You know how architects always tell their clients that the proposed timber cladding will 'weather down' into a shimmering grey colour? Well, they're lying. In this case it's Hunters' sweet chestnut cladding on a special needs school in Leicestershire, looking pretty ropey a few months after opening. Click on the picture for the close-up horror.This school is sustainable. So sustainable, in fact, that trees grow inside the building!
This might be my first example on this blog of something that's so bad, it's good.
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is the ceiling supported by the trees? that would be radical!
ReplyDeletehang on - just this very day I was walking past a recently completed yuppie-drome in H******, E*** L*****, which is totally covered in dirty, manky, grey timber panels, and to my surprise, I loved it despite myself.
ReplyDeleteWhen it's one single surface as part of one of those horrendous, bitty, over-detailed yet under-designed buildings then it can be heinous, but half-close your eyes and you're almost looking at fair-faced timber-shuttered concrete. Yum! Accidental genius!
i like the texture, particularly the weathering - from this angle for me it's a winner. Don't like the picket fencing
ReplyDeleteSometimes its better to look beyond the architecture. This is a gigantic leap in the right direction compared to prior decades of concrete jungles. The School is mainly built in this media and interest for the children, touch for many special need children is an important sense the textures provide stimulus for this, the school is also equipped with sensory rooms and lights, including some motifs which are designed by the children for the children. The school is a blessing compared to the previous mobiles and rabbit warren which was the previous site.
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