Architorture

I went on the first walking tour for my architecture class today, and we visited some old buildings in a swanky West End neighborhood. Many of the houses we visited were initially owned by artists. Interestingly, many of their studios had large windows facing north because a north-facing window allows for even light at all times of the day. These windows receive no direct light because the sun is always in the southern half of the sky, which I thought was pretty ingenious. Some of the artists built relatively small houses and spent their fortunes decorating the inside lavishly, so the interiors of many of the houses we visited are extravagant, to say the least. We didn’t get to go inside, but we saw pictures of rooms with every wall covered in ornate gold tiles. They were very busy-looking places, not necessarily pleasant to look at. I have to remember these houses for the slide test we’ll have at the end of the semester, so, just for practice, I'll recount the houses we saw today. We visited the Leighton House, the interior of which is dominated by black and peacock blue tiles, and which includes an addition called the Arab Wing where the artist stored the treasures he collected from the eastern world; the Tower House, also lavishly decorated and currently owned by Jimmy Page, the guitarist from Led Zeppelin; and the Bodenham House, which is covered on the outside with green and blue tiles. I've included pictures of this last house, Jimmy Page's house, and a pretty lamppost.