iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Robert Proctor @rproctor.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Foggy morning on the Severn. Wigeon are back.

A road bridge over a very broad river, half hidden by fog, blue sky.

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Robert Proctor @rproctor.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

First part of a game of exquisite corpse; what would you put next? ...

Text in an old book: 'A sight worth seeing is the felling of a tree by a man who is a thorough master of his axe; full of instruction in the use of a noble tool, of interesting incident, and of pictorial value; the movements, though of full action, having a certain deliberation that stops short of violence. And it is good to see how he will make the tree fall exactly where he wishes. But ...'

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Robert Proctor @rproctor.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

The 'Elephant' really is a cool thing. Crossing fingers for its future.

'The Elephant', Coventry, an odd shaped 1960s building with lead-covered walls and triangular windows on angled legs, linked to a swimming pool building by a glazed angular tube.

'The Elephant' leisure centre building, Coventry, large hulking angled building covered in lead panels, with small triangular windows, raised up over a road on legs, with a glazed tube connecting it to a swimming pool next door.

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Robert Proctor @rproctor.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Particularly admired this Walter Ritchie sculpture, mid-1950s, moved to the side of the art gallery, representing (so the sign says) 'Man's struggle to control the world inside himself' and that 'outside himself'.

Brick wall with large modern relief sculpture on it, in two sections, the one on the left swirling forms, figure of a man with open head, monsters emerging from it; on the right, a man trying to tame an angry horse; white (Portland stone) with red-painted backgrounds.

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Robert Proctor @rproctor.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Short trip to Coventry, where I saw some wonders I remember and others I didn't.

Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, 1950s building with Portland stone cladding, mosaic and large windows, a coat of arms at centre top on projecting auditorium wall.

Wall of angled lead panels, tree; leisure centre building of 1960s, Coventry.

Chapel, looking up, circular space with plain thin cross hanging in the centre, slot windows with coloured glass in deep angled fins around the edges; in Coventry Cathedral.

Entrance to Coventry Cathedral, a sort of giant porte cochere with crosses suspended between red sandstone columns, and concrete roof over the top; red sandstone wall to left, similar stone walls to right.

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Robert Proctor @rproctor.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Bradford-on-Avon bank holiday wander.

Marble monument detail, a carved skull with cherub's foot on it, classical mouldings around it.

A Renaissance virgin and child painting in a gold frame on a wall below windows.

A medieval stone barn, pedimented porch with doors open looking right through it, a person silhouetted beyond, stone-tiled roof.

Detail of a green and grey barge on overgrown canalside with plants in pots on the roof.

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Robert Proctor @rproctor.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

You know when you think you've found a really good building and then you look it up and find that of course it was by such-and-such? Postmodern theatre and media complex at Chambéry by Mario Botta, 1982-87, extended by Aurelio Galfetti, 1992.

Detail of a stripy building with grey lines interspersed with yellow sandstone, diagonal shadow, unusual gaps between corners, small cut-out windows.

Big outdoor flight of steps up to a partly circular drum of a building, stripy details of yellow sandstone. A temporary tent to one side, hints of a larger auditorium building to left.

A big stripy drum of a modern building, next to an older plain 3-storey building with rectangular windows and dormers; the drum has a stepped cut out section below it with entrances and a colonnade, and there's a glazed link between the new and old buildings.

Cars parked in front of large theatre building, big flight of steps up to a drum shaped building on the right, the steps flying over a cut-out arch, to the left a massive cubic structure with no windows except at the base, all with stripy lines of yellow sandstone.

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Robert Proctor @rproctor.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Doing some brain surgery on my memory. Fingers crossed.

The inside gubbins of a desktop computer with some coloured cables hanging out of it.

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Robert Proctor @rproctor.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Anyway, this year I'm taking all my annual leave whether I have anything fancy to do or not. So hello from a marsh in Gloucestershire, where there's a spoonbill looking as relaxed as me.

Marsh, very flat but some distant hills, some clouds in the sky.

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Robert Proctor @rproctor.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

St Bernadette, Annecy, by Maurice Novarina and Claude Fay, 1963-67.

A concrete church with white cylindrical tower (slightly spiralled at the top) and metal cross, body made up of planes of concrete wall staggered slightly with full-height windows between, roof in a V shape projected out on deep doubled timber beams.

Detail of modern church entrance with deep concrete-walled recess and lower projecting wall inside it with rows of small windows in projecting frames, offset with each other to make a regular pattern. Weeds on one edge.

Interior of modern church viewed across the nave; rows of timber pews, raised sanctuary steps to right, timber ceiling supported on doubled timber beams, a series of concrete planes at far end slightly staggered with full-height glazing between them, a plain cross on one section of wall.

View of modern church interior, timber pews on paved floor, concrete wall sections all set at a slight angle and the gaps filled with glazing, timber roof supported by deep doubled timber beams; green garden just visible through the windows.

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Robert Proctor @rproctor.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

The perfect provincial French mairie doesn't exi ... At least Duingt, near Annecy, has a very cute one, doesn't it.

A little 'mairie' or village hall, a simple but charming box-like two-storey building with tall hipped tiled roof, symmetrical windows (3 above, 2 below surrounding a central door), and attached to the building on the right a small stair tower with pointed roof. Mountain ridge in the background; flower beds and potted flowers in the foreground, with a memorial on the right flanked by French and EU flagpoles.

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Robert Proctor @rproctor.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Palais de Justice, Annecy, by Maurice Novarina with Patrice Novarina and others, 1972-8.

Part of a modern movement building, patterned concrete section protruding from glazed facade, all cantilevered over a recessed podium.

Modern movement building, a glass box with outward leaning facades, protruding central concrete elements that lean back slightly, all cantilevered over a recessed podium, on a large expanse of concrete paving.

Modern movement building, a glass box with outward leaning facades, protruding central concrete element that leans back slightly, all cantilevered over a recessed podium, on a large expanse of concrete paving. Lettering, 'Palais de Justice', attached at bottom of central concrete section.

Detail of modern building, glazed facade behind patterned concrete panel, on which letters are attached at the bottom reading 'Palais de Justice'.

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Robert Proctor @rproctor.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Modernist Annecy. Lake-frontage apartment blocks.

A curved-plan 4-storey modernist apartment block with sloped fins dividing the building vertically, cars parked diagonally in front of a hedge, blue sky.

A 7-storey concrete apartment block with balconies across flat frontages, and a form that steps back from right to left, lush landscaping around the edges.

A tall modernist apartment block with yellow awnings projecting on one side, smaller rectangular windows in a grid on the other, and panels of beige stone cladding. Blue sky, curved lamp post, a bit of tree.

6-storey apartment building with projecting side wings forming a front courtyard, viewed from under a walkway canopy that leads to the entrance, mauve paving in the courtyard and raised beds with drought-stricken grass on them, yellow awnings projecting from some of the flats, recessed balconies forming a repetitive rhythm on the building, blue-tiled flanking sections to windows.

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Robert Proctor @rproctor.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Well anyway, props to these balconies for not collapsing on me during my dinner.

Old stone balconies on a building with an arcade running under it, the balconies propped up with poles and wrapped with green netting, viewed between orange brasserie umbrellas in the street.

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Robert Proctor @rproctor.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Tourist tat fridge magnets are all AI slop now.

A display of colourful fridge magnets representing Annecy.

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Robert Proctor @rproctor.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

Love a potentially infinite building with interesting section, teak window frames, and flat concrete plane at apparently arbitrary end slice. (Royal Berks Hospital, Reading).

A long modern building with concrete projecting linear elements into which brick walls have been built with vertical windows with teak frames.

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Robert Proctor @rproctor.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

I got these to try; good but not *quite* up to it.

A packet of LU biscuits, Le Petit Chocolat Noir.

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Robert Proctor @rproctor.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

Bath at the wrong end of the scale.

A tiny stone houses surrounded by larger houses of c. 1820. It has a central door, two small uPVC sash windows either side, and an off-centre window above, and a there's what looks like timber door in the top left hand corner; the roof slopes down from back to front and the facade is painted white.

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Robert Proctor @rproctor.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Reading Alison Ravetz, 'Remaking Cities', 1980, and although in many ways it's been superseded, it really is wonderfully rich and prescient. Some points I've been impressed by so far. ->

Cover of Alison Ravetz, 'Remaking Cities', book, dark green with diagonal text in mid green and white.

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Robert Proctor @rproctor.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

Looking up some buildings on Google Streetview, found the view blocked by a covid-era bus.

A big blue double-decker bus viewed side-on showing advert pasted across it saying 'Play your part to STOP the spread' depicting a man with a face mask holding a sign saying 'Remember - only get tested if you have Covid symptoms'.

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Robert Proctor @rproctor.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

Thing about Townscape is that it's less about architecture, planning, etc. than just fun excuses to make and appreciate Cartier-Bresson style street photography with a taste for the surreal. (Here Gordon Cullen's text and Hubert de Cronin Hastings's photo).

Photo of man in 1950s suit disappearing down a dark alley; caption saying "mystery / From the matter-of-fact pavement of the busy world we glimpse the unknown, the mystery of a city where anything could happen or exist, the noble or the sordid, genius or lunacy. This is not Withenshawe" [sic].

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Robert Proctor @rproctor.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

Coming across vast tracts of uncatalogued archives for a thing I want to do. Good because nobody's been looking at it. Bad because neither can I.

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Robert Proctor @rproctor.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

Colston Street and Christmas Steps, Bristol.

The very tops of a row of narrow old houses viewed from a height, tall chimneys and pitched roofs visible, and the tops of the top storeys, with glimpses of wall in yellow, red brick, pink and blue. A blue sky and modern buildings just visible behind.

Two Victorian warehouses and a Victorian house behind a wall on a sunny day.

Lightbulbs strung across the peach coloured facade of a narrow house with an eighteenth century sash window in it. There are strong shadows from pitched-roof buildings nearby, and glimpse of a deep purple building next door and blue sky above.

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Robert Proctor @rproctor.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

Less so when you have badgers in the neighbourhood.

A dead tulip lying on the ground next to a hole where a badger has dug up the bulb and eaten it.

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Robert Proctor @rproctor.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

Rusticated Renaissance palazzi, Florence.

Sunlight grazing across the deeply rusticated stone facade of Palazzo Gondi, Florence, with arched and square windows.

A grilled window of the Palazzo Medici, Florence, surrounded by a rusticated arch and set in deeply rusticated stone wall, with a dark blue Fiat Cinquecento parked in front.

Looking up towards a corner of the Palazzo Rucellai, Florence, showing pilasters, arched windows and rustication, and a projecting cornice against the sky, the side facade just visible as a plain wall showing that the main facade is a thin veneer of stone.

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Robert Proctor @rproctor.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

In Florence, depictions of people are for some reason usually above eye level. If you point the camera straight, it frames the feet. There are a lot of expressive feet in Florence.

Bottom part of medieval fresco in the church of S. Miniato al Monte, Florence, showing red-clothed feet, with wooden chairs stacked underneath.

Lower section of a classical sculpture of a woman with robes slipping down and kicking out a bare foot behind her; there's a big dark painting in a gold frame in the background. From the Uffizi gallery, Florence.

Feet of a marble sculpture of a woman representing 'Night' on the top of a tomb in Michelangelo's New Sacristy, S. Lorenzo, Florence, with an owl looking out from under one raised leg.

Red-shod feet of an angel with purple cloak in detail of an early Renaissance painting, blue clouds, gold leaf background, and the words 'Ave Gratia Plena' in gold on the gold frame, from the Accademia gallery in Florence.

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Robert Proctor @rproctor.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

Conserving historic monuments is very important. Not too late to join our MSc in Conservation of Historic Buildings. But if you do, please avoid doing this to buildings when I'm visiting them.

Facade of the church of S. Miniato al Monte, Florence, covered in scaffolding.

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Robert Proctor @rproctor.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

There are crag martins nesting in the giant rosettes at Milano Centrale.

Underside of a gigantic stone arch with carved rosettes. It's not quite possible to see but there's a crag martin nest squeezed behind one of them.

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Robert Proctor @rproctor.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

Important reading. Thomas Sharp, English Panorama, 1936 (Architectural Press edition 1950).

Text from book saying 'Chapter Four: Hell, Utopia, and Middlesborough'.

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Robert Proctor @rproctor.bsky.social · 29/03/2026

Film of the year so far. La Grazia. Really great.

Poster for the film La Grazia showing an old man dressed in black on the edge of a wood, depicted in cool blue tones.

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Robert Proctor @rproctor.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

Briefly back reading newspapers again, failing to find useful information.

Advert from a 1942 local newspaper, 'A Demonstration of the Making of Molassed Silage'.

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Robert Proctor @rproctor.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

Love a really obscure archive catalogue section heading.

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Robert Proctor @rproctor.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

Important to have mid-C20 books to hand in my office to demonstrate good quality buildings and drawing methods to Gen Z architecture students, I find.

Architectural plan and section drawings of a complicated house with swirly landscaping inside a rectangular boundary, the house against two sides, little monopitch roofs popping up over living spaces, captions in Italian saying what the rooms are.

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Robert Proctor @rproctor.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

Simon Bradley's fault. (Sorry, I'll stop now).

Fake newspaper column headline purporting to be by Allister Heath in the Telegraph saying 'How the Marxist infiltration of Nikolaus Pevsner's Buildings of England poisoned the minds of the young'.

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Robert Proctor @rproctor.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

I don't know, I've seen some cranky Roman rule-breaking, there's probably classical precedent if you look for it.

Ancient Roman triumphal arch at Aosta, Italy, with Corinthian order under a Doric entablature. Quite wrong.

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Robert Proctor @rproctor.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

Sad to hear recently of architect Desmond Williams's passing. Fond memories of exploring his dramatic 1960s churches. Now preparing some photos for the Manchester Modernist Society. Obituary by his son here: www.ribaj.com/intelligence...