ON a cold winter morning, the Cheesegrater, soaring untroubled above the traffic in London's Leadenhall Street, almost shaves flakes off a passing cloud. The wedged skyscraper is perhaps Richard, Lord Rogers's most visible contribution to the city's skyline since yellow spikes rose from the Millennium Dome's white doughnut to pierce the sky in 1999. Both caused a stir, but ask Ruth Rogers, who was married to the late architect for almost 50 years, whether either of these buildings (or any other designed by his practice) was her husband's favourite and she smiles off the idea: 'It's like saying: "Do you have a favourite child?"
However, Rogers did like to return to some buildings more frequently, including the Millennium Dome, the Drawing Gallery at Château La Coste in Le Puy-Sainte-Réparade, France (the last place he designed, for his friend Paddy McKillen, before retiring), and, perhaps above all, the Centre Pompidou, which he visited every time he was in Paris. Only once, recalls Lady Rogers, he declared himself too tired to go to the Pompidou. 'It was like an alarm bell ringing. I thought: "There must be something really wrong." On their return to London, it turned out he had Lyme disease.
It would have been surprising for Rogers not to have a soft spot for the Pompidou, which he designed with Renzo Piano in 197177: so revolutionary that it bordered on architectural madness, it was one of the earliest inside-out buildings, where pipework was deliberately shown off in bold colours. Critics initially excoriated it (Le Figaro called it 'Paris's own monster'), but the building proved a huge success and propelled Rogers to international fame, fully vindicating a young boy that had once been dismissed as 'too stupid' to amount to much.
Denne historien er fra January 03, 2024-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra January 03, 2024-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prÞveperiode pÄ Magzter GOLD for Ä fÄ tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766â68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artistâs first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.