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IN A NUTSHELL ** (January 2001). TEXT: An essay titled "Vertical Time", the "Ontogenetic and Phylogenetic 'Emplotment" has been long promised, by one of our little yellow squares that mark an expansion of the subject, on the aspect of the Working Order that corresponds to 'Venustas', or Delight and that I call the "Talking Order". (January 2001). DESIGN: "The Millenium Pavilion " This small 'folly', also titled the "Millenium Verandah", has had a new set of photographs, and is half-way through getting a new text description that includes an iconography that sets out its claim to be the currently 'canonic' version of a "Sixth Order" . (January 2001). TEXT: "The JOA 'USP" For those unfamiliar with the peculiar acronyms of modern commerce, this stands for 'Unique Selling Proposition'. This site is called the 'Practice Philosophy' on the OFFICE Menu. The English are afraid of Philosophy, because their customary education has been careful to render them unfamiliar with its simplest terms. We island people, after all, do want to become as clever, or as confused, as the 'Continentals'! So we have sharpened its focus, and made its ideas more accessible, under the title of "The Sixth Order". (December 2000). DESIGN: The Judge Institute Site has been expanded with the addition of a whole lot more illustrations, including the beginnings of what the 19C Hospital looked like before being co-opted into (the) 'Working Order'. We publish also a 'film script', called the 'Brookestead Block' written in 1995, that will be of interest to those studying the Judge Building. (December 2000). DESIGN: The Isle of Dogs Pumping Station Site has been to be expanded - receiving a longer essay and better illustrations and drawings. (October 2000). TEXT: "Tube and Totem" A wide-ranging essay on High-Buildings policy for London that discusses the two Modernist tower-traditions - the Continental-American, and the Continental-European - Liebeskind's V&A Spiral, London's Post-War Planning History, etc. (this essay has been distributed to the GLA and Westminster City Planners). (August 2000). DESIGN: The Craft Workshops at Welbeck (as illustrated in RIBAJ Sept 00) has been expanded with three essays, an iconically-referenced elevation, plans and sections. DESIGN: The Designs for the "iconically-engineered" Video-Secco tiles of the Judge Institute have begun to be loaded into the "Talking Column". DESIGN: The Judge Institute Site has begun to be expanded with an essay and some more graphics.. TEXT: "Innovations - The JOA Toolbox" has been expanded with new essays (July 2000). DESIGN: The project design for the Battersea Power Station Site has begun to be expanded. TEXT: The longest Text, so far, (20,000 words) has been added titled "Raft of Fire, Mountain of Water". TEXT: Addition of "FAQ#11" : "Why do you publish so much on the Web?"   (June 2000). TEXT: " Duncanology 4" the analysis of our Texan Building proper has at last begun. DESIGN: The "Inhabited Bridge" project for London's Thames River has been added. TEXT: The text " Empire of the Forest" has been added, concerning the Architectural figure of the Hypostyle, or grid.

Click once on the pictures to go to the Website of the building or project that they illustrate.

V and A APPOINTS JOA FOR MAJOR EXHIBITION John Outram Associates have been appointed as designers by the Victoria and Albert Museum for the major exhibition "Inventing Tradition: Victoria's "New Britain"." to open in April 2001 in celebration of its centenary. JOA was chosen as a result of their scenario submitted in a limited competition.

"DESIGN" SITE EXPANSION (April-July 2000). 1A. The illustrations of DUNCAN HALL, have been expanded and extended. Captions are being (all too slowly) added to them.           THEORY OF THE DESIGN OF DUNCAN HALL 1.B. "DUNCANOLOGY" Parts 1 to 4, offer a decipherment of formal site and campus planning via an exploration of the paintings of Claude Lorraine and the campus of Rice University, Houston, Texas. (To reach them scroll down to the bottom of the Duncan Hall , Rice University, site) (March 2000).. " Duncanology 4", dealing with the theories behind the building itself, Duncan Hall, have begun to the loaded (June 2000).

RECENT TEXT ADDITIONS July-August 2000. TEXT: THE "INNOVATIONS" SITE, SUBTITLED THE JOA TOOLBOX , IS EXPANDED, with revised and new essays on "The Working Order, broken into the "Serving Order", the "Walking Order" and the "Talking Order", The "Space-Scripting" Tools have been expanded under the "The Republic of the Valley", the "Seminar Balconies", the "The Social Stair", the "The Goat Paths" ", , the, "The Basilican Core", and the "The Solar Spiral". The "Surface-Scripting" Tools have begun to be revised and expanded, but not yet completed, under the headings of "Blitzcrete ", "Doodlecrete, "Video Masonry", and"Video Secco". July 2000. TEXT: The longest Text, so far, has been added to the "The Act of Foundation" Design Toolbox in 'Innovations'. It is 20,000 words titled "Raft of Fire, Mountain of Water", It deals with the Entablature, and the Podium, but extends more widely, becoming a general decipherment of what one might call "Western Space". It joins the Text, also located in the "Act of Foundation", titled "Something about Nothing" which refers to the "Empire of the Forest" (see below). June 2000. TEXT with Illustrations: This Site now has an expanded analysis of the 'Working Order' that divides it into the three parts of the Vitruvian triad, called here, the 'Serviing' Order , the 'Walking' Order and the 'Talking' Order". Or as described by vitruvius: Firmitas, Commoditas and Venustas. June 2000. TEXT with Illustrations:: The "Act of Foundation" has been expanded with the Text 'Empire of the Forest', which deals with the Architectural figure of the Hyposyle, or Grid.   FAQ's (Frequently Asked Questions) (July 2000) TEXT: Addition of "FAQ#11" : "Why do you publish so much on the Web?" (March 2000) TEXT: This (FAQ) Site has been retitled "Theory" and given an extended introduction.

(March 2000) 3. The 'Burrell Museum', Competition design drawings have been added and given extended captions.

THE PEABODY INHABITED BRIDGE COMPETITION (June 2000) In response to the recent interest in new bridges over the River Thames we have added some more archive material describing our "Inhabited Bridge" design.

CRAFT WORKSHOPS COMPLETED AT WELBECK, NOTTS Early February 2000 saw the completion of eight Craft Workshops built for the Harley Foundation at Welbeck Abbey, near Worksop in Notts. The units are built within the walled kitchen gardens of the Abbey. They are constructed from rendered blockwork and a steel frame, and were fully let on completion.

NEW BUILDING OPENING IN THE HAGUE The JOA Team attended the opening on November 11th 1999 of the practice's latest building in The Groenmarkt, in the heart of the old town centre. The work includes the refurbishment of most of The Oude Stadhuis, the historic Town Hall where many Hagenachs are still married. The scheme comprises a new Department Store, several shops, restaurants, offices and a cycle park.

THE MILLENIUM VERANDAH Last summer (September 1999) JOA completed a further extension (the third so far) to The New House in Sussex, the winner of The Sunday Times "Best Country House in Britain since the War" Award in 1989. The extension comprises a new Verandah, supported by two precast concrete "Robot Columns", the tops of which are made in structural glass and illuminate at night. The Verandah also incorporates a louvred roof and a retractable awning.

THE EGYPTIAN HOUSE, THE THAMES, OXFORDSHIRE The client describes it as "a house in rendered blockwork with a copper roof" . Yet river boats now turn around for a second look at JOA's latest new house, "Sphinx Hill", located on the banks of a quiet stretch of the River Thames. It also features a terraced garden with a sphinx lined cascade and 'ha-ha'

** "I could close myself in a nutshell and think myself a king of infinite space were it not that I had bad dreams" - Hamlet. I have always thought that this quote from Shakespeare said all that needed to be said concerning the status of the Architectural Interior. If one can access 'infinite space' from inside a nutshell then what need is there to pollute the real sky by blasting busloads of escapees into "Greenery"? So when my tutor, Peter Smithson, the most admired young British Architect of the 1950's, said (with regret), in 1960, that: "The Great Interior is impossible in Modernism" he revealed how destructive, to the project of instituting a 'Green' culture, is the received, 'mainstream', version of Modernity that has, today, become the New Academicism. Only the invention of 'Great Interiors' can progress the functionality of a 'green' Architecture. I mentioned this quote in a debate, chaired by the ubiquitous Charles Jencks, who was generous enough, a few years later, to title one his many books: "Kings of Infinite Space". I do not recall it dealing with the subject of the Interior. But it is hard for Critics to treat with what does not yet exist. That it is what Practitioners do.