hypergogue

Vernacular materials.

I grew up in Norwich. And Norwich used to have one of the ugliest buildings I've ever seen - the central library.

Like a lot of buildings in the UK, it was 'listed', which means 'protected'. This is just one of the reasons that architecture in the UK is mostly rubbish. All kinds of ugly, useless buildings are protected and residents/occupants aren't allowed to carry out alterations or bring them up to date or knock them down and start again. (If you're a UK person and you find yourself bridling - have a guess how many 'listed' buildings there are and then Google the answer. Not even close, right?)

Norwich library was listed due to its status as one of the finest examples of Neo-Brutalist architecture we had in the UK. Apparently, this was due to it being both 'Brutal' and made of 'vernacular materials'. In Norwich, this means it was made of flint ie the traditional local building material.

If you travel to the Cotswolds you'll also see vernacular materials in the cottages made of the 'yellow oolitic limestone' that is Cotswolds stone. The buildings are golden, the lines pure, the proportions pleasing.

When I try to draw stuff or create infoviz-type things, my vernacular materials are the ugly stickmen and the crude, literalist visual associations I've picked up from a lifetime of thinking that visualising things is 'not my thing'. My natural style is the Neo-Brutalism of the Excel defaults. I want to communicate in Cotswolds style but end up looking like Norwich library.

Norwich library burnt down and they replaced it with a soaring, airy structure with its own Pizza Express. How did a Neo-Brutalist building made of steel and flint burn down? It's a mystery - but it proves it can be done.