Welcome to my architectural journal

Welcome to my architectural journal, in modern terms my "blog". I am a practicing architect, having trained and worked in both the UK and my native Australia, currently based in the Scottish Borders. These are my personal musings and ramblings on people, places and issues that influence and inspire my approach to architecture and the environment.

 They include architects and other designers from past and present, buildings I have visited, books I have read, and people who have spoken out with a strong vision of how we should interact with our environment. 

 There is an emphasis on sustainability and on heritage - the conservation of the natural world and of the man-made world. I believe these share common principles that are essential to the maintenance of a healthy and civilised society, and must be at the core of all design.

 Country houses and life in the countryside are also regular themes, reflecting my own life experience growing up in rural Australia, and the setting for many of the projects I have worked on.

 Please note that I am not endorsing any particular person or issue, or suggesting that all buildings should be designed in a certain way, but simply weaving together many different strands to explain my own approach to how we make and inhabit buildings.

 I hope you enjoy reading it, and thanks for your time. Ranald Boydell
Location: United Kingdom

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Vale, Robert & Brenda: The Autonomous House

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Autonomous house is a generic term, referring to a building that functions entirely on the resources it can draw from its immediate site and which is not connected to any mains services (electricity, gas, water and sewerage). Many autonomous houses have been imagined as part of a Utopian vision, and some have been built as practical examples. The most well-known built example is probably The Autonomous House built by Robert and Brenda Vale in Southwell, Nottinghamshire, in 1993. I have leafed through their book of the same name many times and feel I know the house as if I had lived in it, but when I first heard about it, at a  lecture given by Robert Vale at the RAIA in Sydney in the mid 90's, I knew nothing about it. I shall always remember the start of that lecture. This was in the days of slides (as opposed to PowerPoint presentations) and the lecture hall at Tusculum was darkened so that the slides took all ones visual focus. Robert must have talked for at least 5 minutes wit
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History for Sale: Knockhall Castle, Aberdeenshire

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Historic buildings have always captured our imagination, with dreams of what they once were and what they might become. In an occasional series, Ranald Boydell considers some historic properties currently for sale, whether only ruins or still standing. Knockhall Castle is located just outside Newburgh, Aberdeenshire, about 14 miles north of the city of Aberdeen in Scotland.   http://maps.nls.uk/view/74479954 The following history is quoted from the heritage listing with Historic Environment Scotland. The lands of Newburgh were held by the Sinclair family from the 13th century, with a settlement established there in 1261. The tower was probably built in 1565 for Henry, Master of Sinclair, the future 6th Lord Sinclair. It is recorded that James VI stayed with him at Knockhall on 9 July 1589. The castle was sold in 1633 to a son of Udny of that Ilk and was damaged in 1639 when taken by the Earl Marischal for the Covenanters. It was later returned to Udny h
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Loudon, John Claudius (1783-1843, Great Britain)

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John Claudius Loudon was a prolific writer on gardens and architecture in the early nineteenth century, and his works were hugely influential on these subjects at the time. Country Life described Loudon as an “eminent Victorian” stating that he “personified that moral force, thoroughness and desire to fill every moment with useful productivity that seem to us the hallmark of the 19th-century man of distinction”. Yet his name is little known today, even within those professions. However, the more I find out about Loudon, the more intrigued I become by the man, both professionally and personally. John Claudius Loudon Loudon was born at Cambuslang in southern Scotland , not far from where I find myself now living. Like me, he was a farmer’s son, my birthplace being the Hunter Valley in Australia . For whatever reason, we were both destined not to continue in the family farming tradition, but to work with the land in other ways. Loudon studied botany, biology and agricultu
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