Running Through Time: A Journey to Less is More.

I love running around a place I don’t know; it is a reason to stay fit. I saw an interview with Lance Armstrong the other day. He doesn’t have any events to train for nowadays. So, he is training to “be prepared to do whatever anybody wants to do.” Which recently was to push a car a mile. It’s hard to be motivated to exercise when the goal isn’t a race. Indeed, it’s hard to be motivated to do anything without a goal.

So, for me, the goal is to be able to go to different places and explore by running for a couple of hours. With that in mind, I’m just back from a run around Swindon. And what can I report from this fine north Wiltshire town? Once you get past Salisbury, the drive from the south coast is worth the trip: Salisbury Plain, in particular Stone Henge, Pewsey Down, and the world’s largest stone circle at Avebury Henge.

But what of Swindon? The journey there means crossing the Kennet and Avon canal, and you jump over a humped-back bridge at Honeystreet, where you have a little bit of a hippy commune: The Barge Inn and Crop Circle Visitors Centre. Something appeals to me about the hippy lifestyle—I think because I could get away without wearing shoes.

It turns out that the earliest pair of shoes dates back to about 8,000 BC, with the Egyptians refining this in 3,500 BC. Göbekli Tepe was discovered in Turkey in 1994 and is apparently 6,000 years older than Stonehenge and a couple of thousand years older than shoes. When you consider the sophistication of the construction and the fact that it was systematically covered up, I find the idea that they didn’t have shoes hard to believe. A skim read of human history and civilisation reveals conflicting views and dates. No one knows who’s right or wrong. Perhaps Atlantis did exist.

Experts and scholars present history books as clear-cut facts. The discovery of Göbekli Tepe upended mainstream archaeology, which had invested much in its determination to dictate our past. When new and countering views have been presented, they have been viciously shot down. There is no place for counter-views in many areas of life. You are either with us or against us. This applies to the disgraced Lance Armstrong, archaeology, and climate change.

Whilst in Swindon, I was sent a link to a new documentary presenting a non-mainstream view of climate change. And here we open a massive can of worms. There aren’t enough hours in the day to watch and read all sides of the argument. On the face of it, the documentary seems convincing and will undoubtedly provide ammunition for those who want to agree with it. The people interviewed seem to have good credentials. But one guy claims to be a founder of Greenpeace. He isn’t, and I revert to the sceptical interest that pervades when I hear from the other side and their countdown Climate Clock and ‘the enormous, unprecedented pain and turmoil caused by the climate crisis.’ Oh, how I long for some non-partisan, rounded debate and discussion.

So what about Swindon? It’s near the Cotswolds. The village of Castle Combe is only half an hour away, and spending a couple of hours sitting in the drawing room of the Manor House hotel, especially when you’ve pulled a muscle from an 8-mile run around Swindon, is a pleasant way to spend an afternoon. I immersed myself in The Gardener’s Magazine from 1910 and discovered the Situations Wanted section. I do hope Mr Chandler of Westland Terrace, Alton, found a ‘situation’ in a good garden.

So, finally, my run around Swindon revealed a town home to Intel, the Space Agency and WH Smith, but that is much like any other. Think of almost any large UK town you’ve been to that isn’t Edinburgh, Oxford or Bath, and you’ve got it. It’s alright, but sort of drab and characterised by a disintegrating high street and 21st-century apartment buildings covered in the usual dirty render and over-busy cladding arrangement. Why did architects think that timber cladding was a good idea in this context? If you are an ice hockey fan, need a cheap hotel just off the M4 or are a late 20th-century architecture aficionado, it’s a good place to visit.

As my seized-up calf made me hobble the last mile, I saw a forest of unmistakable bright yellow steel masts in the distance. I scrambled up the bank through a bush and admired the Renault Distribution Centre designed by Norman Foster in 1983. This is ‘high-tech’ architecture. A style characterised by an industrial aesthetic that integrates the technical operations of a building with its structure to form open, light and flexible spaces. The structural elements and exposed services are the most prominent features of this style and are often brightly coloured. The Pompidou Centre in Paris is perhaps the most complete example, and whilst it is by a different architect, they both share the claim to fame of being in Bond movies. Renault is long gone, but as a high-quality design, it is now a listed building and is being fully refurbished. Not wastefully demolished.

This brings me back to not wearing shoes and this climate change thing. I don’t think it matters where you sit on this topic: We all know we are wasteful. We make too much stuff and throw too much out. We pollute. All this production, consumption, and destruction, whether for an electric or oil-fueled economy, is the real problem.

In a world obsessed with the new, perhaps the most revolutionary act is to advocate for less—less production, less consumption, less debt and a more mindful engagement with the world around us. In traversing from the ancient footpaths of Göbekli Tepe to the technologically trodden streets of Swindon, I’ve stumbled upon an inconvenient truth: Less is definitely more.

So that’s it. Inspired by a recent visit to Ted Heath’s house, I’ve decided to stand, shoeless, for Parliament on a Less is More ticket. The goal is to spark a movement towards simplification—not just in what we consume but in how we think about progress, value, and growth. We will call it Lessonomics.  We will make positive changes through pausing, evaluating, and innovating. Wish me luck!

This week’s web links include high-tech architecture, climate change, shoes and villages in Andalucía.

Have a great Easter weekend. You will always find me at carl@carlarchitect.co.uk.

This Week’s Links:

A guide to High-tech architecture.

The Renault Distribution Centre.

Lance Armstrong – the best bits. So he doped. You don’t just dope to winning seven of anything in a row. I still admire him for his athleticism.

How about renting a distribution centre on the M4 corridor for yourself?

The Climate Clock says we have 5 years and 115 days and counting to act.

You won’t find this by searching YouTube for ‘Climate The Movie’ because it’s too dangerous to watch. Luckily, I’ve got the link. I’m not promoting this as the truth behind climate change. The truth is, well, there is no such thing as the truth, and the subject is so complex and politically entangled that who bloody knows. But what is actually dangerous is algorithms that ban information that doesn’t fit.

As a flip side to the above, I suggest this Canadian documentary.

I have long wondered about all these batteries and the mining of lithium and cobalt. Two articles, sort if one from each side on battery production. MIT vs Columbia Climate School

I found this article by Andrew Revkin. It’s lengthy, but it is worth the time, I think.

Revkin, from what I can tell, sits on one sensible side of the argument, along with Bjørn Lomborg, who sits on the other. This very long discussion from Lex Fridman between the two. Worth a listen on a long journey or bike ride or something.

Göbekli Tepe: The World’s First Temple?

The history of shoes according to the V&A

Forget Swindon. If it’s not warm enough in Castle Combe, head to one of these villages in Andalucía.

The Village Hotel chain offers good rooms nationwide, including in Swindon, for sixty quid, if you are lucky. Next stop, Hull.

If you missed a past article on my shoeless adventures in Avignon, it’s here.

I thought I’d try an audio version of this article. So you can listen at up to 2.5 x speed here.

And since it’s Easter. How to set an Easter table.

Main image credit: Lessonomics in Focus: From Ancient Wisdom to Mindful Simplicity Amidst Modern Excess. Well, it is Easter, after all. (DALL-E)