After our abortive attempt to buy a barn at Bubbenhall, Paul Harrington said, "Do you know there's a redundant church for sale opposite my parents' house?"
And Sue said "That chancel would make a great music room..." and so John's mind was made up.
During the long search for the right architect, Graham and Heather suggested Simon Hudspith. Simon produced a first sketch that seemed spot on: new steel, glass and render contrasting strongly with the old stone, but respecting its character and complementing it. Many hours were spent by Simon and Ian to fit all the modern services into a small central area, resolved finally with the adoption of a spiral staircase. So effective was the original plan that several times they had to bring the design back to those first principles.
model and sketch plan (c) Panter Hudspith Architects
Quotations for our design brief
"It should link with the England of the past, belong to the geology and geography of Warwickshire and yet be the outcome of the ethics of today." (after W A Tipping, Country Life, 1909).
"We must do it in such a way that the spirit of the building is still there." Renzo Piano (on the conversion of a dockside warehouse, Genoa) 1992.
"Preserve the memory and spirit of the place - but make it a happy one." Renzo Piano (on the conversion of the disused FIAT Lingotto works, Turin) 1992.
"Tradition is slovenliness." Gustav Mahler
Et ut inhabitem in domo Domini, in longitudinem dierum (Ps. xxiii. 6)
Art thou troubled? Music will calm thee. (Handel: Rodelinda)
Landscape is measured by a sense of loss.
Less heritage, more culture! (Nicholas Snowman)
Art disturbs; science reassures (Braque)
Burn out, or bland out... (NME)
The past is easy to plunder because no-one answers back (Angela Piccini)
Masonry absorbs the lives it has seen
Iconoclasm is the natural opponent of a much greater evil: the blind worship of heritage (Gamboni)
The dead should not be permitted to be so much stronger than the living (Marcel Duchamp)
That passed away, and so may this.
How would it be if everyone did that?
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