In the afternoon of the day before our trip to Manchester, I tried to fill the kitchen sink so that I could wash the pots from lunchtime. I noticed that the water was only tepid and thought that perhaps the hot water had been used up earlier in the day. There wasn’t time to turn the water on and heat it up because I was due to go out. It wasn’t a problem, I could wash them when I got home or so I thought at the time. However when I got home Mr C was sitting at his computer booking a gas service call. The water pump had failed. As we we had already booked train tickets for our Manchester adventure, the call had to be booked for Saturday. This meant no hot water for two days!

Mr C chose the 10-13.30 slot because we had visitors coming for an evening meal on Saturday evening and there were jobs that needed to be done after he left. At 11am the engineer had still not arrived and I suggested we ring British Gas. Mr C thought they would arrive soon so he decided not to ring straight away. When, a little later it became clear that they would not arrive before 12 o’clock he dialled British Gas and was put on hold in a queue for 25 minutes. Eventually someone took the call and we were advised that had been a lot of problem calls in the area and that the engineer would be with us between 12 o’clock and 6pm. Mr C told them that this was not good enough and that we had plans later in the day. After a bit of toing a froing between the call centre and the engineer the revised time remained before 6pm. Mr C was asked if this was acceptable to which he said ‘no but it will have to do’.

The engineer turned up at 2.15pm and confirmed it was the water pump that had broken. He then encountered a problem getting the old one off, it had apparently been soldered on. He then encountered another problem when he started to fit the new one. He was with us for nearly two hours! When he was gone we had to rush around doing the household jobs that we couldn’t do whilst he was there. If we had known he wasn’t coming in the morning some of them could have been done then! We just managed to get everything ready in time for our guests arrival at 7pm.

The new water pump doesn’t look as sturdy as the old one but at least the water is ‘very hot’ now. I think the old one had been on the blink for a while.

The Kultur-und Kongresszentrum or Culture and Convention Centre when translated into English is more commonly known as the KKL Centre.

The KKL Centre was a project of French architect Jean Nouvel and built between the years 1995 to 2000.

The Culture and Convention Center in Lucerne is composed of three parts: a concert hall, conference rooms with an auditorium and a museum of contemporary art.

The idea was to play with a horizontal plane as canopy linking the different spaces that are lined up below. This form on the elevation level of the lake covered a large urban area with a water element. The metaphor refers to three ships docked in the lake under the huge deck.

The construction was a major challenge because of the overhang that reaches 45 meters on the diagonal, with a height of 21 meters. This represents the most architecturally unique building, which ‘float’ light and elegant between land and sky, and gives the area a peaceful atmosphere.

The roof was designed to harmonize with a horizontal center of the lake, inviting visitors to spend some time abroad.

Faced with the impossibility of building the center on water, Nouvel decided to enter the lake in the building, creating two channels of low depth that operate within the complex. The water was channeled into the three parts of the building at the same level as the Plaza Europa.

The tech behind the structure:

In choosing the form of the large roof overhang and structural economic influence. A web of steel plate girders were included to strengthen the high slope in the northeast corner. With a maximum height of 3.7 meters beam, falling almost to zero at the edge of the roof, it was possible to achieve a cantilever beam of 45 meters.

A major challenge was how to ensure continuity at the intersection of three beams of 2.5 meters. The engineers used an innovative concept for linking the main diagonal beams to allow a continuous distribution of bending throughout the structure, uninterrupted by the joints. Diagonal beams were organized to achieve large holes in the main beams. Linkages were established with neck bolts using HSFG soldier.

As the wind is the most important cargo solicitation on the roof, their behavior was studied in a wind tunnel using a 1:200 scale model. Different parts of the structure were tested in a laboratory compared to storms, earthquakes, fires, depletion and degradation. The long-term performance of the roof is guaranteed by an extensive program of inspection and maintenance. To access the interior of the roof is designed especially removable plates.

The Chapel Bridge and Water Tower were built in the 14th century.  The bridge served as a rampart, as well as part of the towns fortification.  Originally 285 meters long, the bridge was shortened several times during the 19th century.  Water tower served as a dungeon, archive and treasury vault.

In the 17th century the Chapel Bridge was adorned with a set of paintings.  The triangular panels were designed by town secretary Renward Cysat, a universal scholar, and painted in Renaissance style by Hans Heinrich Wagmann. The series of paintings depict the development of the city and republic of Lucerne from a Counter-Reformation point of view.  Other pictures portray the life and sufferings of the town’s two patron saints, St. Leodegar and St. Mauritius.

During the night of 17th August 1993, a fire broke out on the Chapel Bridge burning 81 of the 111 bridge paintings.  The paintings of both bridge-heads escaped damage by the blaze.

Between 1994 and 2001 photographic facsimiles were displayed to fill the enormous gap.

In  2002 Lucerne’s city council together with the federal and cantonal offices for the preservation of historical monuments, agreed upon which the order of the paintings would be newly hung.

The paintings on the bridgeheads are the originals.  In the middle of the bridge the paintings from the St. Mauritius series can be seen.  These had been removed in the 19th century when the bridge was shortened during the construction of the quays on the north and south ends.

The gap remaining between the paintings serves as a reminder of the irreparable loss to the bridge – and for the city of Lucerne – caused by the blaze on the night of 17th August 1993.*

*Information from a sign board located next to the bridge.

PS: I don’t have photos of the paintings on this bridge, but I do have photographs of paintings from a similar bridge.  Coming soon…

Plato

The historic grounds at Compton Verney are registered as a Grade II* listed parkland. Most of what you see in the grounds is the result of a long-term project to restore many of the features which Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown (1716 – 1783) created after 1768. Brown was commissioned by John Verney, 14th Baron Willoughby de Broke (1738 – 1816) to redesign the landscape at Compton Verney. Brown’s resulting landscape typified his minimalist approach to parkland, with its sweeping vistas, viewpoints and imaginative use of water.*

*Info from the Compton Verney Grounds leaflet.