I recently visited Clifton Cathedral in Bristol, or the Cathedral Church of SS Peter and Paul, to give it its Sunday name. [Wikipedia]
The Nave with original Robin Day chairs
The Roman Catholic cathedral was designed by Ronald Weeks and a team from the Percy Thomas Partnership, and was completed in 1973. It is now Grade II Listed.
Hexagons and equilateral triangles are key to the design of the whole building.
It had just reopened for services again as restrictions were lifted.
Stations of the Cross by William Mitchell
“Originally intended to be executed in stone (it was thought that these would be damaged by later building work), the Stations were made by William Mitchell using Faircrete (a mixture of concrete, resin & nylon fibres). The artist was asked about what reaction people had to his work: ‘Well the work is a bit hairy I suppose, but then so was the experience of crucifixion.’” – from Wikipedia.
Even the bins are carefully designed. The walls show the shape of the timber used to cast the concrete.
Enjoy a virtual tour in David Essex’s video for Oh What a Circus.
I visited Irvine a couple of months ago, after winning a night out there in a raffle.
The fifth of Scotland’s new towns – the others are East Kilbride, Cumbernauld, Glenrothes and Livingston – it was added onto an existing (and very pretty in parts) historic town.
The vision for Irvine was spectacular space-age Brutalism. The reality doesn’t quite match the vision but there are some interesting things going on with bus lanes, and a strange predilection for tiny, irregular windows.
