Architecture – the great divide
After the USA trip it was clear how the group of six of us from the Sheriff’s Commission had very different ideas about architecture.
Today we added a few more attractions to our list (31 in the USA!).
They were The Tate Modern, The Globe Theatre, The Golden Hinde and Borough Market.
So, you can take The ship out of the equation – it was good, but £6 for a ‘self tour’ seems a bit steep. But I liked the idea of kids Pirate parties – and even better ‘sleep-overs’. How cool would that be? Not that we had such things when I was a kid! (adult sleep-overs?- now there’s an idea)
But back to the plot. Tate Modern is just a brilliant re-use of a building in my view. The ramped entrance and space is just great. Big spaces for big ideas. And Borough Market is a remarkable space with a mixture of very old traditional stalls dating back over 100 years to some well executed modern additions which don’t intrude, but add to the area. The coffee shop was ‘open’ and inviting. It had a sort of grungy feel which we saw done so well at Chelsea Market in New York and at the Farmers Market in Los Angeles.
Great open fronted coffee shop at Borough Market London
And then there was The Globe. Which was (in my humble opinion) just about as close to ‘Disney-fied’ architecture that you can get. It redefined the word pastiche. I was told it was well researched and was a true to the original as they could have made it. But it wasn’t – and that is surely the point. The walls were timber and render fill panels – but they were all perfect. Perfectly straight and neat. And in the 16th Century did they didn’t build like this? No. Precisely. I thought it was awful – but other member of the group thought it was good. But then they didn’t like Frank Gehry’s EMP Building in Seattle. Luddites roam freely – beware!
The Globe Theatre London - pastiche architecture
The Gehry building is the apotheosis of disney architecture!!! Its a brash poster for architectural onerism, at least the globe has some sort of historical/cultural purpose behind it’s design.
And be proud to be a luddite, in many ways they were a proto-union that grew out of the remnants of medieval guild structures and did not smash looms cos they were scared of new technology – they were against the dissolution of cottage industries in favour of workhouses and early factory systems, which if you’ve read Oliver Twist weren’t all that fun.