Opinion: My Lockdown
Chris Williamson
When Chris was asked to work with Andrew Weston for group projects at Leicester School of Architecture (for no other reason than they were next to each other alphabetically) they both realised that their skills dovetailed perfectly. They particularly bonded on environmental issues during the energy crisis in the mid 1970s which altered the world to the need to reduce the reliance on fossil fuels. Their shared ambition made for a perfect business partnership and Weston Williamson was formed in 1985 after gaining valuable experience in the offices of Richard Rogers and Michael Hopkins.
04 Jan 2021
I had a dreadful sense of foreboding and as I closed the door to our studio in Waterloo at the start of the March lockdown. I knew I would miss the exchange of ideas and the casual conversations about our business, about design. I worried that the technology to work from home would measure up. I’ve never been a fan of working from home. I need colleagues. It’s all I’ve known. Whenever one of my Partners over the past 35 years is “working from home” my first thought is “day off”. I fear I may even have expressed that view from time to time. It’s my background. Work means going somewhere to work. Yet here we are 9 months later and although some of us have ventured back to the office, I’ve changed. We all have.
I was lucky to have the perfect lockdown project to work on as part of a team evaluating and rewriting Network Rail Design Standards. I reorganised my home studio and settled into a new routine. I also signed up as an NHS volunteer and found (no surprises to anyone who knows me) I’m great at fetching, carrying and delivering and absolutely useless when asked to call someone who just wants to chat.
I became morbidly fascinated and tearful as the daily cases, hospitalisations and deaths began to rise. Astonished at the unpreparedness, the incompetence, the mistakes. Watching the country I love become the worst affected in Europe. Cycling kept me sane and I decided to incorporate architectural destinations to my expanding routes. This included an examination of social housing and the contrast between those of us lucky to have gardens and those with appalling external spaces -often those keeping us fed, safe, well and alive. Our clapping seemed scant reward. This pandemic has highlighted huge inequalities. My hope is that we learn from it, that the world is a small, fragile, precious place and we all have to act together to enhance it. I think we will.
To escape the nightly bulletins and the constant analysis of cases and deaths, without theatres, restaurants, cinemas and galleries as a distraction I launched into projects I thought would have to wait until retirement. The most ambitious is a play about talent, ambition and legacy based on the rivalry between Michelangelo and Leonardo (but could also be about Norman Foster and Richard Rogers). I’ve loved it, the research, the writing, the whole creative process. For me this year more than ever has been a time for learning new skills as a way of having some semblance of control when the freedom we take for granted is now longer ours.
I have also learned screen printing at the weekends. My first attempt was to superimpose a drawing of the WCCA new home of Temple Bar on the 1746 Rocque plan of London. Again, I have loved the whole process though there is still much to learn. Whilst printing I was introduced to www.RadioParadise.com broadcasting out of San Diego which like listening to Bob Harris 24/7. Bliss.
Whether you believe it or not the Christmas story brings new life, new hope, new promise in this amazing complicated, fascinating world. Best Wishes to everyone for a re- start in the New Year.
Chris Williamson
When Chris was asked to work with Andrew Weston for group projects at Leicester School of Architecture (for no other reason than they were next to each other alphabetically) they both realised that their skills dovetailed perfectly. They particularly bonded on environmental issues during the energy crisis in the mid 1970s which altered the world to the need to reduce the reliance on fossil fuels. Their shared ambition made for a perfect business partnership and Weston Williamson was formed in 1985 after gaining valuable experience in the offices of Richard Rogers and Michael Hopkins.