Alistair Fair
@alistairfair.bsky.social
Reader in Architectural History, University of Edinburgh. C20 architecture in Britain. New towns. Book 'Building Modern Scotland' available open access. Own views. No age ID so no DMs but I can do e-mail!
Art
31%
History
18%
Alistair: let's de-centre the architect in architectural-historical writing. Meanwhile Duolingo:
My copy of this issue of the AR came via a colleague who had various things that had once belonged to Percy Johnson-Marshall, one of the Coventry planners in the 1940s. Given that the cover says 'Johnson' in biro I do wonder if this issue once was his.
Archive-based teaching this afternoon, on the post-war reconstruction of central Coventry.
experience: the Barbican Arts Centre's men's with the very long trough urinals and foot-operated sinks.
I've long wanted to see the theatre: an important influence on the Festival Hall as well as post-war British theatres.
Alistair Fair
@alistairfair.bsky.social
· Oct 17
A Network SouthEast Clock.
HTML/CSS/Javascript implementation of the wonderful clocks once seen on Network SouthEast stations.
aj-computing.co.uk
to my great delight, I've just discovered a version of that clock online: aj-computing.co.uk/network-sout...
Alistair Fair
@alistairfair.bsky.social
· Oct 17
I like this though the numbers don't seem to sit entirely happily in the circle - as you say, analogue would be good. (All that said, they could and maybe should just have reinstated the Network SouthEast clackety 24 hour clocks)
essay prompt: 'discuss the "wide variety of retail and cultural experiences" imagined by Ebenezer Howard'
Love that little curved balcony above the entrance. I'm imagining proclamations of interest rates and such things!
End of week reading. @samwetherell.bsky.social's excellent new urban history of post-war Liverpool.
Yesterday - teaching @edincollegeofart.bsky.social Architectural History students in the archive. Drawings of Coventry Cathedral from the Basil Spence archive, as well as many other items that showed the collaborative process by which the cathedral was designed and built.
Alistair Fair
@alistairfair.bsky.social
· Sep 23
I'd long wondered if Clarence was an acronym (because Strathclyde had a wee dog called RALF - Road & Light Faults). I thought it might be 'Central and Lothian something'; it was Customer Lighting And Roads ENquiry CEntre.
Alistair Fair
@alistairfair.bsky.social
· Sep 15
First day of the new academic year @edincollegeofart.bsky.social. This semester's teaching includes my course on architecture in Britain 1919-56.
Alistair Fair
@alistairfair.bsky.social
· Sep 13
The SE is doing a tribute to Bridget Riley
Alistair Fair
@alistairfair.bsky.social
· Sep 12
There's a lot to be said for 1970s houses and flats - at their best, they can be really well planned. Many congratulations!
Alistair Fair
@alistairfair.bsky.social
· Sep 10
New towns stuff! It was very good to talk to @charlielynch.bsky.social for this feature. The book is still available - in print but also as an open access (free!) e-book at www.bloomsburycollections.com/monograph?do...
I have to say that I quite like the Reader title even though it often needs explaining! But then I have always been a bit contrary.
🔉 Listen in! Dr @alistairfair.bsky.social & Dr @vawright10.bsky.social: Building Modern Scotland - The Social Histories of New Towns. Ep3, s2 of Artful Inquiry, the ECA research podcast.
Listen in on Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/1qDQ...
More about the series: www.eca.ed.ac.uk/eca-research...
Listen in on Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/1qDQ...
More about the series: www.eca.ed.ac.uk/eca-research...
Spotify – Web Player
open.spotify.com
Recently @vawright10.bsky.social and I were interviewed for a podcast about the Scottish new towns book which we recently co-wrote (and which is available Open Access for free download via bloomsburycollections, though you can also buy a copy in print if you wish!)
Reposted by Alistair Fair
Spotify – Web Player
open.spotify.com
🔉 Listen in! Dr @alistairfair.bsky.social & Dr @vawright10.bsky.social: Building Modern Scotland - The Social Histories of New Towns. Ep3, s2 of Artful Inquiry, the ECA research podcast.
Listen in on Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/1qDQ...
More about the series: www.eca.ed.ac.uk/eca-research...
Listen in on Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/1qDQ...
More about the series: www.eca.ed.ac.uk/eca-research...
Northampton Guildhall extension - 1991 by Stimpson Walton Bond. Contextual Gothic to echo the adjacent Victorian Gothic.
Malcolm Inglis building, Northampton (1900). Built for a leather and hide factor. A piece of Glasgow especially in the carving above the entrance, where we have St Mungo and the two salmon from the city's coat of arms.
Alistair Fair
@alistairfair.bsky.social
· Aug 29
I was in Digbeth for the first time in years recently for a new towns thing and was astonished by the changes as the HS2-related wave of housing sweeps in
Alistair Fair
@alistairfair.bsky.social
· Aug 27
Linda Jardim - (60 Miles by Road or Rail) Northampton
YouTube video by EvenThisNameTaken
www.youtube.com
Working on Northampton new town. Today's discovery is that a promotional record about the town was issued as a single in 1980. It had a version of the song with lyrics about aliens on the A-side with the promotional version, '60 Miles by Road or Rail', on the B-side. www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7ZQ...
Alistair Fair
@alistairfair.bsky.social
· Aug 25
Things you can do with a former Debenhams store. #Gloucester #refurbishment #repurpose #architecture #university
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
📷 flic.kr/p/2pMdKcQ
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
📷 flic.kr/p/2pMdKcQ
Former Debenhams/Bon Marché store, Gloucester: the early 1960s part of the building very like the Festival Hall's original 1951 elevations, especially the small windows to the left which echo those which originally illuminated the RFH's side fire escape stairs.
Reposted by Alistair Fair
Things you can do with a former Debenhams store. #Gloucester #refurbishment #repurpose #architecture #university
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
📷 flic.kr/p/2pMdKcQ
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
📷 flic.kr/p/2pMdKcQ
Alistair Fair
@alistairfair.bsky.social
· Aug 21
'Why, there's another hankersniff!'
Alistair Fair
@alistairfair.bsky.social
· Aug 15
Watch this space for an Essex Design Guide article...on my list of things to write up this autumn.
Alistair Fair
@alistairfair.bsky.social
· Aug 12
A morning of course admin and intranet stuff for next semester. Luna has appeared to offer moral support.
Alistair Fair
@alistairfair.bsky.social
· Aug 10
Good to see this chapter in print, perfectly timed to go on the reading list for my course on interwar architecture next semester!