Francis Terry, Alexander Stoddart and Svante Helmbaek Tirén discuss the whole idea of ornament in architecture, its use and meaning in the past and relevance in architecture today. This was followed by an open question and answers session.
The recording of this fascinating discussion can be found here.
About the panel:
Francis Terry
Francis is part of a new generation of classical architects who have recently gained a reputation for de-signing high quality works of architecture. Francis's pursuit of architecture grew out of his passion for drawing and his love of historic buildings. Alongside his architectural interests Francis is a keen artist and uses his talent to draw schemes and paint watercolours of his proposals. Francis has won the Winsor and Newton Young Artist Award from the Royal Society of Oil Painters and the Silver Medal from the Royal Society of Portrait Painters both in 1997. He also regularly exhibits drawings in the Royal Acade-my Summer Exhibition and won the Worshipful Company of Architects Prize for Architectural Drawing in 2002.
Francis is the current Chairman of the Traditional Architecture Group
Alexander Stoddart
Born in Edinburgh, Stoddart studied at Glasgow School of Art from 1976-80. There he challenged mod-ernist, multi-media approaches and began instead to produce austere, neo-classical busts and statues. Briefly associated with Ian Hamilton Finlay in the mid 1980s, it was later in the decade that Stoddart be-gan making more public works, including: deities for the Italian Centre, Glasgow; David Hume for Edin-burgh’s Royal Mile; two John Witherspoon statues for the universities of Paisley and Princeton; and a scheme of architectural sculpture for the Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace. Often controversial and certainly ambitious, Stoddart has spoken of his desire to create Scotland’s own Mount Rushmore - a 2275ft sculpture of the Gaelic bard Ossian carved into a mountain-side.
Svante Helmbaek Tirén
Svante Helmbaek Tirén is an independant curator, writer and artist based in Stockholm. Specializing in the history of design and architecture, he lectures on topics like decoration, patterns and ornament. He has been guest teaching at Konstfack since 2017 and previously worked with Moderna museet and Färg-fabriken. Svante is based in Stockholm.