Jonathan Meades

'Down under'... troglodyte?

Shick's having a shocker in this thread, absolutely loving' it

Great programme!Not sure what he meant by cytopian or was it psytopian, scitopian...?

Great to see the buildings and to ponder at the logic behind when JM decides to wear his shades and when he decides not to wear them...

I think he's had his eyes lazered, and the glasses shots are from his previous programmes. Those sunglasses used to be prescription, but now I'm not sure that they are.

Whilst I agree with much of what he said, he chose to illustrate his point only with the best examples of modernist concrete, and not the cheap and nasty plan built blocks of the mid century that so blighted the world. Many shots of Balfron Tower for example, but non of the fucking mess that surrounds it.

And Oliver, if you despise concrete I guess you have little appreciation for the Colliseum in Rome or the Pyramids in Egypt? The blocks that made both were cast in situ.

Yes, the Balfron Towers is not as loved as Trellick is.

Then again Balfron and Robin Hood Gardens sit right on top of the N Side of the Blackwall Tunnel

I am in two minds about the programme..There is / was some badly thought out concrete architecture in London; especially LCC/ GLC built stuff. East London has many a copy of the Courbusier Building in Marseille where JM now lives . I lived in an LCC designed block in Bow and enjoyed it.

The failure of many of these buidings was partly where they were sighted, see Balfron Towers , and partly how they were maintained.

One of the great mistakes in public housing in East London was the GLC centralising the care taking of its estates. Thereafter, no body was ever in charge of them - apologies to younger readers for dragging you back to the 80s.

just watched and drank wole bottle of white burgundy in less than an hour.

i liek.

Er... Weren't the pyramids made out of quarried and cut stone? #ogmasons #illuminati #chemtrailz #etc With you 100% on the Coliseum, but...

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

The funny thing is that he didn't even go to university. He went to a private school in Taunton then straight to RADA. He is just one of those people who have an insatiable intellectual curiosity (and opinions) and I love him for it.

The best Jonathan Meades story is about why he went to RADA. He was travelling on the train somewhere and randomly sat next to Charles Collingwood, who plays Brian Aldridge in The Archers (and is also a RADA almunus). They got talking and Meades at the time couldn't decide what he wanted to do, so he went to RADA.

I just love that Jonathan Meades is who he is (as he describes it, a character he is very good at playing: himself) because of Brian Aldridge. This fact basically blows my mind.

Nobody actually knows how the pyramids were built.

We only have theories...

I Sphinx I know how pyramids were built: British engineer dubbed Indiana James stuns archaeologists with new theory

Must admit I didn't think concrete was involved though.

It was a chap called Joseph Davidovits who first hypothesised that instead of having slaves drag blocks of stone to the site they dragged bags of aggregate. Whilst some blocks definitely appear to be quarried, some others apparently bear casting marks and are of a different chemical composition, suggesting they were cast in situ.
It's not a universally accepted theory, and has been scotched by some, but it's reasonable, believable there's enough evidence to suggest its possible.
Here's an article with a bit of an overview
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/world/africa/23iht-pyramid.1.12259608.html?pagewanted=all

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

Cuthbert Broderick:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuthbert_Brodrick

and

http://www.jdwetherspoon.co.uk/home/pubs/the-cuthbert-brodrick

'Down under'... troglodyte?

I could architect a better pillbox with MS Paint and both eyes closed.

That was hard work. He's relentlessly intellectual.

The nazi-bunker origins and the mistranslation of brutalism were the new bits for me.

Now to dream of concrete.

Great programme!Not sure what he meant by cytopian or was it psytopian, scitopian...?

Great to see the buildings and to ponder at the logic behind when JM decides to wear his shades and when he decides not to wear them...

Just watching it again,
thought I heard it different to you:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclopean_masonry

That was hard work. He's relentlessly intellectual.

The nazi-bunker origins and the mistranslation of brutalism were the new bits for me.

Now to dream of concrete.

Seen JerryBuilt
or
Magnetic North?

I could architect a better pillbox with MS Paint and both eyes closed.

Someones already done it for you:

http://www.australiansportsnutrition.com.au/shop/products/1967.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclopean_masonry

Ahh makes more sense now.
Word,
cheers

Seen JerryBuilt
or
Magnetic North?

No.

That was hard work. He's relentlessly intellectual.

Saying that his patter is very repetitive.

Generally stands infront of an example, then contradicts it with stereotypes and chucks one or two accurate positive descriptions in like little fireworks of hope.

More poet really.

And I don't like raw concrete at all.

Just as well that that's your opinion.

Concrete is beautiful...

^this

Such a good example of how concrete and nature can work together.

ftfy:

Such a good example of how concrete and wealth can work together.

It's a "low budget" build and actually only cost $262 per m2 or a grand total of $27,510.

I'd consider that excellent value for money.

And presumably by work together you mean aesthetically, as opposed to actually being a lump of impermeable material dropped into a landscape?

If you can afford to live there, it's because you have another house somewhere that's near some good baristas, great denim stores and bespoke ax vendors. etc. Probs.

Sadly so, it's about 400km from Buenos Aires.