Charles Holland
@charlesjholland.bsky.social
Architect
Professor at UCA, Canterbury
Principal at Charles Holland Architects
Professor at UCA, Canterbury
Principal at Charles Holland Architects
At what cost? Well, I’d be happy to pay this one myself. Brontë country FFS.
July 14, 2025 at 10:26 AM
At what cost? Well, I’d be happy to pay this one myself. Brontë country FFS.
Halsey Ricardo’s (sadly demolished) 8 George Street office building, 1888. A little rational beauty. Stuff like this makes current trad arguments about ‘fitting in’ seem particularly silly. A gem, partly because it differs so much from its neighbour with entirely different rhythms and proportions.
July 6, 2025 at 9:46 AM
Halsey Ricardo’s (sadly demolished) 8 George Street office building, 1888. A little rational beauty. Stuff like this makes current trad arguments about ‘fitting in’ seem particularly silly. A gem, partly because it differs so much from its neighbour with entirely different rhythms and proportions.
A tribute to Robert Venturi on the centenary of his birth. His work continues to inspire me and I recently wrote an essay exploring his use of mirrors, doubling and copies. Here is the sublime Trubek House, a complex, awkward and difficult little object, but also beautiful and perfectly realised.
July 2, 2025 at 6:36 AM
A tribute to Robert Venturi on the centenary of his birth. His work continues to inspire me and I recently wrote an essay exploring his use of mirrors, doubling and copies. Here is the sublime Trubek House, a complex, awkward and difficult little object, but also beautiful and perfectly realised.
Been reading Vincent Scully’s The Shingle Style. Struck me that literally nobody writes this kind of formal analysis of architecture any more. The slow unpacking of design decisions in relation to historical precedent, contemporary habit, aesthetic evolution etc.
June 30, 2025 at 7:33 PM
Been reading Vincent Scully’s The Shingle Style. Struck me that literally nobody writes this kind of formal analysis of architecture any more. The slow unpacking of design decisions in relation to historical precedent, contemporary habit, aesthetic evolution etc.
Join me, Cat Rossi and a host of brilliant speakers at the School of Architecture and Design, UCA on 25.02.25 for a discussion on BEAUTY. Free and open to all, in person or online. Register here: events.teams.microsoft.com/event/839546...
February 20, 2025 at 7:59 PM
Join me, Cat Rossi and a host of brilliant speakers at the School of Architecture and Design, UCA on 25.02.25 for a discussion on BEAUTY. Free and open to all, in person or online. Register here: events.teams.microsoft.com/event/839546...
This is the original elevator of Greyfriars which is really quite extraordinary.
February 8, 2025 at 7:23 PM
This is the original elevator of Greyfriars which is really quite extraordinary.
Here’s some more up-to the-minute architectural advice. The decorative possibilities of antlers…from Clive Aslet’s book The Edwardian Country House.
February 2, 2025 at 9:28 AM
Here’s some more up-to the-minute architectural advice. The decorative possibilities of antlers…from Clive Aslet’s book The Edwardian Country House.
Piers Gough’s Jacuzzi in Charles Jencks’ Cosmic House turned upside and repurposed as a dome by Borromini.
January 10, 2025 at 5:41 PM
Piers Gough’s Jacuzzi in Charles Jencks’ Cosmic House turned upside and repurposed as a dome by Borromini.
Some Cosmic Morning
January 10, 2025 at 9:56 AM
Some Cosmic Morning
They don’t make ‘em like this anymore, Part 2. Unit P70 by Foster Associates, home to the Milton Keynes architects department. (And yes, I know how much it informs 6As MK Gallery).
January 9, 2025 at 9:00 PM
They don’t make ‘em like this anymore, Part 2. Unit P70 by Foster Associates, home to the Milton Keynes architects department. (And yes, I know how much it informs 6As MK Gallery).
They don’t make ‘em like this anymore. Or, perhaps, they do. Anyway, this is cool. Peter Walden, House In Hampshire, 1980
January 7, 2025 at 7:01 PM
They don’t make ‘em like this anymore. Or, perhaps, they do. Anyway, this is cool. Peter Walden, House In Hampshire, 1980
The current state of UK housing supply is clear in this image. Because house builders develop one field at a time and because no one is actually planning where and how housing happens, it ends up like this, fenced off, oblivious to its surroundings and without any sense of what comes next.
January 4, 2025 at 4:36 PM
The current state of UK housing supply is clear in this image. Because house builders develop one field at a time and because no one is actually planning where and how housing happens, it ends up like this, fenced off, oblivious to its surroundings and without any sense of what comes next.
Got Owen Hatherley’s Modern Buildings in Britain for Xmas, and boy is it good. Not only an extraordinary achievement in its scale and scope but consistently brilliant in its observations. Describing Peter Cook’s Bournemouth Art School building as “Rave Grandad”, merely one of many favourites.
December 26, 2024 at 9:31 AM
Got Owen Hatherley’s Modern Buildings in Britain for Xmas, and boy is it good. Not only an extraordinary achievement in its scale and scope but consistently brilliant in its observations. Describing Peter Cook’s Bournemouth Art School building as “Rave Grandad”, merely one of many favourites.
Fairly extraordinary bubble diagram by Herman Czech *explaining* various meanings of the gravestone floor in the Kleines Cafe:
November 20, 2024 at 9:17 PM
Fairly extraordinary bubble diagram by Herman Czech *explaining* various meanings of the gravestone floor in the Kleines Cafe:
Ernest Trobridge’s frankly nuts Ozonia Hotel, built in Canvey Island in 1937 and demolished some time in the post war period.
November 17, 2024 at 6:49 PM
Ernest Trobridge’s frankly nuts Ozonia Hotel, built in Canvey Island in 1937 and demolished some time in the post war period.
One of my favourite details. Here’s the bathroom window in Frank Gehry’s house in Santa Monica. Basically, he smashed a hole in the cladding and stuck some glazing on the inside.
November 16, 2024 at 9:39 AM
One of my favourite details. Here’s the bathroom window in Frank Gehry’s house in Santa Monica. Basically, he smashed a hole in the cladding and stuck some glazing on the inside.
Here’s another one, this is by Rhys Preston and I’ve impudently given it the title Barber-ism begins At Home.
November 15, 2024 at 5:28 PM
Here’s another one, this is by Rhys Preston and I’ve impudently given it the title Barber-ism begins At Home.
This year, the MArch design studio that I teach at UCA, Canterbury is focusing again on housing, this time in the Kent Downs. Alongside exploring the downs we have been developing formal and compositional ideas for a new rural modernist vernacular. Here’s some early WIP:
November 15, 2024 at 5:24 PM
This year, the MArch design studio that I teach at UCA, Canterbury is focusing again on housing, this time in the Kent Downs. Alongside exploring the downs we have been developing formal and compositional ideas for a new rural modernist vernacular. Here’s some early WIP:
Herman Czech’s pre-aged step designed to simulate centuries of use.
October 14, 2024 at 8:43 PM
Herman Czech’s pre-aged step designed to simulate centuries of use.
Roswidden Cottage, Tryarnon Bay, Cornwall by C C Voysey (son of the far more famous C F Voysey)….currently at risk of being demolished and part of an enclave of arts and crafts houses. A very good example of the popular ‘butterfly’ plan.
August 23, 2024 at 12:35 PM
Roswidden Cottage, Tryarnon Bay, Cornwall by C C Voysey (son of the far more famous C F Voysey)….currently at risk of being demolished and part of an enclave of arts and crafts houses. A very good example of the popular ‘butterfly’ plan.
Seeing as some of you have been so nice as to like the last post l, here’s another from my current Milan apartment research. Andriani’s amazing plan where a series of regular, formal rooms are carved out of an irregular, informal block.
January 3, 2024 at 9:44 AM
Seeing as some of you have been so nice as to like the last post l, here’s another from my current Milan apartment research. Andriani’s amazing plan where a series of regular, formal rooms are carved out of an irregular, informal block.
First post so here goes….one of my favourite plans but someone fast becoming one of my favourite architects. Dominioni’s apartment building in Milan…a sweet and delightful arrangement of residential space.
January 2, 2024 at 11:30 PM
First post so here goes….one of my favourite plans but someone fast becoming one of my favourite architects. Dominioni’s apartment building in Milan…a sweet and delightful arrangement of residential space.