Reminds me of Filippo Brunelleschi; in the 1400s he grokked structural mechanics far better than anyone else and protested supporting the domed ceiling of the Pazzi chapel with columns. All the engineers of the time made the case he was wrong, and such a large dome needed support — he built the columns and had them finish a few inches short of the ceiling. This was discovered many years later and has become part of architecture lore.
This sort of thing is brilliant. Folks put things inside walls a lot.<p>When doing a bathroom repair I needed a few additional tiles that would be impossible to find (was an old house). Guess what I found when we busted open the wall… the leftover tiles from when the house was built like 70 years prior! I could almost feel some tile layer from generations prior giving me a little smile and pat on the back.
The columns: <a href="https://atlive-wp.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-2022-08-11-at-10.18.16.png" rel="nofollow">https://atlive-wp.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uplo...</a>
This reminds me of the letter in the pond <a href="https://thatcanadiangirl.co.uk/2008/05/30/the-letter-in-the-pond/" rel="nofollow">https://thatcanadiangirl.co.uk/2008/05/30/the-letter-in-the-...</a>
In case people miss the back story, this is "the carbuncle" which prince (now king) charles disliked immensely.<p>here's a recent story about the work to add this entry<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/nov/06/national-gallery-entrance-revamp-row-recalls-king-charles-carbuncle" rel="nofollow">https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/nov/06/nationa...</a>
So, it seems like the architect died in 2018, and Sainsbury in 2022. This could all have been extremely awkward if they'd done the work a few years earlier...
The whole Architectural Uprising movement sort of started in 1984 when the young Prince Charles gave a speech at the Royal Institute of British Architects 150th anniversary gala evening. During his speech, the prince said that a proposed new modernist extension to the National Gallery was ugly. Or to be more precise, he called it a carbuncle in the face of a dear old friend.<p>The Venturi columns seems to lack entasis <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entasis" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entasis</a>
This is brilliant!<p>I always leave stuff for future remodelers or archeologists when I do remodeling or building.<p>Mostly coins, I throw a few in the concrete mix or inside walls for future generations to discover.<p>It’s always a treat to find long forgotten artifacts when remodeling old houses.<p>A little treat for people working on something I built 40 or 400 years in the future.
This might be the most passive aggressive thing I have ever heard. England truly elevates passive aggression to art form<p>EDIT: Someone downvoted me, so I should say I grew up in England until I was 14 so I'm allowed to say this! Downvoting itself is a form of passive aggression