new tiles coming soon...

it’s been a while since we made a blog post about anything happening at the studio, because, well, it is a well oiled machine now of things getting designed, printed block by block, then made up and sold… but even with our modular system and infinite possibilities, it’s good to refresh things from time to time and add new ingredients to the well-liked recipes. so we’re working on a brand new tileset - see a little glimpse below!

we’ll be working on some brand new prints with these in the coming months - of course, these tiles will be part of our MODERN collection, not just creating a beautiful collection on their own but working well with more than a hundred of others, extending the possibilities for ever more varied patterns.

if you’re interested in anything bespoke, please do get in touch, we’d be delighted to hear about your project and print fabrics for your interior schemes.

if you got curious about our new stuff - just bear with us while we are putting them together please, you can be sure they’ll arrive in beautiful, bold colours and our signature architectural style! do watch this space…!

a brutalist stop - forton services

well, it’s been another long pause between blog posts, but it’s not been forgotten, only postponed, due to, uhm, general life happening at a pace, i guess. but when things get busy and exhausting, there comes the need to take a break and go somewhere else to recharge. so let’s take a road trip. let’s go, from scotland, to somewhere nice in the sunny south of great britain. anywhere. if you like going fast, you’ll take the motorway, the m6. it’s not the most scenic of routes, so it gets monotonous, and since tiredness can kill, there will be a time to take a break. and there, you’ll eventually come across a fabulous concrete tower emerging in the landscape with a futuristic footbridge arching over the motorway, and suddenly you feel compelled to indicate your exit to spend some time in this fascinating piece of architecture - we’ve arrived to forton services!

i have always been obsessed with logistics. the excitement of things and people moving never gets boring, and the systems that make it all work are fascinating pieces of engineering - seemingly everything and everyone in it has its place and function, a well oiled machine itself that can take care of millions of people and things getting where they are meant to be when they are meant to be. but while the architecture that serves this system has to be purely functional, for curious travellers who are excited to be somewhere new soon, the associations fill all of this functional stuff with positive meanings, the typefaces on vans and reg plates, the smell of the handwash soap, the hot touch of the disposable coffee cup are all symbols of the anticipation of getting there. so from this point of view, a well designed, interesting motorway station is a piece of happiness on earth, and for someone who makes textile prints of road signs, is somehow a piece of inspiration too - doubly so if it’s brutalist of course!

forton services today belongs to the moto bk chain, and you’ll find it on the m6 between junction 32 and 33. it opened in 1965, and according to SOSbrutalism, the designers were bill galloway and ray anderson of the architecture firm tp bennett and son. (yes, that’s of the same thomas bennett of the saville theatre, amongst other things - today they do a lot of interesting commercial projects - totally worth a look!)

there are some two-storey buildings on both sides of the motorway with restaurants and cafes, connected by a high-tech looking footbridge forming a light arch over the motorway. to walk across it is a great exercise to stretch the legs a little and the eyes to the distance too. the timber ceiling panels of the inside of the bridge somehow creates a very nostalgic mood in the warmth of this texture reflecting the light directly below it. that just further excites about the travel - i’m not sure how materials do it but’s definitely the timber. the tunnel view of the inside of the bridge has an octagonal frame with the joins at each window panel cutting your corners diagonally. the outside view of course is the endless motorway and the crowds of cars going somewhere.

of course, it’s most distinctive point is the pennine tower, emerging from the landscape on the northbound side with its cantilevered hexagon at the top. it used to be some accommodation and a restaurant - this blog has some archive images of the fabulous decor in its full glory (as well as the whole structure when it was pristine white!) it reminds me of the early decor of the UFO bridge in bratislava a little bit (more of that in another blog post i think…) and i would have loved to enjoy a meal there, the views across then countryside must have been breathtaking on a sunny day.

unfortunately due to the strict fire regulations, it is now closed to the general public and it is now grade II listed, even though it might be hard work to re-open it.

it was intentionally designed to resemble an airport’s traffic control tower and that all i can feel is the anticipation of getting somewhere, perhaps it’s succeeded in its job. it is a cliché to say that we must enjoy the journey as much as the destination, but in the case of how motorway stations ought to be, there is definitely truth in it!

and if you enjoyed this journey, come with us next time to another architectural visit (and until then, subscribe to our newsletter in order not to miss it!) see you next time - and don’t forget, tiredness can kill, take a break.

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links:

SOSbrutalism

forton services blog

tp bennett

dingleton boiler house (tour of peter womersley's buildings in the scottish borders - pt 6.)

well, i hope you’ve had a lovely time visiting the scottish borders scouting for modernist icons by the wonderful peter womersley, because this is the very last stop! we arrived in the town of melrose, on the outskirts, in what seems to be a quiet, residential area, and are standing in front of the boiler house of the demolished hospital that used to be known as melrose district asylum. it is no longer there, except for the boiler house, designed by peter womersley.

built in 1977, it is another one of his award-winning works, for industrial architecure. it is a highly functional building and perhaps much more “brutalist” than the previous ones we visited so far, but it is really far from raw, in the sense that everything is finished to a great quality and the details are smart as always on his buildings.

i’m aware that hospitals use a lot of steam not just for heating the buildings but for keeping things clean and sterile too, however i’m obviously not exactly familiar with the ins and outs of a boiler house, so i cannot write too much about what functions certain parts do. what i can certainly tell (as the most prominent feature of the side of the building) that there are three hoppers on its side, which were used to store the coal and they form a great rhythm of what i call these “upside down pyramids”, built into a wall of horizontal layers and it has inspired some great geometric patterns, so even if i don’t quite understand how it works, i still find a lot of joy in the aesthetic of the building.

aesthetic it is indeed. the concrete is smooth and not worked to timber patterns this time, but the almost minimalist surface is put together from narrow slabs, forming an even, soft pattern on the surface. the joins follow this pattern, somehow it’s so easy on the eye it’s almost a source of tranquility, which is a funny thing to say about a boiler house i guess.

a the time of visiting, it was not in a great state and the concrete was visibly aging. but we’ve left this our last station not just because it really was physically the last stop of the day, but also let’s finish on a positive note: this building’s fate is no longer hanging in the balance, it is being salvaged by being developed into flats by studio DuB. the plans look amazing, contemporary and also preserving almost all forms (they’re even keeping the chimney!) and i hope it will work out in a residential function. it’s funny to see that something that was designed to sustain one particular function could be turned into something else so beautifully but i suppose it’s always possible if you work with what’s left behind by a genius.

i’m sad to say that even though there are many more buildings around in the uk (and even worldwide) by peter womersley, we’ve come to an end of our tour. i hope you’ve enjoyed it and we hope to join us on the next one - we might have to be taking a little break as we’re getting busy with all things festive, but we’ll find time to immerse ourselves in great architecture and will definitely be back!

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links:

the boiler house project (property development)

studio DuB website

dingleton boiler house: melrose building (by adrian welch on e-architect.com)

preserving womersley

scottish borders council (tour of peter womersley's buildings in the scottish borders - pt 5.)

after our somewhat bittersweet stop last week, we’ve arrived to the penultimate station in our tour of peter womersley’s buildings in the scottish borders. we’re in newtown st boswells, where the council for the county of the scottish borders have their headquarters in a concrete and glass office building designed by peter womersley. we have of course seen wilderhaugh and we know what he’s like when it comes to designing office buldings but this one is a few scales up in size, and probably the largest building of our tour altogether.

that means there’s plenty of details to observe although it’s not possible to go completely around it due to the restricted access at the back. nonetheless it’s worth a visit, the building is a striking structure towering on an open green, embraced by its leafy surrounding of the village. built in the late 1960s, originally serving the much smaller administrative unit of the roxburgh county offices - today it employs approx 1000 people and has grown a post-modern extension on its side.

it’s not a brutalist design - the concrete is not raw but shaped with timber with the imprints visible on the facade. the clever use of glazing is also dominant throughout this building and there are a lot of intriguing details. its most striking feature is the service tower of course, cleverly connected to the main office buildings via elevated, glazed corridors with a garden underneath. this kind of biophilic thinking is found in modernist architecture a lot, and in peter womersley’s work too in church square too and elsewhere.

the building is not actually quite at how peter womersley imagined it. he won the competition to design it in 1961 but it was only completed in 1968 after some opposition by the locals. it’s still not really popular - however, even though the structure is cited as a reason, i suspect this could be also due to the amount of people who commute to the village by cars, and less at the fault of the architect. for sure, you can see that it’s dated in some aspects (like its contemporaries it probably is poorly insulated and things like wheelchair access are always haphazardly added to these buildings later.) nonetheless it was innovative and modern at the time, and the office space inside must be light with green views.

this building is the largest scale example of the genius of the fine details womersley could think of and i would have loved to see the what it would look like if it had been completed to his plans. the institution it serves has obviously grown and perhaps outgrowing both the original building and the village it’s in might not be good for its popularity, but i do hope that with time it is getting the appreciation it deserves.

so that’s it for now, i hope it’s not too boring yet to and you’re still excited about discovering the details of this brilliant architectural mind. if you do, then please stick around for last episode - we still have the boiler house of melrose district asylum to visit, so you can subscribe below to our newsletter in order to miss it… it comes a free print and the latest news from us, with pattern designs inspired by brilliant architecture. see you soon!

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links:

preserving womersley

council hq (blog post on the newtown st boswells village blog)

peter womersley: borderlands (urban realms feature)

the bernat klein studio (tour of peter womersley's buildings in the scottish borders - pt 4.)

aaaand we’re here! it’s only the 4th station of our tour of peter womersley’s buildings in the scottish borders, but arguably the most iconic one! we are visiting bernat klein’s old studio and house, near selkirk. it’s a famous, grade A listed and most revered building, yet in its fate still hangs in the balance as it has been neglected in a poor state since the 2000s and the more time passes, the more expensive it gets to restore it to its former glory.

the studio was built in 1972 for textile designer and personal friend of womersley’s, bernat klein (whose work is probably also worth its own blog post later) and it won a RIBA award in the following year. it is a separate building form the family house, high sunderland, which is a modernist masterpiece in itself (built earlier, in 1957), and it is still a private residence so this post is focusing on the studio, which has been abandoned since 2000s. so before we dive in, i’m going to do an unusual thing and this time, and i don’t really recommend to visit in its current state, or at least not to go too close to it. these photos are from 2016, and since then, i’m not sure how dangerous it has become to go close to - i know it’s tempting but i would strongly discourage you to do so. i didn’t either to be honest, most of the close-up work was done by my camera, and i hope it did a good job regardless and you’re able to see why this work is so masterful and why it needs to be preserved.

there are many details and elements that tell you just how much thought the architect put into the building. before i visited it, as a student at university, i attended a guest lecture by historic environment scotland about peter womersley, his life and his work and there was a good few minutes dedicated to an enthusiastic review of this building. a vivid description that got stuck with me was about the flashes of colours one would see through the amazing, huge, frameless glazing - that’s bernat klein using this amazing studio space to make amazing art. their friendship is a great symbol to me that textiles and architecture are really connected areas that can constantly inspire each-other which is really the whole reason of this blog.

my images are black and white so i’m not sure how much it comes through that it’s surrounded with leafy, lush greenery, with stairs leading up to a bridge to access the cantilevered second floor (he was such a master of gravity - see also his beautiful work of the netherdale roof.) i’m trying to show you on these images the imprint on the concrete - i heard that peter womersley would be mortified to be called brutalist today, and indeed, the concrete is not raw at all here but very much takes the shape of the timber it was formed with, adding an extra tactility to the structure.

so we hope you enjoyed this visit - i hope we can go back when it’s fully restored and the building is put to a great use. if you want to help the cause to preserve this studio, i recommend you check out and get in touch with preserving womersley, a group of dedicated enthusiasts whose aim is to keep the work of this genius architect standing.

if you enjoyed this, do stick around as we’ll stop at two more places at this tour - we’ll visit a the impressive scottish borders council in newton st boswells, and the boiler house of melrose district asylum. you can also subscribe to our newsletter to our forms below (you can get a free print with it) and the latest news about prints inspired by brilliant architecture. see you soon!

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links:

preserving womersley

historic environment scotland

the bernat klein foundation

wilderhaugh (tour of peter womersley's buildings in the scottish borders - pt 3.)

that’s another month gone - i can’t quite believe it but here we are, so it’s time to continue our photo blog series looking at peter womersley’s buildings. we are halfway through the series and this is the last time we are in galashiels. it’s a small post as well, of a small building, but nonetheless worth a visit. we are looking at wilderhaugh, the former sanderson & murray offices, built in 1961, originally for one of the many companies that kept the scottish wool and leather industry going at the time. they closed in 1980 and the building is now occupied by cameron associates who are, of course, architects, because of course architects would find home in this building.

this building is really, really cool, in the literal sense of the word too: it’s playful facade is made of shades of blue and grey, but it’s softened by the greenery around. it’s quite small and human scaled but does not want to disappear into the landscape, it’s just there with its defined vertical lines, arranged into a calming, neat rhythm. visited it during an early autumn day and it was quite striking how the facade cast its own shadow on itself. but this image by its current occupants shows it lit up in the late afternoon against the darkness of the scottish winter. light is divided into aesthetically pleasing, narrow sections against the backdrop of the hills. what else can you ask for, really?

with this part, we are leaving galashiels and are ready to visit the bernat klein studio - make sure not to miss it! if you want to stay tuned for news about our architecture inspired collections of rugs, lampshades, cushions and wall-art, subscribe to our newsletter here!

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links:

csy architects

preserving womersley

church square (tour of peter womersley's buildings in the scottish borders - pt 2.)

many apologies for not continuing our architectural series a little sooner. we have been caught up with moving studios (it’s becoming an amazing space!), organising and exhibiting at jutefest, launching our wall-art and working on our new collection launch but it’s time now to continue the tour in the scottish borders to find some more treasures designed by peter womersley.

after having visited netherdale, we remain in galashiels and this time we look at the residential block at church square. it’s one of my favourite ones because it is one of the few residential ones and it’s so human scaled and light, which, to me is certainly what modernism was really about - building for people. completed in 1963, it is fashionably modern and revolutionarily, unapologetically puts the residents at the heart of it. there is nothing brutalist here by the way, it’s timber, stone and glass, arranged in neat patterns of basic forms - and with lots, and lots of leafy greens. the resident is at the centre here, everything is designed for people and with great attention to detail.

the two “floating” blocks form the leafy courtyard - what makes it especially embracing is the elevated first floor, a sheltered passage underneath the buildings. i love buildings that stand on legs - they let air and light through its enclosure while providing some shelter at the same time. womersley’s genius is in the detail of course - just look at that airy stairway, how it corresponds with the effortless float in air.

i have never been inside but i imagine the bright glass everywhere and the balconies make these flats really bright. RIBA has a couple of photos in their archive about what it looked like and it’s exactly the modernist coolness you expect. the textiles, patterns, surfaces are right up my alley and i think the zitozza aesthetics is not that far off it in spirit. i hope you’ve enjoyed this small tour and i hope with each of these episodes, you’re getting closer to the feelings i’m trying to evoke with my prints too!

see you soon at the next building and stay tuned for more news and new prints - subscribe to our newsletter here!

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links:

RIBA picture gallery

netherdale (tour of peter womersley's buildings in the scottish borders - pt 1.)

the new architecture / photo-essay series is here! indeed there was a modernist-form-shaped hole left on this blog after finishing our tour of glenrothes and i haven’t had yet time to take the trips to the other new towns (although restrictions are lifting slowly and i do have plans.) so while i’m gearing up for those, there are more photos at hand i could share, and it’s unfair to focus on the central belt all the time anyway. so we’re taking a trip to the borders. as a student in 2015, i visited six buildings by the modernist architect peter womersley located at the scottish border and i’m going to share them all in a six-part series in the coming weeks.

the first building i want to write about is netherdale, the stadium for the lowland league team gala fairydean rovers, in galashiels. i remember when i first parked in front of it and i stopped for a good few minutes admiring it. it was looking as if it was made of paper, a lightweight, pillar-free origami structure with sharp folds and angles. i thought it must have taken a genius to make something massive and heavy of raw concrete appear so airy and lightweight.

it’s now a grade a listed building and i’d rather let the photos do the talking but i also hope that it makes you want to visit in person - currently unfortunately it’s been shut for a while and remains so at the moment as essential repairs need to be done, however there are hopes that funding for its restoration is cleared and the works could begin.

built at the heyday of the brutalist era (between 1963 and 1965) it now stands solid at a friendly, very human scale (of about 800 seats.) it was one of the first of its kind of a pillar-free structure for unobstructed view - just tells you so much about the genius of peter womersley, the architect and the engineers involved. the gap between the seats and the roof of the stand were meant to be made of glass and translucent - today it is covered up in adverts but it would just be so beautiful if light could come through and make the roof float in air.

while the building is not directly referenced amongst my prints (i try to avoid creating monuments and memories) but the geometry of the structure did influence the zitozza prints, perhaps subconsciously too. constructed form and texture play has always inspired textile designers throughout but the optimism of modernism in particular is what makes it so attractive to me and connect to my pattern designs and it’s something that you will see quite obviously in the future posts as well.

peter womersley was an amazing architect who worked with innovative materials and revolutionary engineering solutions, but the scales were always human and the experience of form was always at the centre of his work. if you want to know more about the him, i recommend visiting preserving womersley - a group dedicated to the preservation and celebration of his architectural legacy (and follow them on instagram too.) and please keep coming back for the second episode of our tour too!

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links:

both loved and loathed, gala’s a-list brutalist stand is under threat (the newsroom, 18th january 2019, the scotsman)

hopes rising of work starting soon now £1.45m budget agreed for repairs to galashiels football stand (darin hutson, 29th march 2021, the southern reporter)

preserving womersley

in conversation with kate mclaughlin of align jewellery

hello february! we are well into the grind of 2021 now - and for an extra dose of creative stimulant i decided on a new series of blog posts. as you know i’m constantly looking for new things to look at, read and new people to know about so i figured you might feel the same after a busy january. therefore i am happy to publish the first in a series of conversations with designers, makers or craftspeople of all disciplines whose values or inspirations i share. my first virtual guest is kate mclaughlin, architect-turned-jeweller of align jewellery.

ZITA: hi! first of all, tell me a little bit about yourself, what you do and how you got there?

KATE: hi! i'm kate, and i'm a jeweller but my background is in architecture. i create architecturally influenced jewellery that is quite minimal, bold and uncompromising in its linear and geometric qualities. i studied architecture - i went straight from school to edinburgh college of art so it was very much "art school architecture" and we were really taught how to design over many many years and this is so deeply ingrained now. we were taught a kind of design process and we were just doing it over and over and over again to the point where i can't not do it.

ZITA: i think i know what you mean!

KATE: and after i studied architecture i went into practice and i realised that commercial architecture wasn't for me and my jewellery hobby kind of took over unintentionally, in a series of happy accidents. i didn't consciously decide to quit one and do the other but one faded in and one faded out. but that "drilling in of a design process" of being really critical, and analytical, and questioning everything - i couldn't make anything in any other way. when i explain to people that i was an architect, they always immediately understand, i guess it makes sense, aesthetically. but i think my process is also very influenced. and some of the tools i use came with me too: occasionally i think the easiest way to do it would be a CAD drawing. sometimes i still think of things as "plan, elevation, section", and i look at the different sides and draw an elevation of a piece of jewellery. i'm fairly sure that regular jewellers don't think like that or use those terms even! so there are layers of how it is architectural. does this make sense?

ZITA: yes, it totally does! and i like how you describe your work on your website and social media, that you call it "wearable architecture" and to me as well it signals that you haven't really shifted from that mindset. or was that not an easy shift? you talk about a gradual change, of one fading in and one fading out. did you find it easy?

KATE: the architect in me will always be there, it’s just how i earn money shifted, one eased in and one eased out. but actually, part of it was really really hard because i spent so long aspiring to be, and in a way fighting for architecture, that it's really, really hard to give up and walk away from all of that. actually, i still do a little bit of practice and a very little consultancy work for a local practice as well. part of it is keeping my hand in, but part of it is a comfort blanket thing... my last ten years strand back to my previous life!

ZITA: i understand that!

KATE: as for "the how easy it is" thing - i did, at one point, in my jewellery tried not to do architecture. at the time i think i was in a huff with it. i thought “nah, don't want to do that anymore”, i’d just turn my back on it and do something completely different. so what i was going to do was freeform and floaty and natural, and i made these things that were all organic and petal-like, and i didn't know how to make them into a piece of jewellery. so i made a box, to put the things in, and by the end of finishing the jewellery, i had kept the box and ditched the organic freeform things and had this really really geometric cage thing. so at that point i thought, oh, okay, so it's not a choice!

ZITA: wow! that's exactly what i was trying to get at, whether you can change your mindset or not. but you explained about your training how that's so deeply ingrained so i was wondering if it's even possible to get rid of that.

KATE: yeah i'm sure it's possible, i believe people and brains have the ability to re-learn but i don't know i if i want to re-learn badly enough to put in that effort.

ZITA: i can relate to that! and is there a particular style or school of architecture that you're inspired by or is it more about the space? is there anything very particular you look out for or have a "trained eye" for - or is it just space and form that really catches you?

KATE: i don't like subscribing to a particular school - what i really appriecate and notice are small parts. i’d never say "that's my favourite building" or style, but there are details. either really little, like a window surround, that little. or a specific view, or it's often about how different things meet. how a building meets where it is or how different materials meet each-other or how spaces meet each-other, it's that kind of intersection. and it's interesting and beautiful in really mundane architecture. if you notice those things you can see them all around you all of the time, even in what should be quite uninspiring places.

ZITA: oh yeah, that does absolutely resonate with me. i work like that too, i find patterns, not jewellery in the same forms, but i find the beauty in the same things too. i find rhythm and texture in cityscapes and gas tanks, cranes and places like that.

KATE: yes!

ZITA: and i guess where i find a pattern you find a spatial form?

KATE: yes, flat forms to me feel unsatisfying, i always try and find three-dimensional forms, which is what i mean about wearable architecture. when i'm out and about and looking, i get quite often drawn to textures. the rough, building material textures, do you know what i mean? concrete or things that are cracked or worn.

ZITA: oh yes i get that! me too.

KATE: i know that doesn't translate to my jewellery but when i come home with weird architectural photos it's quite often a textural thing!

ZITA: yes! that's interesting. i was just going to ask about that, would you consider using other materials? right now your jewellery is silver, isn't it?

KATE: it is!

ZITA: so do you look to expand or incorporate other materials in your work?

KATE: i would love to. i'm not sure what form it would take. and, i'm a also slightly wary, because if a new material was going to involve a new skillset, which really excites me and i really want to do, i would also see myself disappearing into a rabbit hole... and never coming back!

ZITA: yeah there’s always that danger.

KATE: but i'm interested in it and also there is a nice thing in taking something that's really common and everyday and making it into something that's really precious. like using concrete. or using found objects but setting them as if they were precious stones and making them feel as if they were really precious jewellery. actually, i've recently commissioned a lady who works with jesmonite to make me little props to take my photographs on, and they all have slightly different patterns on them. they are all super smooth and the texture is beautiful, and there are patterns in the colour - they are not just grey, they are really lovely and looking at them makes me think "woah i see the potential".

ZITA: that sounds really cool. so if other materials are not the immediate next step for you, then what is? what can we expect to see from you next?

KATE: so going back to the texture thing, at the moment texture doesn't really feature a lot in my work because i always thought it's about the form. it had to be about form and nothing else so texture hasn't really been in it, so texture is my next thing! it's been ongoing and i have a "shopping list" of some traditional and not so traditional things to experiment with. i don't know what it will look like in jewellery, so my next thing is a non-jewellery experiments on how to create different textures and maybe going back through my architectural close-ups and look into how i can re-create some of that. but step one will not involve any jewellery because it's less of a pressured way to do it! making it into jewellery will be step two.

ZITA: maybe you could exhibit your experiments as sculptures!

KATE: yes i would love my experiments to be a beautiful thing, even if it's only a “sketchbook” of samples. because then you could back to it over and over again and you might end up discovering loads of textures or loads of techniques so it might just be a case of keeping your records - so i would quite like whatever it is to be a beautiful thing to keep and go back to in the future.

ZITA: that sounds like a great plan!

KATE: i think that's quite achievable in lockdown, it's something i can do by myself in the studio so that's the immediate plan.

ZITA: and, having spoken about inspiration - does it find you spontaneously or do you go and actively research?

KATE: it is very spontaneous. when i go out and about and i see something i like i take a picture of it without thinking too hard why i like it or what i'm going to do with that, it's just a photo of a weird thing. i don't think it's any more than that, it's just like a gut instinct. often when i'm making i've been making it up as i go along more. sometimes things just take a turn as you're making, and you see an opportunity and follow your nose. i do have collections that are way more thought out and involved a lot more research. they were a bit more engineered in a way, i thought about how a collection of pieces sit together, but it's been a while since i worked like that and i've been thinking recently that maybe i need to go back to working like that.

ZITA: thinking about research - and this is something i want to ask from everyone i have these conversations with - can you recommend a book, or recommend someone whose work you find inspiring?

KATE: the person i'm going to recommend to you is karlyn sutherland, and she is a glass artist. i studied with her so she also started out in architecture. she did a phd and in it she looked to place and it lead her to glass, she made glass art about place as part of her architecture phd. she is a world renowned glass artist and her work is really architectural. it's really amazing and deceptively simple. you would really have to look to understand - you should definitely, definitely look her up.

ZITA: thanks, that's great! i’ll check her work out. i'm a bit of a design junkie and it's why i want to ask from everyone, i love discovering new work and it also says a lot about the person recommending it i think what they find most interesting.

KATE: that's a good question to ask!

ZITA: and the very last one - apart from your own website, where else can my readers find your work or buy your jewellery?

KATE: right now, a lot of my stockists are shut obviously. hopefully you can find my work at yorkshire sculpture park, as part of their made exhibition - whenever they're allowed to open back. and just yesterday i found out that i've been given a place at the digital craft festival which is happening at the last weekend of march (26th - 28th). so you can find my work through that!

ZITA: brilliant! i think that's an excellent news to close this with! thank you so much for your time, i think it’s been a meaningful and inspiring conversation, and i hope to speak in person some time.

KATE: thanks!

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links:

A L I G N J E W E L L E R Y

Kate McLaughlin - maker profile on Craft Scotland

Digital Craft Festival

Yorkshire Scupture Park - Made exhibition

Karlyn Sutherland - Heller Gallery

the co-op and the kingdom (an architectural journey through glenrothes pt. 1)

for those of you in fife this will be the familiar - yup, this one will be about glenrothes. i’m really into this town (the only new town on the east), so much so that i’m going to split my photo blogs into groups and go through this in more than one tour - please come with me for the first one through the town centre.

glenrothes is a new town in scotland, designated in 1948 and built and developed throughout the following years. the area has a history of industry in paper mills, and the new town was largely built for workers of a new coal mine, which, only after 7 years of operation had to close in 1965 due to technological difficulties. some industrial presence continued in the town though and fife council also moved their headquarters there.

as one of the earliest new towns in scotland, glenrothes was built and developed with a mixture of ideas leaving their visual impacts on its surfaces. the town won the disputed “carbuncle award” muiltiple times however glenrothes also received multiple awards in the beautiful Scotland competition - perhaps as a response to the negative publicity (and because the many open spaces and roundabouts are indeed quite floral)

the intention of my walks here is usually to find source of joy and inspiration for my textile designs. i know a few locals, who find humour and affection in their upbringing in this setting and i basically just aim to show the fabric of this place in a positive light. i have a lot of material though so i’m going to start right at the centre.

the town centre itself is a small pedestrianised area for shopping named “kingdom centre”, consisting of concrete alleys and arcades. the “old” town centre was once busier with shoppers, however, many of the premises today are unoccupied - like everywhere else, glenrothes has welcome suburban supermarkets on its outskirts and the car-friendly layout of the town has infact probably made it more attractive than elsewhere in the area. as in most brutalist new towns, roads for motorists and pedestrians were consciously separated, which resulted in many roundabouts and underpasses (the latter now a canvas for artists - official and unofficial ones alike).

out of albany gate at the main street of the kingdom stands the co-op building, an old department store opened in 1964. i’m not sure if this was built by separate architects or not - the kingdom centre and much of the town’s architecture is a product of the glenrothes development corporation which employed many architects at the time (with glasgow-born peter tinto as chief architect.)

the co-op this is also now empty and is destined for demolition although the plans were scrapped later. partly because of its asbestos problem (it’s now unsafe to enter too.) it’s also really interesting (in an obviously bleak way) to look at the decaying surfaces and imagine what they may have been like in the past.

it’s not my past and these are not my memories, yet i think i would miss this building a little bit, because i find it genuinely and objectively beautiful. (lord knows i hate the word “eyesore” and i find it so insulting and cheap.)

hey look here instead - the coffers on the concrete ceilings of the arcades was what inspired the co-op tileset. it’s a futuristic and human centred pattern with those edges rounded down. and the geometry of its upper facade is shiny and colourful, busy and geometric - playful and orderly at the same time. it was built for this town and its people and somehow these buildings still radiate the optimistic vision of its creators some decades later. i’m not a preservationist though and i believe in embracing the present - if it’s unsafe and unsuitable now to how we live, we can change it or make something else of it. but even if the building itself isn’t worth saving, perhaps the ideas that built them should be.

with the demolition halted, the future remains to be seen. there are now calls to use the building as murals for public art - something glenrothes has form on (i might just have an idea of a future blog post) for now, some works have begun on improvements to the exterior to make it safer while the long-term future remains to be seen. i hope you are now curious to continue this walk - stay tuned for the next tour!

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links:

co-op demolition plans spark regeneration hope for fife town (by the newsroom, 15 march 2017, fife today)

planned £1m demolition of one of fife’s worst eyesores scrapped, leaving its future in limbo (by neil henderson, 20 dec 2019, the courier)

get involved with discussion about the future of glenrothes (by the newsroom, 11 february 2020, fife today)

work to finally address one of fife’s worst eyesores set to begin (by neil henderson, 2 july 2020, the courier)