MARY MARY QUITE CONTRARY

 

9am and it’s about time I got dressed and took some exercise.  Forecast to be mostly cloudy today and about 15 degrees, but no rain. Checking the weather is a new feature in my life as I gradually develop new daily routines. Quite pleased with myself for getting a couple of hours in on San Carlo over morning coffee. And enough images now for another LinkedIn post, composed as I take my meds.

At last I have part of the floor plan shaping up into something reasonable. This is a challenging building; we knew that from the start. I always enjoy coming across the limits of the floor plans that have been copied from book to book. I have a section that seems to be based on measurement, and my own floor plan is going to be highly speculative, but it certainly is invigorating to piece together the puzzle and develop a solution that is at least plausible.

To what extent is the undulating façade a premeditated stylistic move, as opposed to a solution to the out of square street junction. A way to mask shifting angles as the bulk of the interior is orthogonal to the side street.  Of course the intersecting ellipses are deliberate and clearly baroque. Progress made, but daunting challenges remain.  Time for a walk.

 

The story of yesterday. My morning walk took me to St Mary's church. I photographed the exterior on a previous visit, but had never been inside. The services are mostly held in a modern addition, square in plan, but on the diagonal. There is an in between space that acts as a coffee shop, very welcoming. I had a small square of ginger cake and a peppermint tea. The old church was built in phases, but all in the gothic revival style.

Walked on to the mall, sorted out my Internet/mobile contracts and stopped off at Wimpy for a fish and chips lunch.

 

More photos from the interior of St Mary's Basingstoke (Eastrop). Ages ranging from Georgian to Edwardian (Let's say 1750 to 1914 or birth of John Soane to the First World War) So not medieval, but still quite a sweep of history. I think it represents the town expanding to the East along the route of the canal. The beginnings of the industrial revolution which brought a surge in population growth and eventually in prosperity.

 

 

Then another Mary from another age. Queen Mary's sixth form college is just a short walk from my place. Very modern (late 20th to early 21st centuries) with an emphasis on the arts. I went their to see my younger grandson playing football with his scouts group. The pics here show some of the later buildings which perhaps try a little too hard to be geometrically adventurous. The older work is strictly rectilinear and with a limited materials palette. I think it's good to have that sense of built history on a campus, even if few of its current users notice at a conscious level.

Quite a lot of sun around lunch time and I was feeling the effects by the time I trudged home. Just OK I think. Probably it's good to push the stamina envelope slightly, but not too far.