Design for playing
At the beginning of January the designer of the iconic Raleigh Choppper - Tom Karen - died. It caused a flurry of reminiscent outpouring from many people.
I never had a Raleigh Chopper, I really wanted one, my friend Paul had one. But we had neither the money to buy one, plus the shape of the bike made it difficult for me to reach the ground and balance well.
But reading people’s responses this week was a very wabi sabi experience: a bitter sweet longing for things past.
Design for learning
My school was a standard sixties built affair in a new town: nondescript with no architectural merit, just a series of stacked boxes to stack kids into.
But this week I read about Andres Jacque’s wonderful new school in Madrid. Described as a multiverse by some and by the kids a robot made of butter - don’t you just love that. The Guardian wrote a great article about its design and development. And if you are interested in reading more, or love to read about architecture check out Design Boom.
The spaces we inhabit and learn in are important. They can be conducive to community, curiosity, creativity. One of my other favourite recent architectural developments is the new library at Magdalene College Cambridge. The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) named The New Library, Magdalene College in Cambridge by Níall McLaughlin Architects, as the winner of the 26th RIBA Stirling Prize last year.
Look at all that wood and light. Who wouldn’t want to learn in such a space? It’s such a warm, light filled, generous and simple space.
One of my other favourite places is somewhere I go often, Vajrasana retreat centre in Suffolk designed by architects Walters and Cohen.
The project was named RIBA East's Building of the Year 2017 and has won several other awards: an AJ Architecture Award, a RIBA East Award, a RIBA National Award and an Honor Award at the Faith & Form/IFRAA Awards 2017. In 2018 it won a Civic Trust Award and was shortlisted for their Selwyn Goldsmith Award for Universal Design.
RIBA described it like this:
It is simply conceived in an arrangement of courtyards and rooms with a subtle but powerfully orchestrated palette of materials. Day to day living spaces clad in timber sit around a beautifully landscaped courtyard used for teaching, meditation and relaxation. This is separated from the quieter areas by a walkway that cuts through the building connecting the entrance to the wider landscape beyond. These quieter courts embrace the shrine room and are enclosed by dark lattice brickwork that is skillfully executed allowing light to play over and through the walls. Pre-cast concrete elements are used throughout as framing devices, whether they are portal frames to the communal spaces or colonnades to the courtyards. The complete ensemble of rooms, courts and materials has both a feeling of sparseness and sensuousness. It also brings people together in a relaxed way that allows the centre to fully exploit its potential as a haven for meditation.
This is an extraordinarily well conceived building which has arisen from close collaboration between client and architect and is delighting its users. There is a wonderful sense of calm in both the spaces created and materials used that are thoroughly appropriate to the building’s use.
Check out more images of this beautiful building.
Wabi Sabi Life Reading Group
Did you know we now have a reading group? We have one book a month to explore read and discuss. They are all related to Japanese culture and other themes explored here on this column.
For February we are reading The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka.
Between the first and second world wars a group of young, non-English-speaking Japanese women travelled by boat to America. They were picture brides, clutching photos of husbands-to-be whom they had yet to meet. Julie Otsuka tells their extraordinary, heartbreaking story in this spellbinding and poetic account of strangers lost and alone in a new and deeply foreign land.
To join in with book group reading, download the Threadbable app a new social reading platform (only available on iPhone at present) and use this invite code: 45281.
Gratitude
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