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FAT’s designs exhibit their ‘80’s training and the ‘Blue House’ (actually pale turquoise; and it’s not wood either, but fake wood boarding) betrays its author’s PoMo enthusiasms (Venturi plus a touch of Arts & Crafts). The authors tell us: “We are more interested in the effect the thing has, than how you might produce it”. Contexturalism here is a purely cerebral, transatlantic game that refuses parochialism: the house is two small apartments pretending to be a villa in Maine, deriving every possible benefit from its tight site and given odd features such as an end elevation capped by what is supposed to be an Amsterdam skyline. Like Venturi’s work, the house deliberately obfuscates the boundary between fun and high architecture: ‘the window seat [on the stair rising to the first floor] may be Loos on the inside, but on the outside it refers to the Amsterdam red light window, with its game of seeing and being seen’. But its well done and worthy of attention.
QO The Gurdwara Karamsor Sikh temple (400 98 High Road, Ilford; Rail: Ilford/Seven Kings), is designed by Marindar Assi of Agenda 21. There was originally a Labour Party hall on the site, converted to a temple and then demolished and rebuilt as now, in 2005.
They say about themselves: ‘Aesthetically the building gracefully combines traditional sikh and mughlai designs with modern western architecture. Its fagade and distinctive domes are perhaps its most striking features. Carved entirely from pink sandstone in Rajasthan-India, it was shipped to the UK and reassembled in-situ. The foyer is a grand and simple space with a skylight bringing in natural light all the way from the third floor. It has prayer halls on the first and second floors with the Langar hall on the ground floor. The interior is all white and uncomplicated.
The ambiance of the place naturally lends itself to the main purpose of a Gurdwara which is to worship and realise the Lord’. Like all such places, they make excellent hosts and visitors are welcomed. The surprise is a contemporary interior behind the traditional fagade.
Also see the Swaminarayan Mandir Hindu temple on p199.
QO It s quite a way out and you’ll need a car, but 9 9 if you’re tackling it easy and exploring way out east try this building: The Millennium Centre; Penoyre & Prasad, 1997; the Chase, Dagenham Road, Rush Green, Romfoid, RM7; Tube: Dagenham East. It’s an educational / community eco centre — in truth, looking for a role in life — but quite a pleasant architectural exercise for those into bird watching. The building has a steel frame, lots of recycled timber stuffed with paper and all that.
1ЛЛ The Whitechapel Art Gallery was designed I’7’7 by Charles Harrison Townsend in 1901 (Whitechapel High Street, adjacent to Whitechapel Underground station) and given a make-over in 1988 by Colquhoun Miller Partners.
It is well worth a visit if you are in that area e. g. visiting the Adjaye or Alsop buildings.
Note: this is not on the map — simply locate Whitechapel station, on the east side of the City.
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The Library building by Allies & Morrison. |