5 comments ›

1. 

   The curse of open plan – Colin Bisset

   April 10, 2019 • 12:37
2. 

   Jeffery Thompson

   May 5, 2020 • 00:15

   Breeze blocks
   I greatly enjoy Colin Bisset’s erudite talk,but I think his talk on breeze blocks leaves something out.
   He is an Englishman in Australia and I am an Australian who spent a little while in the UK. I think the terms have different meanings in the two countries. In Australia it is indeed a block with a hole for the breeze to blow through.
   In the UK it appears to be a concrete block with a high amount of cinders or “breeze’. Other than meaning ‘a light wind’ the word ‘breeze’ appears to mean ‘cinders’ or ‘fly-ash’ waste products of furnaces which are sometimes mixed in with cement.
   I need to add that I know very little about this, but think you should check
   Jeff Thompson
   ‘

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   • 

     Colin Bisset

     May 5, 2020 • 09:11

     Thank you, Jeffrey. You are perfectly correct. While I mentioned the cinder concrete, I didn’t mention the etymology of the word, which somehow got lost in my final edit. I grew up with breeze blocks being those solid grey blocks so I was somewhat mystified when I arrived in Australia to find a breeze block meant something else entirely. Architect Sam Marshall has written a lovely book called, simply enough, The Breeze Block Book, which I recommend.

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3. 

   Michael Mc Inerney

   January 29, 2022 • 11:31

   We’ve lost out again Colin to those who forget the great predecessor to Blue Print for Living. It was a production dedicated to I remember two hours of Architectural heaven. I can’t clearly name and presenter, perhaps you would. Every week it was like being part of tutorial to the great design and construction projects of the past, present and planned.

   Now the ‘grandson’ of this brilliant effort has been reduced to a feel good mix of silly foodie shows, a mixed bag of ‘culturally significant’ sound bites and a presenter who seems often far to obligingly self conscious and self effacing to put a real seal of journalistic authority on the production and cement the show down as much as the bricks and mortar in the structures that the program is supposed to be celebrating. This all just seems suspiciously contrived to perpetuate the notion of keeping the naive listening public suspended on a drip feed of bits.

   With all respect, this may all be in good spirits but there was a lose to ‘Sporty’, what ?, and now Lost and Found has been relegated to the ‘Book Shelf’. More of the same naval gazing but who cares, give up back Architecture for the informed public who want specialist programs, by specialists in the field who are not reduced to ‘party goers’ by Aunties skewed view of the world for all the ‘nannies’ in the country.

   Who’s fighting the great fight with Aunties management for the disenfranchised 60 pluses who want real information, not somebody’s opinion. Opinion, endless endless opinion. Not a perfect science that’s for sure, just means perpetrating a herd like ‘follow the leader’ approach to a formula, ‘say it so it’s true’. This could be an episode of Bluey. I thought the ABC was about editorial best practice, well, it ain’t.

   It’s very disappointing, just seeing this PC cultural invading what was once a fine Saturday morning listening experience.

   Regards

   Michael

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   • 

     Colin Bisset

     January 29, 2022 • 15:09

     Michael, that is certainly heartfelt and I agree with much of it. I remember the very first time when I recorded something for the ABC the producer gave me a little tour of the various offices in Sydney and introduced me to some of RN’s notables. I remember thinking how like a university it felt, every office filled with books, and some, like Alan Saunders (the presenter I think you’re referring to), piled so high there was barely room for a desk. That all changed with a revamp, tearing down the individual offices and making everything open plan. I think each person was allowed ten books or some other paltry amount, the idea being that most information could be found online. Everything looked spick and span but it lost a lot. I think RN was struggling at the time with a dwindling listenership and it’s a tricky thing, trying to appeal to a broader base and perhaps inevitably some of the in-depth quality is lost. I think it’s true that media in general has become very opinion-based and the short attention span is shored up by shorter snips of information but I’m grateful that Blueprint and other RN programmes still interview so many academics (and I am grateful that I can drop in my own pieces on architecture). I don’t think all is lost, Michael, truly…

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