Tag Archives: Critical Regionalism

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 … 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 … 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 … 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 … 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 … 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.

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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. … Continue reading

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Tayler & Green #6 – From Semi to Terrace

Despite Tayler and Green’s stipulation about not working rigidly with standard Minstry house-types, the first two projects for Loddon Rural District Council (five pairs at Leman Grove in Loddon and seven at College Road, Thurlton) were closely based on their … Continue reading

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Tayler and Green #5 – A Thirty-Year Partnership

Towards the end of the war most district councils were planning major house-building programmes, but Loddon Rural District Council had begun to do so much earlier, under powers for slum-clearance granted by the by 1936 Housing Act, with the intention … Continue reading

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Tayler & Green #4 – Coming Home

After the early acclaim for Kings Head Yard, the real world intruded rapidly on Tayler and Green’s career. In 1941 they left London for Norfolk so David Green could help his father’s practice with reconstruction work after early bombing raids … Continue reading

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