SING THE RED PLUMBING

 

William Morris was a young man from a wealthy family who studied Classics at Oxford, fell in with a group of Medievalists, and went on to set up an Interior Design company (in today's language) He teamed up with architect Philip Webb to design and build the Red House for his young family.

Clearly he was a romantic idealist, choosing a sparsely populated rural location to the South East of London for his new home. The design is L shaped, defining a garden court with a central well. I'm not sure if this was the primary source of water in the early days. Maybe it was largely symbolic.

I found one of the original well drawings online and knocked up a very rough placeholder family, let's say LOD 100. Over the past few days I have been upgrading this. I will call it LOD 200, not because I have much faith in the official definitions of these stages, but just because I envisage at least one more upgrade, maybe two.

 

 

This recording is multi-track me from the GAJ rocks era... 3 or 4 years after moving to Dubai. We had an office band and were talking about inserting original compositions into our repertoire. I wrote the song while living in Zimbabwe, towards the end of my time there.

The guitar breaks were not part of the original composition. That was just a spontaneous idea that came to me while recording a demo for the band. It makes the song a fusion of styles. There is an obvious influence from African music, but slower and more laid back with a hint of country music.

Listening to this now I find myself wishing I had the stamina and focus to create something as tight as this now. Between the hormone therapy and the passing years... No regrets, but I don't have the same energy levels.

All the more reason to put things out there. Lots of images from Zimbabwe but also other stuff. Random nostalgia from a life of buildings and music and living in different cultural contexts.

 

 

Why would an architect do this kind of plumbing schematic? Well that's what we used to do on smaller jobs in Zimbabwe. This dates back to the early days of my return to the architectural profession after a long detour. I was still trying it out. Hadn't yet returned to university to complete my studies.

I was in my late thirties. My youngest son would have been a toddler. My whole life was quite challenging, but nothing ventured nothing gained right? Almost half a lifetime ago and I had so much energy.

The colours were laid down in the bylaws. Brown for soil pipes. Green for waste. Red for vent pipes. This was an alteration to an existing light industrial premises. I think the plumbing schematic was a question of convincing myself that the scheme was workable, as much as anything.

I did site supervision on that job as well. All part of the learning curve.

 

This is from the first draft of a building text book to be used in Zimbabwe secondary schools. After three years working in the Curriculum Development Unit. I was finally coming to grips with how I really wanted to structure the learning experience.

We were trying to combine applied maths, drawing, problem solving and practical work. Weave it all together into a coherent experience. These four pages illustrate that intent. Applied Maths used to estimate quantities of building materials. Simple exercises with helpful illustrations.

Problem solving exemplified by the solution of brick bonding problems. This can be done by dry-bonding full-size bricks outside on the practice ground, or by arranging miniature bricks on the desks inside the classroom. The practical work here is learning to form different styles of jointing.

The drawing exercises are also presented using a problem solving approach. Challenge the students to visualise a section view of common objects. In all cases there are suggestions for exercises and activities.

This was some of the last work I did in that department before moving on to running a course at the University. The book series remains unfinished.

 

 

 

FOLDING IT UP

This is just a random snapshot of my life. Kind of a practice session on my guitars. First acoustic slide in open G playing along to a rhythm track. Drum loops. Missing a beat now and then. Keep going. It will get better if I work at it.

Play that back through one smartphone and Bluetooth speaker. Overdub using the Telecaster in standard tuning. F sharp was the nearest key so had to focus a bit. Will get that sorted next time. Just started singing and it quickly morphed into "leaving trunk". I was a big Taj Mahal fan for many years.

Rather than go searching for images, I just started snapping the room as it was in the middle of lunch. Fresh fruit and laban. There were 3 or 4 screenshots from current events. Pre-inauguration hysteria mostly.

That's it. 2025 me trying to get back into music. Warts and all.

 

 

Before I had a digital device (40+ years ago) I used to take large brown envelopes, cut off two sides, clip one corner and store papers relating to a particular topic. You could buy plastic folders that did the same job, but the adapted envelopes were much cheaper.

I would label them with a broad marker pen. Short labels worked better. Often I would compress two words into one. Some years later, making folders in a DOS filing system with an 8 character limit, these same labels acquired a new life.

One of those labels is ARChive (7 letters) When I was in Zimbabwe it was very hard to get Architecture books. I would collect sketches and photocopies to build up a database of History of Architecture. I liked the way that architecture, beehive, and storage system were compressed into one neologism.

 

That same label still exists at the top level of my cloud storage. Stepping down through the heirarchical levels I have several branches based on location and another set based on time/style. One of the Time branches is called C19 Transition. (between Classical Revival and Modern) This refers to the explosion of stylistic diversity triggered by the Industrial Revolution.

Next level down we get Arts-and-Crafts (among others) Below that, several architects, including Philip Webb. (1831-1915) His best known project is the Red House for William Morris.

I visited the Red House 55 years ago. Vague memories to be honest. But it's a hugely iconic project loaded with cultural meaning. It was one of the first buildings I chose for my WayWeBuild work which I started by collecting paper information, continued using CAD and later with Revit /BIM.

My Revit model for the Red House dates back to. 2008 and has been revisited several times. In the beginning it was very sketchy. Gradually I have started to understand the design better, collecting more source material puzzling my way through a 3d jigsaw. I picked it up again just over a week ago. Can't remember why. I just get up in the morning and feel my inner mood. "What do you want to do today?"

May go on for several weeks, may stop tomorrow. Right now I'm having fun and learning a lot about a fascinating building and the pivotal moment in history that spawned it.

 

 

 

 

WALKING BACK THE HYPE

 

Morning walks. Three apartment blocks on my regular circuit. I can't help wondering what the "architects" thought they were doing. Ranging from the unbelievably bland to a mush-mash of unrelated shapes. Trying too hard versus not trying at all.

As for the block on the far right, what is supposed to be the relationship between the toy-town classicism of the roof storey and the ordered geometry below? In what way did the owners and the designers conspire together to create this sad trio. Did they think they were doing a good job? Were they totally out of their depths? Or did they just not care? 

 

A little further along on my stroll there are red & white concrete barriers to protect a vacant lot from haphazard parking. Thank goodness I have my own spot in the basement. Pasted on those barriers are the ubiquitous adverts for bed spaces. Targeted at specify nationalities to minimise friction when people are living there or four to a room and sharing small bathrooms and kitchens.

Again I am lucky to have a flat to myself that might easily have been sublet to half a dozen desperate souls. Separated by curtains or thin chipboard partitions that stop short of the ceiling.

You may be horrified, but clearly this is a better option for many than going back home.

In between my two hospital appointments on Monday (long layover) I went to Wafi Mall to look at guitars in Thomsuns Music.

It was a spur-of-the-moment idea, but I have been wishing for a while that I had a proper electric guitar that works. When I had a gigging band in Dubai, I was using two Line6 Variax guitars. (one with heavier strings for slide work)

They are very clever guitars that mimic different models at the flip of a switch courtesy of some smart electronics. BUT they are prone to glitches, and the superfine Dubai sand has sneaked its way into the knobs... Crackles and cutouts result. They need a serious service, but the shop no longer supports the brand.

I came away with a Telecaster. Something I can play straight away. Let's try and get some of my musical fluency back... So I have been trying out using two phones. Drum rhythms app on one, plug the guitar into my baby amp with all its sound options, play along and record on the second phone. Potentially do an overdub by switching the phones around.

Let's see how that works out. But one spin-off has been discovering some old recordings... One day at a time.

 

"I am desecrating graves because there is no hope." The message is so negative. Also self-indulgent. Look up "luxury beliefs".

I'm sure these are very nice, well-meaning people, but in my view, so misguided and counter-productive. Without energy there is no life. Darwinian evolution is a story of creatures that harness energy from their environment.

Banning an energy source before you have rolled out a viable replacement is just a way of punishing the poorest communities around the globe. 

 

 

I have more respect for people who are working on technologies to provide the base load power that renewables cannot. It's going to take a couple of decades. Patience, persistence, hard work, brilliant minds, investment in R&D. A long term vision. Positive thinking.

I recently did a quick catchup on Terrapower, who are developing safer, cheaper, fourth generation nuclear that can scale its output up and down to mesh with renewables. There is also the potential to use nuclear waste as fuel and draw down existing stockpiles.

Now you can disagree. I'm not here to argue for or against that technology. It's early days. But they are putting in the hard work. Trying to come up with solutions. To me that's much better than saying "ban this, ban that" while living comfortably in the south of England.

Just my opinion. AKA. "Just Stop the Tantrums"

 

 

 

RECOVERY WEEK

 

These were views from my hospital room window. 
 
The stepped facade motif was very popular in Dubai up to a decade or two ago. The obelisk is part of Wafi City which is one of the older shopping malls and has a strong Egyptian theme. 
 
It may not come across very clearly in this montage, but the mosque sitting in the centre of a courtyard of taller buildings and seen through a narrow gap, presented a striking contrast of scales and styles. Quite a nice little set piece. 
 
I spent 4 nights in this room, but for much of the time I was hooked up to an IV drip and in any case, struggled to get out of bed without help. So I was only able to appreciate the views on my last day. Thank you to American Hospital Dubai for being such a great place : location, buildings, healthcare, people. 👌  

Monday was a busy day. If I have two hospitals appointments in the same day I usually try to move them close together so that they don't consume the whole day. Sometimes I can fit lunch in between the two, which is also fine. But this time I had a couple of extra hours to kill. More on that in another post. 

For now I will just reflect on the beginning and the end of that day. The morning appointment included the usual checks, a discussion with my oncologist, a bone strengthening injection, and giving blood for the usual monthly testing regimen. That was in a room that overlooks the atrium. 

 

 
I love those rooms. You sit on a bench seat looking out sideways waiting for the doctor, then waiting for the nurse to come back. The view here is of that same atrium, but viewed from the lift lobby. It's been quite cool lately, by Dubai standards at least, and we had some light rain in the morning. 

Lunch was my favourite avocado stacker, then I went off on a little adventure. It was getting dark by the time I got back to see the surgeon. Dressings came off and he was very happy. They tested more than 20 lymph nodes in ten section of colon that was removed and no sign of cancer having spread beyond the one tumour. 
 
So I walked out into the Dubai night. Palm trees and buildings looking very pretty through my rose-tinted glasses. Time to get my exercise and diet routine back on track. Enjoy each day as it comes. 

 

 

 

I stumbled on this old song. I wrote it in Sheffield, late 70s, when I had a band called Jump (inspired by the name of a village near Barnsley, and the "Jump Circular" bus route.  
 
The recording is from 2006 when we were trying to introduce original songs into the set list of the office band.  
 
Slide show is from my phone gallery in recent months.  

 

https://youtube.com/shorts/B5d5ZT0Nk0c?feature=shared