Lecture titles

Shawn Kholucy was an Arts Society (formerly called NADFAS) accredited lecturer.

1

‘Sharps ‘n’ Flats’:flint, especially building, in East Anglia 

Although valuable as the raw material for knives and other blades for far longer than it has been used as a building material, East Anglia has a heritage of flint buildings that goes back at least to the Roman occupation. In many ways its flint buildings have come to characterise the region.

 

In many ways an absurd material with which to build; if we did not have so many flint buildings that have stood for hundreds of years we would be told that they cannot be built using flint.

 

The use of flint in building led to innovation excluded from other masonry in Britain. Its construction and repair needs careful handling.

 

This talk shows examples of how flint has been used in buildings in East Anglia (although the examples are relevant to other flint areas too), how they were built and how we repair them.

(Digital images).

2

C.R. Ashbee: what made him do it?

It is only natural to assume that the Arts & Crafts goldsmith, architect and designer, Charles Robert Ashbee, who founded the School and Guild of Handicraft in the third quarter of the nineteenth-century and designed so many exquisite pieces of fine jewellery, silverware, furniture and household objects and items did so from a burning dedication to create beautiful things.

What he and the Guild did would influence many and have far-reaching effects which continue today.

His driving force came from a far more worthy and meaningful source than just the making of pretty things; from the outset it was to bring about self-worth, well-being, social reform; in a word: REVOLUTION. 

(Digital images)

3

'By Jove' - Holkham Hall; an allegorical journey

When in 1712 his Guardians sent the fifteen-year-old Thomas Coke, who had inherited the vast Holkham estates five years before, on his Grand Tour, they sent him to acquire his art collection for the new house that he would build on his return. They set him on a course that would occupy him for the rest of his life, and which he would never see completed.

 

In Rome Thomas met Richard Boyle, the Earl of Burlington; and William Kent. He already knew the Walpole brothers who would build Norfolk’s premier Power House; Houghton.

 

Resent research indicates that the design of Holkham: house, park, collection and their positionings, all form an allegorical progression which makes the whole a work of art the like of which is unfamiliar to our way of thinking. A knowledge of it helps one to understand and to better appreciate the whole and the parts. 

(Digital images) 

 

4

Norfolk's Power Houses: Raynham, Houghton, Wolterton and Holkham

The four Power Houses of Norfolk; those houses built to display the owners’ power or their ambitions to power; Raynham, Houghton, Wolterton and Holkham, were all linked in their architectural conception, construction and intentions.

The same key national architectural characters were engaged in their building. They all pay reference to classical Rome and to Italian precedents.

This talk aims to explain the architectural origins ofwhy and how they do this. It concentrates on the background out of which these houses grew and explains some of the thinking behind their creation. It aims to better inform the visitor to them, to add to their visit rather than to obviate the need to make one.   

(Digital images)

Each talk lasts about an hour and costs £370.00 plus travelling and accommodation expenses.

The hosting body is to provide all projection and allied equipment.


kholucy @btinternet.com

01379 668462

22, Cross Street, Hoxne, EYE, Suffolk, IP21 5AJ, U.K.

Copyright Shawn R. H. Kholucy .