The Brilliance of British Architecture and Design
During these three one-hour talks we will examine the best of British architecture and design from a non-technical perspective with an emphasis on British talent. Ian Swankie will take us on a journey around some of the finest buildings and will introduce us to the talented people who designed them.
Lecture 1 - The Gleaming Spires of London from 1066 to 2066
London boasts an extraordinary range of architecture and this talk reveals the evolution of the capital through its prominent buildings. We start by examining London’s architecture following the Norman Conquest and then explore the way it has developed over the centuries right up to the present day.
Whether we like it or not, the skyline of London is changing with the construction of hundreds of new buildings over 20 floors high including dozens twice this height. This talk looks at the best of these buildings including the cutting-edge designs of the recent towers such as the Shard, the Walkie-Talkie, Twenty-two Bishopsgate, and the Cheesegrater. We discover their extraordinary architectural and engineering challenges but also examine the controversies and difficult social decisions needed to manage this dramatically changing skyline which will be around for future generations.
Lecture 2 - The Brilliance of Thomas Heatherwick – a Modern Leonardo.
The past few years have seen the meteoric rise of this extraordinarily versatile British designer with his acclaimed Olympic Cauldron, the iconic new London bus and designs for some spectacular high- profile buildings in the UK and overseas. Over the last twenty years the Heatherwick Studio has used an intriguing combination of curiosity and experimentation to produce a vast range of solutions to design challenges around the world. This talk looks at the problems presented, and the wonderfully creative ways in which Heatherwick and his team have responded in designing everything from handbags and furniture to universities and entire towns.
Lecture 3 - The Classical Re-invented – the legacy of Sir Christopher Wren
In this talk we wind the clock back to the seventeenth century and enjoy an armchair tour of some of Wren’s magnificent structures including City Churches, the Old Royal Naval College at Greenwich and of course, his greatest masterpiece St Paul’s Cathedral. Wren was primarily a mathematician and astronomer and we’ll see how these disciplines are harnessed in his work. His love of the classical order is everywhere to be seen in his legacy.
Ian Swankie
Ian Swankie is a Londoner with a contagious enthusiasm for art and architecture. He is an official guide at Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Guildhall Art Gallery and St Paul’s Cathedral. He is also a freelance London tour guide. Since 2012 he has led a popular weekly independent art lecture group in his hometown of Richmond in West London. He is an accredited lecturer for The Arts Society, and a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Art Scholars, one of the City Livery Companies.
Ian is a highly sought after Arts Society lecturer and someone who is very popular with our Society.
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