Im going to include the overlook to the start of this topic as its relevant to the ‘Create Britain’ project.
Create Britain
“The Guardian” is launching a new cross platform feature under the umbrella title of “ Create Britain “. Picking up from the “Cool Britannia” agenda of the 1980’s the Guardian will work in partnership with leading British cultural institutions in a celebration of the state of the cultural industries within Britain today.
The Guardian in conjunction with leading British institutions and publications brings you a celebration of all things great in British creativity, design and innovation. Create Britain is a major survey of the state of creative practices and industry in Britain today. World leaders in design innovation & the arts celebrate what makes Britain truly great.
Partners include:
Design Museum
Design Council
Craft Council
Riba
V&A
Tate
Welcome Trust
Film 4
National Trust
British Council
From the Guardian itself, the opening ceremony of the Olympics, to artisanal bakery’s, food, fashion, film and design are at the heart of British culture and industry.
Create Britain lecture
We came up with a few examples in what certain things make Britain great.
. Freedom of speech
.Sport
.Art
.Architecture
.Institutions
.Fashion
.Heritage i.e (castles etc)
I would firstly like to look at institutions and what tends to branch out from this is things like Grammar schools, education, the Victoria and Albert museum, the Tate modern, National gallery’s, the BBC, and the NHS. All things that Britain has a reason to be proud of. Film and TV sits hand in hand with the BBC but also our theatre tradition and going to the west end to see a play. The writings of Shakespeare and people like Dickens are Authors admired these shores and worldwide and that is very much the case with our plays, TV shows and film. Literature is vastly respected across the world and we have produced some of the greatest stories still told today. It doesn’t seem to stop and its part of Britain’s make up to write and tell stories and one current pivotal series of books and films is Harry Potter which its acclaims speak for itself. The BBC is respected worldwide and our news channels and cult programmes are available for all audiences to see.
Our schooling is among some of the best available in the world and is now one of the most frequented by international students next to America. Cambridge and Oxford are two of the oldest educational institutions in the world, Oxford dating back to teachings in some form early 12th century and the oldest part of the building from 1634.
Cambridge’s old 16 colleges date back even further to as early as 1284 ranging through to 1596.
You can take from the educational system that its a critical part of British culture and is a key figure why we as a society are as established as we are. Everybody has a fair chance and a right to an education in Britain however it is derived by class and from state funded schools, sixth forms and college you can still go to the best Universities depending on your academic achievements. Private education through grammar and public schooling gives certain opportunities and access to some of the finest tutors and lecturers across the country and can set you up with the best ways into these world class institutes. The Bullingdon club is pretty much an elite society that only the most established families have the ability to get in and its the one David Cameron and Boris Johnson were part of in the late 80’s. It can really depend on money at times to where you can get to in Britain and that is something that has been part of our educational system for hundreds of years. We all get a fair chance however and GCSE results from state to private is now actually higher showing that teaching is great all round and its a reason to reflect on what makes Britain great.
Architecture is a key feature in British culture and looking at style in a later lecture its visible that we’ve taken many different ideas from as far back at Roman and Greek style. You can look directly at our churches which are some of the longest standing buildings we have in Britain today. Along with stately homes and castles we have the ability to create these fantastic structures which show wealth and power. Before the reformation of the Catholic church the amount of money put into building churches for example was astronomical, therefore the reason some of these still stand today due to their quality and the time put in.
We have been a wealthy nation on a majority for hundreds of years and that shows in the type of buildings we have created, some fantastic examples coming in the late 15th and early 16th century with architects such as Christopher Wren being a pivotal contributor. He built St Paul’s Cathedral and the majority of London’s classic skyline due to the great fire of London in 1666 which destroyed the majority of the medieval town. Wren was then commissioned to build the majority of churches that had been damaged during the blaze. He went on to build classic institutes like the Trinity college library, part of Cambridge University, Westminster abbey, Old Royal Navy college, 10 Downing street along with many others.
From older architects like Christopher Wren and moving into the modern day, you have people like Thomas Hetherwick and Terry Farrell who have been key players in much of the UK’s late 20th and early 21st century design.
Thomas Hetherwick has designed in the UK as well as being a pivotal contributor across the globe. With examples such as the Olympic torch, the new London bus, the preservation of coal drop’s yard, the UK pavilion Shanghai Expo 2010. He also has many different projects commissioned and waiting to go as well as some non-commissioned proposals which show his understanding of modern design as well as his innovation for the future. Structures such as Google’s new mountain view campus in California, the Teeside biomass power plant and New York’s Pier 55 are work commissioned and ready to go.
Terry Farrell
An iconic member in architecture and design, Farrell has been responsible for some of the most iconic buildings in the 20th and 21st century in the UK and abroad including MI6 and the Beijing south railway station.
Britain has also produced some fantastic artists, one I’ve chose to include is William Turner who believed that eventually technology would overwhelm nature. In truth he was right and the modern day we now live in is far more technologically advanced than the time Turner was alive, he was a visionary and knew that from living through the industrial revolution there could only be more and more to come.
Typical Britain
What me have a slight problem with in this country is the cliche of the British picture being all police boxes, red phone boxes and Churchill dogs. It’s a stereotype that was more in set 50 years ago. The pompous tradition of everything being all prim and proper has somewhat disappeared nowadays and the modern Brit has no connection to that attitude on society anymore.
In all respect those little things aren’t the true background of our society it’s the multiculturalism and diversity that has been instilled in us over the last 50 years and it’s the reason we can feel free to be whatever we want without restraints like there is in many countries across the globe.
The polite attitude of us as Brits can sometimes go beyond whats needed and we pride ourselves on doing things for ourselves even when it can be so much easier to ask for a little help!
A lot of people looking at the UK tend to see the royalist side and the old English gent style before anything else first. American’s are obsessed with the Royal family along with a lot of other countries and the whole romance of old England ticks a lot of peoples boxes, even here and you get programme’s like ‘Price and Prejudice’ at the forefront of 90’s lady gripping TV.
The idea of a ‘Royal’ family is really now just to bring in tourism and as long as there is demand for them, they will be used. They do now come under a lot of controversy due to the expenditure of shipping this family around the world for seemingly pointless missions of greetings that aren’t needed in the modern world.
Tradition is however a pinnacle part of Britain and you can’t ignore the history behind our extensive culture in having a royal family and certain institutes maybe not needed but still present.
traditional British phone box
modern phone box
In reality, a council estate box will look more like this!
Old fashioned police post
The insurance company ‘Churchill’ have embraced the name from a pinnacle figure in our society and also used a British Bulldog to give it a true British feel.
Tennis with strawberry’s and cream
The discovery of DNA.
”Crick and Watson, together with Maurice Wilkins, won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Medicine for their discovery of the structure of DNA. This was one of the most significant scientific discoveries of the 20th century.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/watson_and_crick.shtml
Clearly a vital scientific discovery which set the stage for the rapid advances in molecular biology that continue to this day. Forensics being one part of this discovery that has advanced massively and leads authorities to vital knowledge of the crime world.
Sir Christopher Wren
Wren an English architect foremost but also a well known anatomist, astronomer, geometer, mathematician and physicist. You could say he was a man of all traits and himself living to an impressive 91, something highly rare in the 17th/18th century he had a full life and was a pinnacle figure in the ebuild on London with buildings such as St Pauls cathedral and
Isambard Kingdom Brunel
This engineering genius was a pioneer whose work was at the forefront of the British industrial revolution. His contribution to the great western rail network and the bridges that complemented the tracks from London to Bristol.
He built the Clifton suspension bridge, the box tunnel, royal Albert bridge to name a few.
He was another innovator living beyond his time and he also had a go at building a steam powered ship the ‘S.S Great Eastern’ which launched in 1858 and was commissioned up until 1889. In 1866 it laid a cable across the Atlantic, for sending telegraph messages between Britain and America.
S.S Great Eastern
cable laying system
Bristol temple meads, part of the great western railway network.
Train hanger part of the temple meads station
Richard Rogers
There have been some fantastic architects over time but even today there are ones still alive and working who have been and still are at the cutting edge of design. Rogers has been responsible for his part in the design of the Pompidou centre (below), one of the most visited attractions in Paris.
Millenium dome
Leadenhall building
It shows that British architecture has been and still is thought of as some of the best across the globe and architects and designers are sought after for some big projects either currently being built in 2015 or proposed over the coming year. I’ve pick out a few who have contributed, moving into the 21st century.
Google’s newly proposed headquaters, designed by Thomas Heatherwick
Heatherwick is at the current forefront of design inn the UK, he created the Olympic cauldron for the 2012 London Olympics and the design of the new London bus.
the rolling bridge London
Lord Norman Foster
Norman Foster is another individual whose work has also sprung far and wide, one example in the UK is an iconic tower called the Gurkin and also projects like the rebuilding of the Reichstag in Germany, creating a new look for the top dome.
Britain has definitely still to this day producing some fantastic architecture and design. Looking back you have some of the old greats like Christopher Wren, reshaping the face of London. Designers continue to innovate and reinvent the architectural world all the time and Brits are showing that there skill isn’t just appreciated here but all over the world.
joesleney 