T&C

We finally made  a quick day trip to the world heritage site New Lanark last month. Nestled on a bend of the River Clyde it is an impressive former mill complex that was socially progressive for its time, including child care and adult education classes. It now represents an interesting case study for urban development in a natural setting.

We avoided the interpretive elements that fill some of the existing buildings (what is the internet for after all) to instead focus on the beautiful walk to the Falls of Clyde (above), via nesting peregrines.

The latest exhibition at the Lighthouse is a fantastic extensive look at the cinematic LA modernist John Lautner. An extensive exhibition over two levels it consists of utalitarian working drawings roughly taped (and protected under perspex) a series of large scale models and slow motion archi-porn by Scotland’s own Murray Grigor.

This is very much an exhibition for architects, rather the general public, and while that may run contra to the aim of the Lighthouse it results in a much stronger outcome. The drawings were the highlight for me – their rough directness, simplicity and total lack of finess telling the story of the houses far better than the scrubbed and polished versions that are usually published in exhibition settings.

The models were far clumsier overscaled and under detailed they lacked the richness of the drawings and the slow video panning around each dwelling that was projected onto the walls.
The plasticity, connection to landscape demonstrated by the architecture on display is totally alien to the Scottish condition, it provided a refreshing change from the prevalent theme of drawing parallels that many exhibitions use as a thematic starting point.