forensic criticism of N Ratsby in the Architectural Review
by jon astbury
In 2006 The Architectural Review published ‘Blackbird Pie’, a feature in the Evidence series examining Niall McLaughlin’s then still in-progress project for a private residence at 49 Duncan Terrace, Islington. Work on Duncan Terrace began in 2001, and involved stripping back a Georgian end-of-terrace property, restoring its original interior layout, adding a modern extension to the back of the site, connected to the terrace at the front by a glass corridor. Situated in a conservation area, the modern extension was not permitted to announce itself to the street, and as a result the only reference to its existence is a window in the exterior wall facing the street and perhaps a glimpse of the corridor’s glazed roof. However, as Ratsby states, ‘McLaughlin is not the first visitor here: the exterior walls show the location of a previous window - bricked up with fresh masonry and strikingly obvious alongside the soot- marked bricks of the original house.’ 1 49 Duncan Terrace is home to a couple, although nowhere in the feature are they mentioned and nor do they appear in any of the photographs. One unpublished photo includes a hand [ figure 9, p29 ], but this would seem to be the only example. It is unclear whether their omission is simply an indication of a lack of interest in the use of people as subjects, or a result of a focus on the material traces of lives. Although Ratsby makes no direct reference in the article, notes on his original photographs 2 suggest that he had a great interest in Freud’s work on the uncanny, in particular the dual meaning of heimlich as both ‘that which is familiar and
congenial’ yet also ’that which is concealed and kept out of sight’. 3 This is particularly applicable to Duncan Terrace as an act of restoration, when quite unfamiliar modern additions pierce the familiar fabric of the original house. Ratsby’s ‘Blackbird Pie’ runs over six pages: 15 often indistinct images, two plans and a section, a thousand words. Ratsby’s methods are effective when applied to projects dealing with existing conditions, and the quality of traces at Duncan Terrace is rich both in terms of materiality, the owners’ belongings and their extensive collection of artworks. Among Ratsby’s few studies this one is perhaps the most intriguing in terms of its narrative depiction of space, one guided by a reference to a short story quoted by an artwork in the residence: ‘In the dining room of 49 Duncan Terrace hangs an artwork reciting a passage: ‘the radio played softly in the other room. It was a little suite I’d h—’ (the passage is cut off mid sentence).’ This passage is taken from Blackbird Pie , a short story by Raymond Carver where a wife leaves her husband. It begins with a letter slipped beneath the husband’s door, which, despite containing knowledge he feels could only be known by his wife, is not characteristic of her sentiments, nor written in her hand. The man promptly misplaces this letter, but due to his uncanny ability to retain facts, he remembers its contents and is later able to recall them with great accuracy.
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prepared for AR by N Ratsby. Drawings courtesy of Niall Mclaughlin Architects
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