More power to these people! I wish we had similar things here. Exeter and Coventry would be first on my list for total reconstruction.
I try very hard to understand and sympathise with modernist architects, but just looking at the link you posted of their proposals for the centre makes me shake my head in disbelief. The argument from authenticity in particular is very weak. Architecture has always been a process of reference to and development from past forms. Gothic revival is a copy of, er, the Gothic; Palladian forms are copies of classical models and gave us our best country houses; neo-Georgian developments like Poundbury are just fine. Give us more lovely old towns back, and make all the rollneck architectural bores live in Cumbernauld.
Birmingham had some amazing buildings in its heyday - the old New Street station, the wonderful old library, some fantastic Victorian blocks in the commercial centre. Most demolished in the 60s. It could be brought back!
One small mercy of it though was that the sheer ghastliness of what was done to Birmingham put paid to the worst excesses of similar plans in London under the rubric of the Ringways project.
Must confess, I always had a fondness for the Central Library: at least it was designed for people who actually read books. A dash of paint, and no damn shopping centre, was all it needed.
Its replacement is a coffee shop with a few books and stuff as a kind of aesthetic accessory. Last time I went there to get hold of a copy of Needham's 'Science and Civilisation in China' (volume 5.9 since you ask), I had to fill in a form and come back in a week, since it and much else was being held in storage. When I toured the shelves in the new place, I discovered that I have more books on China than they do.
Even the new name, 'Library of Birmingham', is poncy.
In the heyday of the British Empire, a few of its most lunatic supporters foreshadowed the Nazis by demanding that the architecture of Britain's public buildings should reflect the ruthless and invincible power of the Empire.
Fortunately, British common sense (or mere penny-pinching) prevented monstrosities being built.
Are you sure about that? I can't think of a large building from Britain's Imperial age that I don't love. The Houses of Parliament. Kings Cross St Pancras. That train station in central Bombay.
German food an acquired taste, eh? When I lived there, under the BAOR umbrella, I thought the local scran was very high quality: juicy steaks, meaty sausages, cakes, and very decent beers and wines. The pork+cabbage+potato combo is a staple from the Netherlands to Russia, not just a German thing.
I would say that the best restorations are one of two kinds: those are usually those in which the average person is not even aware that they have been undertaken, and those that enhance the beauty of the place restored. A good example of the first would be Munich was so painstakingly reconstructed from photos immediately after the Second World War such that few people are even aware until it is commented upon by tourism guides. A good example of the second (at a smaller scale) would be the restoration of Eltham Palace in the 1930s.
More power to these people! I wish we had similar things here. Exeter and Coventry would be first on my list for total reconstruction.
I try very hard to understand and sympathise with modernist architects, but just looking at the link you posted of their proposals for the centre makes me shake my head in disbelief. The argument from authenticity in particular is very weak. Architecture has always been a process of reference to and development from past forms. Gothic revival is a copy of, er, the Gothic; Palladian forms are copies of classical models and gave us our best country houses; neo-Georgian developments like Poundbury are just fine. Give us more lovely old towns back, and make all the rollneck architectural bores live in Cumbernauld.
or Birmingham
Birmingham had some amazing buildings in its heyday - the old New Street station, the wonderful old library, some fantastic Victorian blocks in the commercial centre. Most demolished in the 60s. It could be brought back!
One small mercy of it though was that the sheer ghastliness of what was done to Birmingham put paid to the worst excesses of similar plans in London under the rubric of the Ringways project.
True, just as Euston died so that St Pancras might live
Must confess, I always had a fondness for the Central Library: at least it was designed for people who actually read books. A dash of paint, and no damn shopping centre, was all it needed.
Its replacement is a coffee shop with a few books and stuff as a kind of aesthetic accessory. Last time I went there to get hold of a copy of Needham's 'Science and Civilisation in China' (volume 5.9 since you ask), I had to fill in a form and come back in a week, since it and much else was being held in storage. When I toured the shelves in the new place, I discovered that I have more books on China than they do.
Even the new name, 'Library of Birmingham', is poncy.
In the heyday of the British Empire, a few of its most lunatic supporters foreshadowed the Nazis by demanding that the architecture of Britain's public buildings should reflect the ruthless and invincible power of the Empire.
Fortunately, British common sense (or mere penny-pinching) prevented monstrosities being built.
Until after 1950.
Are you sure about that? I can't think of a large building from Britain's Imperial age that I don't love. The Houses of Parliament. Kings Cross St Pancras. That train station in central Bombay.
That's because they're not the Caesarean buildings that the ultra-imperialists thought would be appropriate to British Greatness.
"hotel in 1832, Karl Marx and Casanova were among its famous guests." I didn't even know they were in a relationship!
Casanova must been going through a very dry patch
German food an acquired taste, eh? When I lived there, under the BAOR umbrella, I thought the local scran was very high quality: juicy steaks, meaty sausages, cakes, and very decent beers and wines. The pork+cabbage+potato combo is a staple from the Netherlands to Russia, not just a German thing.
not a huge fan of cabbage tbh but I've likewise warmed to Polish food
I would say that the best restorations are one of two kinds: those are usually those in which the average person is not even aware that they have been undertaken, and those that enhance the beauty of the place restored. A good example of the first would be Munich was so painstakingly reconstructed from photos immediately after the Second World War such that few people are even aware until it is commented upon by tourism guides. A good example of the second (at a smaller scale) would be the restoration of Eltham Palace in the 1930s.