Here is the first of our video book reviews - or as I like to call them: New Reviews of Old Books. As regards my reasoning for this, please refer to this recent post. As you will see, while I have nothing but praise for the book's content, the quality of the printing and publication (not the design) leaves something to be desired.


To make things a little clearer, I am including here a couple of photos of the interior of the book. The overall layout and design is fine, but the printing process used (I assume digital, since I feel this was a short-run book) was perhaps not up to the task, as the photographs do not have the requisite contrast and detail one would prefer. Even the stock paper is a little thin; you may be able to see bleed-through text from the other side of the pages.

Here in the States, sports stadiums can be either hit-or-miss, and their styles are all over the map. There are traditional venues, like baseball’s Fenway Park or Wrigley Field, popular newer venues like Baltimore’s Camden Yards, or huge mega-parks, like the Dallas Cowboy’s AT&T Stadium. The design of sports stadiums is a specialist trade, generally dominated by a handful of successful firms.

With this in mind, I was fascinated by the design for Chelsea’s new football (soccer) stadium, developed by Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron, who have unveiled plans for a gargantuan new home for Chelsea FC, “inspired by the design of Westminster Abbey”. As The Guardian points out in a recent article about the design:

“If football is England’s national religion, the sport may soon have its very own majestic cathedral…”

With concept drawing currently on display, the design is said to take its cues from the gothic architecture of the Abbey, in whose diocese the stadium once stood. The new plan was commissioned by the club’s owner, Roman Abramovich, and is expected to cost at least £500m.  The plan will also boost overall crowd capacity from 42,000 to 60,000.

Clearly, based on the concept drawings, the proposed stadium looks nothing like what you might expect, using massive masonry, heavy brick piers and soaring vaults. Parts of it recall London’s Victorian railway viaducts, while other parts do resemble a soaring, buttressed cathedral. The design was also created to blend into the dense, urban location of the stadium, as elevated brick walkway will bring supporters directly into the stands above a world of bars, shops and cafes located in the arches beneath the structure.

From what I can see from the rendering, the concept is a little fantastic, a little outrageous, and utterly brilliant. It is highly difficult to integrate the massing, style and unique design elements of medieval architecture into the modern urban landscape without the result looking like a Disney theme park or something that’s just downright ugly. While I’m sure not everyone will love this design, I see it as highly original, and a very successful effort in using medieval architecture as a modern design inspiration.

Here in the States, sports stadiums can be either hit-or-miss, and their styles are all over the map. There are traditional venues, like baseball’s Fenway Park or Wrigley Field, popular newer venues like Baltimore’s Camden Yards, or huge mega-parks, like the Dallas Cowboy’s AT&T Stadium. The design of sports stadiums is a specialist trade, generally dominated by a handful of successful firms.

With this in mind, I was fascinated by the design for Chelsea’s new football (soccer) stadium, developed by Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron, who have unveiled plans for a gargantuan new home for Chelsea FC, “inspired by the design of Westminster Abbey”. As The Guardian points out in a recent article about the design:

“If football is England’s national religion, the sport may soon have its very own majestic cathedral…”

With concept drawing currently on display, the design is said to take its cues from the gothic architecture of the Abbey, in whose diocese the stadium once stood. The new plan was commissioned by the club’s owner, Roman Abramovich, and is expected to cost at least £500m.  The plan will also boost overall crowd capacity from 42,000 to 60,000.

Clearly, based on the concept drawings, the proposed stadium looks nothing like what you might expect, using massive masonry, heavy brick piers and soaring vaults. Parts of it recall London’s Victorian railway viaducts, while other parts do resemble a soaring, buttressed cathedral. The design was also created to blend into the dense, urban location of the stadium, as elevated brick walkway will bring supporters directly into the stands above a world of bars, shops and cafes located in the arches beneath the structure.

From what I can see from the rendering, the concept is a little fantastic, a little outrageous, and utterly brilliant. It is highly difficult to integrate the massing, style and unique design elements of medieval architecture into the modern urban landscape without the result looking like a Disney theme park or something that’s just downright ugly. While I’m sure not everyone will love this design, I see it as highly original, and a very successful effort in using medieval architecture as a modern design inspiration.

There's a brief but enjoyable profile in the Sept. 19 Daily Mail about the picturesque town of Lavenham, which is set to be seen on the next Harry Potter film, The Deathly Hallows, scheduled for November release.

"Lavenham is regularly described as Britain's 'finest medieval town', though that doesn't really do it justice. The word ' medieval' triggers images of crenellated walls and towers, dungeons and long-drops - policed by custodians during the day, abandoned at night.

Lavenham is different. It has no castle, no swaggering architectural statement in stone at all - except the church of St Peter and St Paul, a flint-faced beauty with a 141ft tower, built between 1485 and 1525."

Featured in the film will be the Guildhall, which will be cast as the home of Harry Potter's parents. Owned by the National Trust, it's silver lime-washed oak timbers offer a mellow take on traditional Tudor half-timbering.

Even thought the battle that initiated the Tudor dynasty took place over 500 year ago, the actual site of Bosworth Field has never been precisely located, with scholars still arguing about it. Recently, a team of respected historians and archaeologists announced that it has finally determined the real site of the battle - and the site is not exactly where everyone thought might have been.


The group's newly-established battle site is approximately two miles to the south and west of the traditionally-placed site - which is still marked by a stone memorial topped by a plaque. Checking soil samples, analysing peat deposits and carrying out searches with metal detectors, this latest team of investigators have turned to ancient documents and other clues in order to sort out the ancient riddle. Among their finds are over twenty led shot which would have been fired by the crude medival artillery of the time.


To read more about thsis tory, check out a Guardian article here - as well as this interesting article about the contemporary use of artillery in the Mail Online.

Come each November, I seem to undergo a slow transformation; the island music which lilts across my backyard pool and the bottles of ice-cold Corona quickly give way to ancient music and dark ales as the holiday season begins to take hold. During the winter months, an idle night will often find me seated in the dining room, listening to old madrigals or ancient drinking songs of one sort or another, trying various ales out in an effort to decide what to serve at Christmas.


I've recently come across a new (to me) ensemble, New York Polyphony, which clearly has staked a claim to accompany those efforts this season. The group came together in 2006, and their debut CD, I Sing the Birth, was released on Avie Records in 2007. That disk gained universal praise, and for good reason - the group's clear, rich and engaging a capella sound is well-suited to the works they have chosen to perform. Indeed, the ensemble, which includes Tenor Geoffrey Silver, countertenor Geoffrey Williams, baritone Scott Dispensa and bass-baritone Craig Phillips takes on a wide range of music, from medieval chant to 21st-century liturgical compositions.

The group recently finished a number of Midwest and Rocky Mountain region dates in September, and is next set to appear at the First Presbyterian Church in Atlanta on November 22 and in New York City on December 12th. New York Polyphony is also set to release a CD of Elizabethan-inspired music recorded at Manhattan's Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in spring 2010.

To hear some of this great music, visit the group's website or listen on line at Lala.

The widely reported need for repairs at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon has gained much interest, and reports of new donations are continuing to come in. The main supporting beam of the chancel - the section of the church containing both the altar and Shakespeare’s burial site -needs significant repair work, after the beam’s deterioration was discovered three weeks ago by workmen on the roof.


On October 20th, a group of 34 American travel agents visited Shakespeare Country to hand over a $200 donation towards the repair of the church roof. The donation had been raised by the Anne Hudgins Shakespeare Class, a group of members who have been reading Shakespeare's works since the group formed in 1931. Members of the group had read in their local paper about the campaign to repair Shakespeare's Church roof and decided to raise money which they could hand over during their visit.

Paull Tickner of Paull Tickner and Associates who had organized the visit, explained, “I’ve brought these very experienced American travel agents for a three night experience of Shakespeare Country so they can discover how the area makes a perfect base for group tours with an interest in gardens, the visual and the performing arts."

Located between Bern and Lausanne, the Swiss city of Fribourg makes a great location for touring other parts of the country. One of the city's most unique attractions is an "Urban Golf" experience that was designed to show off its impressive medieval architecture and many other visual treats. The course's 18 "holes" are dotted around the medieval Old Town, many offering fantastic views of the Gothic cathedral, the old city walls and the Sarine river. Be forewarned though - this is more than just a light stroll – doing the full round involves crossing the town for about four hours. "It's the perfect way to discover the town," said Nicolas Zapf, Fribourg's tourism director.


To take in the urban golf experience, just head down to the tourism office conveniently next door to Fribourg's rail station. Pick up a city map, a special three-headed golf club and plastic ball and head out to do your 18 holes. Marked by flags on the city map, the golf holes are located at points of scenic or historical interest, so be prepared for a major array of urban distractions. The idea is to walk between each golf green and take in the atmosphere and grand architecture. The well-marked greens range from 20 to to about 100 yards from tee box to hole.


The city features a very impressive lineup of medieval architecture, with 12 churches and monasteries, 14 towers, 11 fountains, a considerable length of ancient city walls and many well-preserved Gothic-style homes overlooking the valley of the River Sarine. Especially inspiring is St. Nicholas Cathedral, which was built between 1283 and 1490. You'll also cross a number of centuries-old bridges that connect the French-speaking Switzerland to the German-speaking part. This really sounds like a fun and original way to highlight a city's architectural heritage, and might be a great thing for other cities to consider.