Tag Archives: house-builders

Contemporary Vernacular?

Posted on June 27, 2011 by Matt Wood

Coming back to the issue of special and normal buildings (as I did in the last post), put me in mind of a house which I drive past occasionally on my way up to Holkham Hall, where Lucas Hickman Smith … Continue reading →

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Local Materials Faux Pas

Posted on March 31, 2011 by Matt Wood

While writing the recent posts on local building materials, I was thinking about an estate in Wymondham called Whispering Oaks. The development is set at the very northern tip of the town, over a mile from the town centre and … Continue reading →

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Building Norfolk

Posted on March 29, 2011 by Matt Wood

Matthew Rice’s book ‘Building Norfolk’ attracted quite a lot of attention when it was published last year; not surprisingly. It is a beautiful book full of exuberant, colourful drawings. I could write a whole other post, lamenting the death of … Continue reading →

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More Norfolk ‘Stuff’

Posted on March 15, 2011 by Matt Wood

So the vast majority of Norfolk is covered in brick-built houses with pan-tiled roofs, with plenty of surviving older timber-framed buildings, typically rendered over and painted – but that’s not the end of the story, of course.

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‘Rogers Dumped from Oxley Park’

Posted on January 28, 2011 by Matt Wood

Last week Buidling Design magazine covered Taylor Wimpey’s decision to abandon the last phase of their much published development at Oxley Park in Milton Keynes, designed by architectural mega-star Richard Rogers.  Their leader focussed on issues of construction and delivery, … Continue reading →

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Roofs Across Fields #2

Posted on November 24, 2010 by Matt Wood

The observations I’ve made so far about the Norfolk landscape and its built forms (my four archetypes) might be interesting to some of you in their own right, but what I’m really interested in is how they might inform how … Continue reading →

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So What?

Posted on October 19, 2010 by Matt Wood

 What point was I trying to make with those last two rather nerdy posts about Horsham St Faith and Frettenham? What relevance do they have to the Community Right to Build?

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Norfolk’s DNA #1 – The Nucleated Village

Posted on October 13, 2010 by Matt Wood

Norfolk’s nucleated settlements – its picture postcard villages, if you will – have typically existed since mediaeval times, operating as markets, service-centres for Norman monasteries or castles, or capitalizing on passing trade at river-crossings. They have distinct and comparatively dense … Continue reading →

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Villages on Steroids

Posted on October 9, 2010 by Matt Wood

All Community Right to Build projects will take place in the context of an existing village, and its promoters will no doubt want to add to their village in a sympathetic and sensitive manner. So what might a contemporary ‘village … Continue reading →

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