Monthly Archives: December 2010

Happy Christmas!

Posted on December 22, 2010 by Matt Wood

I’ll probably be ‘off-line’ for a couple of weeks now, but if you’re a regular visitor to Ruralise I hope you’ll come back in the New Year. To whet your appetite, I just made the following notes on what’s next:

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Contemporary ‘Farmsteads’?

Posted on December 17, 2010 by Matt Wood

If Crown Paddock serves as a rather literal exemplar of the ‘farmstead’ (one of my four rural archetypes), how about this from Dutch architects Atelier Pro, in a proposal for new development around Norwich Research Park led by Norwich-based development … Continue reading →

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What does the Localism Bill Mean for Architects?

Posted on December 17, 2010 by Matt Wood

…asked Building Design’s online magazine this week. I was asked for a few well-chosen words for a ‘Vox Pop’ piece, specifically in connection with the Community Right to Build. Their edited version fo my contribution is here (behind BD pay-wall, I’m … Continue reading →

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75% Support? Not any more…

Posted on December 14, 2010 by Matt Wood

After several delays, the long-awaited Decentalisation and Localism Bill was published yesterday. I can’t yet find the references to it, in the rather opaque formatting of the on-line documents, but it is widely reported (and now confirmed by the CLG) … Continue reading →

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Roofs Across Fields #4 – A Modern ‘Take’

Posted on December 10, 2010 by Matt Wood

As I said before (here), my opinion that the roof is more important than the wall in the rural landscape of Norfolk was based in no small part on hours spent gazing out of train windows on the Norwich to … Continue reading →

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A Rural Hero Remembered

Posted on December 7, 2010 by Matt Wood

Yesterday a group of school children from Robert Kett Middle School laid a small posy of flowers underneath a plaque in Wymondham commemorating the 461st anniversary of the execution of local hero Robert Kett, in a ceremony dating as far … Continue reading →

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75% Support? Impossible, surely…

Posted on December 5, 2010 by Matt Wood

I was at the official opening of The Pennoyer Centre in Pulham St Mary last week. Quite apart from the fact that it was designed by our studio, Lucas Hickman Smith, and has just received design-awards from South Norfolk District … Continue reading →

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Two Tribes?

Posted on December 2, 2010 by Matt Wood

Like the first snows of a chilly winter, Google and Twitter have brought me a flurry of rather gloomy reports on the problems of rural life in the last couple of weeks.

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