IAN SWANKIE

This study day can be varied to suit the format of the day. It can be two or three lectures as we explore old and new and examine the very best of British architects from Christopher Wren to the present day. It is not a technical talk, but an informative and lively examination of some brilliant designers and their legacy.

1. The Gleaming Spires of London

London boasts an extraordinary range of architecture and this talk reveals the evolution of the capital through its prominent buildings. We start by examining London’s architecture following the Norman Conquest and then explore the way it has developed over the centuries right up to the present day.

Whether we like it or not, within the next decade there will be more than 450 buildings in London over 20 floors high including dozens twice this height. This talk looks at the best of these buildings including the cutting-edge designs of the recent towers such as the Shard, the Walkie-Talkie, and the Cheesegrater. We discover their extraordinary architectural and engineering challenges but also examine the controversies and difficult social decisions needed to manage this dramatically changing skyline which will be around for future generations.

2. The Brilliance of Thomas Heatherwick – a Modern Leonardo.

The past decade has seen the meteoric rise of this extraordinarily versatile young British designer with his acclaimed Olympic Cauldron, the iconic new London bus and designs for a spectacular new HQ building for Google. Over the last twenty years the Heatherwick Studio has used an intriguing combination of curiosity and experimentation to produce a vast range of solutions to design challenges around the world. This talk looks at the problems presented, and the wonderfully creative ways in which Heatherwick and his team have responded.

3. The Classical Re-invented – the legacy of Sir Christopher Wren

In this talk we wind the clock back to the seventeenth century and enjoy an armchair tour of some of Wren’s magnificent structures including City Churches, the Old Royal Naval College at Greenwich and of course, his greatest masterpiece St Paul’s Cathedral. Wren was primarily a mathematician and astronomer, and we’ll see how these disciplines are harnessed in his work. We also look at the origins of the classical orders of architecture and discover how Wren’s love of this ancient system is everywhere to be seen in his legacy.