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Ian Nairn
Ian Douglas Nairn (24 August 1930 – 14 August 1983) was a British architectural critic who coined the word "Subtopia" to indicate drab suburbs that look identical through unimaginative town-planning. He published two strongly personalised critiques of London and Paris, and collaborated with Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, who considered his reports to be too subjective, but acknowledged him as the better writer. Early life Ian Nairn was born at 4 Milton Road, Bedford, England. Nairn's father was a draughtsman on the R101 airship programme based at Shortstown. The family moved in 1932 when the airship programme was terminated, and Nairn was brought up in Surrey. It was the balancing-act nature of this essentially suburban environment which he stated "produced a deep hatred of characterless buildings and places". Nairn had no formal architecture qualifications; he was a mathematics graduate (University of Birmingham) and a Royal Air Force pilot, flying Gloster Meteor aircraft.''The M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nairn's London
''Nairn's London'' is a 1966 book about the architecture of London. It is authored by British writer Ian Nairn and this is the work for which he is the best known. Architecture critic Jonathan Meades has praised the work as an "imperious mongrel: part Handbook, vade-mecum, part polemic, part poetic contemplation, part deflected autobiography and part conversation with himself – wholly original" and "the testament of a man steeped in London". Nairn himself described it as a "personal list of the best things in London" and a "record of what has moved me between Uxbridge and Dagenham." ''Nairn's London'' drifted in and out of print in the decades following its publication but became a cult classic. It was regularly recommended by American film critic Roger Ebert to students seeking to improve their prose, and he wrote an introduction for the book in a 2002 printing. Ebert, however, had to caveat his recommendation with an acknowledgement that it was, at that time, difficult to ob ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bedford
Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population was 106,940. Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire and seat of the Borough of Bedford local government district. Bedford was founded at a ford (crossing), ford on the River Great Ouse and is thought to have been the burial place of King Offa of Mercia, who is remembered for building Offa's Dyke on the Welsh border. Bedford Castle was built by Henry I of England, Henry I, although it was destroyed in 1224. Bedford was granted borough status in 1166 and has been represented in Parliament since 1265. It is known for its large Italians in the United Kingdom, population of Italian descent. History The name of the town is believed to derive from the name of a Saxon chief called Beda, and a Ford (crossing), ford crossing the River Great Ouse. Bedford was a market town for the surrounding agricultural region from the early Middle Ages. The Anglo-Saxon King Offa of Mercia was buried in the town ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jonathan Glancey
Jonathan Glancey, is an architectural critic and writer who was the architecture and design editor at ''The Guardian'', a position he held from 1997 to February 2012. He previously held the same post at ''The Independent''. He also has been involved with the architecture magazines ''Building Design'', '' Architectural Review'', The Architect and ''Blueprint''. He is an honorary fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, RIBA. Following in the footsteps of Ian Nairn he made a series of four films, ''Outrage Revisited'' (2010) on the banality of Britain's postwar buildings. He is a fan of Le Corbusier. Currently he reports on architecture and design for the website BBC Culture, and he has written articles about Andrea Palladio who was a Renaissance man into architecture and established what is known to be 'Palladianism'. Education Glancey attended St Benedict's School in Ealing, London and studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Magdalen College, Oxford. Boo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Northumberland
Northumberland ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England, on the Anglo-Scottish border, border with Scotland. It is bordered by the North Sea to the east, Tyne and Wear and County Durham to the south, Cumbria to the west, and the Scottish Borders council area to the north. The town of Blyth, Northumberland, Blyth is the largest settlement. Northumberland is the northernmost county in England. The county has an area of and a population of 320,274, making it the least-densely populated county in England. The south-east contains the largest towns: Blyth, Northumberland, Blyth, Cramlington, Ashington, Bedlington, and Morpeth, Northumberland, Morpeth, the last of which is the administrative centre. The remainder of the county is rural, the largest towns being Berwick-upon-Tweed in the far north and Hexham in the south-west. For local government purposes Northumberland is a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area. The county Histo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norfolk
Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and east, Cambridgeshire to the west, and Suffolk to the south. The largest settlement is the city of Norwich. The county has an area of and a population of 859,400. It is largely rural with few large towns: after Norwich (147,895), the largest settlements are King's Lynn (42,800) in the north-west, Great Yarmouth (38,693) in the east, and Thetford (24,340) in the south. For local government purposes Norfolk is a non-metropolitan county with seven districts. The centre of Norfolk is gently undulating lowland. To the east are the Broads, a network of rivers and lakes which extend into Suffolk and which are protected by the Broads Authority, which give them a similar status to a National parks of England and Wales, national park. To the west the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Essex
Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the south, Greater London to the south-west, and Hertfordshire to the west. The largest settlement is Southend-on-Sea, and the county town is Chelmsford. The county has an area of and a population of 1,832,751. After Southend-on-Sea (182,305), the largest settlements are Colchester (130,245), Basildon (115,955) and Chelmsford (110,625). The south of the county is very densely populated, and the remainder, besides Colchester and Chelmsford, is largely rural. For local government purposes Essex comprises a non-metropolitan county, with twelve districts, and two unitary authority areas: Thurrock Council, Thurrock and Southend-on-Sea City Council, Southend-on-Sea. The districts of Chelmsford, Colchester and Southend have city status. The county H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gordon Cullen
Thomas Gordon Cullen (9 August 1914 – 11 August 1994) was an influential British architect and urban designer who was a key motivator in the Townscape movement. Cullen presented a new theory and methodology for urban visual analysis and design based on the psychology of perception, such as the human need for visual stimulation and the notions of time and space. He is best known for the book ''Townscape'', first published in 1961. Later editions of ''Townscape '' were published under the title ''The Concise Townscape''. Life Early life and education Cullen was born in Calverley, Pudsey, near Leeds, Yorkshire, England. He studied architecture at the Royal Polytechnic Institution, the present day University of Westminster, and subsequently worked as a draughtsman in various architects' offices including that of Berthold Lubetkin and Tecton, but he never qualified or practised as an architect. Career Between 1944 and 1946 he worked in the planning office of the Development and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buildings Of England
The ''Pevsner Architectural Guides'' are four series of guide books to the architecture of the British Isles. ''The Buildings of England'' series was begun in 1945 by the art historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, with its forty-six original volumes published between 1951 and 1974. The fifteen volumes in ''The Buildings of Scotland'' series were completed between 1978 and 2016, and the ten in ''The Buildings of Wales'' series between 1979 and 2009. The volumes in all three series have been periodically revised by various authors; ''Scotland'' and ''Wales'' have been partially revised, and ''England'' has been fully revised and reorganised into fifty-six volumes. ''The Buildings of Ireland'' series was begun in 1979 and remains incomplete, with six of a planned eleven volumes published. A standalone volume covering the Isle of Man was published in 2023. The series were published by Penguin Books until 2002, when they were sold to Yale University Press. Origin and research methods After m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nikolaus Pevsner
Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (1951–74). Life Nikolaus Pevsner was born in Leipzig, Kingdom of Saxony, Saxony, the son of Anna and her husband Hugo Pevsner, a Russian-Jewish fur merchant. He attended St. Thomas School, Leipzig, and went on to study at several universities, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Munich, Humboldt University of Berlin, Berlin, and Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, before being awarded a doctorate by Leipzig University, Leipzig in 1924 for a thesis on the Architecture of Leipzig#Leipzig bourgeois town houses and oriel windows of the Baroque era, Baroque architecture of Leipzig. In 1923, he married Carola ("Lola") Kurlbaum, the daughter of distinguished Leipzig lawyer Alfred Kurlbaum. He worked as an assistant keeper at the Ge ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The foundation was created by Standard Oil magnate John D. Rockefeller ("Senior") and son " Junior", and their primary business advisor, Frederick Taylor Gates, on May 14, 1913, when its charter was granted by New York. It is the second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America (after the Carnegie Corporation) and ranks as the 30th largest foundation globally by endowment, with assets of over $6.3 billion in 2022. The Rockefeller Foundation is legally independent from other Rockefeller entities, including the Rockefeller University and Rockefeller Center, and operates under the oversight of its own independent board of trustees, with its own resources and distinct mission. Since its inception, the foundation has donated billions of dollars to various causes, becoming the largest philanthropic enter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Death And Life Of Great American Cities
''The Death and Life of Great American Cities'' is a 1961 book by writer and activist Jane Jacobs. The book is a critique of 1950s urban planning policy, which it holds responsible for the urban decay, decline of many city neighborhoods in the United States. The book is Jacobs' best-known and most influential work. Jacobs was a critic of "Rationalism (architecture), rationalist" planners of the 1950s and 1960s, especially Robert Moses, as well as the earlier work of Le Corbusier. She argued that urban planning should prioritize the needs and experiences of residents, and modernist urban planning overlooked and oversimplified the complexity of human lives in diverse communities. She opposed large-scale urban renewal programs that affected entire neighborhoods and built freeways through inner cities. She instead advocated for dense mixed-use development and walkable streets, with the Natural surveillance, "eyes on the street" of passers-by helping to maintain Public-order crime, pu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Architectural Forum
''Architectural Forum'' was an American magazine that covered the homebuilding industry and architecture. Started in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1892 as ''The Brickbuilder'', it absorbed the magazine ''Architect's World'' in October 1938. Ownership of the ''Forum'' passed from Time, Inc., Urban America, Inc., Whitney Publications, and finally to Billboard Publications in 1972. After the purchase of the ''Forum'' by Billboard, Peter Blake, its chief editor, and much of the staff left to form the magazine ''Architecture Plus'' in 1973. The ''Forum'' ceased publication in 1974. Graphic designer Paul Rand designed two covers for the March and April 1945 issues. Content The journal was published under various names throughout its history: * 1892–1916: ''The Brickbuilder'' * 1917–1974: ''Architectural Forum'' For a time, the journal was branded with a subtitle, ''The Magazine of Building''. 194X 194X was a term first used in the October 1943 issue of ''Architectural Forum''. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
