A life in ruins: On the architectural vision of John Soane | Hacker News Reader

A life in ruins: On the architectural vision of John Soane

newcriterion.com

25 pointspepys7 comments

I highly recommend for those interested and able to visit the John Soane museum discussed here. Its an incredible space with an incredible collection, curated in a dense but careful way. In many ways the antithesis to the vapid detatchment of the great majority of art galleries and museums of today.

be sure to visit the hunterian museum(o) at the royal college of surgeons which is just across the street

the museum houses a collection of over 300 preserved medical specimens, ancient tools and manuscripts

(o) https://www.rcseng.ac.uk/museums-and-archives/hunterian-muse...

Yes, and architecture lives.

There's been a recent crowdfunding effort to make CAD models of Soane's Bank of England: http://www.projectsoane.com/

See also the drawings of Eujin Lim, an architecture student: comics of the Soane museum. Something about the way space is divided in the house lends itself to the panel format:

http://cargocollective.com/eujinlim/drawing-soane-s

Dulwich Picture Gallery, while a bit inconvenient to get to from central London, is another Soane attraction:

http://www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk/about/our-architectu...

Soane is part of a vigorously individualistic tradition in London's architecture culture that is still pretty strong. Zaha Hadid, Peter Cook, Peter Salter, Libeskind, Koolhaas. It's THE rabbit hole to fall down if you like buildings, drawing, complexity, spatial experience.

Yes absolutely. It's one of the stranger, most fascinating museums in London that I've ever visited.

Also a short walk away, at University College, is the Flinders Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology [1] (and you can see Jeremy Bentham's partly preserved body in a glass case down the hall[2]...

1: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums/petrie/ 2: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums/jeremy-bentham

Thanks for the suggestion! I didn't know this museum existed, and I'll pay a visit as soon as I have a chance.

It's wonderful! They have candlelight viewings on winter evenings, those are great. If you can, it's also great to visit during a quiet weekday -- the use of natural light is amazing for such a cramped-feeling building.

Edit: the link for candlelight viewings isn't obvious on their website, here it is: http://www.soane.org/your-visit/evening-openings

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