For the first assignment of my MA, the course cohort had to pair up and interview one another around a chosen image. My project partner, Anthony Davis, chose St James' Park as his image.
My Write Up:
'Anthony chose St James Sq as his image of interest, a decision which due to the sites mostly unassuming nature, I found to be initially puzzling. Is St James Sq not just like any other standard London Sq? I soon found out exactly why, to Anthony, it’s not just any old square, but one of the key locations that encouraged him to pursue a long-time interest in architecture, particularly that of London’s traditional ‘aesthetic’.
St James Sq, was one of London’s first officially planned ‘public’ spaces. A small square park surrounded by gorgeous Restoration and Georgian era townhouses. Designed by Henry Jermyn, the square was designed to attract the ultra rich, though over time has accommodated various business and government ventures - including the London Library. Anthony noted that the library (and his love for the old books that it houses) was a primary reason for his visits to the square - not to mention it was ‘a beautiful place to sit with a sandwich’.
Anthony read English at Oxford University, an experience that he loved. Rich in culture and surrounded by primarily Georgian architecture, similar to that found at St James Sq, Anthony had picked the perfect university for his interests. He described his degree in Oxford as a ‘wonderful time’ but not, perhaps, a good choice financially, as English is not the most lucrative of degree choices. Anthony then chose to approach a career in Law, a job that he then continued to do until retirement (which considering the regular trips between London and Paris, I’m hardly surprised at).
Post retirement, Anthony sought qualifications as a guide in London, showing tourists the sights of the big city - St James Sq included. Anthony enjoyed this as he found it was an exemplary way of communicating the space to those less knowledgeable, though rather than being a serious venture, and he further mentioned that the job mostly required entertaining the tour participants, stating that ‘they are unlikely to remember a single fact about the buildings, but they’ll remember if you made them laugh’.
During his time as a guide, Anthony found that the books he was using as a basis for these tours were not nearly complete enough for his tastes. There just weren’t enough details beyond the base facts about the spaces - in particular the buildings, and Anthony wanted something more academic, more intricate. This led to Anthony to enrolling at the Bartlett, where he has been able to pursue his particular interest in London’s traditional architecture styles. He’s found the course incredibly insightful, stating that there was ‘more to architecture than I’d previously realised’.
So what next? He’s said he’s considering the prospect of a PHD, though he’s not entirely sure what in yet. He’s already interested in traditional London design, and for his ‘British Architecture since 1700’ module essay, he looked into the arts and crafts bicycle shed designed by M H Baillie Scott in 1909, a subject which he found fascinating to research. Anthony also harked back to his love for old books which he collects, (though this is already a well researched field) and thoughtfully joked that he perhaps has more knowledge on antique english books than architecture.
Finally, I asked Anthony what his favourite food was (a question I was glad received a laugh)! Without hesitation he responded roast beef, though after a moments deliberation, settled on roast potatoes, which can easily be confirmed to be an excellent choice.
Anthony's Write Up:
Carmen’s passion for twentieth century architecture showed immediately as she started talking about her chosen image, Erno Goldfinger’s Trellick Tower. ‘My Dad used to point this building out every time we passed it on the way into London’, Carmen said, explaining that it had kick started an interest in Brutalist architecture and a fascination with big structures like the Barbican which she visited again recently.
This interest in buildings is part of a wider interest in art generally – lots of museum visits to look at paintings have led Carmen to think of buildings in terms of their aesthetics, and she wants to know more about architects like Gehry who make the appearance of the buildings they create a fundamental part of their architectural approach. ‘Architecture is its own art form’, said Carmen, one which she wants to explore further.
Carmen realised that her interest is in buildings rather than design during her previous course as an undergraduate at Falmouth University studying Interior Architecture. That course was, unsurprisingly, about the design of interiors. Carmen realised that she found it frustrating just looking at the details of the insides of buildings. She wanted to look at the big picture, at how the space came to be designed the way it was rather than what went into the rooms or what colours were used. Sacrificing the South coast lifestyle is tough (especially when friends send photos of sunny days on the beach) but this is the reason for Carmen’s enrolment at the Bartlett to learn more about the different approaches to architecture generally and the social factors influencing building style and use.
Trellick Tower was an innovative housing project with clear and important social objectives. Goldfinger actually experienced living for two months in one of the blocks of flats he designed, Balfron Tower, and the novelist J.G. Ballard wrote a book supposedly portraying him and his creation in 1975, called High Rise. So it is a good illustration of Carmen’s particular interest in the interaction between politics and architecture and how social ideologies affect the use and design of the built environment. Goldfinger’s story is made even more fascinating because of his personal involvement in his projects and his strong and controversial personality.
Leading from this, Carmen is also interested in the ways in which people actually use the space designed for them, and wants to understand about how buildings affect people’s mental states and, in the other direction, how people adapt the environment built for them to their lifestyles.
Where to go from here? Carmen would ideally like to do a PhD after finishing her Master’s, and perhaps eventually lecturing.
And finally, Carmen’s favourite book? It is Maus, a graphic novel by Art Spiegelman. It is beautifully designed to tell a grim story about the Holocaust: a very natural choice for someone interested in design and social issues.
