Simon Velez: mastering bamboo

Colombian architect Simon Velez is currently the subject of a book and a delightful exhibition in and around the tiny Swiss village of Rossiniere, in canton Vaud. Velez has come to international attention through his buildings of guadua bamboo, and in particular the massive bamboo pavilion constructed for Expo 2000 in Hannover. The 'Learning from Vernacular' website has further details, including a rather slow-to-load image gallery, and we will be buying the book for GSA library in due course.

http://learning-from-vernacular.epfl.ch/cms/lang/en/pid/94131

Frances McCourt: Carbeth Re-exhibited

Carbeth, the small township of huts is recapturing the public imagination after 90 years of sustainable living in the woods north of Milngavie. This is amply demonstrated by this week's BBC News story and the revival of Frances McCourt's exhibition of photographs, inspired by the character of the place.

Ayrshire-born McCourt first exhibited photographs of the huts at Street Level Photoworks in Autumn 2010. This time round, her work goes on show at the Lillie Art Gallery, near Milngavie railway station. See directions here. As well as serving as a beautifully serene collection, works like the examples pictured here should interest anyone following the 'Thousand Huts' campaign: a move to up the ante on sustainable rural development in Scotland. Since the Carbeth hutters' success in raising the funds to buy the land, 'hutting' appears to be gathering momentum with much to be said for the power of community to bring about green initiatives.

Frances McCourt's photograph series can be seen until 16 August at the Lillie Art Gallery. For more detail on the history of Carbeth and for links to the community's groups, read our previous blog post.

Emotion Recollected in Sustainability - Carbeth's Hideaway Huts

If you go down to the woods today, you're in for a big surprise... that's if like me, you've only just discovered the eldritch charm at Carbeth. The huts made the news when Carbeth Hutters Community Hutters were granted a loan which is helping the community to buy their land.

The development of huts in the area north of Milngavie has existed since 1919. During the second world war, families from Clydebank stayed at Carbeth to escape the bombing of industry on the Clyde. Gradually, more huts were built and a small community was formed. Today, Carbeth is part of The Thousand Huts movement, which aims to promote hutting as a sustainable way of living that gives city-dwellers contact with the countryside. Around 140 self-powered cabins, huts and shacks form the collective, all of which rely on water standpipes, solar panels and wind turbines to sustain the inhabitants. 

In an age of convenience and energy expenditure, Carbeth makes a useful case-study of our relationship with place and how sustainability ethics inevitably stand to influence the future of design. It is intriguing to reflect that the community's original settlers may only have been searching for a calm oasis outside Glasgow when they began hand-building the community 80 years ago. Perhaps unbeknown to them, they were in fact laying the foundations for an eco-friendly ideal which today, is actively supported by people enjoying the same tranquility in the wooded retreat.

Architects such as Torsten Ottesjo show that improvisation and functionality are common concerns in the architecture profession. Surprising that the values of self-reliance and responsibility for fuel-use should take root in communities like Carbeth.

See also artist Frances McCourt's photography works like the one above compiled for an exhibition at Street Level Photoworks in Glasgow.

http://www.carbethhuts.co.uk/

Living Architecture Takes Root in Oban

Think of Oban, the sleepy port town in the Scottish Western Highlands, and you'll probably call to mind McCaig's Tower, the folly overlooking the bay that was commissioned by its namesake in 1897 to keep the town's local stonemasons in work. Now, thanks to the feats of German architect Marcel Kalberer, head of the firm Sanfte Strukturen, the town can finally lay claim to two sculptures with real architectural clout.

Nestled in the gardens of the Dunollie Castle estate, the 22ft woven tower and dome are made entirely of live willow branches, sourced from Glasgow. The branches will continue to grow over the coming months, thereby altering the form of the natural structures. Kalberer refers to his designs as "living architecture" due to the botanical and ecological implications behind the architecture and the fact that all of his structures are brought to life by a community of volunteers. The tower, for example, took a week to build and will change gradually with the passing of the seasons. The theory behind the process is to show the value of socially-sustainable buildings and encourage human co-existence with the natural world.

Karlberer has designed a number of green cathedrals, towers and domes from willow branches including 'Auerworld Palace' in Germany which is the world's largest living structure of its kind. The as yet unnamed works on show in Oban are the first examples to be shown in Britain, built on the proceeds of a £5,900 grant from Creative Scotland. Visit them for free if you're making any visits over to the Western Isles, or for more information and further examples of Karlberer's work, read on at the link below:

http://www.sanftestrukturen.de/Weidenbau/Weidenbau.html