Built from Below: British Architecture and the Vernacular

by Peter Guillery (Editor)

Overview

This book extends the concept of British vernacular architecture beyond its traditional base of pre-modern domestic and industrial architecture to embrace other buildings such as places of worship, villas, hospitals, suburban semis and post-war mass housing. Engaging with wider issues of social and cultural history, this book is of use to anyone with an interest in architectural history.

Presented in an essentially chronological sequence, from the medieval to the post-war, diverse fresh viewpoints in the chapters of this book reinforce understanding of how building design emerges not just from individual agency, that is architects, but also from the collective traditions of society.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415565325
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	07/28/2010
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Peter Guillery is a Senior Historian for the Survey of London, currently a part of English Heritage. He is the author of The Small House in Eighteenth-Century London (2004) and of other books and articles on diverse aspects of London’s architectural history. He is responsible for a forthcoming Survey of London volume on Woolwich.

Table of Contents

1.Introduction 2. Pre-Reformation Parish Churches 3. Following the Geometrical Design Path from Ely to Jamestown, Virginia 4. The Villa: Ideal Type or Vernacular Variant? 5. The York Retreat, ‘a Vernacular of Equality’ 6. Self-Conscious Regionalism: Dan Gibson and the Arts and Crafts House in the Lake District 7. Tudoresque Vernacular and the Self-Reliant Englishman 8. ‘The Hollow Victory’ and the Quest for the Vernacular: J.M. Richards and ‘the Functional Tradition’ 9. A Modernist Vernacular? The Hidden Diversity of Post-war Council Housing 10. From Longhouse to Live/Work Unit: Parallel Histories and Absent Narratives

Editorial Reviews

“Applied to building types and periods once considered outside the pale, this kind of scholarship may do much to demolish the academic hedgerows that have portioned the British architectural landscape for too long.” – Buildings & Landscapes

From the Publisher