Jonathan Meades

Did anyone watch The Brits who Built the Modern World last night?

Loads of great vintage architecture docos on iPlayer at the moment...

Cheers for head up about the new JM programmes. He is great. Love his irony and laconic delivery. I also like concrete things.

One of mankind's classic building materials and structures made from concrete still exist from Roman times. Versatile and strong. What's not to like?

i doubt he'll cover this aspect of brutalism

and ts, just too many 'hipster' tokens in that shot, too many...

i doubt he'll cover this aspect of brutalism

He does cover it in his article. Look for the paragraph on "Organisation Todt".

"Tod", of course, means 'death' in German, although that is undoubtedly not the etymology of the name.

One of mankind's classic building materials and structures made from concrete still exist from Roman times. Versatile and strong. What's not to like?

I have nothing against concrete used well. It's great as a supporting material. However, while you can undoubtedly do good things with it, its use has given rise to more bad, inhuman urban design than any other material, ever, not only in poorly-structured and poorly-decorated buildings, blank walls and all, but also in motorways, especially concrete flyovers, and, indeed, car parks. Obviously, it would be silly to blame the material for how it's used, but it did happen to enable quite a few very poor uses.

It ubiquity and its versatility means it can be but to many uses so as you say Oliver, it's a great material that can be used to build bad things

bit of a de-rail but does anyone here work in urban planning/development?

You know what I hate more than "ugly" or lazy concrete structures?

The average run of the mill new build british house, which is made of those horrid modern bricks and styled in the shape and construction style of houses from victorian times, but cheaply.

I also hate the concept of facades, where buildings have a supposedly dramatic futuristic look, but only because a bunch of crap has been stuck on top of a very dull run of the mill structure underneath. In Birmingham, the selfridges building is the perfect example. It is literally covered in plywood and then had silver discs stuck on top like sequins. They do nothing other than decoration, there is not even any transparent discs letting you see in/out. There is no relationship between function/form and materials.

Decoration on buildings appeals to me as much as hetchins bikes, or a gold plated charge plug. I also cannot stand buildings that will function & age badly, requiring lots of maintenance to upkeep their illogical designs.

Concrete is beautiful both when it is used in functional structures with bold forms, and when it is contrast with natural undeveloped location or amongst fussy/awkward/frilly non modernist structures. BUT, when you are somewhere where everything is made of concrete and not very well designed, like my native land of bangladesh, it sucks big time. You get sick of it.

Even when your national parliament building looks like this;

The way it is "furnished" inside is not in keeping with the theme at all, but hot potch ugly and depressing. The same is true for what was a dramatic and rather impressive brutalist structure in Birmingham, the central library.

Everyone grew to despise it, but I think it was down to the way they filled what was supposed to be the empty tranquil atrium/hall in the centre with shit depressing mcdonalds etc, poorly equipped the interior which made the building claustrophobic and awkward, very few books, lack of maintenance, (whole place full of cloudy perspex and dust infused 30+ year old carpet. But in terms of the design "quality" as a structure, especially from the outside, I think it is massively superior to the very expensive and much loved replacement, which to me makes no sense at all architecturally.

http://i2.birminghampost.co.uk/incoming/article5834316.ece/ALTERNATES/s1023/library-of-birmingham-sept-3-2-5834316.jpg

Largely because of the "lattice" that covers it, ball ache equivalent of a frilly doily. wtf is it for?

Cue the nazitecture

i doubt he'll cover this aspect of brutalism

how wrong i am!

I always have to watch any Meadesgram 2nd or 3rd time,
because I am only ever on the edge of comprehension,
and,
my brain cannot immediately distinguish whether the images
are illustrative or contradictory,
and
the wilfully dense commentary needs further attempts.

(Wondered if our hero had suffered a mild stroke,
in one of 'to camera' bits his left eye seemed half closed and droopy,
but didn't see it again,
so I'm guessing a mild, transient eye infection).

The BBC delay putting programs on iPlayer now? Says it'll not be available till Thursday.

Hah, I love concrete, and I love Jonathan Meades. Can't wait till i can Play it.

Spotter put me on to his Essex programme a little while ago, which is utterly brilliant. Especially the first ten minutes, if your attention span is lacking. You can watch it on youtube:

Jonathan Meades - The Joy of Essex (29 January 2013) - YouTube

It made me rediscover Meades which is something I should have done before now, so I've been spending the last six months or so catching up on his back catalogue on and off.

I can absolutely agree with you Oliver that brutalism is a poor label, but that's because what is referred to as brutalism was really functionalist architecture. Brutalism was a pejorative term applied by others. Most of the architects wouldn't have cared about your aesthetic judgements because a functionalist approach dictates a healthy disregard for aesthetics, but to me, as DFP says, beauty is found when form follows function.

As DFP says, when form hasn't followed function, it's all gone a bit wrong:

http://s0.geograph.org.uk/photos/66/86/668675_f0850cd5.jpg

Ugh.

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Money/Pix/pictures/2008/09/26/BarrattDavidSillitoe460.jpg

Ew.

http://i.ebayimg.com/t/Hornby-R279-R-279-Mock-Georgian-House-Kit-/00/s/MTEzMlgxNjAw/z/L4cAAOxyaoFSG6-d/$T2eC16NHJIYFHNp!BZuLBSG6-cnFvg~~60_35.JPG

Yuck.

Give me the unadorned, clean lines of brutalist architecture any day.

And yes, hating on concrete is like hating on steel, or glass. Or wattle.

And show me a man who doesn't like polished concrete, and I'll show you a wrong 'un.

Great show as always, he makes my head spin though! Nice to see Leeds in this episode (corn exchange, town hall), hope to see the glorious concrete of Leeds Uni in the next.

I missed it, and am sitting here watching The Joy of Essex again on youtube and marvelling in its sheer awesomeness.
The radio sketches are just the pinnacle of satire.
The commentary on the various influences on Essex "architecture" utterly riveting.
Meade's delivery is as ever sublime.
The camera work also deserves an accolade. Really clever witty work.
I can wait till the new series appears on iPlayer. It will be worth the wait.

Great show as always, he makes my head spin though! Nice to see Leeds in this episode (corn exchange, town hall), hope to see the glorious concrete of Leeds Uni in the next.

Also a picture of some now long demolished 'oriental' baths in Leeds.

I am afraid that he did. This structure featured prominently as did the flack tower.

i doubt he'll cover this aspect of brutalism

and ts, just too many 'hipster' tokens in that shot, too many...

And show me a man who doesn't like polished concrete, and I'll show you a wrong 'un.

I don't but that's because they made the fucking ramp into our work basement out of it. Makes cycling down it on wet days interesting....

I liked the Meades doc, cos i like looking at Brutalist buildings, and while i got some of the links he was making with Victorian buildings, i think the majority was very difficult to follow.
that said, i am daft as a brush, but it was a lot for a lazy sunday evening.

I always have to watch any Meadesgram 2nd or 3rd time,
because I am only ever on the edge of comprehension,
and,
my brain cannot immediately distinguish whether the images
are illustrative or contradictory,
and
the wilfully dense commentary needs further attempts.

(Wondered if our hero had suffered a mild stroke,
in one of 'to camera' bits his left eye seemed half closed and droopy,
but didn't see it again,
so I'm guessing a mild, transient eye infection).

yeah could someone translate what he said ( meades that is ) from oxbridge english into luton polytechnic english please ... had difficulty following some of his trains of thought

he tended to flourish
can i ask oliver if everything meades said did make sense or was he losing the plot on occasions

Love Jonathan Meades. Reckon if I concentrate hard enough, I'll understand at least one full sentence by the end of this series.

And I don't like raw concrete at all.

Good for you rolls eyes

They're all shit. Freaks >>>