Rowan Atkinson’s Terribly ‘Modern’ House

Another star. Another star architect. This time it’s Rowan Atkinson and Richard Meier designing and building a house together in lovely Oxfordshire. More about the modernist love-in:

Meier’s proposed 9m-high, white steel and glass five-bedroom home, with a two-bedroom guesthouse, had been recommended for refusal by planning officers and branded an ‘ugly space-age petrol station’ and ‘completely inappropriate’ by neighbours.

Love the droll photo of Rowan Atkinson slotted in the middle of the architectural slideshow. Just in case you forgot who he is… perhaps some may think it’s a contemporary shot of Meier himself.

A droll Rowan Atkinson unwittingly appearing in an architectural slideshow

Read the full story at The Architectural Review.

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Happy 1st Birthday, Arkhitekton!

Exactly one year ago today, I sat down and wrote my first “proper” article (oddly not on the subject of architecture) for Arkhitekton. Since then, the posts have not necessary arrived thick and fast – intermittent would be an apt description – but they have all been well considered and, hopefully, worth reading.

Apart from the feeling that after 10 years of rampant Internet consumption it was time to give something back, the main reason to write here was actually to accrue Continuing Professional Development (CPD, aka Continuing Education in the US) points as part of my requirement as a registered architect.

Anyway, here are some highlights of the past 12 months at Arkhitekton:

  • The most popular post was 3 Degrees of Jean Nouvel.
    Which was “a thinly-veiled attempt at a thematic post set out in three parts; The Architect, The Botanist and The Photographer.” and proved to be a successful attempt. Now Nouvel has (deservedly) won the prestigious 2008 Pritzker Prize, I have another excuse to run a few photos from his portfolio.
  • The least popular post was Holiday Reading (Part 2): Michael Arad.
    Although the link was to an absolutely fascinating article about Michael Arad’s struggle with his design for the World Trade Centre memorial, it seems that either (a) everyone’s read it already, or (b) everyone’s over 9/11 architecture sagas.
  • The most valuable linkage was with John Hill’s Archidose. Always something of interest there, definitely worth visiting and, unlike Arkhitekton, he maintains a regular publishing schedule.
  • Over 5,000 unique visitors dropped by in the past year. Not bad for a new architecture blog. Thanks for visiting… and reading! Subscribe to the RSS feed. That way you’ll never miss anything – no matter how slack I am at posting something new.

Architype Review

A bit of shameless self-promotion – Arkhitekon now resides in the sidebar of the respected Architype Review just below Archinect! In correspondence Arkhitekton was described as;

…exceptional + informative and we will pass it along to all of our subscribers. Architype Review (12 June 2007)

A fledging architectural site, such as this one, needs all the help it can get to be seen/read. Suppose it helps that I featured Architype Review previously