N.B. British Architects

September 1st, 2009 by Patrick Lynch

Despite what the PR people cooked up in the 1980s to sell metal stuff to bankers, Brunel and Telford designed tunnels and bridges and boats; they were engineers. Whilst Chambers, Nash, Cockerel, Soane, Jones, Lutyens, Hawksmoore et al were architects, they built the cities we live in. They were educated men, they liked historical architecture [...]

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Literal not Literate

September 1st, 2009 by Patrick Lynch

Architects don’t read novels. They read manuals, or technical books about geology or topology or obscure critical theory. No architects I’ve met did English or History for A level, never mind sociology or economics. I always found the way architects talk about big ideas a bit embarrassing. A diet of science at high school doesn’t [...]

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Being and Having

August 20th, 2009 by Patrick Lynch

At the moment, my three-year-old son is having trouble distinguishing between having and being. He says ‘boys gets mens’, when he means ‘boys become men’. He says he ‘gets’ friends rather than he becomes friends with someone. And so he then acts like the friend is his property. Learning grammar and learning manners seems similar.
I [...]

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