Tuesday 10th May 6:30pm, RIBA Bookshop, 66 Portland Place, London W1B 1AD

To book a free ticket please RSVP by emailing eva.sandoval@ribabookshops.com

The Station’s robotic arm in action over South Africa

The International Space Station  (ISS) is the most complex international scientific and engineering project in history, and the largest structure humans have ever put in space.  the ISS flies at 248 miles (400 km) above Earth and circles the globe every 90 minutes.  This flying laboratory travels the distance it takes to fly to the moon and back every day,  it is brighter than the planet Venus, and can be seen from the Earth with the naked eye as a bright light moving across the night sky.

The story of the ISS is the subject of the recent Circa Press publication written by Architect David Nixon, co-founder of Future Systems with Jan Kaplicky, with whom he collaborated for ten years.  After moving to California in the 1980s, David directed a research study for NASA on the design of astronaut quarters through his firm, Altus Associates.  International Space Station: Architecture Beyond Earth is the result of seven years of research on space architecture, and the collaboration between author David Nixon and editor of the book David Jenkins, who had the vision to embark on this fascinating publishing project.  To give you a glimpse of the beautiful imagery inside the book, the RIBA bookshop is currently showing an exhibition of some of the photographs and detail drawings included in this publication.

If you’d like to see the exhibition, pop into the RIBA bookshop from Monday to Friday from 9:30am until 5:30pm or on Saturdays from 10am until 5pm.  Alternatively, if you can’t make it to our bookshop in Portland Place, below is a preview of the exhibition photographed by Maria Babikova.

The book is available for purchase from our website and in our bookshop at 66 Portland Place.

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Join us for a special Christmas opening at the RIBA Bookshop on Tuesday 8th of December from 6:00pm until 8:30pm, when we’ll be serving warming treats of mince pies and mulled wine to all our customers.  If you need to stop by for those architectural books included on your Christmas list, we are also offering a 10% discount on all purchases during the evening.

You can also take a break from the shops, and visit the exhibition on Palladio’s drawings which is currently showing in the ground floor gallery, or have a look around the RIBA library, which will remain open until 8:00pm.

As always, we hope you can make it, and look forward to your visit.

Inside the Timothy Richards Workshop in Bath

This Christmas we’ve teamed up with the Timothy Richards architectural model workshop.  Based in Bath, Timothy and his team have spent over 25 years researching and developing their own techniques in plaster. They are inspired by the famous Parisian model makers of the 1800’s  Jean Pierre and Francoise Fouquet, who kept the secrets of their own plasterwork closely guarded.  The Fouquet’s work can be seen today amongst the V&A and Sir John Soane Museums’ collections.

The Timothy Richards Workshop in Bath

Timothy Richards is one of the only  workshops still in existence that follows the handmade process from beginning to end.  The initial stage, a forensic analysis and deconstruction of the building helps the model makers tap into the mind of the builder. Once they’ve discovered how a building has been assembled, a scale model is reconstructed by hand using styrene sheet and various other materials from which the mould and subsequent plaster cast is then made. From the beginning steps through to the final stages of sanding, filling, painting and addition of metal elements, the hand and mind of the modeller is always present.

Back in 2008 American sociologist and writer Richard Sennett published the first volume of a trilogy examining today’s material culture; intended to explore how and where we seek fulfilment in our society, and whether we are succeeding in finding it.  The Craftsman,  went on to become one of the most widely read social philosophy books amongst our customers, and nearly eight years later, it’s appeal hasn’t shown any signs of decrease.  The book explores the evolution of man’s material consciousness through the history of craftsmanship, and how we respond to our need of expressing ourselves through making, doing and performing.  Its principal premise, that our commitment to working, years or decades, towards mastering a skill, is a necessary ingredient for the achievement of physical, mental and societal well-being.  Sennett’s concern is that the spirit of craftsmanship “the basic human impulse , the desire to do something well for its own sake” is at risk of being stifled by social and economic conditions which often stand in the way of the craftsman’s discipline and commitment.  He states that “schools may fail to provide tools to do good work, and workplaces may not truly value the aspiration for quality”.

Despite the unstoppable rise of our culture of speed, the search for quality and mastery of skill remains alive in many hidden corners. Sometimes it even comes knocking on our door.  So much so, that over the years, we’ve had the good fortune of being able to work with many fine craftsmen and craftswomen who have chosen our bookshop to exhibit their work.  Illustrators like Thibaud Herem and Shiela Samsuri, photographers like Morley von Stenberg, paper artists like Elod Beregszaszi, and architects such as Jan kaplicky have all filled our bookshop with their extraordinary work.

If you’d like to see the Timothy Richards architectural models, we have an extensive selection currently on display and for sale in the bookshop.  We thought that these would make very special gifts for the holiday season, whether mid-century modern, or Georgian townhouse.  All the models can be viewed online by following this link.  Timothy Richards also takes on bespoke commission work in the UK and internationally, further information on this aspect of the workshop can be seen here www.timothyrichardscommissions.com .