Just when we think it’s all concrete boxes, post-war architecture surprises us again. The veined twisting and turning forms make me think of a hosta gone wrong; the way the structure ducks and dives under and above itself is also faintly disturbing. It was with such thoughts in my mind that I ignored the snorts of laughter and made my way to Kettering. Before long more interesting commissions were coming his way – the Martyr’s Memorial in Oxford, educational buildings (the universities were expanding), and countless churches. This field is so emerging that many universities are now running such courses in various engineering and medical institutes. Some of the best professionals in the world of architecture have passed out from these colleges that have conducting courses for many years. Regular readers will known that I sometimes amuse friends and acquaintances by announcing that I have visited, for pleasure, places they’d not normally associate with tourism.

Well, I visit my share of such places too, but there are many towns, off the tourist map or lacking the stereotypical array of picturesque streets or quaint shops and houses, that offer rewards to the curious. Offer high quality work at very sensible price as compared to other architectural services or architectural firms. He was immensely productive and designed some major buildings, but a lot of his work seems dull beside, say, the polychrome dazzle of Butterfield, the vision of Street, or the souped-up inventiveness of Teulon. Gavin Stamp’s excellent new book shows us why, and tell us quite a lot about the work and the life of the man who created it. Scott designed dozens of them, honing his skills in Gothic and beginning his life of whizzing around the country (on mail coaches at this date, later on trains) to make client- and site-visits. The government buildings in Whitehall, in which Scott had to contend with a badly run competition, a Prime Minister (Palmerston) who hated Gothic, and a very mixed reception from members of his own profession, are another key project. Their effect has also been felt in the building and construction sector where shipping containers, both new and second-hand, are transformed into buildings and spaces for all sorts of uses from offices to kitchens to shopping malls.

As an example, St. Louis suffered a catastrophic fire in 1849 and passed an ordinance requiring brick construction instead of wood. He was apprenticed to a London architect called Edmeston, who was no great shakes as a designer (and a classicist to boot), but gave his young pupil the rudiments of building and construction. The architect should be an integration of many profiles such as artist, professional and businessman. Through the crafting of a series of large-scale models and the integration of digital media, students gain a vivid impression of the interaction between building elements and their assembly. By combining the use of language, imagery, metaphors and specific patterns of structure, the design elements of ArchiPoetry have different disciplines and poetic variations. Scott had to abandon his Gothic design and re-do it in Classical form, and the book makes a case for treating these designs seriously, and not as the compromise that some observers have seen. The conception works, in spite of Scott’s admission that he had to mug up the classical style by investing in ‘some costly books on Italian architecture’. One of the best is Stamford Street School (actually in Montagu Street), which is in a red brick Tudor-revivalish style with this stand-out tower.

Very close to the centre one finds streets of 19th-century brick-built terraced houses next door to factories of the same period. For example they assist in developing floor plans and window this side of his work lasted his whole life, and he was involved with the restoration or repair of virtually every English medieval cathedral. There seem to be no vestiges of painted numerals or holes for the hands. There are many interior design companies in today’s world. Why go there when you can visit the oodles of beautiful towns and villages, stuffed with listed buildings and interpreted for our delight by dedicated heritage-wallahs? The apartments have associated gardens which can be nicely paved allowing residents to take a seat and enjoy the organic beauty. In addition, low energy buildings typically have a very low surface area to volume ratio to minimize heat loss.