Munich in the south of Germany is the capital of Bavaria. It was voted the world's most livable city in 2010. The city father's took a great decision to rebuild it exactly as it had been prior to World War II

The intellectual ideas of every period and culture in world history are reflected in architecture and their are consequences if we tear down our living heritage, even in regard to modern buildings of great merit. Heritage is not about age. It is about buildings that have contributed to the growth and cultural development of a society, a city, a town or hamlet. The decision to be made is really all about whether they can continue to have a role to play by using clever design to incorporate old into the new. Nearly every instance where this happens the result is not only pleasing but helps in aiding people’s quality of life.

Conservation of an amazing building gives a city character. As a bonus for all time, the layers of history can be peeled back to reveal what its citizens have achieved. It can also help inspire and motivate the future we are moving toward. Consider the city fathers and citizens of Munich, who took a decision to rebuild and preserve their old city, despite it being bombed nearly out of existence during World War II. This extraordinary feat means that today. with a little wear and tear, it is almost impossible to tell the difference between the old and the new. What is important is the contribution the restored city has made to its economic welfare, which noted in the billions of dollars it attracts as a financial and publishing hub in the south of Germany. The capital of Bavaria, in 2010 it was voted the world’s most livable city.

Careful efforts at reconstruction are underway and have been for twenty years or more. This involves fixing problems from previous reconstruction among other issues

The fabulous stone buildings on the Acropolis at Athens are another wonderful example. They stood for over 2,400 years, despite human folly, bloody mindedness and sheer stupidity. They are a symbolic foundation stone for today’s western culture. There is still so much to learn from, and about them, as currently those working on their conservation and reconstruction can confirm. The ruins remain as visual evidence of a society that had a great grasp on the natural environment and why space should be an integral aspect of, and important to, the production of aesthetically pleasing design. The mathematical genius of the Parthenon whose columns optically stand in a straight line, but are in fact all deliberately curved, is gob-smacking stuff. It has stood on the high ground of the Acropolis for thousands of years. It has been blown, up, rocked by earthquakes and its sculptural treasures plundered. Its aesthetic has been disfigured by people hell bent on destroying humanity. Today in ruin it manages to provide us with a platform of knowledge to learn from, which is nothing short of amazing.

In almost every field of their endeavor the ancient Greeks were pioneers and their achievements in architecture, in literature, thought and science are a part of the Greek legacy to the world at large. It was in a garden dedicated to the Greek hero Academus, hence the word Academy, that Plato taught Greek philosophy. Early Greek philosophy is nothing less than the discovery of the cosmos, i.e. the realization the world as a whole had a structure, revealing it to rational enquiry. The Greek word kosmos means order.

Among other things Plato developed was the art of self-criticism, seeing his own life as a divine mission to his fellow citizens. That required picking out the ‘soul’, and not the body, as that part of a man that required cultivation. As the body is improved by healthy exercise, so the soul benefits from morally right behaviour and ruined by the opposite, the soul was traditionally regarded as the source of life…but we digress.

The word classic means of the first class having acknowledged excellence; the word classical pertaining to the standard achieved by ancient Greek and Latin authors or their works, or the culture, art, architecture of Greek and Roman antiquity generally. The main characteristics are clarity of outline, restrained, harmonious and in accordance with established forms.

Gothic style stables belonging to the Governor now the Conservatorium of Music at NSW

In the late 60’s and throughout the 70′s, the scene that unfolded in most major cities in Australia was also happening in many other parts of the world. At Sydney aesthetically pleasing well-designed solidly built buildings, either domestic or commercial, were biting the dust. I must admit while being a witness to this chain of events I could not foresee a time in the future when we would have any regard, or appreciation, for our built heritage.

It is a miracle really that the ‘Gothic style’ stables, built to be part of the first Government House at Sydney survived to be incorporated into and provide such a wonderful point of contrast for a backdrop of amazing architectural modernity that is the Conservatorium of Music. Learning about music and the harmony of life in such surroundings for students must be a powerful experience and motivator.

When working in the 60′s as a personal assistant (interior design student) to an architect in a building firm heavily involved in small commercial work and the modern renovation of many fabulous large bungalows in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, Whelan the Wrecker and his swinging ball was destroying much of Sydney’s early heritage. The interesting aspect of the story is that he got so sick of the destruction himself he had the union impose bans to stop it. Today he holds an important position protecting what remains of Sydney’s heritage.

Goodness, how many fabulous stone and brick buildings did we witness being wiped out in the name of ‘progress’? I was constantly in hot water with the architect for asking why we could not have better solutions to re-arranging a living space without destroying the aesthetic and the architectural integrity of the original house’s design. There was so many quality fittings and superb timbers originally used. And these were being removed. He would tell me I was not to ‘rock the boat’, and ‘I was really too young to know what I was on about’. What we were getting was going to be much ‘better’ and that the clients were going to be ‘better off’.

But are we better off today than we were? And, will we be better off 20 years from now? I am not against change. Personally I embrace it constantly and its part of a progressive society. I also enjoy advancements in the arts, sciences and technology, however I am against change for change’s sake.

Change needs rhyme, reason and intelligent unemotional and unselfish debate.

Federation style Flats, Carr Street, Coogee Beach, Sydney

At the time my architect boss didn’t realize I had lived most of my life in a wonderful old block of what we now describe as Federation style flats near the sea. I just love old blocks of Flats (as opposed to apartments) because they have large rooms with high ceilings, superb architectural detailing, sometimes a walk in pantry or butler’s pantry, milk boxes, letter boxes, a back door and spaces that conformed to the tenets of the golden ratio of measurement. This meant human beings really felt good when they were at home.

One 30′s deco flat I lived in also had its original maid’s quarters. In direct contrast to the Victorian way of accommodating maids in an attic, it was indeed luxurious with a bedroom, sitting room, with built in bookcases, cupboards and easy access to the kitchen.

The block I lived in as a child was vandalised on an ongoing basis by an owner hell bent on dragging the tenants into a ‘promising future’. This meant replacing beautifully rendered in excellent condition timber window frames with mean thin aluminium ones. They were hard to maintain, especially near the sea (you can paint and stain timber) and this was pre-powder coated, which still has to be maintained if its going to continue to look good.

Ceilings were lowered by false ceilings by an ugly board studded with holes. As a child I used to think these were hideous. Today we can perhaps say at least they protected the original ceilings so they could later be restored. Then lovely details like picture rails were also stripped off in the name of fashion. They were usually part of a scheme that divided the room into aesthetic proportions, so that when removed they put the design out of kilter.

Deep open arched verandahs were glassed and boxed in with a combination of dreaded aluminium windows and cheap ply board. This ongoing awful act of ‘modernisation’ (vandalism) sealed my fate. I actively went in search of knowledge about the history of the evolution of design, especially as it related to architecture. I wanted to gain an insight into, and better understanding of, the intellectual ideas that gave great buildings around the world, birth. The objective was of being a fully informed interior designer. It turned out to be so much more of a journey, one I have riding along on ever since.

I still haven’t quite got over the council at Sydney allowing the destruction of one of its most respected architect Harry Seidler’s groundbreaking buildings at the bottom of Macquarie Street during the early 90’s. At the time, after practicing my trade for nearly 20 years, together with like-minded colleagues, I started a lecture series about the evolution of western art and design.

The objective was to use our collective knowledge to raise people’s awareness of the visual arts and also offer an appreciation for our living heritage and cultural inheritance. The first lectures were held in one of the rooms in the concrete modern annexe at the State Library of NSW, Australia.

During the break we would stand out on the roof terrace overlooking Macquarie Street and discuss how we all felt a great pit of despair inside as we viewed the sad and sorry state of the Macquarie street-scape.Ghastly late 60’s and 70’s brick buildings had replaced many of the beautiful nineteenth century Sydney sandstone classically styled town houses and commercial buildings that had made this one of the most classy and elegant streets in the country.

Between the wars these quite wonderful buildings had been interspersed with some other very good buildings, such as the first Sydney New York Gothic style skyscraper (BMA House).  It did add up to a very charming mix.

When they were torn down they were replaced by quite simply dreadful box style buildings, whose interiors and exteriors were proportionally disparate. Bland beyond belief they had ubiquitous low ceilings, that made people feel claustrophobic with often awful consequences. Many had crumbling mortar and were dotted with mean rust-ridden air condioning boxes that stuck out of previously fashionably framed timber windows – replaced by those mean metal windows. They dripped stale water onto all those walking along the street below, while slowly staining the walls on the way down. ‘Yuk’ was the only word that came to mind as we stood there looking at them. Here was visual evidence of the ‘good life’ we were all aspiring to and the riches money could buy and, as we were constantly reminded, all in the name of ‘progress’.

But did that mean it was going to be better? An article by Richard Reeves in a 2005 Journal of the Royal Society for Arts, Manufacture and Commerce in England entitled ‘The Sun sets on the Enlightenment’ poses many interesting questions. One point he makes is that ‘only by having a clear view of where it is we want to go can we stand any chance of determining our path. We need to rejuvenate the spirit, reinvent the sense of progress or be condemned to managerial politics bleached of idealism and vision, corporate short sightedness and disillusionment’.

Powerful stuff.

© Carolyn McDowall The Culture Concept Circle 2009 – 2011

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The Goddess Diana presides over the deer park and pleasure grounds which were the essential setting for such a great eighteenth century mansion. Robert Adam moved the scattered nearby village to a new site making way for ‘a natural landscape’ dotted with temples and garden buildings in the neo – classical taste. Landscape gardener William Emes worked under his influence, particularly in the layout of the pleasure grounds. Kedleston demonstrates the breadth of Robert Adam’s range as architect, garden designer and interior decorator. He was the whole package.

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Swiss born Charles-Edouard Jeanneret (1887-1965) was 29 when he went to Paris. Soon after his arrival he adopted his maternal grandfather’s name, Le Corbusier, as a pseudonym. He was already an artist; an accomplished painter and sculptor, who changed his persona from Jeanneret the small-town architect, to Le Corbusier the world’s next visionary artist. He expressed a view that architecture had lost its way and was convinced the bold new industrial age dawning required an audacious style of architecture. Who better then to design it than himself. “We must start again from zero,” he proclaimed. Dressing like a bureaucrat, in dark suits, bow ties, round horn-rimmed glasses his gestures revealed that he was willing and able to lead the charge to create a brave new world. His books published in 1923, 1948 and 1955 have ever since had an international influence on town planning and building design. His systems, which contained harmony and proportion, ensured that his architectural style honoured architecture of the past. He championed the use of the golden ratio and Fibonacci numbers, which were integral to his success.

His first building was based on the technique of the Modular, a system using standard size units relating to the measurements of the human figure (Vitruvius 1st Century, Palladio 16th century).

An example was the Unite d’habitation (left) built at Marseilles in France between 1945 – 5. It was conceived as one of a number of tall buildings than when the overall scheme had been completed, would form a pattern projecting from a carpet of low buildings and open spaces.

He preached his own doctrine and defined his own recipe for a new style of architecture: he raised a building on stilts, mixed in a free-flowing floor plan and then made all the walls independent of the structure. He added horizontal strip windows and topped it all off with a roof garden for relaxation and living life stylishly. However when we describe his method it makes him sound like a technician, and he was anything but. His austere, white-walled villas, completed after World War I in and around Paris, are memorable for both their cool beauty and airy sense of space inside and out.

“A house is a machine for living in,” he wrote. His new style of simple architecture spoke of the sun, wind and the sea and his villas are proof of his enduring respect for space as integral to design. They were about an art of space, which in itself in overcrowded European cities, was a luxury.

The new architecture known contemporarily as the International Style, had many partisans in Europe; Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius in Germany and Theo van Doesburg in Holland, to name a few.

In Australia architect Harry Seidler, born in 1923, championed the Modernist style down under.

The Rose Seidler House, built in 1948, fulfills Le Corbusier’s ideal of being able to move through architecture seamlessly.

Le Corbusier was a tireless missionary, addressing the public in manifestos, pamphlets, exhibitions and his own magazine. He wrote quite literally dozens of books about interior decoration, painting and architecture.

Together with his brother Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand he also designed furniture. Together they initiated the use of chromed or nickelled tubular or flat steel as a framework for their furniture; it had painted slab steel construction, plain veneers, leather or skin upholstery.

The foundation of the Union des Artistes Modernes (UAM) in 1929 gave the fledgling group cohesion and exhibition venues of their own. His now well known tubular, chromed steel adjustable chaise longue was exhibited at the Salon d’Automne in Paris. His architecture spoke of sun and wind and the sea. The machines he admired most were ocean liners, which is evidenced in his design for the staircase at the Savoye Villa outside Paris. It’s streamlined style has been much copied.

Le Corbusier devoted several hours a day to painting. The catalogue, currently being drawn up by his foundation lists, 419 canvases painted from 1918 (the year when he met the painter Ozenfant with whom he created Purism) until he died in 1965.

In 1945, Joseph Savina, a cabinetmaker from Brittany, made a wooden sculpture after a painting by Le Corbusier. This experiment led to a twenty-year collaboration, during which forty-four sculptures were made in natural or polychrome wood.  Twenty-seven tapestry cartoons were made by Le Corbusier, some of them in collaboration with P. Baudouin, between 1936 and 1965. Most of the subjects are inspired by his paintings.

Following his lead in all the major cities of the world there was a stampede to modernize practically everything. No attempt was made to distinguish between functional and non-functional while streamlining became de rigeur. All objects moving or stationery, were encased in sleek, aerodynamic bodies emblematic of his era’s obsession with both speed and efficiency.

Carolyn McDowall © The Culture Concept Circle – 2010, 2011

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In England, during the second half of the nineteenth century, painter, writer, textile designer and social activist William Morris (1834-1896) became the motivational leader of a revival in arts and crafts that encompassed all the visual arts, especially architecture and interiors. The Arts and Crafts movement he led in England had ramifications that spread world wide. Morris believed in a Utopian style of socialism and his affinity with natural handcrafted wares was doggedly pursued.

Like many of his peers William Morris was trying to help the people of his time to find their way in a world moving forward at a very fast pace. Sound familiar? He said ‘The true secret of happiness lies in taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life’. During  his lifetime Morris produced hundreds and hundreds of designs for textiles, including tapestries and hand woven carpets. His inspiration for their composition was both nature and the medieval world. He wanted to find a way out of industrial ugliness, back to the joys of creation experienced in the ‘Golden Age’ of English history when Elizabeth 1 was on the throne. It was perceived, romantically, as being a much simpler time when life was lived at a pace that was manageable. Challenging industrial age leaders to produce handcrafted goods was indeed a lofty ideal.

There was however two realities. The first that it was profit driving the market for William Morris products being sold through Morris & Co, which he founded in 1861. The second was the aims he and his peers (like art critic John Ruskin and designer Auguste Welby Pugin) extolled ended up being an example of hypocrisy, because so many manufacturers were producing a superior ‘hand crafted’ product in dirty, overcrowded sweatshops, where most of the workers were children.

The exploitation of working class children as cheap labour was vital to the economic success Britain enjoyed during the nineteenth century. For many working class families, it was far more important for a child to bring home a wage than to have an education. The combination of dangerous working conditions and long hours meant that children were worked as hard as any adult, but without laws to protect them. Children were cheaper to employ than adults, and easier to discipline. With the tide of public opinion changing government legislation in 1844, 47, 50, 53 and 1867 regulated that no one could employ children under 8. In 1867 8 – 13 year old workers had their hours reduced so they could receive 10 hours education per week, again exploited. It would not be until the closing years of the century that the majority children began to be treated as children, not miniature adults.

Watch the Video and Read On

In 1858 Morris’s friend and colleague architect Phillip Speakman Webb built the Red House for he and his family.

When it was completed in 1860, it was described by British Pre-Raphaelite Painter Edward Burne-Jones (1833-1898) as ‘the beautifullest place on earth’.

Today the house retains many of its original features including furniture by Morris and Philip Webb, ceiling paintings by Morris, wall-hangings designed by Morris and worked by himself and his wife Jane, furniture painted by Morris and Pre-Raphealite painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and wall-paintings and stained- and painted glass designed by Edward Burne-Jones.

It was designed to reflect a man’s house was his castle and,  for its time, it was completely revolutionary.

To complete the Red House Webb borrowed handmade red bricks from the Tudor period, inserted circular windows from the Italian Renaissance period, as well as small-paned sash windows from the English Georgian age.

Many of the windows are surmounted by pointed Gothic (relieving/set back) arches as described in the treatise of first century Roman architect Vitruvius and used by sixteenth century architect Andrea Palladio.

Its steeply graded roof is reminiscent of chateaux in France and its hand laid roof tiles are made of natural slate. They acted as an electrical insulator, were fireproof and had an extremely low water absorption rate.

The roof allowed water or melting snow to run into wide gutters and be recycled via a ‘well’ in the garden, which symbolically and practically became the ‘font’ of the house.

His ‘middling’ English house was, at least for Morris, a place ‘after his own heart’ a most noble work…more a poem than a house…but an admirable place to live in to’.

It was refreshingly simple and Morris was well pleased with it. It was a kind of moral architecture if you like, paying tribute to England’s ‘golden age’, while reflecting the needs of a contemporary middle class citizen and craftsman such as himself. The Arts and Crafts styled building symbolized warmth and shelter, informality and welcome.

Between the wars the Arts & Crafts style burgeoned out into the suburbs of busy, bustling cities around the world calling upon rural traditions too, which signified order and stability.

St John’s Cathedral at Brisbane, Australia was the last Gothic Revival Style Cathedral in the world to be completed (2006). In the precinct is a number of buildings influenced by Arts and Crafts architecture, which was well underway in England when it was first being built (1906).

They included St Martin’s House, whose style was inspired by the philosophy of arts and crafts movement and The Red House.

Built following World War I of red brick, relieved by detailing in stone, it has a slated high sloping roof, Georgian style sash windows, Italian Renaissance touches, including a Juliet balcony.

There are also some delightful fanciful turret style chimneys at the roofline.

It has the addition of an extended room, surmounted by medieval battlements. Originally the main operating room of the hospital, it was converted into an office for the current Dean of the Cathedral, whose desk is sited over the main plumbing grate.

Set into an Italian terrazzo floor (now covered by carpet) this is where they hosed the blood after an operation. One could have a lot of fun with that…but we digress.

Morris and his associates introduced a new dimension to the reform of design and decoration. He explored, in particular, the techniques of traditional country furniture because it was not only the debased quality of contemporary furniture that alarmed him, but also the decline of ancient skills needed to produce a quality product.

They produced a line up of furniture designs that were a distinct breakaway from anything else the industrial era had offered. In America Gustave Stickley was a self appointed standard-bearer for the arts and crafts movement.

Through his factory stocked with everything needed to create the home beautiful he promoted and extended Morris’s principles in both an artistic and socialist sense. He targeted the average American homeowner, whose limited budget called for a subtle marketing technique.

He offered to ‘substitute the luxury of taste for the luxury of costliness’… employing those forms and materials made for simplicity, individuality and dignity of effect. His magazine The Craftsman evangelized through articles submitted by influential guest writer’s on such issues as style, home décor, urban landscapes and architecture. It was all about the home beautiful, and he supplied everything needed for those seeking to embrace the future in comfort and style.

All his life Morris tried to recreate the idyllic, almost medieval life; self sufficient, financially secure, practical in close contact with nature.  Morris described the Cotswold village of Bibury in Gloucestershire as ‘surely the most beautiful hamlet in England’.

In this he was both inspired and supported by art critic John Ruskin, whose thoughts had a profound influence on Victorian attitudes.

Morris tried to make his vision of beauty, an actual part of everyday life. He saw modern mechanical industry destroying ‘mans natural purpose and sense of life’

John Ruskin said he believed that working with the hands and producing arts and crafts were essential to the moral fibre of the home.

Objects were meant to be fashioned with great pride, integrity and attention to beauty. He sincerely feared without such a focus the quality of family life would be severely degraded and diminished.

Morris agreed. He said “If I were asked to say what is at once the most important product of Art, and the thing most to be longed for, I should answer, a beautiful House. And that included everything and everyone inside it.

By now Morris and his family had a retreat in the countryside at Hammersmith overlooking the Thames. Kelmscott Manor is where he established the Kelmscott Press, the last great enterprise of his life.

Between 1891 and 1898 it produced 53 books (some 18,000 copies). The books Morris produced were modeled on books of the fifteenth century, such as those of printer Nicolaus Jenson of Venice, whose examples inspired the Roman ‘golden’ font Morris used.

Noteworthy for their harmony of type and illustration, the main priority was to have each book seen as a whole, re-awakening the early ideals of illuminated book design.

He wanted to inspire other printers in standards of production at a time when the printed page was generally at its poorest.Numerous other presses were set up to perpetuate Morris’ aims, including the Doves, Eragny, Ashendene and Vale Presses.

The enterprise was the culmination of Morris’s life as a craftsman in many diverse fields as he set out to prove the high standards of the past could be repeated – even surpassed – in the present.

William Morris died before the end of the century and did not live to see the success that the Arts and Crafts philosophy of he and his peers had on both sides of the Atlantic and in British colonies like Canada and Australia.

By 1901 the population of the United Kingdom was 41.5 million with twenty percent living in poverty. Emmelline Pankhurst founded the Women’s Social and Political Union in 1903 and it became a focus for militant action in the campaign for women’s suffrage.

It was not until 1904 that the Children’s Act of 1904 officially banned employment of children between nine PM in the evening and six am in the morning.

A reaction to the  de-humanizing affect of late nineteenth century industrialism revived the artisan guild system, which was similar to that of medieval times. Its members were promoted as being merry and jolly and the offered an interesting role model for those searching for a panacea to escape the ills of the age.

The remedy lay in creating and constituting a new philosophy of life for the worker and so a traditional hero was revived. Britain’s great legendary medieval hero, Robin Hood, who had championed the working class man and his honest labour.

Robin was merry, his men were merry and, putting him forward to project an image of artisans happy at completing a days hard work, was instantly appealing.

His  popularity and merry image was re-affirmed when a movie emerged from the new glamorous, Art Deco loving capital of America, Hollywood in 1938 in a world torn asunder. Australian born Errol Flynn starred as the romantic hero Robin Hood romping through the movie, with his merry men and the lovely Olivia de Havilland as Maid Marion.

They both smiled a lot, as did his men,  and his merry disposition was completely infectious. In the movie the virtues of hearth and home in Sherwood Forest were about Spartan design and not only would this help reinforce the attitudes and philosophies, fashions and passions of the Arts and Crafts movement as it continued its merry way, but it would also help everyone survive the global conflict to come.

‘We are here to lead you back to the realities of life’, Morris had said, ‘to show you how to use your hands and your heads, which machines have already made over half of the population lose’.

The social ideal of the arts and crafts movement is ongoing. It was “The Art that is Life”.

Carolyn McDowall©The Culture Concept Circle 2010, 2011

Watch the trailer of Robin Hood, it should give your day a ‘boost’

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Roman Villa Terrace, a place of contemplation and pleasure

The Patricians of Ancient Rome established villa culture in their desire to enjoy the coveted pleasures of country life. In the first century before Christ Horace the poet dreamed of a place far away from the bustle of the capital, one where he was not jostled by crowds, stressed out by his dealings with highly placed persons or subjected to the consequences of trivial gossip.

In his villa he could relax, read the books of the ancients, sleep or rest as his mood dictated while enjoying the excellent wine and fresh food of the region, in great abundance. Despite evolving societies and technology the villa became and remains a place where one can dwell “under the tent of heaven”.

According to Oxford, the word classical pertains to the high standard achieved by ancient Greek and Latin authors or their works, or the culture, art and architecture of Greek and Roman antiquity generally. The main characteristics are clarity of outline and restrained harmonious design in accordance with established forms.

During the medieval period throughout Europe bitter rivalry and warring factions dominated everyday life. From the fourteenth to the sixteenth century in Italy art, literature and learning was reborn and under the encouragement and patronage of princes, popes and potentates would rise to new heights of achievement.  Using the rediscovery of their own ancient classical past the all powerful family factions turned their energies and attention to building development in the cities and out in the countryside for themselves, as they had in antiquity seeking the pleasures of villa life.

Andrea Palladio - Venetian Architect

Andrea Palladio (1508-1580) was born in Padua at the beginning of the sixteenth century. He grew up in the republic of Venice, becoming an architect and great traveler. He wore a track up and down to Rome over the years where he avidly studied the architecture of antiquity. He believed ‘the study of ancient remains was the power and moral force behind Roman civilization’. He discovered that the Romans had been skillful at reinterpreting the ideas of others, especially the Greeks. The new style of architecture Palladio would develop during his lifetime would have a sense of calm and order because it was based on his interpretation of measurements gleaned from the ancient treatise of first century Roman architect Marcus Pollio Vitruvius. He also studied the remains of ancient sites at Naples, Piedmont and Provence, often travelling dusty dirt roads on foot until old age and infirmity finally prevented him.

Villa Capra (La Rotunda) - sited on a hill 'to see and be seen'

Andrea Palladio produced a style of refined classical architecture that was in direct contrast to the more elaborate ornamentation and forms carried out elsewhere in Italy at that time. The delightful villas he built in and around Venice and the nearby Veneto were designed to be in harmony and balance with man and nature and of a scale that was acceptable to both. He believed the setting for the villa was at its very ‘heart and soul’.

The plans of his layouts, which still exist,  reveal beautifully proportioned rooms that allowed for flexibility of function and purpose. He included vestibules for receiving visitors, galleries for showing off paintings, sculpture and other precious collections of coins and gems plus the necessary rooms that could be utilized as bedchambers and antechambers.

All the living rooms could change with the seasons…bedrooms could move to the coolest side of the house in summer and warmest side in winter. With the invention of printing and the wider circulation of books as well as scientific studies he designed a special room solely for this purpose. A gentleman’s studiolo was what we would today call a study or library and it was usually adjacent to the bedchamber.

All the rooms in his villas whether large or small had proportions based on the scale, proportion and relationship of the parts to the whole of the human body. These were rigorously applied. These ideas may seem fairly commonplace to us today, but at the time, they were virtually unknown and therefore, revolutionary.

During the sixteenth century any other form of decoration remained subservient to architecture and mural painting was a means of emphasizing the architectural elements. Palladio used the genre of Trompe l’ oeil painted effects to extend space visually and bring the outside in.

Interior frescoed landscapes were framed by white columns and alternated with real windows looking out onto real landscapes. They provided a harmonious connection to the external world, while ennobling the landscape. Artist Paolo Veronese was particularly skilled at this type of artistry and would be employed to complete the painted rooms at the Villa Barbero at Maser.

For Palladio as an architect to reach great heights and be regarded as the best in his field was only possible by gaining both recognition and support.  During the sixteenth century this meant having at least one great patron, one who thought beyond himself and not looking to receive monetary or favour rewards.

He needed to be a true Renaissance man…one whose thirst for knowledge was only exceeded by his desire for more and Palladio found those patrons in the renowned scholarly Barbaro Brothers.

The Villa at Maser he would design for them would become much admired and imitated. He wanted to provide them with building that was all at once functional as well as accommodating to the topography of its site.

An important agricultural villa it had flanking wings designed to house agricultural implements, farm animals and protect the crops from the elements as well as store the wine.

Palladio was concerned with using, respecting and conserving natural resources so at Maser he placed dovecotes in symmetrical towers at each end of the flanking wings, catering to the medieval tradition of attracting doves and other fowl to the Lord’s table. On the façade of one tower a giant astronomical clock tracked the heavens. The villa was sited halfway down a gentle slope with an ancient natural spring servicing its occupants with all their water needs as well as feeding the fishponds and finally irrigating the gardens and orchards. Everything was meant to be recycled.

For his clients the Foscari brothers Palladio designed a small compact villa without flanking wings, a simple country house meant for rest and pleasure.

He raised it up on a rusticated basement 11’ high to prevent flooding from the nearby River Brenta. Its site provided a quick method of communication with the city for the family by boat at little expense and to go there from Venice today by boat is still the most successful way of viewing it and understanding Palladio’s intent.

At the Villa Foscari, the basement acted as a podium for the smooth faced upper stories. The main entrance was under a pedimented portico, which was accessed by way of an external flight of stairs up to the entrance level. This first floor, known as the Piano Nobile or noble floor housed the main rooms of the villa and he used the Ionic capital on its giant columns, uniquely solving a method of turning corners in a handsome way. The internal murals that decorate the walls are by artist Giambattista Zelloti, one of which is reputed to be the mysterious la Malcontenta, a women ancestor who legend has it had been unfaithful to her husband and was locked away in a small house on the site.

Villas in Palladio’s day were sparsely furnished by our standards. Furniture was limited to large marriage chests, which were portable and they were often elaborately carved and exquisitely painted (cassoni). There were tables of monumental proportion often topped with coloured inlaid marbles (pietra dure) and cupboards with doors intricately decorated with intarsia (inlay). Great marriages of state joined families of means together – an ideal route to power. This was especially true if land was added to the equation.

In this context beds became the most important piece of furniture in the  house practically and symbolically because of their importance in begetting an heir to the family dynasty.

For a time the great Alps that surround Italy were a barrier to knowledge with only a handful of travelers braving the elements and hardships by land to visit.  In Palladio’s day the Mediterranean was also ruled by foreign empires and pirates so one had to be very keen, mad, or just plain foolhardy to try.

Over the four and more centuries since his death Palladio’s interpretation of the classical style has influenced many and traveled far. From Europe to England, America to Australia he inspired a dwelling that was simple and solid and one that reflects all our aspirations, needs and leisure requirements.

A villa by architect Andrea Palladio was a place where the owners could feel happy, secure and content, which is after all, what most of us still require and aspire to, a place where one can cultivate the head, heart, body and the soul.

Perhaps a villa by Palladio was the perfect house after all?

Carolyn McDowall ©The Culture Concept 2010, 2011

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The Gothic is always with us. Indeed Kenneth Clark whose essay on the history of the style charted its revival in the nineteenth century, showed its ability to survive through periods not usually associated with the pointed arch and cusped ornament. At the end of the twentieth century, perhaps as a reaction against the brutalism of modernist architecture and the anonymity of our cities, there was a revived fascination with the Gothic as a style and a renewed interest in Augustus Welby Pugin (1812-52) one of its greatest theorists and a forceful proponent of Gothic decoration. Pugin’s influence was felt on a generation of Gothic revivalist architects, the most famous being Gilbert Scott, and his own plans and designs were realised in both Sydney and Tasmania.

Pugin in his book, Contrasts, published in 1836, sought to compare the ‘noble edifices’ that embellished the ideal late medieval city with the dreary structures that dominate the nineteenth century factory town. His aim was ‘showing the present decay of taste.’ Dreaming spires have given way to smokestacks, grass has been replaced by the gasometer and the principal civic structures appear to be the asylum and gaol.

Pugin’s aesthetic didacticism and his romanticised attachment to the middle ages irritated many of his contemporaries, but he brought to the design of tiles, wallpapers, furniture and ironwork principles of design and authentic construction that pointed the way forward for William Morris and others in the Arts and Crafts movement who came after.

The decorative arts were never considered secondary by Augustus Welby Pugin. As an architect he might design the structure of a house, church or institution, but he conceived of the building, its fittings and furnishings as a ‘complete work of art.’ His early training and experience had been as a furniture designer.

When, after a fire, part of Windsor castle was rebuilt during the 1820s in the Gothic style he had produced designs for rosewood and gilt furniture to fill its halls. Then, following the decision of the British parliament to rebuild the Palace of Westminster in the Gothic style, after it also had been destroyed by fire in 1834, Pugin assisted Charles Barry on the massive project for many years and designed furniture, tiles and wallpapers to embellish the building

Ambulatory in St John's Cathedral at Brisbane, Queensland Australia the last Gothic Revival style cathedral in the world to be completed. Designed by John Loughborough Pearson an admirer of Augustus Welby Pugin

Despite his professed abhorrence of the industrialized nineteenth century Pugin was commercially minded enough to realze that the Great Exhibition of 1851, held in London’s Hyde Park to showcase British arts and manufactures, offered him an incomparable opportunity to bring his work to the attention of the buying public. The ‘Crystal Palace’ of Iron and Glass was the least sympathetic of settings for a display of Gothic inspired ecclesiastical ornaments and domestic furnishings, but within this large greenhouse Pugin created an exotic Medieval Court that was to have a significant influence on public taste.

Rich fabrics and papers caught the eye while signs advertising the wares of the craftsmen who collaborated with Pugin hung amidst heraldic emblems. John Hardman of Birmingham, who made brass, iron and gold work to Pugin designs, displayed his door hinges, chandeliers and fire dogs; George Meyers set out his furniture and carved architectural details, and John Crace showed his carpets and paperhangings. For Pugin arts and crafts were complementary. He extolled the virtues of the medieval craftsmen and attempted to resurrect their original processes. Bringing an antiquarian knowledge of Gothic ornament into conjunction with his own powerful design sense, and drawing upon the skills of nineteenth century workers, he was able to produce a range of new Gothic wares- furniture, wallpapers and ceramics.

From the eighteenth century furniture in the Gothic style had been available from most prominent cabinetmakers, and many patternbooks offered a variety of designs ranging from the more historically correct to fanciful adaptations and even exotic hybrids of Gothic and Chinese design. What Pugin sought in his Gothic Furniture in the Style of the Fifteenth Century (1835) was an almost archaeological correctness. Pugin also saw his furniture as part of an overall scheme for interior design but the different needs of the nineteenth century and the lack of useful models for certain pieces saw him freely adapt and interpret ornament taken from a variety of sources, often Flamboyant French or Flemish Gothic. An octagonal table designed by Pugin for the Palace of Westminister, for example, has no medieval prototype behind it. In this case Pugin takes ogee arches from late Gothic architecture to support the board.

The polychrome decoration of the lower area of the Sainte Chapelle at Paris, recently restored by Eugène Viollet le Duc, as well as rich late medieval textiles, were major influences on Pugin and on John Crace the interior designer who executed Pugin’s lavish schemes, which he elaborated from sketches. Because hand painted wall treatments were so expensive to attempt Pugin and Crace created wallpapers for the interiors of Eastnor Castle, Herefordshire and Lismore Castle, County Waterford.

They also employed such papers in the Palace of Westminister where enormous walls had to be covered. Pugin favoured stongly patterned wallpapers in a richly ornamented style.He sought a two dimensional medieval flatness and avoided attempts at false perspectives that might be suggested by shading.

For Pugin the pattern of forms and repeated devices were enough and he sought to create his effect using striking contrasts of colour. He also took a great interest in natural forms as his 1848 publication Floriated  Ornament shows and this allowed him to create sophisticated patterns based on stylised flowers such as the lily or the cabbage rose.

Pugin Cross

For the Palace of Westminster alone Pugin designed over one hundred different wallpapers utilising Italian textile designs, traditional English motifs such as the Rose and Portcullis , as well as fleurs-de Lys and Pomegranates.

These papers were block printed in a variety of colour ways but this process was both labour intensive and expensive. However, even today, papers such as Pugins’ Gothic Lily are still being produced in small runs from the original blocks. In a manner that anticipates William Morris, Pugin still believed that the Gothic could be popularised through the commercial production of cheap papers for domestic decoration.While he himself did not live to implement these plans, several wallpaper companies in the 1860s produced Puginesque papers for a wider commercial market.

Tiles and ceramics to Pugin’s Gothic designs were produced from the 1840s by the potter Herbert Minton at Stoke-on Trent in Staffordshire. Pugin had a developed interest in medieval ceramics and was particularly intigued by the encaustic thirteenth century tiles in the floor of the Chapter House, Westminister Abbey. It was Minton who developed a means for reproducing tiles by the same encaustic process. He produced a moulded indented base tile and onto this  slip of a second colour was poured to produce a striking two-tone effect.

Pugin did much to popularise the use of brightly coloured tiles, using them to enliven both walls and floors.In the decoration of St Giles Church, Cheadle, Pugin used tiles to create jewel-box effects in small spaces. Some of the tiles placed there were hand painted or overprinted after production. Pugin-designed tiles were used in 1850 to decorate the Palace of Westminster and displayed in the Medieval Court at the Great Exhibition. Later, Minton’s employment of the new Collins and Reynolds process for printing tiles with transfers saw a mass production of Pugin inspired designs.

Tableware to Pugin designs was produced by Minton for special commissions and for general sale. A simple printed blue trefoil pattern known in the Minton catalogue as Pugin Gothic, pattern 8659, was produced from mid 1840s down to the 1920s and is much admired. It was for Minton also that Pugin designed a series of multicoloured ornamental plates with foliated Gothic designs and French or Latin mottos.

Most celebrated of all the motto plates, and the most Victorian in its sentiment, is the ‘Waste Not Want Not’ Bread Plate, which dates from 1849. Produced by an encaustic process using inlaid coloured clays, the plate features strong Gothic lettering, the words nicely balanced, stylised foliated bands of ornament and appropriately a wheel of wheat.

Pugin’s legacy of rich decoration documents for us one aspect of the Victorians’ fascination with Medievalism and it finds many admirers. In 1994 the Victoria and Albert Museum’s exhibition, Pugin: A Gothic Passion, drew enormous crowds and the V&A gift shop promptly sold out of the reproduction china and the stationery decorated with Pugin’s designs. It appears that another generation has discovered Pugin’s sumptuous decorative patterns as well as his theoretical writings that find a new resonance in our post-modernist times.

Author: © Dr. Brian Brennan, MA (Hons) Phd (Macq) Dip Ed (UTS) 2009 – 2011

* Quote Kenneth Clarke, The Gothic Revival

Bibliography
M. Aldrich, Gothic Revival ,  Phaidon, London, 1994.
M.Archer, ‘Gothic Wallpapers-An Aspect of the Gothic Revival,’ Apollo 78 (1963), pp.109-16.
P. Atterbury and C. Wainwright, Pugin. A Gothic Passion, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1994.
K.Clark, The Gothic Revival, reprint, John Murray, London, 1962.
J.Jones, Minton: The First Two Hundred Years of Design and Production, Swan Hill Press, London, 1993.
C.Wainwright, ‘Furnishing the New Palace: Pugin’s Furniture and Fittings,’ Apollo 135 (1992), pp.3-3-7.

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La Rotunda - Villa Capra, Veneto

Professor Bruce Boucher’s scholarly and accessible work, Andrea Palladio, The Architect in his Time was first published in 1994  in a ‘user friendly version’…to fit comfortably into a suitcase or backpack for a quick trip to Vicenza, the scene of many of Palladio’s triumphant works in architecture. Don’t know about you but I have always been ready to go to Venice in 20 minutes. But we digress…Palladio, Boucher confidently tells us, ‘is arguably the most influential architect the western world has ever produced’.

By the end of the book I have to admit I was ready to jump on a plane for Venice, Vicenza and the Veneto to visit all those buildings, both public and private, designed by Palladio so that I too could enjoy experiencing ‘their attraction and wonder at their perfection’. Palladio made ‘man the measure of all things’. He re-interpreted the first century treatise of Roman architect Marcus Pollio Vitruvius, taking note of his advice to use eurhythmy, proportion, order and harmony to design buildings for both public and private use.

This splendid narrative, lets us travel with Palladio on a dusty road to Rome on foot, just like all those young English gentlemen of the C18 on their ‘Grand Tour’ who followed Palladio’s important guide (Antichita di Roma) to its ancient monuments.Following publication of Palladio’s ultimate traveler’s guide and his Four Books of Architecture (Quattro Libri dell’ Architettura) in England by Palladian enthusiast Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl Burlington in the early eighteenth century, enthusiastic English noblemen took up his ideas readily. They produced villa architecture, in what has been coined the ‘Palladian’ style, one that had a profound effect on the development of western domestic architecture for over two centuries.

Just as Palladio himself, in his Quattro Libri, endeavoured always to address a lay audience, so Bruce Boucher brings the architectural hero of his book, successfully into the same arena. He paints a clear and vivid picture for us of this man of his time, a ‘Renaissance Man’, one whose thirst for knowledge is only exceeded by his desire for more. He offers  us an opportunity to not only understand how and why his architecture evolved in tune with intellectual ideas and social change, but also to visit the buildings that influenced him on an armchair ride, illustrated by brilliant photography, principally by Paolo Marton.

We learn to know and appreciate why Palladio wanted to ‘see with my own eyes and measure everything with my own hands’ enabling him to produce well conceived, detailed and integrated concepts that ultimately led to successful results. Something that still holds true today in our own frenetic world.

Without solid foundations nothing of substance that lasts can ever be produced. Boucher also acquaints us with Palladio the environmentalist. At the Villa at Maser, his brilliant exploitation of a natural spring to provide water for the villa, its gardens, farm buildings and kitchen garden is a lesson on how to tailor a design that respects nature while using its bountiful resources cleverly. One could safely say that Palladio, if alive today would want to ensure that we returned to nature all our waste products. He may even successfully, through Professor Boucher,  stir us all to become much more passionate about protecting the fragility of our environment and ultimately safeguard the future of mankind.

This book is a must for all those interested in any aspect of art and design. It is also for those who want an intelligent, informative read, one that supplies the facts without being dry or too academic, but rather adopts an attitude that is both erudite and enjoyable. It should stimulate your visual literacy and enquiry, and assist you to open your eyes to the possibility of not just looking but also seeing and gaining a better understanding abouty the world around you. It is also an exceedingly important contribution to the ‘real history of classical architecture.’

Carolyn McDowall©The Culture Concept Circle  2009 – 2011

PS. You may enjoy these other posts…about Palladio and his style

Palladio, in pursuit of the perfect house

What is Palladian style, more than a villa in the Veneto?

Music, Humankind and Nature – Alleluia Apollo, Vitruvius, Palladio, Mozart and Jenkins

You can also purchase the book at the Australian Online bookstore www.bookoffers.com.au

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Leaning Tower, Pisa, Italy

Towers are structures that come out of a tradition as old as our memories of time and their symbolism has evolved with our own cultural development. The many towers around the world standing today are a potent reminder of all our desires for hope and freedom. They are symbolic of a future filled with faith and promise for everyone.

Religion, literature and government, as well as its visual art forms, define the character and individuality of any civilization. While the former may change in both attitude and stance, or else fade away, many of its visual art forms still remain vivid and accessible as a fountain for knowledge and inquiry.

Prior to the twentieth century towers mainly served two purposes. First for that of space saving in the worlds overcrowded cities and towns accommodating the majority of the population in private or professional life; secondly, as symbols to the heights of material wealth and prosperity that the western world had yet achieved.

The twin towers in New York, demolished in 2001, had the distinction of housing a ‘League of Nations’, which is why they ended up targets for international terrorism.

The perpetrators by attacking such a symbol to western democracy wanted to strike an individual blow at the centre of the western psyche and its emotional well being.

However what they underestimated was western societies ability to ‘bounce back’, shored up by a faith that their progress toward a world in which we can all share its bountiful blessings without hatred of colour, race or creed is the right one.

At the central core of these beliefs is a respect and reverence for tradition and its values and a belief that right and good triumphs over wrong and evil, a concept well documented through the ages of world history and one that features continually in contemporary culture.  Transforming the grief of the past decade from being a negative force into a positive one for good is an all important way forward in the future. One way we can do that and achieve it is through Liberty, which is about enlightenment through knowledge.

The perceived wisdom and wealth of the people who occupied the Mediterranean region in ancient times is  both captivating and compelling. In almost every field of their endeavour the Greeks were pioneers. Their considerable achievements in literature, thought and science are but a part of a wonderful Greek legacy that belongs to the world at large.

The ancient Greeks at Athens had the Acropolis (from the Greek akros – highest + polis = city) for the populace to retreat to in times of threat or siege. Its natural defences high up looking out over the city and countryside were aided by an enclosing wall. At Athens is a tower, the Horologium of Andronicus of Cyrrus, known as the Tower of the Winds. Ancient Roman architect Vitruvius, whose first century treatise on architecture is the only one to survive from ancient times, mentions it in his discourse on town planning ‘regarding the direction of the streets with remarks on the winds’.

Up until this period many argued that there were only four winds, but Andronicus in order to prove his theory there were eight built a marble octagonal tower at Athens. On the sides of the octagon sculptural reliefs represent the winds and it is surmounted by a bronze Triton who, holding a rod outstretched in his right hand, acted as a pointer to the representation of the wind that was blowing.

The Romans, when not able to take advantage of lofty heights built tall structures within city walls. These were placed at regular intervals `solely for looking out on the countryside around them’ and  came to be called towers. (Latin – turris). The Roman’s great strength lay in improving the ideas of others, gained during the expansion of their Empire.  Etruria, Tuscia, Toscana, or Tuscany are all names given to one region of a state we have known since the late nineteenth century as Italy.  When the Romans arrived they found cultivated fields set between forests and they expanded the numbers and kinds of crops grown.

Towers of San Gimignano

Tuscany has a documented history spanning 3000 years and its people preserve a unity of spirit, language, culture and art and have done so in the face of the most trying adversity and at times when it seems their independence may have been lost. It is a country of hills and valleys contained between the diagonal range of the Apennines, lesser hills and to the south the Tyrrhenian Sea, all forming a natural unit.

The very easy access to its valleys throughout the centuries made it extremely vulnerable to attack and so the Tuscans built spectacular hill towns on high ground far above the valley floor. Their lofty heights acted as a defensive standpoint and today buses and cars by the dozens wheel through the gentle countryside to visit the ‘city of the towers’ San Gimignano now on the world’s heritage list. It seemingly floats like a dream image on top of a hill and is the only hill town in Tuscany that has preserved an authentic medieval skyline. The shafts of its tall stone towers make it appear like a sculpture against the blue of the sky. During the Renaissance it was caught like a ham in a sandwich, between the cities of Sienna and Florence, which were always feuding about something or other. They survived not only such bloody rivalry, but also the devastating effects of plague high up above the malarial plains of the valley floor. Today San Gimignano has gained a romantic reputation, via such influential authors as Henry James, Edith Wharton and E.M. Forster, whose perceptions have been shored up by romantic views of it in popular movies such as ‘Only You’ starring Robert Downey Jr and Marissa Tomei.

Town Hall Siena, Italy

More than one legend tells of a daughter shut up in a tower by her father to discourage and protect her from unwanted suitors (who usually go on a great quest to save her) so a tower also became a symbol of chastity and virtue. Who can forget the tale of poor Rapunzel having to let down her hair to be rescued. If legend is to be countenanced the high tower at  Sienna was founded as a result of Roman rivalries; Ascius and Senius, the sons of Remus, were obliged to flee from Rome to escape the wrath of their uncle Romulus. They called the spot where they stopped to make sacrifices to the Gods Diana and Apollo ‘Castelsenio’, which is still the name for a district of Sienna around which the city developed. The height of the tower atop the Town Hall in Sienna is higher than that on the church, a sign of the great rivalry between the Pope and the Emperor during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.

Most of our knowledge of Roman architecture comes from observation of remains or from Vitruvius, whose manuscript was re-discovered in 1410 by eminent historian Poggio Braccioloni. Such influential Renaissance architects as Leon Battista Alberti re interpreted it in his Ten Books of Architecture. He explained ‘the ancients used, on each side of their gates to erect two towers, larger than the rest and strongly fortified on all sides to secure and protect the Entrance into the town.’

Bell Tower, Florence Italy

From the seventh to the fourteenth century when they were being built three buildings, the Baptistery, Campanile (Bell Tower) and Cathedral were placed in juxtaposition, one to another to create maximum magnetic visual impact. This happened in Florence and at Pisa, where the famous bell tower leans. Numerical symbolism was important in all religions and in both the Old and New Testaments many numbers were considered both holy and mystical Three represented the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the Christian religion.

The nature of Christian worship is such that it does not necessarily require a setting; nevertheless through the centuries it has had an architectural setting, which expressed the Christian understanding of worship at that time. On the day of their re-birth Christians were fully immersed naked in a large deep font located inside the Baptistery at the light of a new dawn. This symbolised the central Christian theme of resurrection. While the bells rang with joy they were robed and then led into the cathedral to begin their new life in Christ. The introduction of bells to church buildings is ascribed to Paulinus of Nola c400 while in England they were introduced from Italy c680. From the ninth century they were placed inside towers and by the seventeenth century the peculiarly English art of change ringing had developed.

During the Middle Ages bells were baptized in the name of the Trinity. Prayers in the service reveal that at that time they were thought to drive away evil spirits and protect the building against storm damage. They were also rung on joyous occasions, at times of trouble, for births, deaths and marriages and to call people to prayer. They became an integral and important aspect of town, country and city life and a source of comfort to many. Great Cathedrals built during the Middle Ages throughout Europe stood at the centre of each town. They reflected ‘not only the realisation on earth of the Celestial City, as described in the Revelations of St. John the Divine’, but acted as a symbol of the religious faith and commercial prosperity of its townspeople’.

The bigger the building and the higher its tower the better, as it could be seen from miles around. Each Cathedral was a source of great civic pride and its nave became the background to many secular activities ranging from legal to commercial. At Amiens in France the entire population of the city of 10,000 people could all fit into its great cathedral, which covered 7,700 square meters and the mighty tower on the Cathedral at Strasbourg soared as high as a forty storey building.

White Tower, London

When the Norman’s arrived in England in 1066 they brought the techniques of building stone towers, also heavily influenced by architecture crusading knights had encountered in the Holy Land. William 1, the Conqueror built the White Tower of London of limestone imported from Caen in Normandy, traditionally on the site of a fort erected by Julius Caesar. ‘Ye Towers of Julius, London’s lasting shame with many a foul and midnight murder fed’.

The Norman’s were among the first in Europe to pioneer this type of huge stone keep that it is part of the complex now known as The Tower of London. It occupies a central role in the history of England both as a royal residence and as a state prison and many famous people in English history were incarcerated there prior to their execution.

One can only begin to imagine their fear when passing through the water gate, knowing what was in store for them. The story of the ‘Princes in the Tower’, King Edward V and his younger brother, Richard Duke of York, is one of its great legends. Their uncle, Richard, Duke of Gloucester assumed the crown as Richard III after reputedly, murdering them, but there is no conclusive proof. (Bones found during the excavation near the White Tower in 1674 were transferred to Westminster Abbey and in 1933 experts proclaimed them to be the bones of children of ages corresponding to those of the princes

‘During the Middle Ages free standing residential towers persisted long after the need for defense, which gave it birth had vanished, satisfying the strong predilection of the age for verticality and for symbols of authority’. Tower houses developed all over England, in Scotland and Ireland during these troubled times. There are upward of 100 round towers in Ireland, of which innumerable and wild conjectures of their origin and purpose have been made. The most sober is that they were the earliest form of buildings of a monastic order, adapted to the exigencies of a Christian settlement who were protecting themselves from pagans and pirates, the entrance to them being some 15’ off the ground.

Craigievar Castle, Aberdeenshire, Scotland

In Scotland one of the most striking examples of the deeply rooted preference for the security of a tower house is at Craigievar Castle in Aberdeenshire. Built 1610- – 1624 it is coated with roughcast made from local granite chips. It is entirely ‘picturesque’ and exudes a pink ‘glow’ and has a top-heavy air of fantasy about it covered as it is with corbelled angle turrets. It also has pepper pot domes so conspicuous an aspect of English Elizabethan and Jacobean architecture and the whole is great charm personified.

It was at Canterbury in England the Gothic style, already flourishing in France, was fully developed for the building of great Cathedrals, most of which had their western facades flanked by twin towers and were surmounted by a huge bell tower topped with a spire. The tower that surmounts Canterbury Cathedral was built 1472-1494 and houses Bell Harry. This bell is named not because of King Henry, but because from medieval times it contained only one great bell known affectionately as Harry and it has been described as ‘the queenliest tower in Christendom’.

Nonesuch Palace, favourite palace of Henry VIII - there was no other such

Twin Towers reputedly flanked the gateway of Henry VIII’s hunting lodge without equal – Nonesuch Palace (demolished 1682). Little is known about Nonesuch except that it was a favourite palace as it was of his daughter Elizabeth and renowned throughout Europe for its unrivalled splendour. In the inner courtyard a visitor was surrounded by huge stucco figures of gods and godesses so deeply moulded Anthony Watson described them as leaping off the walls toward him. Watson the rector of Cheam gave a an eyewitness account of the building between 1582 -1592. He said the stonework was carved with the ‘living image’ of plants and animals, the ground floor walls of stone, the upper storey of timbered construction whose stucco panels were decorated with a variety of classical motifs in high relief’.

Built around two principal courtyards, it revealed none of its secrets from without, the simplicity of the stone clad outer court only emphasising the glories within, the steps leading to the inner court slowing the approach in order to heighten the impact of its Renaissance splendour.  The towers also had a spectacular prospect over the surrounding gardens and out into countryside, a most desirable feature for any Renaissance house or palace.

St Paul's Cathedral, London

Prior to the Great Fire of London in 1666, there were ninety-seven parish churches in London; the oldest Saxon in origin, while most had Norman remains. The bell tower in church architecture’s role by this time was to call attention to its presence from afar, to summon worshippers and toll for each death in a parish. The bells were rung nine times for a man, six for a woman and three for a child, plus, once for every year of their life.

During the dreadful plague of 1665 the church bells tolled endlessly, day after day, morning and night until the practice had to be abandoned as there was not a sufficient number of sextons (who rang the bells) to bury the dead. After the Great Fire mathematician and architect Christopher Wren was given the job of rebuilding fifty-one churches, incorporating some of the former smaller parishes into another. The skyline of the city became very important to him, as it was to those who remembered and cherished what had been lost. He added towers, spires and steeples to the churches in white Portland stone, or lead, to enhance the effect of his great domed Cathedral to replace the old St. Paul’s.

Tower at St Mary Huish Episcopi, England

His first grand invention of a tower topped with a classical steeple was at St. Mary le Bow, which was of a great height, described as truly magnificent and bespoke originality. The remaining City churches today still reflect by their variety, the varied quality of the City itself but sadly many of Wren’s earlier light and happy classical edifices were sacrificed to the Gothic revival craze of the nineteenth century. (Today under 40 remain due to this later demolition and bombing during WWII). Country church towers throughout England also have stone towers with little wooden turrets, while others were rich enough to afford a spire or gilded weather vanes to top the towers. Most of these were paid for by medieval trade guilds.

There is no end to the architectural influence of local materials. Somerset is famous for its towers; one of the most handsome a perpendicular number at a village called Huish Episcopi, which is 100 feet high and dates from around 1500.  It has multi pinnacled corner buttresses, windows and bell openings, the whole built of blue lias stone which is indigenous to areas of Southern England including Somerset, Warwickshire and Leicestershire.

The tower is extensively embellished with pinnacles and quatrefoil panel bands and has a superb stained glass window by late nineteenth century English artist Edward Burne-Jones. From the beginning of the nineteenth century when Britannia ruled the waves and the commercial prosperity of England was at its height the craze for a return to the Gothic took hold and private citizens got caught up in the race to build the tallest tower.

Fonthill Abbey

Fonthill Abbey was a great romantic confection that rose dramatically from the Wiltshire Downs in the shape of a Cathedral competing with Salisbury Cathedral in both size and splendour. It was built for aloof, eccentric, wealthy romantic William Beckford who incorporated a jasper-floored tomb for himself, as he wanted it to be ‘a cathedral dedicated to the arts, a site of splendid ritual and solemn music, a shrine for the work of the best English painters and craftsmen of their day’.

However its architect James Wyatt failed to give its giant centre tower proper foundations and it embarrassingly fell down during a violent storm in 1800. It was promptly rebuilt only to fall down again forever in 1825. On his death bed the contractor confessed the tower had no foundations and expressed surprise it had stood at all…in the end it became a fashionable ruin, part of the ideology of the romantic movement of that time.

It only ever saw one great entertainment in the December of 1800 a monastic fete when ‘everything, as a chronicler of the evening reported ‘was provided to steal upon the senses, dazzle the eye, and bewilder the fancy’.

Le Tour Eiffel, Paris

The Eiffel Tower in Paris, ranked as the world’s greatest engineering marvel when it was built in 1889, and rises 984 feet from its base, which is 330 feet square. It is a huge wrought iron skeleton tower on the Champ de Mar in Paris, designed by Alexandre Gustave Eiffel for the Paris Exposition of 1889. Fees to take people to its various stages as a lookout in its first year of operation paid for its cost and for many years it was the tallest structure in the world.

During World War 1 it served as an important military observation tower and became symbolic of the idea of liberty, fraternity and freedom one that French people have fought hard to preserve. Today it’s a great tourist attraction, a romantic place to propose marriage and has become symbolic of all our dreams for a better world.

When Henry VIII decided he would no longer reside in the Palace built by Edward the Confessor (1003 – 66) and enlarged by his successors, an Act of Parliament decreed that ancient Palace ‘shall be called the King’s Palace at Westminster’. Today it is commonly referred to as The Houses of Parliament.

Big Ben, Palace of Westminster, London

Designed by Charles Barry, assisted by Augustus Welby Pugin, in the Gothic style of the Tudor period, the main buildings date from 1852. A great 320 feet high Clock Tower stands close to the site of the original erected by Edward 1 (1239-1307), which was shaken by an earthquake in 1580 and pulled down in 1715.

The popularly named great bell ‘Big Ben’ was named for Sir Benjamin Hall, Chief Lord of the Woods and Forests nicknamed “Big Ben” on account of his immense physique. Its continual striking is meant to remind Judges to administer true justice and the tower houses the largest mechanical clock in the world.

This symbol of western democracy defied the thrust aimed at its very heart by Adolf Hitler during World War II and reassured English speaking people throughout the world all was well. It came into use in 1859 and, except for a few occasions, has run continuously since, chiming the hours to the tune of Handel’s “I know that my Redeemer liveth”.

A Cathedral may often rank as an artistic masterpiece, but it is always, and primarily, an act of Faith. The supreme age of cathedral building represents for a great many design historians, the summit of architectural achievement and aspires to something well beyond the realm of just architecture.

At Lincoln in England you can stand upon the castle ramparts and view the triple towers of the great cathedral thrusting ever upward toward the sky like giant fingers. For 600 years they have dominated the city. The medieval mind, which first conceived such a tremendous vision, did not ever perceive that in our contemporary age Towers would be for many a source of comfort reassuring all those that live within their shadow that they are symbols for all those who have faith in the future.

© Carolyn McDowall ©The Culture Concept Circle 2009, 2010, 2011

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The great Roman Bath at Bath, England

The city of Bath, in the West Country of England has long been renowned for its curative medicinal springs. During Roman times, and indeed up until about the year 400 it was a thriving town named Aquae Sulis. Throughout the medieval period it was little more than a market town largely dominated by the Church. It was not until the fifteenth century when King Henry V111 came to see Bath for himself that the therapeutic value of the waters became, once again, well known and people came to be cured. At the turn of the eighteenth century Queen Anne (1665 – 1714), whose health had greatly suffered from countless failed pregnancies visited. She was seeking rejuvenation through its medicinal waters.

Entrance to The Pump Room at Bath

It became a centre for fashionable people following the arrival of Richard ‘Beau’ Nash in 1702. Born at Swansea in Wales in 1674 Nash following an unsuccessful career in the army had become a professional gamester. It was in this capacity he came to Bath, hoping for rich pickings. At that time there was a self styled Master of Ceremonies at Bath a Captain Webster, another professional gambler who arranged dances in the local Guildhall.

Nash became his aide-de-camp and when Webster was killed in a duel Nash, quick to realize he had found his métier, took over the role and by 1704 had made Bath a great centre for fashionable society in England. The ‘Beau’ was an extremely plain man who always dressed in very flashy clothes and became the undisputed King of Bath. His first move when he ascended to the ‘throne’ was to ban the fighting of duels. Then he hired a good band and found a house to act as rooms of assembly until something better could be built.  In 1706 he rebuilt the Pump Room, where Bath’s famous medicinal waters could be taken by those seeking a cure. He also engaged builder Thomas Harrison to complete a set of elegant purpose built Assembly Rooms. (John Woods the Younger built the ones that exist today in 1769). He wrote a set of rules for ‘correct’ social behaviour that was posted in the pump room. They included number 6 that dictated ‘that Gentlemen crowding before Ladies at the Ball, shew ill Manners, and that none do so for the future – except such as respect nobody but themselves’.

Beau Nash - Trendsetter

The Beau forbade duelling, the carrying of swords in town and arranged for the lighting of roads. He raised money to improve communications, presiding personally at Balls and in the process succeeded in attracting the fashionable world to Bath. The Balls or dances in the Assembly Rooms were extremely formal starting with a minuet for which the Beau would lead out the most important lady present – probably a Duchess – and then he would lead out the most important man to partner her. They would dance watched by the whole company and be followed by less important couples for the next two hours.

At these occasions the Beau banned men from wearing boots. Instead they were encouraged to wear stockings and shoes bringing about a major change in fashion for society at play. Because so many people came to Bath for their health the Balls organised by the Beau began at 6.30 pm and ended sharply at 11 pm. Even a Royal Princess was unable to make Beau Nash change his rules. Today we would perhaps think it all intolerably slow but the Beau gained a great deal of respect and he reigned supreme at Bath for over twenty years. Those individuals in society who sought to flaunt his rules suffered his disdain and were dismissed out of hand…however he was very generous to those having hard times.

He brought about a great ‘levelling of society’ ensuring that while they were at Bath merchants, noblemen and gentle folk all mixed together and learned to respect each other. He arbitrated disputes between neighbours and visitors and made valuable introductions in his self appointed role as benevolent dictator and arbiter of taste.

Prior Park at Bath a symphony in stone

Another influential inhabitant of Bath was Ralph Allen. He started life in a very small way in Cornwall but came to the city to work in the Post Office. He uncovered a Jacobite plot and so earned the patronage of the influential General Wade who had been sent to Bath to suppress any uprising.

Allen became Postmaster in 1712 aged only 19, then Mayor in 1742 and Member of Parliament for Bath from 1757 – 1764. He made a huge fortune partly from the stone quarries, which he acquired. He built a great house, Prior Park, overlooking the town with stone blocks cut with crisp clean edges to suit the newly favoured classical façade that was designed by architect John Wood. It was Allen who persuaded the architect John Wood to come to Bath and redesign the town on the lines of a Roman city.

Queens Square was built in1736 and linked by Gay Street to the Circus, which was built in 1754. Wood’s son John Wood the Younger built the fabulous Royal Crescent in Bath linking it to the Circus.

Royal Crescent, Bath, England there's a divine Hotel in the middle terrace

All these very elegant streets of beautiful classical style buildings were much copied and other architects who worked in Bath included the Scottish genius Robert Adam who designed the charming Pulteney Bridge.

At Prior Park Allen entertained lavishly. Guests included the poet Alexander Pope who designed its garden working with noted landscape gardener Capability Brown.

Bath Abbey, Roman Baths and the Pump Room

The painter Thomas Gainsborough came to Bath in search of commissions and became another well-known visitor at Prior Park as were novelists Samuel Richardson and Henry Fielding. The great character Squire Allworthy in Henry Fielding’s rollicking popular tale Tom Jones is a sympathetic portrait of Ralph Allen.

Thanks to Beau Nash, Ralph Allen and John Woods and John Woods the Younger Bath became, and remains today one of the most complete elegant eighteenth century cities left in Europe. Beau Nash died in 1761 in poverty and obscurity but the Bath he created continued to attract the fashionable world.

Comforts of the Pump Room, by Thomas Rowlandson

In 1766 an anonymous publication appeared called ‘the New Bath Guide’. The very eccentric fashionable man of wit and style Horace Walpole, who was the son of England’s first Prime Minister wrote to a friend: – ‘what pleasure you have to come! There is a new thing published called the New Bath Guide. It stole into the world, and for a fortnight no soul looked into it, concluding its name was its true name.  No such thing. It is a set of letters in verses, in all kinds of verses, describing the life of Bath, and, incidentally everything else: but so much wit, so much humour, so much originality never met together before.’

The author was the Rev. Christopher Anstey. Here is a small quote from ‘A Consultation of Physicians’: - Says I ‘my good doctors, I can’t understand‘ Why the deuce you take so many patients in hand;‘You’ve a great deal of practice, so far as I find,‘But since you’re come hither do pray be so kind,‘To write me down something that’s good for the wind.‘ No doubt ye are all of ye great politicians‘But at present my bowels have need of physicians;‘Consider my case in the light it deserves, ‘And pity the state of my stomach and nerves’

Slightly later cartoonist Thomas Rowlandson, published a set of pictures of life in Bath. Together with the New Bath Guide, which has been republished, they give a graphic idea of life in Bath in the second half of the C18.

Assembly Room, Bath

By the time Jane Austen and her family came to live in Bath in 1801 it was no longer the exclusive haunt of the aristocracy. With the rise in the population and creation of a moneyed middle class many more visitors came to the city from widely varying backgrounds. The resident population alone had risen from some 3,000 in 1700 to 33,000. Although Jane Austen disliked Bath and thought it bad for her health she, nevertheless, featured it in two of her most charming novels – ‘Northanger Abbey’ and ‘Persuasion’. Most of the places she mentions are still their today in much the same state.

Pulteney Bridge, Bath designed by London based Scottish Architect Robert Adam

The upper Assembly Rooms, built by John Wood the Younger (1768-71) are where Catherine Morland, the heroine of ‘Northanger Abbey’ sat disconsolately waiting for a partner until the delightful Henry Tilney appears. These rooms were bombed during the Second World War but have been sensitively restored to their original appearance.

One can still walk on the hills where Henry and his sister, Eleanor, instructed Catherine in the delights of looking at landscape.

The Austen family lived in Sydney Place over Pulteney Bridge and next to Laura Place where Anne Elliot’s snobbish cousins, the Dalrymple’s, lived in ‘Persuasion’. And it is possible still to take a ‘Jane Austen walk’ and in that way see many of the places connected with her or, featured in her novels.

The Circus, Bath

When late in the century doctors began to recommend sea bathing as a ‘cure all’ and when the Prince Regent (later George IV) built his fabulous pavilion by the seaside at Brighton, Bath which was situated inland in the country began to lose its popularity. During the Victorian era the city sank into a decline thus escaping much of the ‘modernisation’ taking place in other towns. Invalids still frequented it but it more generally became a city of retirement for many people from the armed services on small pensions.

It was not until the Second World War when the Admiralty was evacuated there that the rejuvenation of the city really began. Since the end of World War II much restoration has taken place of, for instance, the Pump Room, the Baths, and the Assembly Rooms.

All the stone buildings from being still ‘black’ with soot in the 70’s when I first saw them all now once again glow golden in the setting sun. And, its a wonderful sight to see. Today Bath is as busy as it must have been in the eighteenth century although with more emphasis on enjoyment and tourism and much less on invalidism!

©Carolyn McDowall 2009, 2010, 2011

RULES to be observed at BATH

1. THAT a visit of ceremony at first coming and another at going away, are all that are expected or desired, by ladies of quality and fashion,– except impertinents.
2. That ladies coming to the ball appoint a time for their footmen coming to wait on them home, to prevent disturbance and inconveniencies to themselves and others
3. That gentlemen of fashion never appearing in a morning before the ladies in gowns and caps, show breeding and respect.
4. That no person take it ill that any one goes to another’s play, or breakfast, and not theirs,– except captious by nature.
5. That no gentleman give his ticket for the balls, to any but gentlewomen.– N.B. Unless he has none of his acquaintance.
6. That gentlemen crowding before the ladies at the ball, show ill manners, and that none do so for the future,– except such as respect nobody but themselves.
7. That no gentleman or lady takes it ill that another dances before them;– except such as have no pretense to dance at all.
8. That the elder ladies and children be content with a second bench at the ball, as being past or not come to perfection.
9. That the younger ladies take notice how many eyes observe them. N.B. This does not extend to the Have-at-alls.
10. That all whisperers of lies and scandal, be taken for their authors.
11. That all repeaters of such lies, and scandal, be shunned by all company,– except such as have been guilty of the same crime.
N.B. Several men of no character, old women and young ones, of questioned reputation, are great authors of lies in these places, being of the sect of levellers.

Download Life of Beau Nash by Oliver Goldsmith

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