Aidan Ridyard

I know you heart is in the right place Gretel, so don’t worry! I also know I’m a bit “architecturally obsessive” & must remember I am not always right. I am a believer in finding the best in things, be they baroque or Bauhaus (although I might draw a line with the new White House Ballroom!!😇)

Kind of you (as ever) but sometimes a design is just a mission is going in a different direction…. and remember curves are cripplingly expensive in glass! I do have something “soft edged” on my drawing board at the moment but it’s not quite ready for sharing yet!

Oh no….😢I think he was one of our best C20th architects and I love his work so much…..! I will convince you that modernism isn’t the dark side one day!

Nearly missed out the best one…. Fitzwilliam College chapel. I know it isn’t in Ham-stone (😇) but his genius was composition and layering in modern materials at a scale which referenced their context perfectly.

The real master of the metal frames oriel window was Richard MacCormac (d.2014) who did a series of fabulous ones for various oxbridge colleges….. some of my favourite buildings !

You are so hard on us Gretel!! I love an Oriel window and have often use them, like here on my first ever building! Sadly we rarely get the money (or time) to work in stone, but one day…. I will go for one in all its stone mullioned glory!!

Happy Yorkshire Day!

Here's one of our favourite C20 buildings in God's Own Country: The Grade II* listed Scargill House Chapel, by George Pace (1958-61)

The Scandinavian inspired chapel contains no pulpit, lecturn or stained glass, as Pace 'wanted the chapel to appear to grow out of the dale'.

I went to a terrible exhibition of C19th Russian landscapes at The National once… lots of miserable paintings of tundra, but one has a flash of red… a fleeting fox in a snowy steppe and it took me straight to Cerne on that New Year’s Day sharing the moment with my parents. Powerful imagery!!

Here is my latest 3D print experiment: it does work remarkably well for masonry (load bearing) structures…. Frames and cantilevers need a bit of thinking through!
StMartins in the Bullring once more but full cross section now

Lovely drawing…. I do like an axonometric! I went to Cerne with my parents (who were obviously very fond of the place) on a snowy Nee Years day in 1985… I remember watching a red fox scamper across the snowy fields further up the valley.

You’ve got me thinking (after 40+ years ringing): is it “Look to”, or “Look Two”….. both are logical options, but I have no idea which it is!!

Good morning from Tanworth in Arden
Sitting in churchyard listening to the choir practice

Isn’t it just…. Pure ultramarine blue…. I have promoted it to the terrace so I can enjoy it all the more!!

The Agapanthus is in flower….. what a colour!!

Lovely bit of composition at Stafford County Hall

Some exciting news….

Visited two churches today with surprising monuments to figures of C17th…. Archbishop Tillotson (d1694) and Isaac Walton (d1683) in Sowerby Bridge and Stafford respectively

Today was my uncle’s funeral, up in Yorkshire giving me a chance for a brief Pennine walk before hand. No prizes for guessing which way the wind blows up here!! He was 97, so a good life well lived.

How about this Mouse as an alternative strategy….? Secondary glazing protecting the medieval glass at Norbury - it’s not perfect but very impressive

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

A black and white photograph of two concrete and glass stands at Northolt Racecourse, now demolished

Stands, Northolt Racecourse

1929

Oscar Faber

bit.ly/46zzWEJ

Quick campanology fact check
Heaviest ring of 5 in the world : East Pennard
Heaviest 6 : Queen Camel
Heaviest 8 : SHERBORNE
Heaviest 10:
Wells Cathedral (my fave)
You live in Bell-ringing’s golden triangle!!

There is something incredibly stirring when your children photograph a rainbow!
(This is from a couple of weeks ago). We had just been walking alpacas which is about as left-field as it gets!! 😀

Works the other way round in our office!! 😃

Upscaling my 3D print of StMartins…. Really pleased, as so much detail has come into focus at this scale

Notre Dame du Haut, Ronchamp.

Very sad to hear about the death of Andrew Saint, pictured here giving huge architectural history energy with Gavin Stamp at the NT. His books all written with tremendous style across a terrific range of topics. Towards a Social Architecture, his superb history of post-war schools my favourite.

On this day in 1902, Venice's famous Campanile suddenly collapsed into a pile of rubble, taking out the Logetta as well.

But I am certain you’ll redeem yourself with a visit to Reculver at some stage 😇. I hope you feel well enough for the cricket though!

Can’t resist a challenge…..