Author Archives: Matt Wood

Welcome FANN-XI!

If you’ve come here as a result of seeing the Ruralise panel in the FANN-XI exhibition at the Forum, then I’m particularly please to welcome you for several reasons:

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Time Out #3 – Tibby’s Triangle

Black buildings are a common site in the Norfolk countryside. Most often this involves black-painted weatherboarding on a timber-framed barn or more lowly shed, and sometimes it’s black-painted brick (see last post). Black tar-based paints were used widely used during … Continue reading

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Time Out #2

Actually, before I go on to Tibby’s Triangle, as promised in the last post, this might be the moment to throw this in: a house in East Bilney on the Dereham to Fakenham road. I drive past it from time … Continue reading

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Time Out…

We took a half day out of the office at Lucas Hickman Smith last week, to go and look at and talk about buildings…and have lunch, of course! Tibby’s Triangle in Southwold, a Hopkins Homes development designed by Ash Sakula, … Continue reading

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On the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF)

Earlier this week I was asked by a journalist from Building Design ‘what does the NPPF mean for architects?’ This caught me on the hop, despite the fact that I’ve been meaning to write something on the NPPF for some … Continue reading

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All Change, Please!

‘If towns and cities are the natural territory for progressive left-of-centre politicians, the countryside is the heartland of the Conservative vote, and it is no surprise that the new government is putting renewed emphasis on rural development issues’, I observed … Continue reading

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Post #100: Ruralise in a Nutshell

Well it’s been exactly a year, and exactly 100 posts, so it seems appropriate to use this missive to offer you a summary of Ruralise to date. It is a tidied up version of some notes I made with a … Continue reading

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Happy Birthday, Ruralise!

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you…

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Frampton and Pallasmaa on Regionalism

Given the theme of local distinctiveness I’ve been kicking around recently on Ruralise, I thought I should finally get round to re-reading the only ‘proper’ architectural writing I can call to mind on the subject – Kenneth Frampton’s 1983 essay … Continue reading

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On ‘Fitting In’

I recently attended a ‘stakeholder workshop’ on South Norfolk’s new draft design guide being prepared by the Council’s own Design and Conservation team and Tibbalds. It was an interesting session. I was quite encouraged at the widely held opinion in … Continue reading

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