Barnabas Calder
@barnabascalder.bsky.social
Historian of #architecture and #energy, at University of Liverpool School of Architecture. Author of Architecture: From Prehistory to Climate Emergency (Pelican, 2021), and Raw Concrete: The Beauty of Brutalism (William Heinemann, 2016).
Here's my crap snap from yesterday night. Sorry it's quite so bad. My phone isn't a great camera these days.
November 12, 2025 at 8:08 PM
Here's my crap snap from yesterday night. Sorry it's quite so bad. My phone isn't a great camera these days.
A super-tough #whatbuilding for you.
November 11, 2025 at 7:29 PM
A super-tough #whatbuilding for you.
This will be really interesting and fun if you can get to Chester this weekend: learning to build medieval gothic vaults from very accurate foam replicas. I can't wait!
chestercathedral.com/events/event...
#architecture #medievalarchitecture #vaulting #chester
chestercathedral.com/events/event...
#architecture #medievalarchitecture #vaulting #chester
October 9, 2025 at 2:31 PM
This will be really interesting and fun if you can get to Chester this weekend: learning to build medieval gothic vaults from very accurate foam replicas. I can't wait!
chestercathedral.com/events/event...
#architecture #medievalarchitecture #vaulting #chester
chestercathedral.com/events/event...
#architecture #medievalarchitecture #vaulting #chester
I love going by train. Recognise these roofs?
#whatbuilding
#whatbuilding
September 24, 2025 at 9:08 PM
I love going by train. Recognise these roofs?
#whatbuilding
#whatbuilding
That's very impressive! Well done! How did you manage that?
September 20, 2025 at 8:07 PM
That's very impressive! Well done! How did you manage that?
Here you are. I think this shouldn't help excessively. #whatbuilding
September 20, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Here you are. I think this shouldn't help excessively. #whatbuilding
September 20, 2025 at 6:30 PM
A real pleasure to hear my colleague in @liverpooluni.bsky.social's History of Architecture Research Cluster, Alex Buchanan, today as part of Heritage Open Days. Alex was talking about Rickman and early C19 gothic, in an iron church of 1815. Great talk, good audience, lots of appreciation.
September 20, 2025 at 3:48 PM
A real pleasure to hear my colleague in @liverpooluni.bsky.social's History of Architecture Research Cluster, Alex Buchanan, today as part of Heritage Open Days. Alex was talking about Rickman and early C19 gothic, in an iron church of 1815. Great talk, good audience, lots of appreciation.
It's really good - Florian has done some heroic digging for amazing historical data, and John and Florian have crunched a huge amount of numbers to get the best figures we could.
September 2, 2025 at 3:03 PM
It's really good - Florian has done some heroic digging for amazing historical data, and John and Florian have crunched a huge amount of numbers to get the best figures we could.
@florianurban.bsky.social and I have a new book out shortly, with superb drawings and calculations by John Joseph Burns. Launches in Edinburgh (24 Sept) and Glasgow (25 Sept). Available online in the usual places for £35.99/€39.50/USD39.50.
September 2, 2025 at 3:03 PM
@florianurban.bsky.social and I have a new book out shortly, with superb drawings and calculations by John Joseph Burns. Launches in Edinburgh (24 Sept) and Glasgow (25 Sept). Available online in the usual places for £35.99/€39.50/USD39.50.
A wood by Seatoller in the Lake District this past week. It had an awful lot of dead and partially dead oak trees On the east-facing slope, whilst those on the north-facing side were looking pretty healthy. Does anyone know what is killing them? I was quite upset to see them.
August 3, 2025 at 8:16 AM
A wood by Seatoller in the Lake District this past week. It had an awful lot of dead and partially dead oak trees On the east-facing slope, whilst those on the north-facing side were looking pretty healthy. Does anyone know what is killing them? I was quite upset to see them.
If you have the funds and the vision, please buy and restore the stunning Bernat Klein Studio, Galashiels - guide price £18,000.
auctions.savills.co.uk/auctions/30-...
auctions.savills.co.uk/auctions/30-...
July 16, 2025 at 6:22 AM
If you have the funds and the vision, please buy and restore the stunning Bernat Klein Studio, Galashiels - guide price £18,000.
auctions.savills.co.uk/auctions/30-...
auctions.savills.co.uk/auctions/30-...
Not to blow our own trumpets, but I reckon more academic books could do with disclaimers like that with which @florianurban.bsky.social and I begin our methodology section.
#FormFollowsFuel
#ArchitectureAndEnergy
#FormFollowsFuel
#ArchitectureAndEnergy
July 7, 2025 at 6:31 AM
Not to blow our own trumpets, but I reckon more academic books could do with disclaimers like that with which @florianurban.bsky.social and I begin our methodology section.
#FormFollowsFuel
#ArchitectureAndEnergy
#FormFollowsFuel
#ArchitectureAndEnergy
Bless them - do you think they still pay humans to churn this stuff out, or do they have an Artificial Kneejerk LLM to produce it? Keep ranting at long-dead architects, right-wing journos - it's so much less uncomfortable than facing the ecological realities of contemporary architecture.
June 29, 2025 at 7:07 PM
Bless them - do you think they still pay humans to churn this stuff out, or do they have an Artificial Kneejerk LLM to produce it? Keep ranting at long-dead architects, right-wing journos - it's so much less uncomfortable than facing the ecological realities of contemporary architecture.
#whatbuilding? One for #medieval BlueSky.
June 1, 2025 at 4:24 PM
#whatbuilding? One for #medieval BlueSky.
There are options for improving road:green:housing ratios substantially over this sort of thing, though!
May 23, 2025 at 10:09 AM
There are options for improving road:green:housing ratios substantially over this sort of thing, though!
Off to Newcastle to discuss architectural history, knowledge and the contemporary architectural world. You'll be amazed to hear I'm banging the drum for quantitative research on #energyhistory and #environmentalhumanities.
May 6, 2025 at 5:00 AM
Off to Newcastle to discuss architectural history, knowledge and the contemporary architectural world. You'll be amazed to hear I'm banging the drum for quantitative research on #energyhistory and #environmentalhumanities.
John Joseph Burns's drawings and calcs lie at the heart of @florianurban.bsky.social's and my new book, Form Follows Fuel. See them at RSA show! John calculated quantities of materials for 14 historic buildings, Florian used the best production history data available to calc total #embodiedenergy.
May 5, 2025 at 8:16 AM
John Joseph Burns's drawings and calcs lie at the heart of @florianurban.bsky.social's and my new book, Form Follows Fuel. See them at RSA show! John calculated quantities of materials for 14 historic buildings, Florian used the best production history data available to calc total #embodiedenergy.
Does anyone find LEED's environmental certification headings a bit tone deaf in terms of concerns about #embodiedcarbon?
How about replacing them with, in ascending order, the titles "timber, stone, earth, pre-existing building"?
How about replacing them with, in ascending order, the titles "timber, stone, earth, pre-existing building"?
March 19, 2025 at 1:33 PM
Does anyone find LEED's environmental certification headings a bit tone deaf in terms of concerns about #embodiedcarbon?
How about replacing them with, in ascending order, the titles "timber, stone, earth, pre-existing building"?
How about replacing them with, in ascending order, the titles "timber, stone, earth, pre-existing building"?
February 15, 2025 at 11:33 AM
Aaron Ahuvia is an excellent writer on a truly important subject - human happiness.
Put this together with #ecology and it's clear we're destroying the #ecosytem we're part of in return for a vague feeling of dissatisfaction and inadequacy.
Full chapter here: www.researchgate.net/publication/...
Put this together with #ecology and it's clear we're destroying the #ecosytem we're part of in return for a vague feeling of dissatisfaction and inadequacy.
Full chapter here: www.researchgate.net/publication/...
January 8, 2025 at 12:01 PM
Aaron Ahuvia is an excellent writer on a truly important subject - human happiness.
Put this together with #ecology and it's clear we're destroying the #ecosytem we're part of in return for a vague feeling of dissatisfaction and inadequacy.
Full chapter here: www.researchgate.net/publication/...
Put this together with #ecology and it's clear we're destroying the #ecosytem we're part of in return for a vague feeling of dissatisfaction and inadequacy.
Full chapter here: www.researchgate.net/publication/...
Even with some delays, I love train travel.
December 15, 2024 at 4:16 PM
Even with some delays, I love train travel.
How depressing. First M&S Oxford Street, now London Wall. A vast tonnage of atmospheric #CO2 already up there from building them both is wasted, and a vast tonnage more will follow from the #construction of the replacement buildings. For M&S alone, 40k tonnes to demolish and rebuild.
December 13, 2024 at 4:43 PM
How depressing. First M&S Oxford Street, now London Wall. A vast tonnage of atmospheric #CO2 already up there from building them both is wasted, and a vast tonnage more will follow from the #construction of the replacement buildings. For M&S alone, 40k tonnes to demolish and rebuild.
Here's another #whatbuilding for people who are more @thevicsoc.bsky.social than @c20society.bsky.social.
December 1, 2024 at 10:26 AM
Here's another #whatbuilding for people who are more @thevicsoc.bsky.social than @c20society.bsky.social.