Category Archives: Town and Village

How a Rainbow Arch Declares the Death of Art History

Posted on October 25, 2022 by Montacute Pavilion

Recently it was announced that Daylesford would get the Big Rainbow Arch. Hepburn Shire Council opened a survey asking for opinions on options for siting.[1] Several current councillors make a lot of noise about consultation, and on issues like The … Continue reading →

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New Traditional Architecture 1: A Frankfurt Reconstruction

Posted on April 28, 2022 by Montacute Pavilion

The New Traditional Architecture Facebook site is interesting, not least because of its European (often Central European) focus. While Putin seems to be revisiting WW2, as Hitler needing Lebensraum rather than Stalin resisting an invader, this site often engages with … Continue reading →

Posted in All Posts, Architecture, Baroque architecture, Comment, Country Houses, New Traditional architecture, Restoration and Conservation, Town and Village, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

New Traditional Architecture 3: On Vernacular Architecture

Posted on April 23, 2022 by Montacute Pavilion

In one posting on the New Traditional Architecture Facebook page is illustrated the ‘Villa Tällberg’, completed in 2019 in the Swedish vernacular manner. It is by a Swedish architectural firm Byggnadswerk, led by Tommy Janssen, who does some rather beautiful … Continue reading →

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New Traditional Architecture 2: Right Wing Conspiracies and Leftist Divisiveness

Posted on April 22, 2022 by Montacute Pavilion

An article in the Art Newspaper by Robert Bevan on 7 January 2022 (‘The ugly pursuit of beauty: how traditional architecture has become a battleground for right-wing politicians’) comes out firing on all barrels against New Traditional Architecture as a … Continue reading →

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Sky Barrels: Lake Daylesford, Neighbourhood Character, and Imagistic Architecture

Posted on April 8, 2022 by Montacute Pavilion

In Daylesford there has been a recent planning application for ‘Sky Barrels’ on Cornish Hill (Fig. 1).[1] These are five one-bedroom holiday cottages in the shape of compressed (elliptical) barrels on metal stands. The ends of the barrels are windowed, … Continue reading →

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Montsalvat Part 1: Less an Artist’s Colony than an Ideal Burgundian Village, an Australian Portmeirion

Posted on April 2, 2022 by Montacute Pavilion

While Montsalvat was an artist’s colony, it was also a Portmeirion: one man’s dream of building a village that romantically alluded to old Europe. Continue reading →

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Pavilions, Fabriques, and the Reverential Copy

Posted on August 14, 2018 by Montacute Pavilion

[This paper discusses a category of building that is related to, and sometimes overlaps with, the pavilion: the fabrique. The fabrique is not to be confused with the folly, although both are found in parks and gardens and the terms … Continue reading →

Posted in All Posts, Architecture, Art, Arts and Crafts Movement, Baroque architecture, Baroque Gardens, Daylesford, English Gardens, Fabriques, Garden History, Rome, Town and Village, Uncategorized, Villa Castagna, Villas, Wombat Hill Botanical Gardens | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Portmeirion 3. How Serious is Portmeirion?

Posted on December 7, 2017 by Montacute Pavilion

The trauma of the First World War seems to have manifested itself in the ‘silly ass’ artistic culture of the 1920s. Novelists like Margery Allingham, and even Dorothy L. Sayers, created their detective heroes as upper class twits who took … Continue reading →

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Portmeirion 2. Portmeirion and the Picturesque

Posted on November 12, 2017 by Montacute Pavilion

The most useful way of approaching Portmeirion is through the concept of the picturesque. Williams-Ellis (or, as everyone calls him, Clough) explains how he liked sailing around the Mediterranean and enjoyed the view of coastal towns from the sea. He … Continue reading →

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Portmeirion 1. Introduction

Posted on November 12, 2017 by Montacute Pavilion

People don’t always get Portmeirion (Fig. 1). For example, it has been argued that it is a proto-Post-Modernist work, created by an architect trying to subvert the modernist norm long before Venturi and Scott-Brown came on the scene. But this … Continue reading →

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