Dorian Wiszniewski on News from England

This book is an extension of the ‘Land Architecture People’ exhibition first held in the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts School of Architecture, Copenhagen (2009), and then in the Ambika P3 Gallery, University of Westminster (2010). Ostensibly, this is a book of twelve unbuilt projects prepared between 2002 and 2015 by the office of Pierre d’Avoine. Yet, it also is far more than that. The projects are presented graphically through drawings and accompanied textually by transcriptions of interviews with a range of people connected to each project. The drawings are as you would expect if you have read Housey Housey: A Pattern Book of Ideal Homes: 1 an immaculate series of precise-line plans, sections, elevations, isometrics, axonometrics, and perspectives, sometimes collaged with photographs of context – and mostly seen from inside to out – which are absolutely without excess. These occasionally come supported by predominantly blackand-white photographs of models, all constructed in neutral materials focusing more on formal arrangements but which nonetheless give an overall sense of how the material qualities are intrinsically consistent to their disposition. Between text and drawings, not only do we see skilled architectural design conducted in exacting conditions, we also gain illuminating insight into a socially minded view of architecture with a subtle but vital critique of the cultural landscape of England. There is a modesty about each project. Even ‘Pleasure Holm for Birnbeck Island’ has reserve [1]. At first glance it seems quite unlike the eleven other projects, in that it is a visually striking project that ‘...a subtle but vital critique of the cultural landscape of England ...’