Category Archives: Norfolk DNA

Summer is definitely here!

Posted on June 12, 2011 by Matt Wood

A great new header-image courtesy of Jim Stephenson – a.k.a. clickclickjim – to replace a rather chilly looking view of Gonville Hall. It won’t be long before my original header can be used again – a view of the Old … Continue reading →

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Cheer up, The Guardian!

Posted on April 26, 2011 by Matt Wood

The Guardian Housing Network blog posted a ‘social housing gallery’ last week. I told them I thought it was a bit bleak, and that I’d rummage out some of my own snaps of council housing in Norfolk, to cheer them … Continue reading →

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On ‘Local Distinctiveness’

Posted on April 14, 2011 by Matt Wood

In my previous post I reflected on the complex issue of ‘local distinctiveness’. Back in 2006 I attended a seminar run by the English Historic Towns Forum entitled ‘Designing for Housing Growth: Sustaining Historic Towns’, and was quite alarmed by … Continue reading →

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Local Materials Faux Pas

Posted on March 31, 2011 by Matt Wood

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

Posted on March 29, 2011 by Matt Wood

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

Posted on March 22, 2011 by Matt Wood

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’

Posted on March 15, 2011 by Matt Wood

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’

Posted on March 9, 2011 by Matt Wood

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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Nice to Meet You, Unit 11.

Posted on February 4, 2011 by Matt Wood

I had a very enjoyable trip down to ‘the Smoke’ yesterday, courtesy of Unit 11 at the University of East London School of architecture. The Unit, run by Arthur Smart and Jamie Scott-Baxter, is in its second year looking at rural … Continue reading →

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Thatch-fest!

Posted on February 1, 2011 by Matt Wood

Writing about McCreanor Lavington’s Langerak reminded me of another Dutch project we came across a couple of weeks ago at Lucas Hickman Smith while researching ‘contemporary thatch’. Bureau B&B’s ‘Entreehuis’ was published on the excellent dezeen.com.

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