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

in conversation with janice reid of HAYM

here we are in another month - and i’m bringing you another exciting entrepreneurial journey to read about. this one is a little bit special, as zitozza has a brand new stockist in scotland - HAYM, located on the high street of carnoustie, and i had a chance to have a lovely chat with the inspiring businesswoman behind it - janice reid. as i’m always on the hunt for new treasures, i feel really hopeful about the opening of new places, especially after such a hiatus. i think there’s a lot of warm and fuzzy feelings about local businesses supporting each-other - with everything that’s been behind us this past year, i wanted to learn more about janice’s journey and get a serving or two of the positivity!

ZITA: hi janice! can you say a few words about yourself – what you do and how you got there?

JANICE: ok, well my name is janice reid but my maiden name was hay which is part of the reason my new shop is called HAYM. i have lived most of my life in carnoustie but was born in dundee and went to university there where i studied architecture. I went on to work as an architect for almost 20 years, laterally becoming an associate with trail architects and i really loved my job and those who I worked with. my decision to change careers was based on my family situation.

ZITA: i see! has the shop been a long-held dream or something that developed through time? did you find it difficult to make the decision to go for it and open?

JANICE: i have wanted to open my own shop for some time now but always thought it was a bit of a pipe dream but many things influenced my decision to bite the bullet and just go for it. I had been off work on maternity following the birth of my 2nd daughter then after a short spell back at work i was furloughed due to covid. times have been so tough for so many because of the pandemic, there has been so many lives lost and so many people have found themselves in financial hardship but if anything positive can come out of such an awful situation it is that it makes you think that life is short and you should do what makes you happy. it made me reassess my life and gave me the drive and ambition to just go for it. I feel with my design background it is not such a huge leap more of a natural progression in a different direction.

ZITA: what a brilliant attitude! and it resonates a lot – zitozza came out of a similar situation. i do wonder, how has your background in architecture influenced your buying decisions, when it comes to finding stock for your shop? are you going for a particular style or feel – and if you do, where does it come from? where do you look for your curatorial inspirations?

JANICE: i have really just chosen what i like, there is no particular style, if i like it, i will sell it, but that said once all the stock is pulled together certain trends do emerge, there is a lot of monochrome and sharp lines which I guess comes from my architectural background. i am also drawn towards designers like yourself, align jewellery, hannah muir, steph liddle and jld designs who all have obvious architectural influences in their work.

ZITA: brilliant. i’ll certainly look for something for my new studio perhaps… obviously this whole period hasn’t been great for retail but people have also been getting more supportive for the values independent businesses represent. have you found it quite a supportive environment so far?

JANICE: i have found the industry to be hugely supportive and have really loved how nice everyone is and how happy they are to help. i have come from quite a harsh environment so that has been so refreshing. my customers have also been super supportive, i have had a huge amount of positive feedback and am being told on the whole that people want to shop local, support local businesses and local artists. there are lots of other lovely shops in carnoustie which makes shopping on the high street a positive experience and a destination visit. there is always the odd one that tells me i ‘must be mad and who gives up a career like architecture to go into retail during a pandemic!?’ i just ignore them!

ZITA: it’s great hearing this buzz around local business. how is HAYM going to stand out?

JANICE: so, we have great plans for HAYM, we have started with the bricks and mortar store and will concentrate on that initially, we offer a carefully curated selection of gorgeous homewares and lifestyle products and have a letterbox gifting which we will be promoting more shortly. once restrictions allow we will also be providing evening workshops including lampshade making and candle making to name a few. once these services are fully established we will be then be taking HAYM online.

ZITA:  how brilliant! when it comes to customer attitudes, apart from style (obviously), environmental and ethical responsibility has also been becoming a stronger deciding factor, with regards to textiles especially. has this been important to you throughout your selection? If this was a guiding principle, was it difficult to source these products?

JANICE: this is very important to me. i wanted to keep as many scottish suppliers as possible, not only is this important for local tourism, it supports local businesses and reduces the impact on the environment through reducing transportation. i have also tried to work with designers who are eco-conscious when both designing and making and who are committed to sustainability, where possible using materials which are reusable, recyclable or biodegradable. this has not been difficult, i have found that more and more companies are practicing green procurement, this involves sourcing goods and services that are produced and supplied in a sustainable fashion and sourcing from local suppliers rather than those located far away. we also provide 100% recyclable paper bags and environmentally friendly recycled packaging.

ZITA: amazing. ultimately, what do you hope shoppers will find at HAYM – and return for years for?

JANICE: i hope they will find a friendly, comfortable environment to browse and shop in. i want them to find unique, quality, beautiful pieces for themselves and for others. i want to be that ‘go to’ place for gorgeous gifts.

ZITA: one more thing - can you recommend a book or an artist or a maker whose work is worth looking into? something that keeps you going? this could be an inspiring read or someone else whose product you might stock. I ask this question from everyone, i love getting inspired by everyone else’s influences.

JANICE: the boy, the mole, the fox and the horse by charlie mackesy.

this book is just beautiful in every sense of the word.

ZITA: wonderful, thanks a lot!

JANICE: thank you.

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HAYM is open since 1st may 2021, at 41 high street, carnoustie, dd7 6ag.
open tues - fri 9:30am - 5:30pm, sat 9am - 4pm.

links:

HAYM (website)

HAYM (on instagram)

align jewellery

hannah muir

steph liddle

JLD designs

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

personal and biased book reviews - hungarian cubes by katharina roters (PARK BOOKS)

with most of us still in some kind of lockdown and limits to exhibitions, events and our travel, it’s time to look at books again for a source of inspiration (well i mean it is always time to look at books, but when we are confined to our homes their value multiplies even further i think.) today i’m recommending another photo-essay book with rich photography and insightful essays by a number of authors.

this book is called hungarian cubes by katharina roters and is a wonderful tribute to the subversive creativity of hungarians occupying these cube-shape units (nicknamed “kádár cubes” after the party leader who ordered them to be built in the 1960s.) these aren’t the stereotypical big tower blocks most people associate with suburban eastern europe - these are detached single unit, single storey houses with gardens, replacing the unsuitable dwellings throughout the countryside and they are everywhere all across the country. what caught the author’s eye, what is uniquely creative about them, is the unique decoration on each facade - a bold expression of individuality on standardised, mass produced form.

i have grown up in the city and i’ve never lived in one of these, yet they are very familiar. these houses from all over the hungarian countryside are ingrained into my memory as well - they have always been the embellishment of the roadside, following all the the roads throughout villages, suburban parts of towns, everywhere you go throughout the country and it’s fascinating to flick through the pages of this book as these memories of all the road trips become one through this imagined village - and a rather large one at that as it’s illustrated with 123 beautiful photographs.

the book has no foreword, we get into the photos right away and there is no location or any other detail specified, it is purely for the aesthetic value of the facade itself. i think this arrangement works because the lack of context helps appreciate the beauty of the house on its own. the page spreads are paired with matching decorations, often with very similar designs or colours and the lack of further specifics, it makes it all the more interesting - we don’t know whether these houses are next to each-other or hundreds of miles apart. it’s impossible to tell because there is no regional, or historic or any other traditional identifying mark. there are no organic forms, but a modern, almost avant-garde geometry mostly with vibrant colours in many case. there is no telling who lives inside, the facades are anonymous and abstract, a modern kind of individuality expressed on the homogenous and uniform, state-provided standard form.

this book is about the buildings themselves obviously and the reader will likely focus on the vibrant patterns of the masonry, however there are glimpses of the metal fences and glass patio doors that are also changing from page to page as well, showing a colourful patchwork of same-sized units as the fabric of the hungarian countryside. perhaps it’s also an insight into the subconscious influence of my modular block prints as well. it is certainly a very inspiring collection from a surface pattern design perspective.

like most periods of recent history, it’s not that well-researched or understood (by those without too many memories of it, certainly), however at the end of the book there is also a wonderful collection of essays that put these photographs into historical and architectural context, and ponder how, perhaps rather surprisingly to western eyes, such a form of self-expression remained to be allowed in a tightly controlled state. there are no obvious answers from either authors (hannes böhringer, zsolt szíjártó, endre prakfalvi and katharina roters) but many meaningful insights into the political, economical, social and personal histories along with the architectural realities and the practicalities of construction - lots and lots of curiosity.

apart from the pleasing aesthetics of the photos, it’s the observing curiosity that’s the biggest value of this book i think. there’s very few things out there that take such a close look at something quite so present, i mean these houses really are everywhere in hungary. they are not landmarks, but everyday homes. yes, i’m biased but i recommend everything that celebrates surface pattern design in the everyday - and let us appreciate our own homes and lives with it.

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links:

hungarian cubes: subversive ornaments in socialism - edited and with photographs by katharina roters (park books, 2014. - hardback, 172 pages, 123 colour illustrations.)

hungarian cubes: the houses of post-war communism photographed by katharina roters (by amy frearson, dezeen.com, 17/08/2014)

various grey cubes (an architectural journey through glenrothes - pt. 3)

this is it, our architectural journey is coming to an end in glenrothes, the last part will take us through the residential areas - macedonia (yes, really!), the glenwood centre, caskieberran and back to the town centre where we started.

we left at the green riverside park and just out of it, a steep set of steps lead to macedonia, a residential area consisting of smaller individual housing units with gardens. the area has a reputation for being deprived and a bit sketchy, however, on a bright sunday morning none of it is visible, they actually reminded me of holiday homes in hungary around the lake balaton (cube shaped single units were a huge thing in the hungarian countryside by the way, happy to write about them in a later blog!)

all the residential areas around glenrothes also have a number of underpasses and pedestrianised areas, these separated walking paths form bridges, underpasses and all these layers and their railings give interesting patterns and layouts - super inspiring to incorporate into textiles and i was often thinking about them as layered textures on the town - all these geometric, concrete shapes themselves can inspire more large scale, modernist designs.

the vision of dividing pedestrians from the car traffic sounds utopian on paper but have proved to be impractical and has probably contributed to the decline of the retailers in the town to be honest. the big building here is glenwood centre, a residential complex with a shopping centre underneath. you can notice some more of the planning mistakes here - there is an underpass that is filled in due to frequent flooding and there is a huge supermarket right outside the small retail units - guess what happened to these... because of how all these things turned out, the area has a sketchy, deprived reputation - and is now destined for demolition (there was an episode of the bbc’s “the council” (a very good series following the workings of fife council) in which a resident of the area was asked if he’d be happy if the council used some extra money to paint the staircases inside and he answered “what’s the point?”. the answer shocked me, although i understand that the improvement would have been tiny on the grander scale of things and probably temporary, but i also found it quite sad.)

through the underpasses the journey continues to caskieberran with more raised cubical units. while they are uniform in shape and size, there are individual differences and surface details between them. they do seem to have a little personality attached (and another such detail is the shape of street lights that change from street to street.) i always enjoy imagining the life inside such buildings and how different they must look inside too.

on this walk through the residential areas lead us back to the town centre where you could take a closer look to raeburn heights, a single residential tower block in glenrothes, looking tidy and renovated, surrounded by spacious car parks and i can’t help but wonder what the views must be like from the top floor. as we walk past, we come back to the town centre, the roundabouts, the underpasses and the strange layout of this new town.

on a final point, please let me link a study, okay this is not from scotland but norway, but it’s relevant - it was conducted with residents of an oslo housing estate. as the authors point out, the residents’ responses were focused on “what the landscape offers as home”, contrasting with “how experts often describe housing estates as what these landscapes lack”. let this be the concluding thought to this tour through this strange, quirky town! i hope you enjoyed this and please join me through the other new towns - if things go well, in a couple of months we can travel more across scotland and i can’t wait for another walking tour.

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links:

fife council to commit £1.5m towards demolition of glenwood centre in glenrothes (by neil henderson, the courier, 4 july 2019)

the council (bbc)

modernity, heritage and landscape: the housing estate as heritage (hilde nymoen rørtveita & gunhild settenaa, department of geography, norwegian university of science and technology, trondheim, norway, published online: 3 feb 2015, journal: landscape research)

personal and biased book reviews - eastern blocks by zupagrafika

soooo…. here’s another new blog post series because there are too many forms of inspiration that i want to discuss on the pages of this little journal. i guess it’s only obvious that apart from making things, walking amongst buildings and talking to people, i also like reading books so i’m going to share some of my recommendations and thoughts about inspiring books as well.

i’d like to warn you though that they are entirely personal and biased and every single thought i share about these books will always be heavily from the angle of my own work and what i do and make, so please don’t expect objective, academic reviews because my inspirations are so intertwined with my making. this is going to be more of a series about the thoughts that are influencing my work but let’s start with an easy and visual one - eastern blocks by zupagrafika (2019). this is an absolutely non-comprehensive little collection of photographs of eastern european housing blocks (yes, some from my city, budapest too.)

zupagrafika are an independent publisher/design studio - founded by david navarro and martyna sobecka in poznan, poland and i’m a bit of a fan since they almost single-handedly occupy the niche market for celebratory publications of brutalist architecture in the former eastern bloc and they do it well with a beautiful range behind them - i first got my hands on eastern blocks when it first got published in 2019.

as a predominantly visual work there is very little amount of words, we get a short foreword by christopher beanland from a western perspective and then we can dive right into the photographs, many taken by the design duo themselves. the chapters are divided by locations - we get to visit prefab blocks and estates in berlin, moscow, warsaw, kyiv, budapest and st petersburg. the photography is beautiful work and it’s not from a fixed angle or aesthetics, and that is the greatest benefits i think.

while i don’t completely agree with beanland’s foreword that housing blocks in eastern europe were all about the spectacle, it is true and it applied to all aspects of life, including housing, that image (that of the regime’s) enjoyed the highest priority and it came before any other practicality of real life. for this reason though brutalist architecture nowadays often appears manipulated into either unrealistic, utopian/dystopian depictions of uniformity and scales that never existed, or as exaggerated clichés and close-up metaphors of hardship and suffering. here in this book there is neither, the photographs are simply curious and the reality of the architecture seems to be there as they are - the buildings are obviously the main characters, but the people aren’t invisible. this book is about homes, we don’t get to see inside them but glimpses can be caught of the lives in them and the building’s relationship with the people can also be guessed, neglect or preservation, renovation is all on the photos. we are not to forget that these building blocks aren’t standing on their own but are intertwined with their cities places and people’s lives - there is a human scale and element in even the grandest of scales on all the photos. or perhaps it’s just how i see them because i share the authors’ curiosity about them.

they have another related title that is more connected to my work, panelki. i might reserve a more detailed review for this later but let me just explain how it relates - this book explains a little bit more context on the prefab housing but half the pages are literally a modular set of beautifully illustrated pop-out paper blocks, of which you can assemble your own little prefab house with it. they do have other architectural pop-up books but it’s the one that’s modular and it is very much like how you can create your own pattern here - it’s a bit like how i print so i enjoyed discovering this one.

because of the visible curiosity of eastern blocks though, this remains an inspiring little book after years of looking through it. not only i keep finding new details on the photos themselves, in the close-ups or the facade or the shape, but also it is incredibly well indexed for the architects - all the names are there, the search rabbit hole is ready and inviting to disappear into. there is a lot to enjoy and for those who like my block prints and want to understand more about their inspirations, i totally recommend this book.

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link:

zupagrafika

eastern blocks (2019, hardcover, 144 pages)

panelki (2019, hardcover, 40 pages)

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 green and the grey (an architectural journey through glenrothes, pt. 2)

not having forgotten where we left off with our walk in glenrothes (read the previous part here), we are now ready to continue into the new year, aren’t we? let’s be curious and keep exploring our brutalist architectural journey through glenrothes. if i recall correctly, last time we were at the co-op and the kingdom centre, so let’s come out to the end of the street where the council buildings are - this is the focal point of the town and these buildings form one of the most spectacular landmarks of the town, sadly with a few ones already fallen.

there was glenrothes house (demolished in 2012) and kingdom house (demolished in 2020), and there is still rothesay house and fife house standing. together they form the headquarters of fife council, scotland’s third largest council, governing about 300.000 of us. my favourite buildings were actually the ones gone now - they were the original ones from 1967, first built to house the glenrothes development corporation (in 1967), which later became the office for fife council’s architectural services. of course architects will build the best ones for themselves (and of course my taste goes with theirs.) luckily i managed to catch kingdom house in its full beautiful form on my photos and i’m sharing below for you to enjoy. it’s the windows that got me, the sleek geometry, the angles, the smooth concrete and the not quite symmetric arrangement, that makes up a 3D pattern, a large-scale texture of smooth modules. and i also love the vertical blinds behind the windows and the neon lights that come out in a dark winter afternoon. i just love a modern facade and imagining the kind of work taking place behind it. i would have loved to go inside but it’s gone now and the “obituary” is just a dry warning on road closures to expect as the beautiful building gets taken away. so sad.

what’s remaining are the newer additions, the still concrete, grey and brutalist rothesay house and the more colourful-looking, extended fife house. the former is grey and textured, the latter has some white and green accents on the concrete facade which makes it interesting and is an intriguing pattern inspiration. i’m really not a fan of the postmodernist additions though, especially not the clocktower thing - nevertheless it’s all part of the townscape now and at least the mirrors reflect and double up the brutalist surroundings.

it's all very open and bright though, it certainly feels spacious and airy to me with the open car parks and roundabouts at the centre - i tried to emphasise this sense of openness with my photos, it probably helped that i visited on a sunny day. if a postcard is ever made of glenrothes (unlikely i know but why the hell not), i would pick these photos above - raw concrete window patterns and open, spacious roundabouts with tidy green centres is possibly the most accurate summary of this town. everyone who even has heard about glenrothes will mention roundabouts, they’re almost more famous landmarks than the buildings themselves. it’s very typical of the new town layout of course to separate cars from pedestrians and let cars take up the open, spacious roads. they are also perfect to place public sculptures too - glenrothes was the first town to employ a town artist and is known for its public art (and i might cover this in another blogpost because it’s super interesting!)

the sculptures used to be scattered across the town (and some still are of course) but a lot of it now has been moved to riverside park, just across the road from the council buildings. it’s large, spacious and green - if the road is for the cars, this is for the pedestrians, a massive green space for people to enjoy freely. apart from the sculptures and skateboard park, there are flowerbeds and duck ponds and woodlands - this is the largest green area of the town. the river of which its named after is the river leven - with bridges and obligatory philosophical graffiti - the latest addition being the creatively named river leven bridge, built in 1997, leading the B969 road over the park.

not far from the bridge, a steep set of steps lead out of the park into the residential areas where i’ll take you to next time in the final part of our tour. i hope you enjoyed this and are feeling inspired by the rich, deep facades and the open, inviting free space.

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links:

office block demolition in glenrothes leads to road restrictions (the newsroom, fife today, 07/01/2020 )

when natural cycles turn, brutalist windows can dream of trees (from hill to sea, blog post by murdo eason, fife psychogeographical collective, 17/04/2014)

glenrothes, fife (personal blog by anonymous author)

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)

these architectural walks often feed directly into my textile design practice – especially the bold geometry and surfaces that define many post-war buildings in the UK. 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)