Tag Archives: vernacular

The Cork Rural Design Guide

In a recent post I talked about the impact that local ‘design guides’ might have on how developers approach the design of new housing, and previously I’d talked a bit about the Norfolk Residential Design Guide. I noted that aside … Continue reading

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Local Materials Faux Pas

While writing the recent posts on local building materials, I was thinking about an estate in Wymondham called Whispering Oaks. The development is set at the very northern tip of the town, over a mile from the town centre and … Continue reading

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Building Norfolk

Matthew Rice’s book ‘Building Norfolk’ attracted quite a lot of attention when it was published last year; not surprisingly. It is a beautiful book full of exuberant, colourful drawings. I could write a whole other post, lamenting the death of … Continue reading

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Norfolk’s ‘High-Road’ Buildings

As I explained in a previous post Stewart Brand in his excellent book ‘How Buildings Learn’ makes a distinction between ‘high road’ or special buildings and ‘low road’ or normal, everyday buildings. I also noted that the vast majority of … Continue reading

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More Norfolk ‘Stuff’

So the vast majority of Norfolk is covered in brick-built houses with pan-tiled roofs, with plenty of surviving older timber-framed buildings, typically rendered over and painted – but that’s not the end of the story, of course.

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Norfolk ‘Stuff’

Well, that’s enough policy-wonking for now. I said my ‘thatch-fest’ a couple of weeks ago could be a segue into some stuff on ‘stuff’– or ‘what we make buildings out of’. I took this picture (below) while I was researching … Continue reading

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Thatch-fest #2

My tweet-pals at HAT Projects have reminded me of Ushida Findlay’s thatched Pool House 2, near Aylesbury Vale. It’s too good to miss out.

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Contemporary ‘Farmsteads’ #2

Before I signed off at the end of the year I was talking about contemporary ‘farmsteads’ – one of my four rural archetypes. I had it in mind to talk about how a dense grouping of dwellings laid out around … Continue reading

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Norfolk DNA #4 – The Farmstead

The last of the four ‘rural archetypes’ I identified for my recent guided-tour of Norfolk was the farmstead – or perhaps, more generally, a relatively dense rectilinear grouping of buildings; the wider definition allows this archetype to be represented also by … Continue reading

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Norfolk’s DNA #3 – The Wide-Fronted House

The Stable Acre house also put me in mind of my third ‘rural archetype’ (see previous post) – the wide-fronted house. Stable Yard isn’t really an exemplar of the type, but it does display two of its main characteristics – it … Continue reading

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