21 March. 3d Max Lesson

• Converting 3d objects to editable poly. this allows you to edit your shape.->(right click. convert to . converto editable poly.)
• selecting polygon . at the selection tool bar.---> allows you to select individual faces of the object.
• Material Editor.Blinn Basic Parameters . Blank box next to diffuse.
• After applying texture to object. you have to turn on 'show map in view port.'
• Ray trace. - Mirror texture. alter the reflect properties
• tool bar-Rendering. Environment and effects. to set environment of object.
• Importing background image to plot object.-->View. Viewport background. File. select file. enter
• browes premade material library. from mlt library in material/map browser.

Lighting

• Create- Light- Omni

3dvia - website with 3dmax samples.

Render scene. select file type as avi <--- large file. you can resize it with divx.

touch up in photoshop.

• add flare. for reflection.

pan camera.

Draw line. for the camera path. complete enclosed line. then create a target camera . select camera again . animation. constrants. path constrant.select path. press play.

compressing video.

DIVx.com-download software - and when exporting file. select divx as a way of compressing video.

Permindar Kaur

What inspires me about Permindar Kaur's work is that in her work she alters every day objects in height or materials to alter/ magnify human feelings towards their surroundings. Also from using different locations the same object can displays different properties. For instance, the installation below shows vertically extended bunk beds in a white sterile warehouse gallery. The colourful Fabric on the mattress offers a something that says, soft hiding place. To observe people from above. There is only one way up . Being up on the top of the bunk bed almost feels like being in a child's imagination defending the castle against the monster from beneath the bed . Although if the same bunk bed was to be placed in a domestic bedroom. The whole image will change entire. The intimate, secure and illusion of security will change entirely. Into a trap, a claustrophobic space, a adventure turned sour into a nightmare.
(Above: My personal response to Permindar Kaur's Work. Manipulation in Photoshop.)
Conclusion: Altering an object's purpose and identity by altering shape, material & location.

If a Dining Table was to be padded with cushion and upholstered in fabric. Is it still a dining table?

If the mattress on a bed was to be replaced by a patch of chunk of grass and earth dug up from the back garden. It has the same properties, soft, comfortable to be on. Is it still considered a bed?

Comfort of little places

12th sept-18th oct, 1998

Permindar Kaur was born in 1965 in nottingham. She studied at Sheffield Polytechnic (BFA) and the Glasgow school of art (MFA). She lives and works in London.

Permindar Kaur: "I am interested in creating an environment which at first glance appears safe and yet is a distortion of that which is intimate and secure, an illusion of security."

Preface. cold comfort. Exhibition catalogue

Permindar Kaur removes the domestic and the familiar from their everyday surroundings and transforms them to produce disquieting results. The experience of her work can be unnerving, like visiting a deserted house or an abandoned institution. Feelings of containment and anxiety are explored through figures and objects, some of which are enticing in their sensual beauty while others produce feelings of entrapment.

She has always been particularly interested in relating her work to the site in which it is placed. Ikon Gallery, as part of its policy of giving artists opportunities to make new work, has therefore commissioned her to make a new installation for the gallery. The artist's response to the space reflects her continuing interest in the domestic environment. The tall bed structures, placed in the white walled gallery, subvert notions of privacy, intimacy and comfort. A thought- provoking twist is given to mundane domesticity.

The works on show at the Mead Gallery maintain a sense of subversion. They include work made in Spain last year as well as more recent work made on the artist's return to the UK.

Elizabeth A. Macgregor

Sarah Shalgosky

http://www.permindar.kaur.com/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

About Loss but not childhood

Jose Lebrero Stals.

We should not be surprised therefore at her insistence on using her works to mark a place, to construct dwelling-places and to recreate spaces apparently intended for rest, but which nonetheless always seem disproportionately large or small.

Functionally deficient, symbolic of the domestic environment, these spaces fit ill with the canonic conventions of sculptures. The figures and objects, constructed by the artist, are deliberately crude, simple representations of human beings in whom personal identity is barely extant, Yet Kaur's subject is not childhood, rather she uses childish objects to invoke vulnerability. Innocence and ingenuousness expressed by an adult can also be read as gestures of rebellion.

What she deals with here is precisely the recreation of specific emotions, first manufacturing, then 'furnishing' these terrible, intimate, indistinct figures. For the view, the way in which this practice connects with their author's childhood experience is secondary; childhood is present here not as autobiographical jottings but as a repertory of rhetorical resources and an avenue of intellectual escape.

In her personal universe, the idea of 'home' is associated with (one's) own personal space' and related to (one's) 'own experience'. Home is security, but the manifest vulnerability in these works invites one to meditate on loss and deracination.

Through the Labyrinth

XII Labyrinths as Personal Emblems.

Labyrinth sumbolism encompasses abstract ideas, generic terms, objects, and moral judments, to which interpretations of the labyrinth - as a tortuous path that threatens to lead one astray, as a world of sin, or as the underworld - bear witness. The labyrinth can also be associated with people. To those who wished to document their understanding of self able; to elect not ot view the labyrinth in terms of itself but, rather, as an allusion to its alleged inventor, Daedalus, the father of artists and architects, with whom the person would have wished to be compared and identified. The other possibility was to choose one meaning associated with labyrinths and to employ it - often in combination with a motto as a personal atrribute.

In Herodotus's time, the word "labyrinth" was used in a metaphorical sense to describe a large notable structure, worthy of Daedalus.

A similar case would appear to be represented by a Greel inscription in Imperial Rome, which a certain Quintus Julius Miletus ordered to be carved on a monument in a place designated a "Labyrinth". In the inscription he addresses his fellow guild members, the marmorarii (stonemasons), who were under the protection of Greco-Egyptians god Sarapis, as follows: " To the living this is a maze; you, friends, should always take pleasure in the labyrinth."

3d max workshop . 14/3/2011

Material Editor.

Mapping.

diffuse colour.

done.

bitmap.

choose image.

UVW Mappings.

Box.

Convert to editable mesh.

(different properties - edit and apply different editing steps.)

Modifier's list

polygon.

(select a surface)

Assign material to surface.

To cut holes in objects.

create 2 objects. compound them.

boolean.

pick operand B

The body in the City: The b-b-b-Body: Block, Blob, Blur

Mannerism is a period of European art that emerged from the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520. It lasted until about 1580 in Italy, when a more Baroque style began to replace it, but Northern Mannerism continued into the early 17th century throughout much of Europe.^[1] Stylistically, Mannerism encompasses a variety of approaches influenced by, and reacting to, the harmonious ideals and restrained naturalism associated with artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and early Michelangelo. Mannerism is notable for its intellectual sophistication as well as its artificial (as opposed to naturalistic) qualities.

The definition of Mannerism, and the phases within it, continues to be the subject of debate among art historians. For example, some scholars have applied the label to certain early modern forms of literature (especially poetry) and music of the 16th and 17th centuries. The term is also used to refer to some Late Gothic painters working in northern Europe from about 1500 to 1530, especially theAntwerp Mannerists—a group unrelated to the Italian movement. Mannerism also has been applied by analogy to the Silver Age of Latin.

Mirror stage

Main article: Mirror stage

Lacan's first official contribution to psychoanalysis was the mirror stage, which he described as "formative of the function of the I as revealed in psychoanalytic experience." By the early 1950s, he came to regard the mirror stage as more than a moment in the life of the infant; instead, it formed part of the permanent structure of subjectivity. In "the Imaginary order," his or her own image permanently catches and captivates the subject. Lacan explains that "the mirror stage is a phenomenon to which I assign a twofold value. In the first place, it has historical value as it marks a decisive turning-point in the mental development of the child. In the second place, it typifies an essential libidinal relationship with the body-image".^[21]

As this concept developed further, the stress fell less on its historical value and more on its structural value.^[7] In his fourth Seminar, "La relation d'objet," Lacan states that "the mirror stage is far from a mere phenomenon which occurs in the development of the child. It illustrates the conflictual nature of the dual relationship."

The mirror stage describes the formation of the Ego via the process of objectification, the Ego being the result of a conflict between one's perceived visual appearance and one's emotional experience. This identification is what Lacan called alienation. At six months, the baby still lacks physical co-ordination. The child is able to recognize himself or herself in a mirror prior to the attainment of control over his or her bodily movements. The child sees his or her image as a whole and the synthesis of this image produces a sense of contrast with the lack of co-ordination of the body, which is perceived as a fragmented body. The child experiences this contrast initially as a rivalry with his or her own image, because the wholeness of the image threatens the child with fragmentation—thus the mirror stage gives rise to an aggressive tension between the subject and the image. To resolve this aggressive tension, the child identifies with the image: this primary identification with the counterpart forms the Ego.^[7] Lacan understands this moment of identification as a moment of jubilation, since it leads to an imaginary sense of mastery; yet when the child compares his or her own precarious sense of mastery with the omnipotence of the mother, a depressive reaction may accompany the jubilation.^[22]

Lacan calls the specular image "orthopaedic," since it leads the child to anticipate the overcoming of its "real specific prematurity of birth." The vision of the body as integrated and contained, in opposition to the child's actual experience of motor incapacity and the sense of his or her body as fragmented, induces a movement from "insufficiency to anticipation."^[23] In other words, the mirror image initiates and then aids, like a crutch, the process of the formation of an integrated sense of self.

In the mirror stage a "misunderstanding" (méconnaissance) constitutes the Ego—the "me" (moi) becomes alienated from itself through the introduction of an imaginary dimension to the subject. The mirror stage also has a significant symbolic dimension, due to the presence of the figure of the adult who carries the infant. Having jubilantly assumed the image as his or her own, the child turns his or her head towards this adult, who represents the big Other, as if to call on the adult to ratify this image.^[24]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Lacan#Mirror_stage

Lacan, in 1954, had elaborated his theory of the symbolic imaginary of the subject by delineating the famous diagram of the upturned bunch of flowers, a diagram tha, for Lacan, signified the relations between our body, the objects of our desire, and the eye, situated in the world of the symbolic.

Georgian Architecture. Wiki

Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1720 and 1840. It is eponymous for the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover—George I of Great Britain, George II of Great Britain, George III of the United Kingdom, and George IV of the United Kingdom—who reigned in continuous succession from August 1714 to June 1830.

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

The most common building materials used are brick or stone. Commonly used colors were red, tan, or white. However, modern day Georgian style homes use a variety of colors.

The body in architecture

In the work of Bacon sociability organizes the body as corporate, itself an abstract body, and in Descartes the thinking I inverts the subjects as object.

René Descartes

http://workwithoutdread.blogspot.com/2007/06/descartes-insomniac.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Descartes

Francis Bacon

Title:Through the labyrinth : designs and meanings over 5000 years / Hermann Kern.

Author:Kern, Hermann.

Published:Munich ; London : Prestel, 2000.

Physical description:360p. : ill.(some col.), maps ; 32cm.

ISBN:3791321447

Contributors:Saward, Jeff.

Notes:Based on German rev. ed., 1983, with updates for this English ed. by Jeff Saward.
Includes bibliographical references and index.

Subjects:Labyrinths--Social aspects.


Labyrinths.

As a graphic, linear figure, a labyrinth is best defined first in terms of form. Its round or rectangular shae makes sense only when viewed from above, like the ground plan of a uilding. Seen as such, the lines appear as delineating walls and the space between them as a path, the legendary "thread of Ariadne." The walls themselves are unimportant. Their sole function is to mark a path, to define choreographically, as it were, the fixed pattern of movement.

e-resources. Heather sneadon.

E-books.
Search for book in e-book selections. download and view...



E-library.
search engines:

• nexis
• credoreferences

E-library. Find resources. Subject . art and design. all . go

E-library. Find e-journal. subject. arts and humanities. architecture. go

Blibliography. harvard reference system.

http://www.arts.ac.uk/library/skills.htm

The body in the City: A discourse on cyberscience. M.Christine Boyer

• • Title:The Body in Architecture
    
  • Published:Rotterdam : Uitgeverij 010 Publishers , 2006.
    
  • Physical description:379 p. : col. ill. ; 24cm.
    
  • ISBN:9064505683
    
  • Contributors:Graafland, Ad.
    Hauptmann, Deborah.
• 
  
• pp.27. The city and the body are both systems that function and malfunction, involving complex processes that remain invisible or unspecified. In both the city and the body there is a deep-seated network of pathways and interrelationships between layers and parts, which keep the city or the body functioning, delivering life or death. A highly complex system is one in which the observer does now have complete knowledge or information and can not make a complete structural or operational description of how the system works, or describe the casual connections between its parts, or explain how its behaviour is produced. Thus complexity is measured by the information the analyzer does not have and would need to specify the system in all of its details. It necessarily requires the construction of models that simulate the organized and behavior of the system.
• 
  
• pp.9 . In his A philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our ideas of the sublime and beautiful, he remarks:
• I know that it has been said long since, and echoed backward and forward from one writer to another a thousand times, that the proportions of building have been taken from those of the human body. To make this forced analogy complete, they represent a man with his arms raised and extended at full length, and then describe a sort of squre, as it is formed by passing lines along the extremities of this strange figure. But it appears very clearly to me, that the human figure never supplied the architect with any of his ideas. For in the first place, men are very rarely seen in this strange posture; it is not natural to them; neither is it at all becoming . Secondly, the view of the human figureso disposed does not naturally suggest the idea of the square, but rather of a cross; as that large space between the arms and the ground, must be filled with something before it can make anybody think of a square. Thirdly, several buildings are by no means of the form of that particular square, which are notwithstanding planned by the best architects, and produce an effect all together as good, and perhaps a better. And certainly nothing could be more unaccountably whimsical than for an architect to model his performance by the human figure, since no two things can have less resemblance or analogy, than a man, and a house or temple.

• dealing with perspective as a conceptual framework that is implicit in the theory of perception and proportion. In other words, our theoretical notions of reality are formative for our experiences: thus, what we consider important for experience of architecture is intricately related to our conceptual frames.

pp.10 A body, in Deleuze, can be most anything; it can be an animal, a body of sounds, a linguistic corpus, a social body; yet, a body must be defined as a unity of parts, parts held together relationally and having a capacity to affect and be affected both internally and externally; further, in this reading, it is only kinetic and dynamic differences that mark the individual body and that along two axes; on the kinetic axis there will be a characteristic relation of speed, slowness, relative states of motion and rest that maintain the individual in existence - (hypokeimenon, substrate or perdurance ) - and on the dynamic axis degrees of power, bodies which affect are affected.

What can a body do>?

• 
  
  

Toyo Ito . Research

• • Title:Toyo Ito : works projects writings / edited by Andrea Maffei.
    
  • Published:Milan : Electa Architecture, 2002.
    
  • Physical description:361p : 378ill.(357col.). ; 28cm.
    
  • ISBN:1904313019
    
  • Contributors:Maffei, Andrea, 1968-
    
  • Subjects:Ito, Toyo.
  
  
  pp.9. Andrea Maffei stated : 'The works of Toyo Ito can be considered one of the most significant interpretations of the complexity of the Japanese world. It is difficult to make his architecture fit into a precise and consistent current of thought, and the fact is that it is not Ito's primary intention to pursue a single line of research or create a formal 'style' of his own that can be applied everywhere. His research starts out from an attentive observation of Japanese consumer society and an interpretation of its social context.
  
  ......These cities have no real and lasting substance like European cities. Instead, they retain the impermanence and precariousness of a macro-infrastructure. If we look at Japanese tradition, buildings were constructed out of wood, never stone or brick, owing to the constant threat of earthquakes, and this were habitually rebuilt after a short time as the materials worn out. In japanese culture the idea of solid and substantial architecture, designed to last, does not exit.
  
  .... Toyo Ito starts out from an objective analysis of the conditions of Japanese society and its modus vivendi and goes on to devise a solution of his own.
  (Modus vivendi is a Latin phrase signifying an agreement between those whose opinions differ, such that they agree to disagree.)
  
  
  Homogeneous Space -
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homogeneous_space
  
  pp.10. The White U., a house he built for his sister, a musicologist, marks instead the beginning of his attempt to rise above any formal constraint and move toward the neutrality of a homogeneous space, without any windows opening onto the street, but only onto an internal courtyard, so that the city cannot be seen. Relating to the complexity of the urban context and fragmentary character, the space is isolated and interiorised in the non-representational character o an absolutely white volume.
  
  all contact is lost with the outside, leading to an immaterial abstraction of the building. The constant fluidity of movement and change in the big city is synthesized in a choice of continuous and formless space. The negation of form frees the building from succession of distinct parts and permits the creation of a single fluid system.
• 
  

Maruni

http://www.maruni.com/nextmaruni/e/aboutmaruni/aboutmaruni_index.html

Sou Fujimoto

sou fujimoto

http://www.designboom.com/eng/interview/sou_fujimoto.html

was born in hokkaido, japan, on august 4th, 1971.
in 1994 he graduated from the department of architecture
in the faculty of engineering at the university of tokyo.
he established his own architectural practice in tokyo in 2000.
sou fujimoto is a lecturer at kyoto university since 2007.

what books do you have on your bedside table?
one of my favorite books is written by toro takemitsu.
he is a great japanese contemporary music composer and
at the same time he's a very good writer. his words about
music, about the japanese culture, about the world inspire
me.

I assume you notice how women dress.
do you have any preferences?
I like clothes by issey miyake.
that's not limited to women, I like his thinking of how to
create clothing.a while ago there was a magazine I looked
at that had images of women in africa wearing issey
miyake's dresses. it was an amazing photo report.
I was very surprised about how the dresses, colors and
their living style blend so well together.

when you were a child, did you want to become a
architect?
I grew up in hokkaido, in the northern part of japan,
surrounded by nature and I enjoyed just playing in the
forest. I didn't think about any future of mine.
my hero was albert einstein, so originally I wanted to be a
physicist like him, I was interested in the physical aspects of
our world. now I find many similarities in the research and
practice in both fields, architecture and physics. my first
experience with architecture was with antonio gaudi
(through reading a book about him).

describe your style, like a good friend of yours would
describe it.
I call it 'primitive future'.
a sort of primitive situation that relates to the human 'cave'
habitation but at the same time I like to create something
new for the future.
I recently gave a lecture 'cave or nest', the two embryonic
states of architecture.
a 'nest' is a place for people that is very well prepared,
everything is assembled and very functional, meanwhile
the 'cave' is just a raw space, which people need to explore
and find their own comfort within. this is a situation where
people can use space creatively.
I prefer something like the cave-like-unintentional space.
something that is in between nature and artifact - formless
form.

what project has given you the most satisfaction?
there are two low-budget projects that I have just recently
finished.one is named house N which is a very simple box
house. an outdoor space that feels like the indoors and an
indoor space that feels like the outdoors. I think we were
successful in creating a space between the house and
city. my ideal is architecture too be roofless and garden-like.
the other project is called 'final wooden house'.
we stacked wooden blocks together to create a very small
house, in which there are no categorization of floors, walls,
and ceilings.because floor levels are relative people
reinterpret the spatiality according to where they are. it was
a big challenge for us, as we needed to consider if there
was enough space for people (laughs).

is there any architect from the past, you appreciate a lot?
louis kahn, le corbusier, mies van der rohe...
and of course michelangelo.
I also like the architecture designed by nobody, for example
gothic cathedrals.

I think I we have to be very serious about the change
in climate and the situation of nature. I think that it is a
great opportunity for us to rethink about
the modern age culture of controlling everything.
we have to change that kind of whole super controlling
situation.for example air conditioning - when we use it we
close and shut out nature and we are limited in the space
we have. the artificial machine of the air conditioning is
controlling our space and separating each other.
instead we might be able to live together and use a kind of
natural power to create a more comfortable space.humans
should adapt a bit more, rather than control.

http://www.iwan.com/photo_House_N_Sou_Fujimoto.php?plaat=House-N-Fujimoto-4762.jpg

Inspiring Images

Its all in your head installation.

Interesting Stairs Research

From the image and ideas research from below. I would like to take essences of the designs below to create the stairs for my spatial stair project.

Incorporating my previous project ideas and learning within. I would like to design a staircase on that would allow users to travel between the floors of the house. Offer tranquil studying and relaxing spaces within and also incorporate labyrinth layouts to the design. Exploring into different materials and finishes.

http://www.thedesignblog.org/entry/jenga-inspired-next-generation-house-is-a-sheer-wooden-waste/

Red Staircase, image taken in 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa( Japan) by gravestmore.

Do-ho suh.

The Simplistic basic forma and requirement of stairs. Paul Cha Architect

Paul Cha Architect

This modern Storey staircase by Europa Stairways, could update any decor, adding a fresh twist to a standard staircase design. This unique, high quality model is composed of the finest materials available and has been constructed using exquisite craftsmanship.

Best disguised staircase. Clever way to pack in those winter and summer shoes for quick access. Small handle on the right corner offers easy and safe access.

The Staircase above is the perfect solution for a snug fit loft space stairs. Maximizing storage space in an enclosed space.

Packing away those stairs by increasing the step height and having triangle shaped steps,This maximizes the stepping area and minimized the length of space consumed by stairs.

It also look brilliant.

Digital Media WorkShop. 7th March

Importing Auto-cad Files and Rendering in 3ds max
STEP1: IMPOTING IMAGE PNG TO AUTOCAD
File - open. - (select floorplan image file.)(png)
select - open - (image.)
ENTER to insert image on plane.

STEP 2: SCALING IMAGE IN AUTO CAD
Create a new layer,

Draw a 2 parallel red line on the 1meter tiles.

'di' the line. (Find out the distance)

Calculate the scale of the line (1000/di length)
'scale'. select image area. input scale factor(1000/di length)
(NOW YOU SHOULD HAVE A SCALED IMAGE OF THE FLOOR PLAN)

STEP3: POLY LINE TRACING OVER IMAGE/

New Layer - (named Red image) - Transfer image to this layer.

Lock 'Red image' layer


Select 'Red layer' now and work on this layer.

As this floor plan is based around 1m3 tiles. using offset 'poly line'(pl).<- because it is an continuous enclosed line. The only type of line 3ds max recognise

(F8) Turns 'Ortho' on.

STEP4: IMPORTING IN 3Ds MAX

Select lines in 3ds max and start naming properties for names.

select line - modifier list - extrude - > alter 'parameters'.

to be continued...

Doll House Project.Georgian Group

The first stage of the design brief was to construct an 1:20 Doll House base of an Georgian Terrace.

Design Research for Staircase Project in Georgian Terrace.

I'm designing a staircase linking all 5 projects over 5 floors. The project has to be inspired from previous design projects based about learning.

Georgian Research:

Summerson, J., 1991. Georgian London. England: Penguin Books.

P65. L3. :"The typical site of a London House is therefore a long strip of ground running back from the street. The house covers the front part of the strip, the middle part is garden or courtyard, and at the back is, in the larger type of house, a coach-house and stable served from a subsidiary road."

'

p67.L1.: "Minor Variations, However, art infinitely possible. The stair can be turned this way and that, made to descend into a great hall, or built in a circular well; columns and entablatures, double doors, coved recesses and niches can be introduced."

(An entablature (pronounced /ɛnˈtæblətʃər/; Italian intavolatura, from in 'in' and tavola 'table') refers to the superstructure of moldings and bands which lie horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and are commonly divided into the architrave(the supporting member carried from column to column, pier or wall immediately above), the frieze (an unmolded strip that may or may not be ornamented), and the cornice (the projecting member below the pediment). )

P67.L14. "The insistent verticality of the London House is idiomatic. The French learnt at an early date to live horizontally and most, if not all, continental captials followed the French lead. In London , only bachelor lawyers lived in 'chambers', and the block of apartments of high social standing was unknown till Henry Ashton built the flats in Victoria street, in the 1850s. The vertical living-idioms produced many comments from foreigners, the best of which is Louis Simond's, written just after Waterloo:

These narrow houses, three or four storyes high - one for eating, one for sleeping, a third for company, a fourth underground for the kitchen, a fifth perhaps at top for the servants - and the agility, the ease, the quickness with which the individuals of the family run up and down, and perch on the different storeys, give the idea of a cage and its sticks and birds."

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

Modifications in building techniques.

Continued fear of conflagrations.

Abolishing the prominent wooden eaves-cornices which were sch a striking feature of the streets and squares of the restoration. Roofs were hidden by a parapet wall.

Changes in building practice under the Acts of 1707 and 1709. The parapet, stone cornice, and recessed window frame.

Vitruvius Britannicus

Palladio

P.79 : Georgian London's native building material was brick, made of the London clay in hundreds of suburban brick fields, whose smoking kilns marred the prospect. In quality these bricks ranged from the good hard 'stocks' of which all outer walls were constructed, to the worst 'place' bricks, whose composition included as much ash as clay but which, for cheapness' sake, were used for the unseen work in party walls and partitions, sowing the seeds of structural defects which are constantly becoming apparent today, under stress of time, traffic, and bombs.

The 'stocks' were of two colors - grey and red, the latter being a trifle more costly. The grey bricks, however, were preferred for walling in general. Red had been fashionably in Queen Anne's time but the later builders considered them not merely unfashionable but too 'hot' in color, and ugly in combination with stone and white painted wood.

After bricks , the London builder's chief material was timber, and under this head we need only mention Baltic fir and English oak.