ last week, and wandered into a rather boisterous opening-party for an exhibition of the winners of this year’s RIAI Irish Architecture Awards. A project by Cox Power Architects caught my Ruralise eye – a small development of houses and a community centre in Kilmeena, County Mayo. Continue reading

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The Community Right to Build is Dead?

Sure – you remember; the Community Right to Build? The flagship idea of the early days of the Localism agenda, and now law as part of the Localism Act. In the immediate aftermath of its announcement back in the late summer of 2010, its critics were quick to write it off as a crude headline-grabber. How could 90% of any community ever be persuaded to vote for anything in a referendum? Continue reading

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Looking Forward…

Hope you all enjoyed the Tayler and Green ‘feature’ – but now a look into the future, rather than the past. The architectural community in Norwich is eagerly anticipating the start of a new degree-course in architecture at Norwich University College of the Arts in the Autumn. Last week a group from the Norfolk Association of Architects Council got a preview of the new course from Course Leader Adrian Friend. Continue reading

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Tayler and Green #12 – The Legacy

Tayler and Green worked for Loddon throughout the 1960s, but also completed residential projects in the New Towns of Hatfield and Basildon, a large development of three-storey houses and flats at Camp Road in Norwich, and an office building in Great Yarmouth. In 1974 Tayler and Green retired and moved to a house they built for themselves at Altea near Alicante in Spain. The practice was taken over by Graham Ling and Peter Woods, who had worked with Tayler and Green since 1953 and 1955 respectively, and they were subsequently joined by Stuart Offord. The practice was re-named OWL Architects in 1990, and still operates from Battery Lane in Lowestoft. Continue reading

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Tayler and Green #11 – Critical Regionalism?

A pervading narrative in UK housing-design is that of ‘local distinctiveness’. The idea that new homes should ‘fit in’, or ‘reflect local character’, is enshrined in national and local planning guidance. For house-builders – and most of the local authority development control departments with which they deal – ‘reflecting local character’ means looking at the local vernacular, usually in the form of a nearby mediaeval town or village centre, and demonstrating how the house-builders product resembles it. You could say that in this respect things have actually improved since Herbert Tayler discussed the issue of regional architecture in his 1955 essay ‘Landscape in Rural Housing’. Tayler was able to complain that… Continue reading

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Tayler & Green #10 – Refusing to Indulge the Un-Homely

In a most arresting passage of Alan Power’s essay in ‘Tayler and Green 1938-1973: The Spirit of Place in Modern Housing’, he describes one of the main differences between Tayler and Green’s approach and the ethos of ‘mainstream’ Modernism. It is worth quoting at length: Continue reading

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Tayler and Green #9 – Composition

Tayler and Green’s preference for terraces over more conventional semis was partly due to their impact in the landscape. Tayler had come to believe that semis looked wrong in a rural context – like ‘a row of pointed teeth, with alternate teeth extracted’. Continue reading

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Tayler and Green #8 – Pragmatism and Decoration

Much has been written about how Tayler and Green’s work for Loddon fits so snugly into the Norfolk landscape, but a desire to ‘fit in’ was not a major driving-force behind their choice of forms and materials. Continue reading

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Tayler and Green #7 – A Kit of Parts

Loddon Council’s most pressing need, reflected in its initial briefings to Tayler and Green, was for family homes (one four-bed house for every seven three-beds), but very soon the Council introduced single-storey two-bed units into the mix, for older residents. The single-storey homes proved very popular and the target mix settled down to include one bungalow to every three houses. This mix of one- and two-storey homes greatly assisted the rather picturesque approach to site planning which Tayler and Green favoured, especially on their smaller schemes. Continue reading

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