The City of London Guild of Polychromy

(2014-15)

The project proposes a re-engagement with craft and colour through the introduction of a 21st century Gothic revival.
A.W.N Pugin and Ruskin notably revived the Gothic during the 19th century, arguing that a better society could be forged around the romantic ideals of medieval architecture and the labour of the craftsman. Gothic Revivalism was used as a form of attack against the perceived threat of industrial mechanisation, as well as a distaste for the secular ‘blandness’ of Neoclassicism.
This project proposes an architectural language for a new 21st century Gothic, rooted in the current digital revolution. A proposed Craft Guild in the heart of the City of London, acts as a built provocation to the present British government and their apathy towards the arts and more specifically, craft education; a sector who has seen university courses and applicants decline dramatically.
In the Gothic sentiment of constructing a building over many generations, individual components of the building are assembled piece by piece through a collaborative process, thereby embodying the spirit of Pugin’s attempt to create a better society through collective anonymous craft and manual labour, as opposed to the Classical tradition of singular authorship.
One of the primary distinctions between Neoclassicism and the Victorian Gothic Revival was the use of polychromy. Neoclassicism (based on the misconception that the architecture of Greek antiquity was white) was counteracted with an intense and vibrant use of built colour. In the same vein, the new Gothic revival uses a heightened polychromy to counteract the new 21st century blandness- that of the steel and glass which characterises the City of London. Apprentices aged 18 and above are taught both digital and analogue techniques of architectural colour production in the guild building, in order to facilitate the spread of the New Gothic throughout the Square Mile and beyond.