Palace of the Parliament, Bucharest

Construction of what was originally called the Palace of the Republic began in 1983, the cornerstone laid on 25 June 1984. Romanian Communist Party leader Ceaușescu had seen the monumental architecture of North Korea on a visit to fellow dictator Kim Il-sung, and had decided that his palace would rival anything else in its scale and opulence. 2.7 square miles of Bucharest, home to monasteries, a hospital, 37 factories and workshops, and 40,000 people, were demolished to make way for this vision.

With 3,930,000 square feet of floor space, the palace is the third largest administrative building in the world, after The Pentagon (Virginia, USA) and the Long'ao Building (Jinan city, China). At over 90 million cubic feet, it is the third most voluminous building in the world, after the Rocket Assembly Building at Cape Canaveral, USA, and the pyramid of Quetzalcoatl, in Mexico. The palace is the heaviest building in the world, weighing in at over four million tons, and as a consequence sinks about a quarter of an inch per year.

Between 20,000 and 100,000 people, working 24 hours a day, in three shifts, were forced to undertake the construction. Thousands died. Over 700 architects, under chief architect Anca Petrescu, were engaged in the work, but had a largely technical role, with the megalomaniac Ceaușescus interfering at every stage.

885 feet wide, 790 feet front to back, the building stands 276 feet tall. It has a footprint of over 710,000 square feet. Of twelve above-ground storeys, in three registers, plus eight underground levels, the palace contains over 1,100 rooms, of which just 400 or so are in use. Although the exterior was completed in 1997, hundreds of rooms remain unfinished.

Some of the principal rooms and halls of the first register, the most opulent, can be visited by the public. In this register alone there are about 20 rooms of 2,000 to 7,500 square feet; three of 10,000 to 15,000 square feet; two of over 21,000 square feet (Union Hall, photo above, boasts over 23,000 square feet); two vast meeting rooms, seating 850 and 1,200 respectively; and the two official apartments intended, one suite each, for Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu.

The construction material quantities are gargantuan: 35 million cubic feet of marble, 550,000 tons of cement, two million tons of sand, 1,000 tons of basalt, 700,000 tons of steel, 3,500 tons of crystal, seven million cubic feet of glass, 32 million cubic feet of wood, 2.3 million square feet of carpet. There are 4,500 chandeliers, of an intended 11,000.

And the materials used are of the highest quality, largely from Romania: pink and white Rușchița marble, red and black Moneasa marble; sweet cherry, walnut, mahogany and oak. Yet the quality of the work leaves much to be desired. Despite the obsessive reworking required by the Ceaușescus - Elena had the monumental paired stairs built three times over - the joints and junctions are poorly executed, the chandeliers are missing drops, the carpets are twisted.

The whole place has an air of pointless extravagance. It was known by Romanians, most of whom were living in a peasant economy, as the Madman's House. And mad it is. The Rosetti Room, built as a performance hall, seating 850 - photo above - lacks a backstage area and has a tiny stage, such that it's never been used for the presentation of a play.

Since the 1989 revolution that deposed Ceaușescu, when the building was renamed the Palace of the People, Romania has struggled to find uses for a structure that, on the one hand, is a ridiculous folly, yet, on the other, was built at great cost, both financial and human, and might as well be pressed into use. Now called the Palace of the Parliament, it presently houses the Chamber of Deputies, the Senate, an international conference centre, the Constitutional Court, and the Legislative Council, with space to spare.

Foel Ortho

Foel translates from the Welsh as bald, or bare, hill. But the hillside at Foel Ortho is anything but bald.

In a ruinous state at that time, the farmhouse was discovered in 1967 by Jenny and Eddie Matthews.

The steep acre of ground, between Penybontfawr and Lake Vyrnwy, has over the decades been graced with a series of DIY follies.

With winding and stepped paths between fake rocks, stone-retained terraces, a mock castle, towers linked by a bridge, buttressed walls, and a giant chess set, the place is like nothing so much as a miniature Portmeirion.

Freetown Christiania

Christiania, now covering about 19 acres of the military barracks of Bådsmandsstræd (abandoned from 1967), and remnants of the city ramparts, in the Christianshavn area of Copenhagen, was squatted in 1971.

A mission statement was co-authored by the journalist Jacob Ludvigsen: "The objective of Christiania is to create a self-governing society whereby each and every individual holds themselves responsible over the well-being of the entire community. Our society is to be economically self-sustaining and, as such, our aspiration is to be steadfast in our conviction that psychological and physical destitution can be averted."

The residents developed their own set of rules: no stealing, violence, guns, knives, bullet-proof vests, hard drugs, or bikers' colours. Known also as Freetown Christiania, the commune's cannabis trade was largely tolerated by various Danish governments, some of which saw the area as an interesting social experiment.

Since 1994 the residents have paid taxes for services such as water, electricity and rubbish disposal. The area's open but illegal cannabis trade was ended in 2004, after which outside biker gangs vied to take over the market.

A Christiania resident was killed in April 2005 as a consequence of the resulting violence. The weed trade recommenced, and has operated ever since, other than subsequent to a shooting in 2016 and for a while after police raids.

Since 2010 matters have settled somewhat, and Christiania now operates (largely) under Danish law. Some of the buildings, including the Grey Hall riding house (used as a concert venue), the half-timbered Commander's House, and the 17th and 18th century powder magazines, were listed in 2007 by the National Heritage Agency.

The area was closed to the public by the residents in June 2011, but a year later they set up a collective fund to enable purchase of the land from the defence ministry, making the commune the landowners. No private cars are allowed within the commune, which is currently home to about 900 people.

Duck 'all

Section of scaffolding tower sunk into pond and joined at top with scaffolding pole. Heavy stretchers run out from bank to atop scaffolding, held in place with metal straps. Suspended deck planked with composite plastic decking, resistant to rotting. Weight over water counterbalanced with railway sleeper attached to frame at landward end. Frame of house built up with 4"x4" and 4"x2" timber. Window inserted to shaded side. Metal mesh inserted to provide ventilation.

Roof formed of 3"x2" timber, covered with sterling board and shed roofing felt. Door cut down and inserted, to provide human access. All framing stained black. House panelled with weatherboarding and floored with sterling board. Pontoon made from four plastic drainage pipe 90° turns, joined together and captured within plastic decking frame. Pontoon covered with sterling board and weighted to sit level with water. Sloping ramp of plastic decking, hinged at head, and captured at foot by a block and coffer, to enable rise and fall with water.

Theory is that foxes will not swim out into the water in order to access the ducks' doorway from the deck. Other than weatherboarding, roofing felt, a box of screws, wood stain, two bolts and a handle, all materials were re-used scrap. Total cost £129. Will be called Duck 'all. No MPs' expenses claimed.

Brogyntyn - Secret Tunnel

The tunnel beneath Castell Brogyntyn is well known, but the parkland boasts a second, the location of which is kept secret by those in the know, to protect the four lesser horseshoe bats that live within.

(Lesser horseshoes are restricted to Wales, the West Midlands, and the south-west of England. There are about 50,000 individuals in the UK. Their worldwide International Union for Conservation of Nature classification is Vulnerable, i.e. at high risk of extinction.)

The tunnel has Y-shaped adit-like entrances at both ends. It is constructed from the local rock, stacked so as to create a deliberately rustic appearance.

About ten or so yards long, including the splayed entrances, the tunnel curves gently underground, is broadly S-form in plan.

Brogyntyn - Castell

Castell Brogyntyn is a univallate 'hill fort', supposedly of the Iron Age, and scheduled accordingly as an ancient monument.

It is, however, decidedly symmetrical, and was likely rescarped, perhaps in the 1760s. The very flat interior is understood to have been home, in that period, to a bowling green.

A stone-lined tunnel, about 70 yards long, passes underneath the 'castle', curved such that one cannot see from one end to the other.

Brogyntyn - Swiss Cottage

The two lakes of Brogyntyn were formed by 1800, by damming the Mill Dingle. A rustic bridge once crossed the head of the dam between them. The extant bridge is a modern replacement.

The lakes were linked by a 30 foot high waterfall, formed of Pulhamite, an anthropic rock. There were two types of this. One was a stone-coloured terracotta, for moulding garden and architectural ornaments such as fountains and balustrades. The other, employed here, was a render, of hydraulic lime, sand and other aggregates, over a masonry former, used for constructing rockeries and the like.

A boathouse that once stood at the south end of the upper pool has gone, but Brogyntyn Cottage, to the west of the same pool, adjoining Whit(e)well Lane, remains.

Known as Swiss Cottage, this was built in the early nineteenth century, in the Gothick style. The three-sided verandah is framed by rustic columns and 'capitals', and sports walls studded with quartz nodules.

































There are outbuildings cut into the slope of the land (below). Although Grade II listed (1987), the cottage is ruinous. The stained glass has gone.

The condition of the fine rococo interior is unknown. This included ogee windows and inset bookcases, which once housed false books, the titles of which alluded to the romantically concealed nature of the cottage.

Across the lane is a pumping house, belonging to the estate, still supplying water to 13 nearby properties.

Broadway Tower

Broadway Tower stands atop Beacon Hill, at 1,024 feet the second highest point in the Cotswolds. It was built as a 'Gothic' folly for Lady Coventry, wife of George William, the 6th Earl of Coventry, one of the great patrons of 18th-century estate landscaping. Completion was circa 1799.

The tower formed part of an overall  plan produced by Lancelot 'Capability' Brown. Brown recruited the architect James Wyatt, who was largely responsible for the design, Brown dying in 1784. Originally called Beacon Tower, the folly stands 65 feet tall. It comprises three storeys plus a rooftop terrace, from which it is possible to see 16 counties. The plan is an unusual one - a hexagon with round towers cut into three of the six angles.

Sir George's son John gave away the tower in 1819 to the neighbouring estate of Middle Hill, then recently inherited by the bibliomaniac Sir Thomas Phillipps. Phillipps moved in his printing press in 1822, to establish the Middle Hill Press, but neglected the structure. The tower was abandoned in 1864 and remained empty until 1872.

William Morris's friend Cormell Price leased it from 1876, and both Morris and Edward Burne-Jones frequented the tower as a retreat. It remained part of the Middle Hill estate until 1949, when it was offered to the National Trust as a gift, one which was declined. The tower was ultimately rescued by Anthony Wills, Baron Dulverton, who used his family's tobacco funds to restore it. With a second staircase inserted in another of the round towers, Broadway Tower opened to the public in 1975.

Putting on a Pedal-Stool

YMGW's partner's sister says "pedal-stool" in place of "pedestal," as in The IT Crowd. Yellow moulded breakfast bar stool salvaged from derelict building. Footrest cut off, leaving central section to enable attachment of pedals. Metalwork rubbed down, primed and sprayed with purple enamel. Pedals and connecting bar salvaged from redundant exerciser. Plastic 'bearing' ground down to interference fit within stub of footrest, and assembly held in place by rubber bungs and circlips. No parts or materials bought for project.

Green Citadel, Magdeburg

The pink Green Citadel, so-named for the wildflower meadows and trees on its roofs, was the final architectural work of Viennese artist and architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser. It is home to 55 individually-designed apartments, an hotel, offices, shops, cafés, a 200-seat theatre, medical practices, and a kindergarten.

Its striking Gaudí-meets-Williams-Ellis style marks it out very distinctly from the Baroque buildings that surround it, and from the Communist-era rational architecture that dominates residential Magdeburg.

The Housing Association of the City of Magdeburg commissioned Hundertwasser in 1998 to refurbish the prefabricated concrete high-rise that used to occupy the site. The scheme was abandoned in favour of a new build, and ground was broken in December 2003, three years after the architect's death. The plans, sketches and scale models had, however, all been completed, and the complex opened to the public in October 2005, at a build cost of circa €27million.

Hundertwasser developed a manifesto in which he stated: "Architecture [must be] true to nature and humans." The residential leases grant a 'window right': "A resident must have the right to lean out of his window and to refinish everything within arm’s reach on the outer wall, so that people can see from afar, 'A free man lives there'; [and] may refinish the outer wall of his apartment around the window in a creative and original way ..."