ARCH162

Snowdon Aviary The Snowdon Aviary was a first of its kind. This pavilion space was inspired by birds and their "graceful" movements. At a time of British Architectural innovation and vision, the idea of the aviary came along during the Festival of Britain. Located along the Regent's Canal, it is basically an aluminum cage with netting to keep the birds from flying away. It was gauged as a pavilion style establishment and an architectural experiment. Designed by Cedric Price, Frank Newby and Anthony Armstrong-Jones, it was built in 1962 and was dedicated to Lord Snowdon. It was one of the earlier explorations into tensile frame construction. Nothing had ever been experimented with steel frame like the Aviary. The idea was to establish enclosure by not enclosing. This was a challenge for the designers as the idea of preserving a fragile space while being able to contain, immediately resulted in a building that left a footprint. In order to combat the idea of ...

Buckingham Palace The Neoclassical movement emerged as a revival of ancient Greek and Roman architecture. The movement came across as a kind of “back to the basics” mindset throughout European countries such as France, Italy, and Germany. Before the movement, Baroque architecture was in high demand. Big ornamental, unnecessarily decorated interiors and exteriors of buildings were popping up all over Europe. However, Baroque architecture never really appealed to the United Kingdom, so Neoclassicism in England was a bit different throughout the rest of Europe. In England, the revival of Greek and Roman architecture resulted in many governmental buildings resembling big temple like structures. The United Kingdom has always had a habit of wanting to be the best of the best. One of the most successful places full of rich beautiful architecture was the Roman Empire. The United Kingdom thought that, they could in fact be the new modern Roman Empire by implementing their architectural i...

The Bank of England (formerly named “The Governor and Company of the Bank of England) is the central bank for the United Kingdom. It was established on July 27, 1694 and was nationalized in 1946. The Bank of England is the second oldest central bank still in operation and the 8th oldest bank in the world. Currently, it is still one of the bankers for the Government of the United Kingdom. The headquarters for the Bank of England is located Threadneedle St which is in London’s main financial district and it has been there since 1734. The street is often referred to The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street or The Old Lady which was a name from a satirical cartoon from 1797. The Bank of England entrance has an arch and its exterior is supported by six groups of two columns. This building is honored by architects all over because the architect, Sir John Soane, used took natural light and scale into account when it was being designed. The spaces have very simple ornamental designs and ...

The Penguin Pool The Penguin Zoo designed by Berthold Lubetkin and the Tecton Group is located in the London Zoo at Regents Park  in London, England. The project begun in 1933 and finished in 1934. This architectural structure is an important piece of the British modernist architecture movement. The penguin pool was one of the first structures to begin to explore and demonstrate the structural potential of reinforced concrete and how it can become expressive. The project consisted of a stretched elliptical pool, a deep diving tank enclosed by glass, and nesting areas around the perimeter. This design was based on a concept of behaviourism. This concept was a popular philosophy of psychology in the 1930s as it claimed that the behavior of animals is a result of their external environments. To incorporate this into the design process, Berthold Lubetkin and the Tecton Group wanted to mimic the natural habitat of the penguins to provide an acceptable environment while creating a s...