route: it led through the main hall, up the grand stairs, divided, came back along the first floor colonnade on each side, cantilevered out in
two more flights, rejoined in mid-span, turned through 90°, went up another flight, still unsupported, and joined the second-floor colonnade. Then the consistency of finish: terracotta providing weather protection outside, and fire protection inside. Then there were the animal and foliage designs in the terracotta which were all drawn up by one architect …
A museum attendant told me that the architect was Alfred Waterhouse I had never heard the name of Waterhouse at architectural college.
My course was all about Le Courbusier and Mies. My blunder is Ronchamp. It’s always
quoted as the architect’s favourite building as a matter of dogma, but the truth is that it is structurally doubtful, meaningless in layout, bizarre in its detailing, and looks like a mutilated mushroom.
Postscript
Tony Miller is a writer at construction marketing firm Communication Design Partnership. He won the Building short story competition in 2002.
