hello sunshine, summer is finally here and we are popping up again, this year at three venues across scotland, all organised by the wonderful tea green events which makes the quality of the curated lineup pretty much guaranteed. come and see it, touch and buy - we will not be anywhere else live this year!
this is a short announcement: we’re on the road again. might not be christmas markets these year at all (or at least, in november, i refuse to call them that!) but we do have two selling events in the calendar already with the amazing tea green events which means that the quality of the line-up is guaranteed.
8th - 9th november at the burrell collection, glasgow.
if you’re up to date with your modernism, i’m sure you will have heard the news already about the heralded bernat klein studio by peter womersley. if you’re new, let me break it to you: it is up for auctionfor a guide price of just £18,000. camper vans are more expensive than that.
but this is a grade A lised building in the scottish borders, currently on scotland’s buildings at risk register - it was already in an awful state in 2016 when i first visited and i can only imagine the state it is in now. as sat derelict since the early 2000s and like so many modernist gems, it’s not only been neglected but overlooked. with its protected status, i do wonder about the real amount of funds required to restore it into anything structurally sound. but one can dream, right?
as many of you already know, i visited this building during my university days as part of a project exploring womersley’s work. it left a deep impression, the proportions, the materiality, the quiet authority of its modernist geometry while retaining the human scales and the airy, cantilevered forms that is such a signature style of womersley’s genius.
and so, naturally, as a brutalist and modernism-obsessed textile designer, it feels like it’s my duty to fantasise about it a little. so i’ve been daydreaming and i’ve created a series of speculative interior visualisations using AI – don’t shoot me for using it, i know fine well these renders are a not a replacement for reality (some prints really do not resemble zitozza at all and don’t even get me started on the cat..), nor is this a serious, budgeted proposal. it’s just a little bit of fun to put some ideas out to the universe and help stimulate the imagination about the building’s future. (or as the kids would call it, “manifesting”…)
in this parallel universe, the studio is lovingly restored not into an airbnb or a “writer’s retreat” (sorry barnabas calder, love your books but we really can do better here.) so in my head i turned it back into a working textile studio instead. my vision is an idea that is only half-selfish, and it would also contribute to the economy and give back to the scottish borders. i’m obviously thinking about zitozza here, but also a space for creative jobs, education, apprenticeships, and professional development. it could be quite a serious place for the textile industry with not only a space for designing, printing and production but there could also be workshops, residencies and exhibitions – continuing the building’s original purpose and klein’s spirit of thoughtful and considered, sustainable design.
okay, yes, the millions required to make it happen are currently in the realm of fantasy… but hey, everyone tells you that to do well in business you need to dream big so that’s exactly what i’m doing.
so, here’s a (completely unbudgeted) proposal. we don't need more holiday houses – we need permanent homes for making and creativity. modernist ideas - egalitarian notions of simplicity, abstraction and rational proportions - need to make a comeback and become mainstream again. spaces where design isn’t just theorised and talked about but physically made to furnish real spaces. achitecture, at its best, can enable that.
these are my ai generated fantasies, but it’s also a bit of food for thought. and hey, if you don’t have the money but want to keep the dream alive you can always just buy a teatowel… but if you do happen to have a few million pounds to spare and a soft spot for brutalist textile utopias, well, you know where to find me!
***edit: serious news! you can actually donate to bring it back to life, open to the public as a design centre - the bernat klein foundation along with the national trust and the scottish historic buldings trust have joined together in a bid to raise funds to acquire it and you can contribute to the cause.***
oops! we forgot to announce the upcoming summer markets. nevermind, there’s still time! in two weeks time, we will be popping up at the first summer event of tea green events! i love exhibiting with them as the curated line-up makes me feel really positive about the quality of work and talent that this country has to offer. so join us at the kelvingrove and the national portrait gallery and browse the whole lot - you’re guaranteed to find something pretty, useful and sustainable.
28th /29th june: kelvingrove art gallery and museum
10am - 5pm on saturday, 11am - 5pm on sunday. argyle street, glasgow, g3 8ag
9th /10th august: national portrait gallery
10am - 5pm on saturday and sunday. 1 queen street, edinburgh, eh2 1jd.
hello again, it’s been another busy month. i’m so sorry to do this to you in october, but my festive calendar is full and i thought it’d be important to share it for those who might want to come and touch some zitozza goodies. at these markets you’ll find a lot of things that are on the website, but also framed prints, little cards and of course, the bargain basket full of our end cuts, which are only available in person, so it is definitely worth coming.
23-24 november - crafted @ dca dundee
152 nethergate, dundee, dd1 4ea - 11am till 5:30pm
we’ll kick this off with CRAFTED at the dundee contemporary arts. i do absolutely love this venue and i’m delighted to be returning for the third time to this amazing creative hub where i always enjoy meeting like-minded people and it's such an impressive gallery setting too.
1 december - v&a dundee winter design market
1 riverside esplanade, dundee, dd1 4ez - 10am till 5pm
i’ll stay in dundee for one more day - i am absolutely thrilled to be included in this winter's line-up of tea green events or the sunday at the v&a dundee. i had an absolute blast in the summer here, i met so many talented new designers and gained so many new fans that i just can't wait to return for the festive period!
7-8 december - great northern contemporary craft fair - online festive market
this is going to be something completely new to me! i've never participated in anything like this before so i’ll be excited to be sharing more information soon as i’m trying to get my brand known outside scotland and make new friends south of the border!
13-14-15 december - bowhouse winter market
st monans, fife, ky10 2db - open from 2pm till 8pm on friday 13th dec, then 10am till 4pm on saturday and sunday
for the last christmas weekend, it'll be time to come home to east fife and meet my local neighbours here. i can't wait to meet you all this winter! do come, see, smell, touch and buy some amazing brand new prints - old favourites and some new gifts too.
*** important notice *** last christmas orders are to be placed by 15th december. anything made to order must be placed before the 9th in order to be made and shipped. the studio will be closed from the 21st december until 6th january. orders placed during this time will be fulfilled afterwards.
can't wait for it to kick off - yes i am eating my porridge as we speak!
hello again - long time no see and long time without hugging some concrete! this month we finally brought to you TÉGLA, our brand new tileset (after many, many months of work and preparation). these were all inspired by brickworks and facades found on so i want to show you a building with an interesting texture and facade that reflects that inspiration. besides, i think we do deserve a trip now, don’t we? so let’s go on a short but sweet one, just to glasgow - as we’re visiting the savoy centre on sauchiehall street.
quite a striking example example of 1970s brutalism, it was built between ‘71 and ‘79 and designed by gavin paterson & sons, on the ruins of the old savoy theatre. it now consists of a shopping centre complete with an indoor market, and an 11 storey office block.
obviously, the purpose of writing these blog posts is to celebrate these concrete designs and bust thay common myth amongst the naysayers that these are depressing buildings - on a particularly overcast day in the glasgow winter it does unfortunately seem to be a bit of a task. rain-soaked or not though, the building has an impressive, exciting looking elevation walking up on hope street (connecting sauchiehall street and renfrew street.)
the glasgow weather must have been considered as the concrete clad facade is somewhat protruding, offering a bit of a shelter above head-hight. the cladding features a concrete pattern of narrow vertical rectangles, with a beautiful relief of the centre’s logo (in a typographic design of what i assume must have been, or perhaps inspired by the original 1910s theatre’s.) this logo repeats on the renfrew street side too, painted in blue - a fresh touch of colour amongst the imposing concrete.
the protection from the elements continues as there is a fully sheltered footbridge connecting the north side of renfrew street - taking you right to the first floor of the building. i did not manage to get inside, however i’m told it’s been refurbished and there are plans to further regenerate - not without controversy. you can follow this excellent and insightful timeline from glasgow heritage (who do happen to run a brutalism-related exhibition at the merchant city as well!)
the 11-floor office blocks towers above the more horizontally laying front of the building - the neatly arranged windows do make inspiring patterns (you might discover them on our printed goodies i’m sure!) - it’s a beautiful and interesting building that makes its surroundings a little bit more exciting.
if you enjoyed this trip, go visit yourself and join us on our next trip - subscribe to our newsletter below.
apologies for another long(ish) break between blog posts - it’s worth the wait though as we have a fantastic announcement to make!
we’ll be back with tea green events to the v&a in dundee this summer. you can find us for the whole three days from friday to sunday with the usual high-quality line-up tea green likes to curate.
do come along and treat yourself to something nice - see you soon!
hello again - we have some more exciting brutalism-related news to share! zitozza are proud to be involved with a new exhibition, part of a wider series of events called concrete designs to thrive, exploring how good design can keep a city can fit and well, curated by journeys in design - with city walks, talks, workshops and exhibitions.
you can join the glasgow green and grey walks - sunday strolls around one of glasgow’s favourite parklands, to spaces and places with fascinating heritage, talking en route about thriving in the city (this walk was developed and delivered in 2023 with the help of a small group of guides with experience of homelessness); 2-4pm sundays 16th and 23rd.
we’re thrilled to be a part of the materials and modernism exhibition featuring the work of five scottish creatives, all inspired by modernist architecture, offering key works in mosaic, wood, ceramic, cast concrete and printed textile (that’s zitozza!); open 10am to 4pm monday to friday at the briggait in glasgow, from 12th - 27th june - please do come and visit!
part of this is also design for a city, fit and well- the latest in a series of twilight talks, when an expert panel presents the case for retrofit rather than wrecking ball, remodelling, repurposing, and reclaiming for the better. Extra time and refreshments will enhance the chance for good connection on the evening of thursday 20th june at the briggait.
finally, a call out to help craft healthy city, healthy citizen ‘zines in a set of wednesday workshops at the briggait, exploring well-being and urban design in ‘zine format, to include use of printed smart phone pics captured by our walk participants, posted using the hashtag #concretescotland, 2-4pm wednesdays 12th 19th and 26th june.
journeys in design founder dr john ennis said, “it’s a privilege to bring our concrete designs to thrive to the heart of glasgow in 2024 and to collaborate with such a diverse array of designers, artists and producers around glasgow green and the briggait: it’s very clear why this park and this venue are such treasured parts of the city’s culture.”
hello again, believe it or not, it’s been another month and a very, very long time since we posted anything architectural or photographic - things have been busy but actually, we needn’t always go on a long, exotic journey to find some good, inspiring facades. for this short little trip, we’re staying in edinburgh today to look at another student accommodation.
the building is at 8 roxburgh place (on the corner of west adam place), you can get to it by walking up the stairs behind the dovecot (this is very specific but if you’re a brutalist textile lover, it’s a highly recommended double trip to the textile studios as well as this concrete monster!)
the building belongs to the university of edinburgh and i can’t for the love of my life find the architect! if anyone knows, do reach out. i’m guessing it was built in the 1960s and recently renovated. by all accounts it is rated highly among students, mainly for the excellent location and the stunning views of the city, and i have zero doubt it’s an absolutely brilliant experience to stay there for your studies.
this is a textile design blog though, so as usual, we’re here for the patterns and the facade does not disappoint. it’s only five floors tall so it’s not an imposing monstrosity at all, and the human scale is made evident by the large window panels and the even facade - all floors are the same height, there is not a grand entrance or an all important ground floor, the seamless repeat of windows start immediately off the ground.
the near-square shaped windows sit in rounded rectangles with some relief details above them and it makes me imagine it inside in the style of futuristic space capsules. this panelling continues on all elevations, even without windows, the details are there, which is quite obviously a pleasing sight to the pattern lovers.
there is a bit of an extrusion on the front side, and due to that, it looks like there is a bit of an offset to the grid of windows, which breaks the monotony a bit and brings some excitement to the facade. i enjoyed walking around here - there is another lovely brutalist gem right across it, a university teaching centre recently renovated by reiach and hall. surrounded by the medieval churches of old edinburgh, they don’t look out of place at all in this living, breathing city.
if you liked this short trip, why don’t you sign up to our newsletter below to be the first to read these blog posts! (it even comes with a free poster you can print at home!)
if you came here looking for ideas for your student accommodation, come and browse our shop!
hello again, we have a very nice announcement to make - just a quick blog post to announce our latest market round up. and we have a very, very nice double header ahead in our favourite scottish venues in edinburgh and then glasgow! celebrate the summer with some colourful block prints and browse all the loveliness scotland’s designers have to offer.
19th - 20th august - dovecot studios, edinburgh
first up is our bestest most favourite venue in scotland, the dovecot studios in edinburgh. this fabulous venue will be home to a fantastic line-up of local makers, curated by support the makers. the dovecot is also a fringe festival venue with exhibitions and of course, their lovely café and shops so do come along.
26th - 27th august - the briggait, glasgow
and afterwards, our favourite market returns. we absolutely love coming to the wasps studios markets as these markets are always very well organised and lovingly curated with some of the most engaged, creative audience of shoppers. it’s just a great experience all round and i can’t wait to talk to visitors and browse the lineup again. do come along
after all these fairs we will take a little break before we come back in the autumn and winter - but our shop remains online always so do browse our collections and let us know if we can help with anything at all. happy browsing!
good afternoon - this just a very quick announcement that zitozza joined the support the makers network and will be attending the spring market on sunday 6th march, at bellfield, portobello, edinburgh (16b bellfield st, portobello, edinburgh EH15 2BP) between 11am and 4pm.
this is a ticketed event (costs £1.50) so hurry up and purchase yours now - and see you there soon!
UPDATE 03/03/2022
many apologies but due to a positive covid test zitozza will be unable to attend the market. we are definitely, definitely going to the next one though (same place, in may), so stay tuned and i will leave this post here because i’m sure that it will be still worth attending!
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 flatsby 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!
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!
hello! we’re so sorry to have had to share the bad news with you on saturday, about the cancellation of our last jutefest event. i hope you haven’t travelled to dundee this weekend! if you haven’t heard, the very last jutefest was unfortunately cancelled due to staff having to isolate at the venue (scrapantics, our landlords have been utterly fantastic about this whole venture though so huge thanks to them!). and to be honest, for it only to happen to the last in a series of 4 is not a bad record, so we are celebrating our success and we are also thinking about how to come back with something bigger and better next year perhaps.
so if you only just heard of us, the best is yet to come. jutefest consists of three of us - jist jute,knotty but nice, and zitozza. because we all work with jute in different, but consistently modern and contemporary ways, we set out to bring the cloth back to its city and celebrate its sustainable qualities - and maybe showing the locals along the way why it’s cool again! while dundee has an enormous heritage to build on, jute is not a thing of the past but very much the future too.
photo by deborah chapman at artantics
photo by deborah chapman at artantics
we’ve done a lot of cool things together and it’s been an achievement in itself, i think, to pull this off on a shoestring with a few weeks notice. indeed there’s a lot of potential in our abilities to do something bigger and better soon! throughout the event series, alison has successfully managed to crowdfund a whole weaving loom and lessons to learn to weave - you can see the progress of all this on her instagram along with the first pieces. don’t they look fabulous? and maite was busy crocheting, unstoppably producing her work live at the fair whilst chatting to visitors about those durable bags! it was fascinating to witness that speed.
as for zitozza - of course, the embroidered wall-art collection also debuted at the jutefest and it did look good on the turqouise wall of the venue! and as a demonstration of our craft, two smaller lengths of fabric were printed live in front of enthusiastic visitors... i think one will become a lampshade, and the other a rug (see the pictures below!) and it’s coming very soon so watch this space and subscribe to the newsletter, to make sure you don’t miss out on any of our new plans (and the nice things made of these!)
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!
***2025 update - this building is going up for auction on 30th july 2025. read our blog post for our vision of its future as a textile studio.***
further update: you can actually donate to bring it back to life, open to the public as a design centre - the bernat klein foundation along with the national trust and the scottish historic buldings trust have joined together in a bid to raise funds to acquire it and you can contribute to the cause.
i hope you’re having a happy summer people, i know it’s not easy to navigate between wanting a sense of normality and being cautious about the spread of the virus, but as we are getting through it all, we are very happy to announce that you’ll be able to meet us again, in real life, at CLOTH#21 in edinburgh, scotland, at the beautiful venue of the dovecot studios.
this will take place on two weekends, and zitozza will be there at the second one, on the 21st and 22nd august, from 10am till 5pm. it’s an honour to be standing amongst many other talented makers and textile designers - so please do come as it will be definitely worth it. not only it’s going to be full of stalls with beautiful stuff but the venue itself is one of the best in scotland, and perhaps one of the only ones catering for tapestries and textile arts at such a level.
and also please don’t forget that on the 7th august, the penultimate jutefest will also be on in dundee (at unit 2, anchor mills, west hendersons wynd from 10am till 4pm) man it feels good to be blogging about physical events and i hope it can continue! see you soon!
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!
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!
oh hello (limited, face-masked) general public! zitozza are excited and proud to announce to be a founding participant of JUTEFEST dundee! this is a brand new initiative with three makers working with jute differently (that’s - jist jute, knotty but nice, and zitozza) and our aim is to bring this wonderfully versatile and sustainable fabric back to its city where it once came out of in the tons.
the three of us work with jute in different ways - you can read our design conversations with jist jute already - there is a great deal of research and local history in alison’s work and she will also be signing her book “if these wa’s cuid talk” at the event. maite of knotty but nice is a crocheter who uses twine from nutscene to make strong and colourful bags and accessories. so there will be jewellery, fashion accessories - and cushions, rugs and lampshade by zitozza also for sale. but apart from setting up market stalls with our things, we will be making live at the event and demonstrate our crafts as well as preparing some exhibition materials on the history of jute in the city as well as some modern takes on the golden fibre.
there’s certainly a lot of heritage to celebrate in dundee but we also believe in embracing the present and we have our modern-day reasons why we work with it - one of these is of course sustainability, because we recognise our responsibility and we want to promote materials with less of a carbon, chemical, and water footprint. however, there is also a more artistic take on it - jute is a very utilitarian material, and when it was mass produced in dundee, it was fully to serve other industries and agriculture with its sacks and ropes. the three of us don’t use it this way though. we inject it with colour, design and individuality while keeping what’s good about it - the warmth, tactility and environmental qualities. there’s a lot to discover and play with and we want the locals to join us to celebrate that!
zitozza are preparing with a special launch of mini-tapestries as well, an initial 8-piece exhibtion will be set up for visitors - all wall-art will be available to be purchased online soon as well!
so when is this is happening? this is going to be a series of pop-up fairs stretched out between june and september on the first saturdays of each of these months. so that’s 5th june, 3rd july, 7th august, and 4th september.
and where about? at the artantics building (many thanks to scrapantics!), that’s right across from verdant works. the address is unit 2, anchor mill, west henderson’s wynd, dundee, DD1 5BY.
this is going to be a real-life event which is why it’s a big deal to those of us having been confined to our studios and council areas and whatnot. even though we are super happy to be finally free to meet you and celebrate, we still have to be careful and be aware of the spread of coronavirus. we want to be as safe as possible, so please note we will require face masks to be worn and we may still limit the number of people indoors in order to be able to keep a safe distance. thanks for your understanding and see you soon!
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!
