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Tag Archives: Roger Scruton
TAG 4: Classical gears up
TAG 4, the fourth Traditional Architecture Gathering since the first, held in in Charleston, S.C., in 2015 for members of the TradArch listserv, happened on Zoom this past Friday, Saturday and Sunday, sponsored by the Classic Planning Institute. Some 600 … Continue reading
Mandating beauty in Britain?
How thrilling to read that Great Britain’s housing ministry has just issued a proposal to bring beauty and the public more to the forefront of planning and design decisions on the Sceptered Isle. Is this a “mandate” for beauty? Certainly … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture, Development
Tagged Beauty, Donald Trump, Executive Order, Housing Ministry, Joe Biden, Nicholas Boys Smith, Robert Jenrick, Roger Scruton, Tradition, UK
2 Comments
Sir Roger Scruton, RIP
Death took Roger Scruton today. He was the world’s deepest thinker on architecture and aesthetics, which were embedded in the conservatism of his broader philosophy. Scruton embraced tradition, holding that “the tried and true” are a stronger foundation than novelty … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture, Books and Culture
Tagged art, classicism, David Watkin, London, Obit, Roger Scruton, The Classical Vernacular
4 Comments
Scruton’s architecture school
There’s much in the air these days about architecture school. British students have petitioned for architecture schools across the pond to do a better job teaching how architecture school can be more relevant to climate change. Sir Roger Scruton has … Continue reading
Reverse landscape of despair
Understandably, an overlooked part of the debate about architecture is the ease of moving back to tradition in building cities and towns. My blog on Friday, “Modern architecture is killing us,” quoted extensively from James Howard Kunstler’s essay “The Landscape … Continue reading
How modernism is killing us
In my post on Tuesday, “Alien spaceship in Alberta!,” author and iconoclast James Howard Kunstler tagged Edmonton’s new Deconstructivist library as August’s “Eyesore of the Month.” (The name pegs the style as accurately as that of Brutalism.) Well, as they … Continue reading
How to create great streets
Headquartered in London, Create Streets seeks to teach Britons and their place-making institutions how to make better cities and towns. Its mission does not hesitate to include beauty in its remit. Its founder, Nicholas Boys Smith, is now co-chairman (along … Continue reading
A tale of two fountains
Nicholas Boys Smith is a founder of London’s new-urbanist Create Streets organization and is now the co-chairman of the British government’s Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission along with Sir Roger Scruton. Boys Smith had replaced Scruton after the latter was … Continue reading
The apology to Sir Roger
The New Statesman magazine, a British rag, has apologized at last for using monkeyed quotes from an interview in April to defame Sir Roger Scruton, who lost an important government post as a result. Who knows whether Scruton would like … Continue reading
‘Spirit of the age’ bugaboo
Among the most inane of modern architecture’s founding conceits is that buildings reflect the spirit of the age. If a building truly reflects the spirit of the age rather than, as most people would expect, its architect’s desire to express … Continue reading
