A Time ⋅ A Place

The concept

A Time ⋅ A Place - is a book in which every 'Car of the Year' (1964-1982) is paired with a building completed in the same year - photographed by acclaimed architectural photographer Daniel Hopkinson, researched and written by architect John Piercy Holroyd.

The collaboration between the two, aims to capture the essence of both built forms and machines. It also serves as a record of the people, enthusiasts, and custodians who inhabit these spaces. The project began in 2022 and involved extensive travel throughout the UK to find suitable motor cars and locations.

"It became the story of the car and the building and what happened on the day."

"A Time ⋅ A Place is a collaboration between an architect and an architectural photographer seeking to investigate the morphing strands of vehicular and architectural design over a 60-year period. By photographing every winner of the European Car of the Year award alongside a building of the same vintage, it has become an exploration of the permanence of built form against the fragility of machines."

The premise of the project is to use the winning vehicle of the European Car of the Year Competition as a metric, paired to a significant building of the same year and to photograph each car and building together. The 'European Car of the Year' will have been running for 60 years in 2024, so this offers the opportunity to split the project into three distinct periods:

·Volume 1: 1964-1982

·Volume 2: 1983-2003

·Volume 3: 2004-2024

This work has presented a challenge to compose these images into more than the sum of their constituent parts. Contemporary advertising or cultural references have been used for inspiration in composing the pictures in this first volume.  This approach gives the images an additional historical resonance.

Here, we aim to raise £10,000 in order to fund the first edition printing of Volume 1: 1964-1982

This project could not have been achieved were it not for the support of the vehicle owners and building custodians who we met along the way and who gave us their time and support to make this initial idea, a reality.

Architecture and vehicle design share common spaces, yet their origins differ significantly. Architecture is bespoke, responsive to context, and has a lifespan of several decades. Cars, on the other hand, are mass-produced and lack contextual ties.

The photographer’s view

"When this project was presented to me, my assumption was that I would be able to approach it as I would any of my other architectural photography commissions. The reality was that I had very little time to prepare, and each shoot was a very different proposition to what I had been used to working with. 

Each session would last around an hour and we would be travelling most of the day in some cases, not knowing if the subject would be able to arrive on time and that we would be able to make the best of the weather. We had suffered several false starts due to mechanical breakdowns and sometimes we just had to improvise on the spot. 

I will admit now that I was a little uncomfortable at first and was not convinced that this approach would work. However, I quickly adapted to this new way of working and have found it incredibly liberating. This was not a question of creating perfect studio shots or super real architectural photographs. It became the story of the car and the building and what happened on the day."

The cars

1964: Rover 2000; 1965: Austin 1800; 1966: Renault 16; 1967: Fiat 124; 1968: NSU Ro 80; 1969: Peugeot 504; 1970: Fiat 128; 1971: Citroën GS; 1972: Fiat 127; 1973: Audi 80; 1974: Mercedes-Benz 450; 1975: Citroën CX; 1976: Simca 1307-1308; 1977: Rover 3500; 1978: Porsche 928; 1979: Simca-Chrysler Horizon; 1980: Lancia Delta; 1981: Ford Escort; 1982: Renault 9.

The buildings

1964: Crystal Palace National Recreation Centre, London; 1965: Our Lady of the Wayside, Shirley; 1966: Former UMIST Campus, Manchester; 1967: William Batchelor House, Coventry; 1968: St Augustine's R.C Chapel, Manchester; 1969: Bus Station, Preston; 1970: New Ash Green, Kent; 1971: National Motor Museum, Beaulieu; 1972: Ulster Museum, Belfast; 1973: Holy Trinity Parish Centre, Stratford upon Avon; 1974: Camberwell Submarine, London; 1975: Queens Theatre, Hornchurch; 1976: Herman Miller Factory (Now Bath School of Art & Design); 1977: Sports & Recreation Centre, Coventry; 1978: Sainsbury Centre, University of East Anglia; 1979: Shopping Building, Milton Keynes; 1980: De Breyne and Hayward Buildings at Keble College, Oxford; 1981: Humber Bridge, Kingston Upon Hull; 1982: The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent.

The book

Designed by Hayley Shaw, the book will be exquisitely finished in high quality papers in large format with with lay flat opening, especially designed not to compromise the photography.

Example cover options and page spreads below..

124 pages

Full colour

240mm x 294mm

Soft cover with exposed spine

Published by the modernist society - a not for profit social enterprise.