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Alistair Fair @alistairfair.bsky.social · 5d

essay prompt: 'discuss the "wide variety of retail and cultural experiences" imagined by Ebenezer Howard'

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Alistair Fair @alistairfair.bsky.social · 5d

Love that little curved balcony above the entrance. I'm imagining proclamations of interest rates and such things!

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Alistair Fair @alistairfair.bsky.social · 8d

End of week reading. @samwetherell.bsky.social's excellent new urban history of post-war Liverpool.

A tortoiseshell cat, sitting on curled up human legs, on which a copy of a book is also visible. The human to whom the legs belong is sitting on a carpeted floor, and is in increasing discomfort due to not being very flexible.

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Alistair Fair @alistairfair.bsky.social · 8d

Yesterday - teaching @edincollegeofart.bsky.social Architectural History students in the archive. Drawings of Coventry Cathedral from the Basil Spence archive, as well as many other items that showed the collaborative process by which the cathedral was designed and built.

Three drawings on a table. That on the left is a 1951 perspective of Coventry Cathedral, in colour. The two on the right are quicker sketches in Spence's hand which explore massing and lighting.

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Alistair Fair @alistairfair.bsky.social · 18d

I'd long wondered if Clarence was an acronym (because Strathclyde had a wee dog called RALF - Road & Light Faults). I thought it might be 'Central and Lothian something'; it was Customer Lighting And Roads ENquiry CEntre.

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Alistair Fair @alistairfair.bsky.social · 26d

First day of the new academic year @edincollegeofart.bsky.social. This semester's teaching includes my course on architecture in Britain 1919-56.

An image of the character 'Mr Therm', dressed in a school cap and with a satchel, in front of a photo of a school. Caption: Mr Therm goes to the newest schools. This was an advert for gas-fired hot water and central heating

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Alistair Fair @alistairfair.bsky.social · 28d

The SE is doing a tribute to Bridget Riley

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Alistair Fair @alistairfair.bsky.social · 29d

There's a lot to be said for 1970s houses and flats - at their best, they can be really well planned. Many congratulations!

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Alistair Fair @alistairfair.bsky.social · Sep 10

New towns stuff! It was very good to talk to @charlielynch.bsky.social for this feature. The book is still available - in print but also as an open access (free!) e-book at www.bloomsburycollections.com/monograph?do...

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Alistair Fair @alistairfair.bsky.social · Sep 4

I have to say that I quite like the Reader title even though it often needs explaining! But then I have always been a bit contrary.

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Alistair Fair @alistairfair.bsky.social · Sep 3

Recently @vawright10.bsky.social and I were interviewed for a podcast about the Scottish new towns book which we recently co-wrote (and which is available Open Access for free download via bloomsburycollections, though you can also buy a copy in print if you wish!)

Edinburgh College of Art @edincollegeofart.bsky.social · Sep 3

🔉 Listen in! Dr @alistairfair.bsky.social & Dr @vawright10.bsky.social: Building Modern Scotland - The Social Histories of New Towns. Ep3, s2 of Artful Inquiry, the ECA research podcast.

Listen in on Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/1qDQ...

More about the series: www.eca.ed.ac.uk/eca-research...

Spotify – Web Player

open.spotify.com

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Edinburgh College of Art @edincollegeofart.bsky.social · Sep 3

🔉 Listen in! Dr @alistairfair.bsky.social & Dr @vawright10.bsky.social: Building Modern Scotland - The Social Histories of New Towns. Ep3, s2 of Artful Inquiry, the ECA research podcast.

Listen in on Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/1qDQ...

More about the series: www.eca.ed.ac.uk/eca-research...

Spotify – Web Player

open.spotify.com

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Alistair Fair @alistairfair.bsky.social · Sep 2

Northampton Guildhall extension - 1991 by Stimpson Walton Bond. Contextual Gothic to echo the adjacent Victorian Gothic.

A projecting oriel window in polychromatic stonework, with part of two pointed arches below

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Alistair Fair @alistairfair.bsky.social · Sep 2

Malcolm Inglis building, Northampton (1900). Built for a leather and hide factor. A piece of Glasgow especially in the carving above the entrance, where we have St Mungo and the two salmon from the city's coat of arms.

A building with a decorated stone facade including carved lettering saying 'Malcolm Inglis and Company, Glasgow'

A concave arch above a doorway with the words 'let Glasgow flourish' and a carving of St Mungo plus two salmon

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Alistair Fair @alistairfair.bsky.social · Aug 31

Important message from today's Duolingo session

A Duolingo screen saying 'There is not enough Gaelic in the world', in English, then 'chan eil Gàidhlig gu leòr anns an t-saoghal' which is the translation into Scottish Gaelic

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Alistair Fair @alistairfair.bsky.social · Aug 29

I was in Digbeth for the first time in years recently for a new towns thing and was astonished by the changes as the HS2-related wave of housing sweeps in

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Alistair Fair @alistairfair.bsky.social · Aug 27

Working on Northampton new town. Today's discovery is that a promotional record about the town was issued as a single in 1980. It had a version of the song with lyrics about aliens on the A-side with the promotional version, '60 Miles by Road or Rail', on the B-side. www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7ZQ...

Linda Jardim - (60 Miles by Road or Rail) Northampton

YouTube video by EvenThisNameTaken

www.youtube.com

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Alistair Fair @alistairfair.bsky.social · Aug 25

Former Debenhams/Bon Marché store, Gloucester: the early 1960s part of the building very like the Festival Hall's original 1951 elevations, especially the small windows to the left which echo those which originally illuminated the RFH's side fire escape stairs.

The Past and other Places @pastandotherplaces.bsky.social · Aug 25

Things you can do with a former Debenhams store. #Gloucester #refurbishment #repurpose #architecture #university
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

📷 flic.kr/p/2pMdKcQ

Large former Debenhams store being refurbished as university buildings. Situated in a modern open square with a large tree and reflected in water created by fountain jets.

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The Past and other Places @pastandotherplaces.bsky.social · Aug 25

Things you can do with a former Debenhams store. #Gloucester #refurbishment #repurpose #architecture #university
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

📷 flic.kr/p/2pMdKcQ

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Alistair Fair @alistairfair.bsky.social · Aug 21

'Why, there's another hankersniff!'

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Alistair Fair @alistairfair.bsky.social · Aug 15

Watch this space for an Essex Design Guide article...on my list of things to write up this autumn.

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Alistair Fair @alistairfair.bsky.social · Aug 12

A morning of course admin and intranet stuff for next semester. Luna has appeared to offer moral support.

A small tortoiseshell cat sleeping on a beige carpet

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Alistair Fair @alistairfair.bsky.social · Aug 10

Good to see this chapter in print, perfectly timed to go on the reading list for my course on interwar architecture next semester!

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Alistair Fair @alistairfair.bsky.social · Aug 8

Didn't know about the Lock plan - must look it up. In the early 1970s, there was a plan to put a theatre on the riverside and designs were made by Rod Ham (who'd done the Leatherhead Thorndike). The idea must trace its roots back to the Lock plan.

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Alistair Fair @alistairfair.bsky.social · Aug 8

There is some older stuff (definitely 70s/80s) in there though you're right that coverage is patchy.

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Alistair Fair @alistairfair.bsky.social · Aug 8

Changed trains at Birmingham New St y/day. This is part of the station's Navigation Street entrance and footbridge, built in the early 1990s and now looking a little grubby. I do like this era of railway architecture.

A glass and metal structure, part of a building. The glazing bows outwards towards the photographer. Above, the metal and glass roof rises to a point. It all looks a bit grubby.

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Alistair Fair @alistairfair.bsky.social · Aug 8

Box of Broadcasts (can't remember if it includes ITV though). We have an institutional subscription to it.

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Alistair Fair @alistairfair.bsky.social · Aug 8

You say that but the garage associated with our old Edinburgh flat had been lined and fitted out as a workshop/darkroom, with a polished pine floor over the concrete. As we wanted to use it as an actual garage, the Mini we had in those days was parked on said floor. It did creak a bit...

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Alistair Fair @alistairfair.bsky.social · Aug 3

Sad news overnight of serious damage by fire to St Mungo's church, Cumbernauld - designed by Alan Reiach 1963-64. Its dedication echoed Glasgow cathedral & recognised the Glaswegian roots of many early residents in the new town, which had been begun a few years before

A modernist church, with a grey brick wall and pyramidal roof with standing seam cladding, above which rises a further small pyramid on slender posts

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Alistair Fair @alistairfair.bsky.social · Jul 30

Excellent news that the Bernat Klein studio has been bought by a coalition of heritage groups. The hard work starts here. Photo by me in 2016.

A concrete building, made up of a series of cantilevered terraces.

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