Yup, building for hate is a thing. Marvelous.
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Shortly after we moved into our house we discovered that the turn onto the street out of our driveway was so tight that if anyone parked opposite we might not be able to get out. It didnāt happen often. And the police were helpful when it did. But the solution really was to buy a half metre wide strip of the car park next door which would let us open up the driveway entrance so that we could turn despite parkers opposite. The car park was owned by the council and, fortunately, they understood the problem and sold us the land. We then built a masonry garage, attached to the house, spanning the old property and the new.
As usual our mortgage, when we had one, was secured on our property. But the deeds held by the lender only covered the original part of it. I used to think that if theyād ever tried to foreclose I would still have been able to āinhabitā the half metre strip along the outside edge of the garage thereby making the whole property unsellable. Push never came to shove, and if it had I suspect that the lender would have been able to demand the rest of the land be sold (to them, obviously) to pay whatever mortgage debt was owing. But that would have been enough of an extra fuss that I might at least have been able to buy more time off them if we had been going through a rough patch.
VB
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You donāt think I do it for love, do you? 
No, you do it for HiFi. 
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Spiegelhalterās on the Mile End Road is quite famous for āIām not moving, no matter how ridiculous it looksā
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I thought you did it to keep the wolf from the door in the non-festive 364 days of the yearā¦
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Iām not sure if itās architecture, or art, or just WTF?, but if youāre around the Serpentine before this goes away Iād recommend a visit, if for no other reason then for the sheer, err, WTF?
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Is that just the tip of it ?
VB
when do the aliens emerge?
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There are a few round here that could be nominated, too
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One of several stood on their head buildings round here.
In general the main door is at street level, but there may be four or five storeys of descent behind this.
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Thanks to a very kind forum member I had an inspiring whistle stop tour of this building in Kingās Cross, The Aga Khan Centre.
Definitely one of those days when you are taken out of the mundane of everyday life, and experience something exceptional.
Thank you Jeff. Hope you enjoy the amp!
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That looks amazing. How difficult is it to pay a visit?
Easy, there are tours every week, but apparently booking ahead is needed.
There is a public gallery/exhibition space at ground floor, but the real delight is in the series of upper level gardens, which take it beyond being another KC block. Itās subtle, thatās why it appeals to me, doesnāt feel the need to resort to architectural tricks to grab attention.
I have just had a look on the site, and they are fully booked, as far as the dates go, through the end of May.
Shock horror! Discovered a new community/housing estate in the UK of the highest architectural calibre! On the edge of Cambridge. So used to referencing projects in Europe, and seeing us fail miserably here when it comes to new housing. Needs established planting, and greenery to bring it to life, the groundworks donāt seem complete.
Gives me hope! Made my day (that along with a couple of purchases from FOPP Records in Cambridge after my site visit 
)
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ddd
