32 22 60 64 43 £8.95/€16/US$18 2 018 March How Page/Park is doing what Mackintosh couldn’t Historic England’s Ian Morrison gets tough on planning Charles Holland on Richard Murphy on Castelvecchio Kieran Timberlake’s US Embassy stands proud – and secure Is Sadiq Khan’s New London Plan the answer?

Glasgow fix a stand Taking ScarpaLet’s Stealth fortressStealth All round the houses ribaj.com

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Buildings Intelligence Culture

32 43 10064 JOAKIM BOREN JOAKIM

Comment University Q&A Leadership Leader Review 07 16 39 46 55 66 From resurrecting Subverting production David Adjaye protégé Good leadership, and Our emphasis on quick Master of scale and the Mack to the new line procurement Mariam Kamara from management, can help and cheap carries a narrative, Andreas American Embassy at Bath school of Niger reassert the position modern cost Gursky’s show makes a architecture of architects big splash Gallery Practice Wiles & 08 American 40 Legal Wainwright Review Jamie Fobert reframes Embassy, London Specialisation, pay 48 57 68 Kettle’s Yard in 22 and revenues: the Does a terminated Will Wiles’ The rich work of the ultimate house Power and control RIBA Benchmarking contract end your right rediscovered family Bangladesh’s architects extension ooze from every Survey is out to fees? connection to Lutyens locked down aperture Obit Photograph at Kieran Timberlake’s Housing Diary President 71 14 new US Embassy 43 51 58 David Bernstein, of Dirk Lindner finds an Debaters liked the Maria Smith questions Ben Derbyshire seeks Levitt Bernstein and unexpectedly different Retrofit ideas in the New the responsibility to redefine ethical Circle 33 view of Rome 32 London Plan, but fear of architects in the professionalism Page/Park promises an its aims aren’t realistic housing crisis impressively restored Profile Glasgow School of 60 Art combining new Heritage is more about technology and making places than original concepts preserving fragments Archive for HE’s Ian Morrison 72 On the cover How architects kept Review Relief sculpture at Kieran busy and useful during 64 the Great War Timberlake’s new American Researchers claim further optimization Invention, revelation Embassy in London © Rachel will transform trees into self-powered and ruination: Whiteread, hon.FRIBA. Richard Murphy’s Parting shot Photograph by Mike Bruce street lights Castelvecchio 74 courtesy of the artist and Revisited When Scarpa united Stephen Cousins on truly green illumination: the brutalist Hayward Gagosian. ribaj.com/treelights

RIBA Journal is published 12 times a year by RIBA Enterprises. The contents of this journal are copyright. Reproduction in part or in full is forbidden without permission of the editor. The opinions expressed by writers of signed articles (even with pseudonyms) and letters appearing in the magazine are those of their respective authors; the RIBA, RIBA Enterprises and the RIBAJ are not responsible for these opinions or statements. The editor will give careful consideration to material­ submitted – articles, photographs, drawings and so on – but does not undertake responsibility for damage or their safe return. ISSN 1463-9505 © RIBA 2009

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The photo below? That is the library of Mackintosh’s study the refurbishment project in depth on page 32. We ONLY ON RIBAJ.COM Glasgow School of Art at the start of reconstruction, fol- also cover the brand-new architecture school building in He captures the lowing the disastrous fire of May 2014. If ever there was Bath on page 16, the expanded Kettle’s Yard art gallery a touchstone project for architects, it is this: back in 2009 in Cambridge page 8 and – in a huge leap of scale – get essence of their it topped our ‘Stirling of Stirlings’ poll of most-admired to grips with the monolithic new American embassy in buildings at a buildings built during the existence of the RIBA. We London on page 22. • particular moment in time, seen after many decades of use and abuse and set against the found soundtrack Reconstruction of the library begins at of the building’s Mackintosh’s Glasgow School of Art, p32. environment Pamela Buxton joins Heinz Emigholz’s architectural tour: ribaj.com /emigholz ALAN MCATEER

ribaj.com The RIBA Journal March 2018 08 Buildings Gallery

Private view Jamie Fobert battles to retain Kettle’s Yard’s domestic spirit Words: Isabelle Priest Photographs: Hufton+Crow

Kettle’s Yard – the former home of collector and gallery reopened last month after being Yellowish brick walls, the same floors, even and curator Jim Ede (1895-1990) in Cam- closed for two years, yet it still only expects 1970s narrow-framed dark-stained timber- bridge – has a reach in the collective imag- to increase its footfall by 20k to about 100k glazed entrance doors, can be seen in hous- ination far beyond what its modest visitor a year. A jump in percentage terms perhaps, es, schools and doctor’s surgeries all over the numbers suggest. Architects call it a hidden but not in absolute numbers. county. You need something not like that gem. Artists and galleries reference it all over Truth is, I have known Kettle’s Yard a placed alongside to realise how special it is. the country. York Art Gallery installed a faux long time too, but I never really understood In Ede’s words, Kettle’s Yard is: ‘A space, living room after it to show, like Ede did, ‘how what the fuss was about. For me the Victori- an ambiance and a home – as well as a way of people can live with ceramics’. Meanwhile at an cottage Jim saved from demolition in the life.’ He filled the cottage with art and objects, RIBA Journal we had a veritable argument 1950s and the Leslie Martin and David Ow- manmade and natural, believing strongly about who should cover its new Jamie Fob- ers 1970s extension seemed very much of that art should be enjoyed at home, not only ert Architects refurbishment. The house the local vernacular – both old and modern. on gallery walls. You’ll find a Brancusi on a

Two spacious new contemporary galleries have been built.

Above The Victorian cottages as the Edes found them in 1956.

The RIBA Journal March 2018 ribaj.com 09

IN NUMBERS

1,080m² gross internal floor area £11m project cost £5,000 cost per m²

Left The refurbishment takes over the entire Victorian terrace on Castle Street and replaces a 1980s Martin extension to the side. grand piano across the room from a piece of Jamie Fobert Architects came to the pro- Leaving the cottage and Martin extension Victorian glassware and selection of precisely ject in 2004. By then, two further extensions alone, Fobert has demolished everything be- collected pebbles arranged in a swirl. Floor- by Martin as well as another by Bland Brown tween the 1970s extension and the retained boards are left bare, brick fireplaces exposed, & Cole saw two infill projects, a two-storey Victorian facade on Castle Street. In its place rough joinery painted white. Today it shouts extension and the partial takeover of a Victo- he has inserted two contemporary galleries at of the ascetic Scandi filling Pinterest boards rian terrace on Castle Street, while a fire in the ground level, an educational wing, a research but it was avant-garde then. other half of the terrace gave the museum an and archive room on the first floor, and a lec- From 1957 Ede began opening the house opportunity to take over that too as an educa- ture room and offices above. As a trade-off to any Cambridge student that wished to vis- tional wing. But acquiring funding was slow for demolishing Martin’s 1980s work, a large it, an enterprise that became the motivation and by the time the project went to tender in part of the project has been the restoration of to make it a museum. Hence Jamie Fobert’s 2011, longtime director Michael Harrison his 1970s galleries, including rebuilding its recent work is part of a long history of exten- had retired due to illness and a new director, roof lights and remaking a brick bench. The sions and remodellings, as land became avail- Andrew Nairne, meant new thinking. Fobert tucked-away entrance has been brought for- able, gradually making Kettle’s Yard bigger was kept on and more money was found to ward into the yard and the three small 1970s and more public. The most significant, and overhaul the galleries and museum journey. galleries have been restored but repurposed famous, was designed by Leslie Martin and ‘Kettle’s Yard has this extraordinary col- as the reception, cloakroom and shop, with David Owers in 1970, shortly after Ede gifted lection that is becoming more and more im- the former offices becoming a café, which the his home to the university. Spaces flow out of portant as the years go by and we had a prob- gallery didn’t have previously. In the process, the original cottage in a sequence that blends lem with very piecemeal galleries that had Fobert removed many of Martin’s token two- white-box, top-lit gallery architecture with been added to over time that were not state step flourishes to make it more accessible. domestic-scaled areas, tactile balustrades of the art,’ explains Nairne. ‘Before there was Visitors start their journeys here, before and use of vernacular materials like timber a real risk that people would come to the gal- exiting and entering the cottage through the and brick floors. lery and miss the house and vice versa.’ door that Jim would have used. The route

ribaj.com The RIBA Journal March 2018 MAKING SPACES INTO PLACES www.forbo-flooring.co.uk/spheraevolution

creating better environments Buildings 11 Gallery

loops up and round and down through the Right The Martin and Owers extension back into the re- refurbishment was ception where visitors proceed into Fobert’s used as an opportunity to empty and refresh remodelled infill and Victorian terrace. Here the cottages and Martin brick floors have been swapped for concrete, and Owers’ 1970 rough walls for smooth, pine for Douglas fir extension. and oak, timber windows for bronze, while steps are accompanied by ramps. Spaces open out in a fan of three rooms – to the left and right, new galleries and ahead the learn- ing wing, which continues up the stairs at the end to the archive, lecture room and offices. The 1970s restoration element is careful Bottom left The 1970s and beautiful. For the rest, although it was galleries have been Fobert’s intention to ‘make Kettle’s Yard feel restored as though like it has come out of what is already there’, Martin and Owers might and the materials do have continuity in their have just left the room. clarity, this Kettle’s Yard has become show- Below The new galleries ier and doesn’t quite achieve it. There’s an are taller to allow the emphasis on individual rooms and formal display of larger work. circulation devices – corridors, lifts, land- This one is L-shaped. ings – that don’t give movement that floating Martin feeling. The educational suite – an in- ventive double-height mezzanine space sunk into the basement – doesn’t feel like a an ad- equate ending to the ground floor journey ei- ther, especially as its blinds to the street must be closed if there are schoolchildren inside. As for the galleries themselves, they are taller to display larger work but are of the type being produced everywhere. Similarly, the two-storey replacement extension on Castle Street is designed in that New Cambridge Ar- chitecture style so pervasive today: it shows above all in its passiveness a desire to appease planners, and in its gobbling-up of footprint to the max an overwhelming focus on com- mercial viability not strictly necessary here (Cambridge University is the client).

ribaj.com The RIBA Journal March 2018 12 Buildings Gallery

Ground floor plan 1 Entrance and reception 4 Café in former office 8 Stair to research room, lecture room and relocat- 2 Original cottage 5 Shop in former gallery 1970 extension ed offices 3 Martin and Owers’ 1970 6 New gallery house extension 9 Mezzanine 7 Art handling entrance off street 10 Education wing sunken in basement

4

2

3

Hutchinson’s 1831 airy neo-Gothic cupola at St John’s College when on site – that the archi-

5 tect clutches at Ede and Martin before him, and possibly most enjoys his work. 1 These aspects take a pleasure in the hand- made and put on display traces of the everyday 6 that Jim would give a self-disciplined but ap- proving nod, including the nail holes in a re- vealed-again brick wall that had been plastered 8 over and used for picture hanging. Regardless of the gripes, the finish of the project – with the single exception of the plant machinery over-

6 loaded roof – is faultless. The practice’s under- standing towards Kettle’s Yard’s collection and 9 10 history is also staggering. Jamie Fobert Architects has spent 13 7 years on the job but its team genuinely still

Castle Street seems to care and has delved into every pos-

0 2 5 10 20 m sible crevice of information – including con- versations with the 1970s extension co-au- thor David Owers. The project just needed Nevertheless, the language of things in a bit more working up to breathe the best the house has been in some ways brought These take a pleasure in the moments through from the character of the into the extension. Tulipwood planks have details to the newly sculpted space. But I’m been painted and nailed together for the shop handmade and put on display open to the suggestion that we need the next joinery in the manner of the shelving in Hel- iteration of Kettle’s Yard to appreciate what en’s bedroom, while the reception desk could traces of the everyday we have there now.• be a great sanded-down hulk of driftwood dragged in by Jim from the beach. Likewise, squint and the blackened steel coil staircase could be salvaged leftover panels from a huge industrial process welded together as balus- Credits trade. It’s been carried out outside too. Architect Jamie Fobert ‘When it came to the stair extension exte- Architects rior,’ explained Oliver Bindloss, associate ar- Client Kettle’s Yard, Above right An enlarged University of Cambridge and more transparent chitect at Jamie Fobert’s, ‘remaking it in an- Main contractor SDC front entrance simplifies other material seemed wrong so we adopted (NEC3 / design and build) the route through the the language of Martin’s extension – brick on Structural engineer museum. Elliott Wood the ground floor, Sadolin timber on the top.’ Architectural metalwork A shaft of light It’s in these moments – as well as in the Basset + Findlay Right pierces the new steel spontaneous on-site opening-up of a tiny Joinery Coulson Concrete floors Lazenby balustrade stair in the window in the second-floor extension onto Lighting consultant two-storey terrace a view of Thomas Rickman and Henry Lightplan extension.

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Majestic Elegance, framed by INFINIUM 14 Buildings Photograph

Piazza della Minerva, Rome named it ‘Il porcino’, convinced that he actu- beauty that can be found in that,’ he muses. Photograph Dirk Lindner ally wanted to sculpt a pig. Maybe so, but this piazza was once at the Words Jan-Carlos Kucharek It’s the fate of this Roman piazza to be centre of everything. The church’s convent forever overlooked that inspired Dirk Lind- was seat of the Holy Office where Pope Paul If there was an architectural case of ever the ner, commissioned by architect Eric Parry to III’s Tribunal read out the judgements of the bridesmaid never the bride, it’s probably shoot the city as part of his book ‘Contexts’ Roman Inquisition. It was here in 1633 that the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva (he never used the image). A clue is afforded Galileo Galilei was forced to recant the idea in Rome, doomed to languish in the shadow by the tourist in the centre, ignoring both that it was the sun at the centre of the uni- of the Pantheon, sitting just north west of Maderno and Bernini to frame the Panthe- verse, not the earth. The church’s painted the Piazza della Minerva. Carlo Maderno’s on’s portico between the edges of the square. canopy of stars thus feels like an airbrushing Renaissance façade hides the only example Lindner wonders if the nuns to the left were of history and the Pantheon’s timeless capture of a gothic church in Rome, its 14th centu- photobombing his shot, while to the far right a of the sun’s ‘passage’ a form of insult. Perhaps ry vaulting painted in constellations of gold woman bustles away on the daily shop. Lind- Lindner’s image pays quiet homage to Gal- stars in the 19th century. The Egyptian obe- ner turned his back on the iconic to concen- ileo’s marking of the tiny daily shifts that lisk, denoting it as a pilgrimage church, was trate on the quotidian aspects of the Eternal changed the Order of Things. Just as the as- given dubious stature when Bernini mount- city. ‘I was more interested in capturing the tronomer muttered under his breath after he ed it on a stone elephant in 1667. Locals nick- banality of Rome, it’s everyday-ness, and the abjured, ‘E pur si muove’; ‘and yet it moves.’ •

The RIBA Journal March 2018 ribaj.com

16 Buildings University

Design factory Assembled on the university procurement production line, can the University of Bath’s new architecture school building give students the environment to thrive? Words: Eleanor Young Photographs: David Hopkinson

Drawings and mugs litter the tables with AHR project director Gary Overton he has evidence of collaboration, pot plants are dot- battled to ensure the conditions are right for ted around, lap tops open as students design students to come together, rather than hide and discuss. This is one of three studios at away at home. This is a long way from the the University of Bath’s architecture school, bright booths of ‘collaboration hubs’ in many recently completed by architect AHR. Seen new university buildings. The studios are the from the broad balustrade of the mezzanine students’ workspace, actively inhabited per- above, it is a scene of productive pleasure, the haps because this campus takes some getting fourth year architecture and engineering to; once you have caught the bus up the hill students and working up schemes together from the city you are committed for the day. in what looks like the best sort of education. Until this structure was completed, ar- This new building is all about the studios. chitecture students were housed in 6 East, ‘Universities are coming to understand that one of the Smithsons-designed buildings that their value is in collaboration,’ says head of used to edge this 1960s RMJM campus. The architecture Professor Alex Wright. With smaller rooms, offset geometry and often

The layers of frames on this south facing building give articulation and some shade to the modest number of windows.

Inside a double height studio: cast glass to the north, crit spaces to the south and mezzanine offices above.

The RIBA Journal March 2018 ribaj.com 17

Caption copy here copy here Caption copy here copy here

ribaj.com The RIBA Journal March 2018 18 Buildings University

IN NUMBERS £23m total contract cost £3,833 gifa cost per m² 6,000m² area 400 number of students GC Works form of contract

Left Through the cast glass planks on the north side, looking into one of the studio spaces.

Second floor plan

13 12 2

11 16 15 16

First floor plan

9

13 11 2 1 Lobby and front entrance 17 14 10 2 Side entrance 3 Gallery 4 Workshop 5 Workshop office Ground floor plan 6 Porter 7 Plant 8 Computer services 7 7 8 17 9 Studio UP 4 UP 10 Crit bay 11 Print station 6 5 12 Store 2 8 1 3 13 Professional UP services office 14 Gyp room 15 Office

0 2 5 10 20 m 16 Break-out area UoB Level (Ground Floor) 17 Locker area :

UP UP The RIBA Journal March 2018 ribaj.com

UP UP

UP

UP

UoB Level (Ground Floor) :

UoB Level (Ground Floor) : 19

low ceiling heights (this building can only ty and the city itself. Overton, who took his be understood­­ in three dimensions) lent in- The rhythm of an extruded part III here and ran a design studio before timacy to the experience. In year two and designing this building, says that what was a seven students will have it still, as they use frame maintains the university sitting in a landscape has flipped the top floor studios. But with student rolls over to one facing a (rather constrained) park. rising – this year’s intake was up to 110 from stretching verticality of The new 4 East South building had to 75 in 2012 – space was getting very squashed formalise this relationship, replacing a line and staff were housed in numerous different the felled poplars of poplars and the messy gas canisters at buildings. the back of the engineering labs with a tidy So the school planned for a new building edge to the ‘park’. On this facade the regu- that was included in the university’s 2020 lar rhythm of an extruded frame in lime- masterplan for densification of the cam- stone-coloured precast concrete maintains pus. RMJM had drawn a megastructure the stretching verticality of those felled line in the landscape – riven by a street and poplars. Behind and above all this rises the with trees sunk into courtyards. In the late bronze anodised frame, giving the building seventies and eighties the Smithsons wrote a little more depth and presence but leaving about placing their five buildings around the ground floor views free. The facade for the ad- fringed edge of a mat of the campus. But both joining office for the computing services de- plans have been overtaken by blocks of stu- partment is stripped and subservient. Round dent housing, a large sports halls and, along- the back is the face it presents to the rest of the side the architecture school, the engineer- Below A mezzanine floor university: a rather bleak service road and ing faculty labs. Hedging this development and offices run over crit almost unarticulated facade. But the north bays where tutors can in have been the planning rules to keep the also teach small groups facing stretches of cast glass planks onto the university’s growth invisible from the sur- or offer guidance away studios mean that it does at least come to life rounding Area of Outstanding Natural Beau- from the busy desks. after dark – and through the night, as this

ribaj.com The RIBA Journal March 2018 20 Buildings University

Edging the double-height studios are more intimate crit bays under the mezzanine

Credits Client University of Bath Left Corridor, gallery Architect AHR and informal café, this Acoustics Hoare Lea Ramboll is the one shared space M&E consultant Quantity surveyor where the building looks Bailey Partnership out to the sun of the park. Structural engineer Inte- gral Engineering Below The main Project management staircase is set at the Jones Lang LaSalle centre of the plan. Contractor Bouygues UK building is always open in term time. This But there is no insulation from the politics lantern effect is the only external clue to the and economics of education, the long term very particular studio spaces inside. debt that students are buying their educa- In a way one would like to insulate stu- tion with and the long running battle over the dents in the comfort of the studios. And to a university vice-chancellor’s salary, which certain extent that has been achieved thanks was being fought even as I visited, posters on to certain quiet manoeuvring in the tense the columns, protests in the campus, unrest production line of modern-day universi- among the wider staff. The vice-chancel- ty procurement. Edging the double-height lor’s request that the building itself look like studios are more intimate crit bays under Bath stone influenced its polite office park the mezzanine, where slim shutters open up modernism – which could be interpreted as narrow views on either side of a screen. Here handsome if the light fell just right. You might tutors can have quiet informal conversations want to applaud even a well paid chancellor’s with their students and at the end of year sensitivity until you realise that the nearby show the studios can take them over. And blue-clad Chancellor’s Building was short- students can make their own tea or coffee in listed for the Carbuncle Cup not so long ago. one of the gyp rooms – a Cambridge nomen- Inside there is room to breathe, to explore clature that enabled the small, stripped-back and experiment, to test and draw and test kitchens to slip onto the plan without resist- again. The ground floor gallery and two large ance from the estates department. studios and the hidden away offices of the In response to a move to save money by mezzanine will no doubt influence students having just a single bank of lifts in the middle in years to come, though there are unlikely of the plan, away from the natural entrance to be the sort of celebrations that ran through from the old building, the architect and 2017 to celebrate the Smithsons legacy in the school suggested running a corridor between city. The complex, ideas-rich Smithsons’ the front and side entrances on the south fa- 4 East may seem to have little relationship cade. This corridor grew in width and scope with the rational grid of the new 4 East South into a de facto gallery and meeting place but there are some parallels on the sly. As overlooking the park, as outward looking as you sidle up to the Smithsons’ entrance, up the studios are internally focused. It rescues stairs, to an unannounced door, so at the new the ground floor, where the workshop suffers building, architecture students slip in at the from the late addition of a suspended ceiling side door, a sun-drenched stolen space lead- and convoluted access, giving it the air of ing them up to the studios that this building cheaply converted offices despite its thou- hardly hints at; illicit unlooked-for pleasures sands of pounds of digital equipment. in a rational design factory. •

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P R O D U C T A N D P E R F O R M A N C E I N T E G R I T Y Y O U C A N T R U S T 22 Critique American Embassy

Nine Elms solid and void: the American Embassy is a large cube balancing the space between Battersea Power Station’s chimneys.

Opposite Solar shading is also a shield against prying eyes, but achieves a sculptural quality.

The RIBA Journal March 2018 ribaj.com 23 Playing it safe

Overcoming security concerns while being neighbourly and green, Kieran Timberlake’s new American Embassy faced serious challenges. Friendly fortress or mysterious monolith? Words: Hugh Pearman Photographs: Richard Bryant/Arcaid

The new American Embassy in London has three and understandable requirements when it comes to obstacles to overcome. First, it is not by the revered Eero security. The result of all this is a big curtain-walled, Saarinen as the previous 1960 embassy was. Second, solar-shaded and highly energy-conscious glass cube it is not in Grosvenor Square as the embassy, in all its perched above artfully landscaped gardens which iterations, had been since John Adams, later President, contain and conceal what are now the standard physical lived there as the first United States Minister to the security measures we associate with government Court of St. James from 1785 to 1788. And thirdly, it is buildings. So it is indeed a fortress, not so different in perforce a free-standing object in a large space on the overall concept from a motte and bailey Norman castle. insistence of the State Department which has onerous The site plan makes this particularly clear. ribaj.com The RIBA Journal March 2018 24 Critique American Embassy

visitors to the embassy proper; one for those headed IN NUMBERS For Timberlake, the cube is a for the consulate in search of a visa, say; and one commanding the service entrance. Once security- £750m Platonic form that speaks of cleared through airport-style electronic portcullises, ($1 bn) you proceed onwards to the main building. cost dignity and strength It is obvious as you walk round – and a public route 65m circles the building – that there is no easy way to get high close to it other than via the gatehouses. One imagines that there must be electronic devices as well as the 12 Architect James Timberlake of competition- physical obstructions. And the multiple layers of glass storeys winning Kieran Timberlake is to be commended for in the curtain wall, which feels very solid when you tap conjuring architecture from these constraints that, it from inside, are not to your normal office spec either. 48,128 m² GIFA so far as possible, looks neither overly defensive nor Finally, the ruched veil of interlocking hourglass- aggressive. For him, the cube is a Platonic form that shaped pieces of ETFE solar-shading, carried on speaks of dignity and strength, and the colonnade tubular steel outriggers on three sides of the building, that runs around its base is a welcoming urban form. certainly make it difficult to see much of what is going He is thinking not so much of a motte and bailey as on inside, even covering garden terraces that are open of a country house set in its gardens. And indeed the to the air. gardens will visually link to other, public green space The cube is arranged on the cardinal points of that is planned in this part of Nine Elms, connecting the compass, and so one elevation faces due north, east to Vauxhall. Though the colonnade, in canted without the ETFE veil. Aside from some mysterious aluminium clad greaves, is not deep enough to serve long, silvery cast-glass vertical insertions in the much of a purpose. Instead, visitors arrive at one of facade – solid-backed for performance reasons and three gatehouses on the perimeter – one for staff and giving a ‘weave’ effect with some relief – the only other

Site plan

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8 10 6

2 10

1

5 4

1 Embassy building 3 2 Main entrance pavilion 3 Consulate entrance pavilion 4 Service entrance pavilion 5 Landscaped gardens 6 Balancing pond / water feature 7 River Thames 9 8 Nine Elms Lane 9 Main line railway 10 Future public gardens leading to Vauxhall

The RIBA Journal March 2018 ribaj.com 25

Right Complete, but awaiting its landscape Drop quote copy rag right and pond, with new Nine Elms rising behind.

intervention is the large bite taken out of the corner of Square a few years ago, could not be finessed further.

Credits the building up high. This is the ambassador’s open-air Apart from being embedded in its dense locale at a time Client US Department terrace, a very generous space – one imagines drinks when security was much less of a concern, it had just of State, Bureau of receptions – opening off his equally large two-chamber become too small. Four times as many State Department Overseas Buildings Operations office. It gazes right across to the Victoria Tower of employees worked there and in nearby annexes than it Architect Kieran the Palace of Westminster. When President Donald was designed for, while the number of people needing Timberlake Trump, finding reasons not to visit an unwelcoming public access for visas and suchlike had rocketed Office interiors Gensler Landscape OLIN London to open the building, described it as being since 1960, when few travelled across the Atlantic. Structural and physical in ‘off location’ he was not wrong – this part of Nine The building – regarded as unduly compromised by security engineer Elms, a massive building site sandwiched between the the critics upon completion, a disappointing over- Thornton Tomasetti MEP, civil, facade and railway lines running out of Waterloo and the busy ornamental, over-fussy, even neoclassical Saarinen for sustainability engineer dual carriageway between Vauxhall and Battersea – is those committed to clean-cut modernism – had come Arup a far cry from Mayfair. Although when the extension into favour in recent years. Listed, it is to be turned into Cost control AECOM Technical security design to the Northern Line tube opens in 2020 to serve Nine a hotel to designs by David Chipperfield Architects. The Sako & Associates Elms and Battersea, it will feel less isolated. great American eagle sculpture adorning its facade is US lead contractor BL The Saarinen embassy building, despite various part of the listing and is to remain. Harbert International UK lead subcontractor retro-fitted security measures that caused some No such external symbolism is to be found at Sir Robert McAlpine controversy when they closed off the end of Grosvenor the new embassy. The eagle is there, in the form of a

ribaj.com The RIBA Journal March 2018 26 Critique American Embassy

relief carving of the United States Great Seal on the Left The consulate rear wall of the main entrance lobby. The separate entrance boasts a relief consulate entrance, meanwhile, boasts something more sculpture by Rachel Whiteread, hon FRIBA... ambitious: Rachel Whiteread’s sculpture ‘US Embassy (Flat pack house)’ which is exactly that – her casts of a typical American flat-pack timber house, divided into sections so as to return it to kit form, mounted horizontally at the Consulate entrance, running right through from outside to interior and looking like a supergraphic giant arrow. There are some set-piece interiors apart from the lobbies – a large events space in the building’s plinth, to which you descend on a glass staircase from the entrance; the consulate waiting areas on the first floor, partly double-height with some sculpted plaster ... of a flatpack American ceilings; and, for the embassy staff, various double timber house, its gables or even triple height gardens arranged around the pointing the way in, below ARTWORK © RACHEL WHITEREAD. COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND GAGOSIAN. PHOTO: MIKE BRUCE (2)

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Telephone 01621 818155 www.mumfordwood.com [email protected] Critique 29 American Embassy

Above One of the double Below The waiting height garden areas, lounge in the consulate open to the air. section.

building’s perimeter, each based on a particular climate zone in the States. There is a canteen area and what they call a ‘pub’ but which looks a lot more like an American bar – which is exactly what you’d expect. Beyond these special places – some of which remind you of the landscaped corners you find in big shopping malls, another American archetype – you get a lot of generic office space, courtesy of workplace architect Gensler. Lots of white desks and storage units. Lots of broad corridors buried in the centre of the building. I would like to show you a typical floorplan and section but unfortunately security considerations rule that out. What I can tell you is that there’s a slightly witty touch on the interior of the north facade, where a light fritting on the glass takes the form of little white stars which look as if they have migrated from the flag. Beyond this, the building sets out to be extremely environmentally responsible in use – indeed better than the already high standards set by the State Department for its buildings. Everything from photovoltaic panels on the roof to the use of harvested rainwater for irrigation and toilet flushing, via ground source heat

The eagle has nested inside, to the rear wall of the main entrance.

ribaj.com The RIBA Journal March 2018 30 Critique American Embassy

pumps and onsite combined heat and power (CHP) generation, and more is there – the latter presumably making the embassy independent of the grid. The large pond in the gardens in front of the building regulates water run-off so as not to overload local drainage. The target is LEED Platinum and BREEAM Outstanding, but the building will have to be monitored in use before it receives those accolades. None of this green stuff is very Trumpian, of course – can you imagine the President even mentioning any of that at the opening of the embassy which he has turned down? But there will be other presidents, other ambassadors. As for me, I think that Timberlake’s building will grow into London, or London into it, over time as its surroundings are completed and mature – Above The view towards especially the landscaped public realm proposed. As it In a slightly witty touch, a Whitehall is direct even if the journey is not. stands, it is not immediately appealing. It is more than fritting of little white stars somewhat strange. It is hard to read. It could almost be Below Originally industrial, which suits the history of the area with its intended to include more power station and its wholesale market and its now- on the glass look as if they photovoltaics, the solar vanished giant cold store. But its mystery – its very shading in ETFE foil is nothing if not sculptural. weirdness – and its formal simplicity will, I think, have migrated from the flag stand it in good stead. Will we come to love it? I really couldn’t say. •

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Tel 0121 766 4200 [email protected] 32 Buildings Retrofit

Art therapy Under Page/Park’s deep analysis Glasgow School of Art is on course for a full recovery from its trauma, melding Mackintosh’s original concepts with modern technology Words: Jan-Carlos Kucharek Photographs: Alan McAteer

Much discussion on the nature of the rebuild ascertain what it actually looked like – about ing and the discreet hiding of modern servic- followed the devastating fire that destroyed how Mackintosh, with his skills, aesthetic es, has been the key other consideration. This most of the west wing of Charles Rennie intent and the economic means at his dis- is ironic, since it was the increasing need to Mackintosh’s Glasgow School of Art in 2014. posal created his Gesamtkunstwerk; one so make space for cables and pipes that helped Contemporary intervention or replication? good, it’s absorbed into the identity of the the 2014 fire to spread so quickly from the Now the school, undergoing a £51 million city itself. After a fire that saw the accretions basement to west wing roof. Page/Park de- restoration under the guiding hand of Glas- of 100 years seared or soaked away, Mackin- pute of conservation Iain King explains that gow architect Page/Park, will to some be al- tosh’s masterpiece will return to us in 2019 the brick north duct wall of the east west spine most unrecognisable. a far more nuanced thing; not a building of corridor had thus become riddled with holes Yet there’s no contemporary intervention over-painted monochromatic polarities but ‘like Swiss cheese’. The fire raged through on the grade A listed structure, far from it. with a revealed materiality of subtle hues. these ducts up and along to the west wing, This restoration is mostly about the forensic Making the building perform better, with completely destroying the library there. evaluation of the damaged 1909 building to a reduction in demand for heat and condition- Given the tonal subtlety that will be in

The Mackintosh 3D model scanned by point cloud and augmented by Page/ Park. GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART

The RIBA Journal March 2018 ribaj.com 33

The north studios were treated with a pale green paint pigment and linseed oil wash

used easels, now they are the work surface. As a result they decided to keep them white to ac- cord with current art pedagogy. But the shock of the new is felt in the re- stored upper level hen run, the glazed corri- dor that was the last to perish before the fire was brought under control. Previously white painted timber, these were identified by Crick-Smith’s research as having been orig- inally treated with a raw/burnt umber paint evidence in the GSA’s new iteration it’s sur- Left Top floor of the west and linseed oil wash. This is how they’ve now prising that the only real full documentation wing after the fire. been finished, turning the structure a dark of the building as it was completed is a set of Above West wing first but vibrant brown. Not only that; the timber floor studios during black and white plates from photographer the strip out. Note the joists supporting the roof have been lowered Bedford Lemare in 1910, explains Page/Park absence of Mackintosh’s to their original 4º pitch, and the ‘dwangs’ architectural historian Natalia Burakowska. original roof light ‘dwangs’. (noggins) between the joists reinstated so the But these show that the brick walls of the up- Below An apprentice square module in elevation is repeated along per east west spine were never painted white, stone mason tools new the roof. It’s also now to be found back in place Giffnock sandstone for the as perceived in recent history, but left as ex- west gable wall. on all the north studio roof lights. Mackin- posed, roughly pointed brickwork. This is the Bottom left Installing tosh’s grid detail in dark, thin timber suggests condition that they and their arches have been the Douglas fir floor to a delicate sense of chinoiserie not in evidence returned to. King says that as far as possible, the book store above the before, and in places, says King, it even helped services will be embedded in the Douglas fir library. with running fire detection conduit. Bottom right A yellow pine ceiling soffits or run at low level in narrow upright being carefully In the hen run, as elsewhere in the build- containment channels, and pop up locally lowered into Studio 58. ing, a view was taken on glazing and especial- where needed. New galvanised sprinklers and fire detection tech, however, remain exposed. For homogeneity, undamaged white- painted walls in the east end will be taken back to the bare brick too. It’s clear from the walkabout of the site that gradual revealing of the building has forced some adhoc deci- sions on the Mackintosh Operational Group design team, with its ironic MORG acronym. Some were driven by interpolation of the original photographs along with analysis of burned remnants by specialist architectur- al paint research consultant Crick-Smith. It ascertained that the north studios were treated with a pale green paint pigment and linseed oil wash. New timber panelling in the first-year architecture studios, on the rebuilt west side, will be treated in this manner. On the east however, undamaged white painted timber panelling will remain. The GSA’s Liz Davidson, senior project manager for the res- toration, explains that whereas formerly the walls would have been a backdrop as students

ribaj.com The RIBA Journal March 2018 34 Buildings Retrofit

Left Installing the glass on one of the rooftop studios.

Right 3D visualisation of the damaged section through the west wing (including library).

ly how wide expanses of north facing glass could be treated to minimise heating load. Shattered west side south elevation glass was replaced with single-glazed hand-blown glass sourced, for reasons of economy, in Germany, but the more challenging north face required any original glass panes as well as replace- ment ones to form the outer face of a bespoke argon filled double glazed unit with 8mm gap. Perhaps the most radical intervention is on the north roof lights, where from east to west flat, state of the art, double glazed units have replaced those lost, introducing technology to the roof that even Mackintosh would have raised an eyebrow at. King says the former, sloped glazing and lead detailing have been brought up to modern standards, noting that ‘if we were to have rebuilt it to Mackintosh’s Below The hen run in details it simply would have failed again.’ December 2017. Below right The loggia This proved to be the case in Studio 58 to the hen run. – the rooftop space above the library, also Bottom right The hen completely lost in the fire – most noted for its run pre-fire. GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART Japanese construction influences. In its pre- dominantly glazed roof, even Mackintosh had attempted to install a prototypical form of secondary glazing, the interior pane dapple frosted to mediate light ingress. Having failed and been replaced in the intervening years, replacement double-glazed sand blasted units will, says King, ‘return the light quality to one that no-one remembers in recent his- tory.’ They’ll be warmer too; 100mm of PIR insulation was installed behind the original Douglas fir soffit line. This detail maintains the exact interior proportions but has pushed the exterior apex line of the roof up. To emulate the north American yellow pine of its Japanese influenced columns, a heritage building in Massachusetts under- going demolition supplied timbers with sim- ilar density, strength and grain characteris- tics. Delivered by a ship that probably plied the same Scottish/American trade routes as in Mackintosh’s day, their precise selection criteria now, thinks Burakowska, stands in (2) BOOTH LESLEY

The RIBA Journal March 2018 ribaj.com 35

Page/Park constructed a full laser scan of the building to ascertain the damage

Left The library during strip-out. relief against the economic contingency with before. ‘Subtle differences become apparent,’ which the originals were specified. says GSA’s Davidson. ‘The corridors, it turns Yet what marvels may come from on-the- out, are now lined in rough, dark-stained hoof solutions. Mackintosh’s desire to see the Douglas fir boards, erected as if straight off library built in oak like his Ingram Street Tea the saw, but where they become portals to the Rooms fell at the first hurdle, but the decora- north studios Mackintosh had it all sanded tive American tulipwood he could afford and down beautifully.’ The tactile effect is magical, used throughout didn’t have oak’s intrinsic as if the portals become a piece of cabinet-mak- strength. Burakowska explains that the fire ing in counterpoint to the utility of the corri- revealed how he got around it, sandwiching dors. ‘It makes you aware more than ever how stronger spruce between tulipwood sections conscious all his decisions were,’ she adds. for his library posts, hiding it all away in a To realise the project, Page/Park con- tulipwood fascia. These posts are now being structed a full laser scan of the building to assembled with cut nails to hold up a recon- ascertain the extent of the damage and use The thrill of the project has been in how structed mezzanine. Above it all is the lovely it as the basis for its Revit BIM model of the the violence of the fire allowed the design new umber-stained Douglas fir ceiling, sus- reconstructed GSA. This is fully interrogable team to approach the restoration as a pincer pended by steels from the concrete beams of and shared by consultant teams and contrac- movement. First, it provided an opportuni- Studio 58 above. Between the two lies the li- tor Kier. QR codes in all the rooms allow any ty to radically improve the GSA’s environ- brary’s ‘hidden’ book storage room. operative to pinpoint services virtually by mental and operational performance: by On the west elevation, the thicker 1946 scanning rooms with their phones. Iain King upgrading external fabric to reduce heating Crittall sections that replaced Mackintosh’s says GSA will be one of first heritage buildings and cooling demand, its services spine can failed originals will be replaced with bespoke, in Scotland to be in possession of a full virtual instead accommodate 21st century technol- single glazed steel windows being manufac- BIM model. But it is far more than a health and ogy. But secondly; in the slow, forensic re- tured in Austria. This, it’s hoped, will return safety file and FM plan – it is an integral part of vealing of original details and materials, it is crystalline delicacy to the architect’s Baro- the Mack’s continuing conservation strategy. potentially returning the building’s visual, nial oriels. And students will be able to get haptic and even olfactory qualities that have closer to them now. Radiators installed in the not been experienced since the school first bays soon after opening at the governors’ be- opened its doors in 1910. When they reopen hest – vehemently opposed by Mackintosh as in 2019, it will be to a rejuvenated, bionic Above right The they prevented students sitting beneath his library prototype Below The Mackintosh Mackintosh; a GSA 2.0. And I, for one, am in- triple height voids – will disappear and be re- (now dismantled). building before the fire. credibly excited. • placed by underfloor heating. ‘We took a view that if we can improve the performance of the space and in doing so get nearer to the design intent, then why not?’ says Burakowska. Most contentiously, the only black to be seen now is salvaged stone from the west gable wall. New blocks of snecked rubble Giffnock sandstone, hand-cut by modern masons, is positively creamy by comparison. But the removal of the dark brown paint layers forcing radical reimagining of the li- brary as a dramatically lighter space also re- veals, in less affected areas such as the first floor corridors, a delicacy of texture never seen

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Best practices Domestic politics 39 – benchmarking – Diary 40 51

Did you know Adjaye Not personally, but I had studied his work intently ONLY ON RIBAJ.COM before becoming his when at architecture school at the University of protege? A change in Washington. the fortunes of Design, construction & technology Where are you in I have three completed buildings in Niger and my either housing or your career? practice, atelier masōmī, is now in its fifth year. international work Stepping away to Washington zoomed out my view so I could see opportunities in our neck of the woods. has the potential to reshape the Mariam What are those Paying attention to context, talking to people, taking opportunities? politics and economics into account (this is my second landscape of Kamara career so I have been thinking about these things for architectural years). Otherwise we can apply the models we know practices blindly. My first building with united4design was Brian Green where I learnt the most. It was a housing complex, considers the factors Niamey 2000, an experiment in density, economy, influencing prospects identity and build culture. It was a validation, proof this year: ribaj.com / that you don’t have to copy what goes on elsewhere. outlookhomeabroad

How did you question We used local materials: earth bricks. In Niger it is standard models on often seen as a material for the poor as it is expensive to Niamey 2000? build with concrete and cement, yet these are very hot to live in. I wanted to bring them to the middle classes. Mariam Kamara Another standard model is Western-style houses practices in Niger which are commonplace here but don’t fit the culture. I grew up in one and the plan meant that when people and was recently dropped in (they often do so unexpectedly), children selected by David were sequestered in their bedrooms. If you wanted to Adjaye as his sleep outside you had to rush to pack up mattresses at 6am in case people came round. At Niamey we protégé on the designed for that by incorporating a large, private roof Rolex mentoring terrace. Likewise Western-style kitchens are mostly programme used just for storage and the cooking is done outside. So we planned a covered space and storage outside.

How could Adjaye’s My ambition is to develop my architectural voice mentoring help you? and master my craft, as Adjaye has done. What really gets me going is grappling with identity. The built environment can be very problematic – we can do a lot of damage. Adjaye seems able to draw from different cultural influences, both African and local, wherever he is working. That is something I would really love to Intelligence is officially learn to do. He has incredible sensitivity in the way he approved RIBA CPD. Look defines space, particularly in the homes he designs; it out for icons throughout is so amazing that it’s almost depressing! the section indicating core curriculum areas.

ribaj.com The RIBA Journal March 2018 40 Intelligence Economics

Practices with more than

Business, clients 70 per cent of revenue from & services one sector generate a higher Stay focused average fee revenue per head Revenues are rising, especially for specialists, as the 2017 RIBA Benchmarking Survey shows

Although large practices dominate the costs, although while the survey records Aziz Mirza profession’s revenue, when examined per that the average practice has spent 7 per cent The 2017 RIBA Benchmarking Survey re- practice or per head, some of the best rises in more on salaries than last year, average sala- veals a positive picture of the profession. practice revenue this year have been record- ries paid have changed very little. RIBA chartered practices are employing ed by small and medium-sized practices. Indeed, for most professional staff, they more staff, generating more revenue and Average revenue among practices with are identical to last year’s figures, while av- have increased profits compared with 2016. 20 to 50 staff, and 50 to 100, has increased erage pay for associates and partners has Staffing has increased by 5 per cent, while by about 6 per cent, while that for practic- actually fallen. The apparent contradiction revenue has risen by 7 per cent – perhaps a es with 100 or more staff has fallen by 6 per between rising spend on pay but no change in nod towards increasing efficiency. cent. Two-person practices are seeing aver- salaries can partly be explained by the 5 per The distribution of revenue continues to age revenues that are about 5 per cent high- cent rise in staff numbers, but could also be be skewed heavily towards the largest prac- er over the year, while the average practice explained by rises in less visible staff costs tices: 41 per cent of all chartered practices’ revenue is 10 per cent higher for a one-per- such as pension contributions. revenue is generated by those practices with son practice and for a practice with between One of the biggest increases in expendi- 100 or more staff. Another 32 per cent comes three and five staff. ture this year has been on information tech- from practices with between 20 and 100 Those rises in staff numbers and total nology: chartered practices spent 12 per cent staff. So the 11 per cent of chartered prac- revenues are larger than the rise we’ve re- more on IT in 2017 than they did in the pre- tices with 20 or more staff are responsible corded in total profits, implying that practice vious year. Part of the reason for this could for generating 73 per cent of the profession’s costs have increased over the year. There is be work associated with building informa- total revenue. certainly some upward pressure on staffing tion modelling (BIM). In response to a new question this year, chartered practices report Average (mean) revenue per practice for selected practice sizes, last five years (indexed) that they have used BIM on 15 per cent of the projects they worked on during the year. This 120% proportion is higher for larger practices: BIM was used on 10 per cent of projects worked on by practices made up of three to five staff, but 110% on 49 per cent of projects in practices of more than 100 in size. Also higher this year is the value of inter- 100% national work: revenue from work outside the UK is 2 per cent higher. And, as we head towards Brexit, an unexpected finding is that 90% work from the EU has risen by more than a quarter. As in previous years, private housing 80% work dominates chartered practices’ work- 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2018 loads. In 2017, 42 per cent of the profession’s 100+ 50 > 100 20 > 50 10 > 20 5 > 10 revenue came from one-off houses, exten- Source of back data: RIBA Business Benchmarking surveys. Back data for size groups 50>100 and 100+ from 2015 only sions and alterations. Add in ‘other’ private

The RIBA Journal March 2018 ribaj.com 41

Profits per practice as per cent of revenue for selected practice sizes BENCHMARK YOUR PRACTICE 35% The RIBA Benchmarking survey gives practices the data to inform business 30% planning. Chartered practices can explore 25% the relationship between fee revenues and sectors in detail using the interactive RIBA 20% Benchmarker. Log on and select ‘compare

15% results’. This allows users to experiment with filters to examine the effect on average 10% practice revenues of having different amounts of work from different sectors. The RIBA 5% Benchmarker is designed to show how

0% changes to work, client or service types 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 might affect a practice’s revenue, profits and 100+ 50 > 100 20 > 50 10 > 20 5 > 10 other business indicators. It shows your own Source of back data: RIBA Business Benchmarking surveys. Back data for size groups 50>100 and 100+ from 2015 only practice’s figures alongside the average.

housing and it accounts for 57 per cent of (mean) revenue per head is £47,000. But in with fewer than five staff. But that’s why we total revenue, up from 54 per cent last year. those practices where one-off houses, ex- are reporting on average revenue per head, But could practices be making more tensions and alterations account for no more which is a much more even indicator across money by working in other sectors? We’ve than 30 per cent of total revenue, the average all practice sizes. looked at how average fee revenue per head revenue per head is £72,243 – one and a half And, given that average revenue per head varies, depending on the proportion of prac- times higher. is also lower among those practices with a tice revenue coming from a single sector. There’s a smaller differential when we high proportion of ‘other’ private housing – We’ve chosen fee revenue per head, because look at the broader ‘other private housing’. including work for developers or larger-scale that measure seems to be fairly even across Where 70 per cent or more of a practice’s rev- commercial developments – the analysis all practice sizes – rather than, say, average enue comes from ‘other private housing’, the suggests that private housing work overall revenue per partner/director or per archi- average revenue per head is about £56,000, appears to offer a lower revenue than other tect, which is higher for larger practices than compared with around £59,000 in practices sectors. smaller ones. where ‘other private housing’ accounts for no Looking further into how practice rev- In practices where more than 70 per cent more than 30 per cent of revenue. enues per head perform with other work of revenue comes from private one-off hous- It’s true that private housing is a far more types, a common pattern starts to emerge. es, extensions and alterations, the average important source of revenue to practices Those practices which have more than 70 per cent of their revenue in one sector generate How average revenue per head compares between practices where revenue REVENUE higher average fee revenues per head than source is concentrated in one sector the practices which receive less than 30 per � 7% cent of their work from this sector. education revenue The simple message is that practices that oces � 6% specialise to the extent that they generate at culture practices of 20 >100 least 70 per cent of their revenue from a sin- health gle market sector are likely to earn a higher � 6% revenue per head than practices with a wid- transport practices of 100+ er variety of work. The exception is private mixed housing, including one-off houses, exten- public housing sions and alterations. Of course, there will be many reasons why practices would still wish sport to undertake small-scale housing work, but retail the economic case for targeting and possibly other public specialising in at least one other sector is a strong one. • other private Aziz Mirza is director of The Fees Bureau, other private housing which analyses and reports on the annual Benchmarking Survey for the RIBA. one o house, extension, alteration RIBA chartered practices can access the full report, and the online Benchmarker, by -30 -20 -10 010203040506070 logging on to the RIBA Business Benchmarking Per cent difference in average earnings per head website: ribabenchmark.com

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21378_Riba_285x235_AD.indd 1 12/02/2018 17:14 Intelligence 43 Housing

Cover image for the draft New London Plan.

Places, planning & community Ambition vs practicality

Blueprint to succeed or a war on suburbs? The New London Plan debates won support but not conviction

Hugh Pearman

After three well-orchestrated debates, one This view goes against the draft plan many of the people who regard it as essen- straight after the other and lasting two hours which has set itself the ambitious task of tially impossible to carry out in the numbers in all, very few people’s minds were changed building 65,000 new homes a year within required – a majority of 56 per cent in anoth- as to what they felt mayor Sadiq Khan’s New London’s boundaries – without impinging er vote indicating that the Green Belt has to London Plan would or should achieve. I know on the Green Belt. Many people applaud that come into play. Somehow this apparent con- this because master of ceremonies Peter – not least RIBA President Ben Derbyshire, tradiction has to be squared. Although there Murray of New London Architecture ran a also speaking at the event, who understand- were three debates in the evening – one on series of votes before the debates got under ably name-checked the ‘Supurbia’ densi- the plan as a whole, one on the housing ele- way, and the same series again after they had fication project which he and his practice ments of it, and one being the politicians’ concluded. The electronic voting was fast HTA have been working on for years with pitch – it was in reality pretty much all about enough to see the difference immediately – the Greater London Authority. Derbyshire housing, with the occasional nod to industry, and it was not much. was delighted by the huge audience majority other employment and the environment. So to the question ‘Do you agree with the in favour of this part of the Plan. The down- And here some possible cross-party allianc- New London Plan’s focus on densifying the side of that is that few of the large audience, es showed themselves. Green Party mem- suburbs?’ – one of its defining policies – the packed into the Friend’s House auditorium ber Caroline Russell, for instance, shared audience was 85 per cent in favour at the on the Euston Road, thought that number some common ground with Boff regarding start, and 83 per cent in favour at the end. of new homes was realistically achievable the suburban open space that will be built This slight decline was undoubtedly the re- without building on the Green Belt. To be ex- on, and the need to protect wildlife habitats. sult of Tory Assembly member Andrew Boff, act, 96 per cent saw it as unachievable at the Of course the same issue would arise with who took part in the final politicians’ debate. outset, falling to 93 per cent by close of play. ‘garden towns’ in the Green Belt. Building Boff firmly believes that the draft plan is ‘a So we are in a place where the main plank is building and requires land wherever it war on the suburbs – a war the suburbs must of the plan’s housing policy is supported by occurs – though almost inevitably less green win’. He raised the spectre of cynical devel- land is needed in suburban densification opers cashing in on suburban densification: than in brand new settlements built on fields. ‘They’re going to build blocks of flats, they’re There’s no room here to cover everything going to pack them in, and they won’t care In one vote 56 per cent said by all the 17 panellists and chairs who what they look like.’ Boff favours leaving the took to the microphone, let alone those suburbs alone and instead building a ring of indicated that the Green Belt speaking from the floor. You can see the high- ‘garden towns’ around London in what he lights online, courtesy of the NLA. The pro- claims is unused agricultural land. has to come into play fessionals largely came across fluently and

ribaj.com The RIBA Journal March 2018 44 Intelligence Housing

HTA’s ‘Superbia’ project to densify the ‘It’s very emotional. People suburbs – original low density layout. are very possessive about their space’

concisely, the politicians (also including La- bour’s Nicky Gavron and the LibDem’s Adele Morris), less so. Better were those making the case for the new plan: at the outset Jules Pipe, deputy mayor for planning, regeneration and skills; and for housing another deputy mayor with that portfolio, James Murray. For Pipe the Plan was emphatically NOT a ‘war on the suburbs’, rather ‘a blueprint for London to succeed as a world city’. As far as Murray was concerned the 65,000 target is possible with- Densification option 1. out touching the Green Belt but not without some reforms: ‘Most roads lead to land. We need to bring more land forward for housing. The land market needs to be addressed.’ Liz Peace, chair of the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation, made the case for large-area regeneration (‘You can show investors your big vision and make really impressive new sustainable space’) while Jo Negrini, chief executive of outer London bor- ough Croydon, championed her small-sites programme. Croydon is planning some 2,000 new homes across 80 sites on land already owned by the council. But, she warned, al- ways take into account people’s feelings. ‘It’s very emotional. People are very possessive about their space.’ But her stimulus, she add- ed, is the families she constantly sees visiting her council offices, waiting to be housed. Densification option 2. One thing that everyone agreed on was the need to design quality. As Claire Ben- nie, ex-Peabody Trust consultant and the mayor’s design advocate, put it: ‘It has to be the best design ever – don’t just fast-track density, fast-track quality.’ Easy to say – but how to achieve it? For Bennie, it came down to strong leadership at the top of public sec- tor organisations. As Negrini, one of those strong leaders, put it: ‘Who is going to deliver it and who is going to pay for it?’ In the end, as several speakers noted, so much of this comes down to landowners – whether that is a matter of taxation, of releasing banked land or incentivising property-owning residents to allow building on their land. In this re- spect the present system and the draft plan’s ambitions are at odds. •

The RIBA Journal March 2018 ribaj.com 16/5347 46 Intelligence Leadership

Business, clients & services Reclaim your leading role

Leadership is the key that makes the most of all your business’s skills

Helen Castle PTE/TIM CROCKER

Is the relegation of architects in the design erosion of the architect’s role on safety and and construction industry leading to a cri- quality have become apparent. There is one sis? In his book Future Practice, Rory Hyde particular cause of concern: in current pro- argues that it is. ‘We seem to be having our curement architects have lost control over own crisis: a crisis of relevance,’ he says.’ We the specification of construction materials complain of marginalisation from the pro- to contractors and subcontractors, and there cess of real decision-making; of being treat- is no longer a single point of responsibility ed like real cake decorators only interested in for design and delivery. In The Guardian last styling; of being undervalued financially; of Below Modern housing September, RIBA president Ben Derbyshire being over regulated; of being over exposed design relies on the client Above Harvard called for architects ‘to reclaim leadership of to the instability of the market, and more.’ as well as the architect as Gardens, designed housebuilding’ after decades of being ‘side- In 2012, when Hyde was writing, a loss guardian of design quality by PTE for the lined through complex contracts’. So how can – as demonstrated London Borough of of rank was largely a cause of anxiety for ar- at Woodside Square, Southwark, is part of the profession reclaim its role, and relevance? chitects themselves. But since the Grenfell by Pollard Thomas the redevelopment of Housing has been the source of both ar- Tower fire, the wider ramifications of the Edwards. Aylesbury Estate. chitects’ ascent and nemesis. First there was the rise, with the post-war housing part of striving for a better society. By the 70s and early 80s, it was the perceived failure of mod- ernist social housing and particularly tower blocks that led to architects’ professional de- cline and the erosion of confidence in their abilities to manage projects and budgets. Kaye Stout, partner at Pollard Thomas Edwards and member of the RIBA Housing Group, says: ‘Architects have produced some fabulous high-quality housing over the last 30 years (since their position has been erod- ed), but the architect has probably paid for it (in time and emotion). In the design and build era, the guardianship of quality sits with the client as well as the architect. With- out the client safeguarding design quality, the architect can continue to design fabulous high-quality housing, but there will be no- body to champion it and build it.’ It is a com-

PTE/GALIT SELIGMAN plex picture, Stout continues, as architects

The RIBA Journal March 2018 ribaj.com 47

continue to be required to work ‘to shorter when leadership is often regarded as ‘glam- and shorter programmes, whether at pro- Leadership is the ingredient orous and exciting’ and management ‘petty curement, planning or construction stage’, and boring’. He quotes management guru while ‘being asked to provide more and more that enables you to get the Tom Peters as saying: ‘A good manager has information to make the proposals easier to to be a good leader and a good leader has to understand/cost/build’. Effectively, archi- best out of other ingredients be a good manager.’ Architects can’t afford tects often bridge the gap, providing leader- to focus on leadership at the cost of manage- ship and skills where the client lacks in house ment; the RIBA Working with Architects capacity to provide them. The upshot is that Client Survey 2016 highlighted process and architects are often not fully recognised and business management skills as the areas of compensated for their contribution. learning technical skills with being a leader. greatest weakness for architects. So, if leadership is an issue for architects This is as true of architects as GPs or teachers.’ Retaining architects’ position at the fore- and the quality of the built environment, how For Radcliffe learning about leadership front of the design and construction in the might we go about salvaging it? One way is to comes down to developing soft skills, which future is more than a matter of honing the build it up, one step at a time, in individuals he calls ‘the harder skills’ as they are often required leadership and management skills – in the profession. Seven years ago, the RIBA trickier for a professional to master. ‘Leader- confidence in architects’ unique skills is also set about tackling the need to develop lead- ship is about influencing others and bringing needed says Lars Hesselgren, director of re- ership skills by launching Future Leaders, them with you – creating followers. It’s not search at PLP Architecture. A researcher and an annual three part programme introduc- just a matter of being technically strong.’ It is academic in architecture and urbanism, he is ing early career professionals to leadership also about engaging with, rather than talking not only a pioneer in novel design technolo- through industry specific training. at, people: ‘With a foundation of technical ex- gies from parametric design to computational Steve Radcliffe, a leadership coach and cellence, it makes people want to work with techniques, but as a founding director of the author of Leadership: Plain and Simple, is you.’ The need for leadership is never more Smartgeometry group (SG) has also been in- the keynote speaker at Future Leaders 2018 pressing than during times of economic and fluential in changing architectural culture to opening session, ‘Learning to Lead’. He be- political uncertainty: ‘When times are tough assimilate them. SG brings together teams lieves leadership has to be tackled at a system- and resources tight, you need to add leader- from across architecture and engineering in ic level. ‘I used to think leadership came down ship to technical expertise. Leadership is the practice and academia to workshop problems to individuals,’ he says. ‘Twenty years later, I ingredient that enables you to get the best out and learn from each other on digital design realise it is a matter of taking an organisation of other ingredients. It is the great multiplier.’ and how to integrate it into the design pro- with you and speaking a common language, But leadership has to be backed by good cess. As Hesselgren says: ‘Architecture is the so everybody can grow. It comes down to an management. Stefan Stern, visiting profes- only profession that is at the heart of creating active decision to develop yourself and others. sor in management practice at Cass Business spaces where we want to be – from living to Most professions are too enamoured with the School and director of the High Pay Centre, working to interacting with each other. No technical side. It is very revealing when peo- a think tank on income distribution, has be- other profession is capable of that imagination ple compare how long they have invested in come an advocate for management at a time – beautiful comfortable places where human- ity thrives.’ Despite predicting that the next century will be dominated by the rise of AI ro- bots and our coexistence with them, he says: ‘Mankind will still want to meet in spaces we love. Somebody has to conceive and design those spaces, that is the job of architects.’ • Helen Castle is RIBA head of professional programmes and commissioning editor of Architectural Design (AD)

Left Architects need Steve Radcliffe and to concentrate on Lars Hesselgren are their team skills as speaking at Future part of leadership. Leaders, a three- At Smartgeometry’s part programme at multidisciplinary the RIBA in London: workshop they get the architecture.com/

LARS HESSELGREN chance to. FutureLeaders2018

ribaj.com The RIBA Journal March 2018 48 Intelligence Legal

­appointment document contains provisions for payment upon termination (and Adam Adam and Halsbury was engaged under the RIBA conditions, Procurement Legal, regulatory + which do), then even if your appointment found themselves and contracts statutory compliance has been terminated, your client must serve a pay less notice if it intends to pay only some arguing over whether or none of the amounts you have claimed. Pay less notices ‘Pay less’ notices are required by the Con- Halsbury was required struction Act where a paying party wishes to and termination pay less than the sum notified to or from the by the Construction Act payee. In the case of payments made during the course of a project, it is absolutely critical to serve a pay less notice for the paying party to serve a pay less notice Once your contract is where it is not paying the full amount notified, if Adam’s engagement terminated must the client and a failure to serve a pay less notice will en- serve pay less notices if it is title the payee to payment of the notified sum. had been terminated The question that Adam and Halsbury loth to pay for work to date? found themselves arguing over was whether Halsbury was required by the Construction Alastair McGrigor Act to serve a pay less notice if Adam’s en- Should an architectural practice which has gagement had been terminated. had its engagement terminated be entitled In the first hearing of the case, the judge to the protection of the Construction Act for decided that no pay less notice was needed, unpaid invoices? because the contract had been discharged by That was the question recently decided by the termination, and the nature of the invoice IN PLAIN ENGLISH the Court of Appeal, in a case which clarifies (being a final invoice not an interim invoice) CONSIDERATION how far the statutory protection of the Con- did not require a pay less invoice under the One of the key requirements for a contract struction Act continues after termination. terms of Adam’s engagement. to come into force is that each party must The practice, Adam Architecture Ltd, However, the Court of Appeal’s recent give ‘consideration’ – that is, each one had been engaged by Halsbury Homes Ltd judgment took a different view. On its inter- must, in very broad terms, give something to produce designs for a new housing de- pretation of the Construction Act, the rele- to the other party in exchange for what it velopment in Norfolk. After agreeing a fee vant section obliging pay less notices (s.111) receives from the other. proposal for the project, Adam set to work is not limited to interim payments only (un- That consideration does not have to on the design. However, about six weeks lat- like some other sections of the Act dealing be money or goods or services, it can er Halsbury informed Adam that Halsbury with payment matters) but instead applies to be rights or benefits. Equally, if a party would continue with Adam for the house all payments provided for by a construction agrees to incur a responsibility, that can be designs but intended to use another firm of contract. It should not be ‘permissible to read the consideration that it gives. architects for much of the other work on the into that perfectly sensible and workable pro- Putting this into the context of a scheme, including its overall layout. vision words which are not there’ so as to try contract for architectural services, the Adam replied that it had previously un- to limit it to interim payments only. architect’s consideration is the carrying derstood the other firm would only be car- That Adam was not claiming damages, out of the services, whereas the client’s is rying out elements involving engineering but only fees for services carried out, also the fee that is paid. input, and that the design of the layout was allowed the Court of Appeal to decide that An important exception to the need such an essential part of Adam’s design that Adam had not accepted a repudiation of its for consideration is where a document if it had no input on the layout there was no contract, but had merely submitted an in- is executed as a deed. Deeds (because place for Adam on the project. As such, Adam voice on termination under the terms of its of their more formally binding nature) took Halsbury’s decision to use the other appointment. That meant Adam could rely do not need consideration to be given. firm as a termination of its engagement. on the Construction Act and the protection So collateral warranties that you may Adam ceased work that day, submitting it offered. This case very usefully clarifies be asked to sign will often only have the an invoice the next day for its fees for the ser- that, if your appointment document contains architect warranting its services to the vices it had carried out to date. Crucially, it provisions for payment on termination, then beneficiary, with the beneficiary not giving did not seek damages for the termination, even if your appointment has been terminat- any consideration. Just to be on the safe it only sought payment of its fees. Halsbury ed, your client must serve a pay less notice side, often warranties will also allow for a did not pay that invoice, nor did it serve any if it intends to pay only some or none of the nominal £1 to be paid by the beneficiary, ‘pay less’ notice under the Construction Act. amounts you have claimed.• to make sure that the consideration This case very usefully clarifies that, if your Alistair McGrigor is a partner with CMS requirement has been satisfied.

The RIBA Journal March 2018 ribaj.com Maximum transparency

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more than 10,000%! There is clearly more to this story. Much more. What could be more In October 2017, for the first time, the Places, planning Design, construction Office for National Statistics released data preposterous than & community & technology on the wealth of our fair nation that sepa- rated the value of land from the value of the designing a system that dwellings and buildings that sit on it. It re- vealed that since 1995, the total value of all disadvantages millions and Crisis? land in the UK has quadrupled to over £5 tril- lion, and that land now forms two thirds the then putting them through value of property. Since 1995, land has gone What crisis? from accounting for one third of our nation- the indignity of proving Are we complicit in political al net worth to over half. In short, land is an manoeuvrings on housing? enormous economic contributor and this is they need your help? so problematic because land is a fantastically efficient mechanism for transferring wealth from the poor to the rich. Simplistically, be- cause land values inflate the economy with- out increasing productivity, it’s a zero sum game. There’s widespread misconception and disagreement as to the role of land values of private and public debt is patched with im- in economic growth and as such, there’s no possibly unending economic growth leading prevailing consensus to disseminate. us towards environmental catastrophe; while Many like to paint the ‘housing crisis’ every day technological advancement and as an uncontrollable phenomenon we’re all cultural innovation are hampered as invest- victims of, but this is deceptive. We’re in this ment is diverted into the miracle-grow-fer- Maria Smith position because of a chain of legal and policy tilised property market. A ‘crisis of produc- Do architects understand the ‘housing cri- changes that favoured home ownership and tivity’ is already gaining traction. Just last sis’? Are we doing enough to inform our- economic growth. From the 1963 Finance week slumping productivity was blamed on selves? Is it even our place to worry about it? Act that offered a huge subsidy for owner-oc- young people’s smartphone use. Yeah right! If we don’t understand, are we complicit? Are cupied housing, to the 1971 Competition What are we architects to do? We can architects housing the crisis? and Credit Control Act that deregulated the make sure the houses that get built are de- Architecture can feel a long way down- mortgage lending market, the wheels were cent, yes, but in giving airtime to the pa- stream of vast socio-economic conundrums set in motion for rapid increase in house pric- pering over the cracks that is building more such as the ‘housing crisis.’ Perhaps we can es. Between 1971 and 2017, the average house homes, are we perhaps complicit? I’m not simply feel proud to be delivering well de- price went up fortyfold, and until relatively saying we should stop building new homes, signed affordable homes: doing our bit under recently, this was celebrated. or stop working for housebuilders, but if this the banner of increasing supply or nurturing Politicians today talk about building new is kicking the can down the road, then maybe community cohesion. But is this a bit of a cop homes as the answer to this crisis because if we ought also to be engaging better with the out? Perhaps in our ignorance we’re co-opted that were the solution we wouldn’t need to un- meat of the problem. The endless headlines in into its perpetuation. pick 50 years of legislation. It also means we architectural magazines about the margin- Shelter defines the housing crisis as ‘the get to keep saying supply and demand, sup- alisation of the profession may contribute to lack of affordable, decent homes’. These ply and demand, as if somehow repeating this our feelings of powerlessness here, but we are qualifiers are critical. Too often, we fixate mantra of unfettered capitalism will please still central to the housing market and so still on simply the lack. It’s easier to understand the money gods who will rain down quality of absolutely qualified to engage in this debate. and therefore blame factors like population life. And don’t even get me started on ‘afforda- Since when have architects let others growth, increased life expectancy, smaller ble housing’. What could be more preposter- worry about society and economics and just households, nimbyism etc. It’s more palat- ous than designing a system that disadvan- sat around unquestioning, waiting to be fed able to consider the solutions to these prob- tages millions and then putting them through some fee scraps? The solution to this prob- lems; to cite supply and demand and rally for the indignity of proving they need your help? lem is going to come from significant shifts building more homes. The easy familiarity ‘Affordable housing’ is not a solution, it is a in policy and in this age of demagoguery, of these arguments inflates their bearing symptom of an egregious failure. change is facilitated by priming the citizen- whereas in fact, while the population of the We shall see how long successive govern- ry and in this, we architects can and do have UK has risen less than 30% since 1952, house ments pass the buck, while every day politi- a role. • prices have gone up more than 300%, and yes cal instability increases as the crisis becomes Maria Smith is director of architecture and

HOLLY EXLEY HOLLY that’s adjusted for inflation, otherwise it’s harder to solve; while every day the burden engineering at Interrobang

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Lutyens’ letters Photographic master 55 – Will Wiles – exhibition 57 66

great architects of earlier generations from ONLY ON RIBAJ.COM now: time. Clients are always in a hurry. Everything from About time Architects are doubly in a hurry because vast golden Time might be money nobody these days enjoys the mandatory fee scale that applied in Lasdun’s time, for in- lacquered panels nowadays, but we pay a price stance. Just imagine Lasdun being invited to gorgeous for being too mean with it to submit a cut-throat fee bid, as opposed to a design bid. The fact remains that to get a flapper dresses building right, you need enough hours spent and impossibly on it. Lasdun had time to get the details right, and clients prepared to give him that time luxurious luggage and – one assumes – to pay for it. Pamela Buxton boards the glamorous Not everyone had it good back then, world of ocean liners: though half the profession was insulated ribaj.com/oceanliners from the vagaries of the market and the fee system by being salaried, pensioned public sector employees; and the other half was fre- Instead of quently employed by the burgeoning public heavy masonry, sector as well. No design and build, no PFI, permanent and clients who mostly knew the language of architecture and trusted their architects. structures and But as early as 1961 Peter Reyner Banham Hugh Pearman Editor Just imagine spatial hierarchy predicted the decline in influence of archi- it offered Denys Lasdun was an architect whose work Lasdun being tects who, he contended, had already made is admired by everyone not allergic to ex- invited to submit a themselves luxury appendages to the build- space frames, posed concrete and engineering brick. But at ing process, marginal rather than central. ephemerality and any given moment he never had that many cut-throat fee bid, So Banham saw the looming clouds, but projects on the go. Even at his busiest he was as opposed to a when did the marginalisation of the profes- endlessness not exactly overwhelmed with jobs. Yet he sion really start to bite? I think I know when. Charles Holland design bid moves into the realm was very well known and connected. It was one of the last of the great, sprawling, of megastructures: You could, of course, say much the same leisurely publicly-financed projects: the Brit- ribaj.com/ about Carlo Scarpa, the subject of our book ish Library. The time came, at the start of the megastructures review on p64. It’s a must: Charles Holland 1990s, when the slowness and rising costs of on Richard Murphy on Scarpa’s Castelvec- the project were examined. The contractor chio. That architect’s slender career tally of tried to pass the buck by complaining that projects is more understandable. He lived the architect, Colin St John Wilson, was slow and worked during tumultuous times in to produce the necessary working drawings. ­Italy. Scarpa’s obsessive attention to detail True or not, Sandy Wilson was old-school. is legendary and though he did accept some He did detail, and how. speedier commissions (see Parting Shot, p74) We’ve all but forgotten that run-in now, it is the long-term cultural projects he is best and what are we left with? The British Li- known for. One thinks of Gaudí and his fa- brary is grade I listed. Lasdun’s National mous phrase regarding the gradual construc- Theatre is grade II* (and ought to be I). Time tion of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona: ‘My is money, but also quality. Though when it client is not in a hurry’. comes to Gaudí’s Sagrada Familia, it’s per-

HOLLY EXLEY HOLLY And that, really, is what separates the haps still too early to tell. •

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destroyed. The other claim was that he had collaborated with Lutyens, latterly as part of Lutyens the Royal Academy committee that drew up a plan for the post-war rebuilding of London. My grandmother died last year and, as I mentioned in my previous column, I have and me been helping sort through the very large num- The great man’s owlish ber of books and papers she left. At last, I took charm is brought to down the biography to see if great-grandfather was mentioned at all. No one, it seemed, had life in some long-lost opened it in years, and I could hardly believe correspondence what I found inside. A large envelope had been attached to the inside of the front cover by the adhesive gum of its flap. On this was written ‘Letters & Drawings – E.L.L to H.A.H’. And so it proved – a small sheaf of letters from Lu- tyens and his family and some doodles. Up to that moment Lutyens was, to me, a name, a fairly monolithic name with an im- posing backdrop of buildings: the Cenotaph, the Monument to the Missing of the Somme at Thiepval, imperial New Delhi. Although the architect’s affability and generosity are common features of accounts of his life, they are qualities that fade in the mausolea of rep- Will Wiles Suddenly here utation. But suddenly here was Lutyens the At the time of his death on New Year’s Day was Lutyens the charmer and friend, or ‘Lut’. He opens every 1944, Sir Edwin Lutyens was widely con- charmer and letter with ‘My dear Austen’, and was fond of sidered the greatest English architect of his sketching himself self-deprecating vein. A age. His pre-eminence was such that, within friend, or ‘Lut’ tiny thumbnail self-portrait appends a letter months, a committee was formed to produce of May 1943, no more than a few lines sug- a memorial biography, making the fullest pos- gesting a round face, round glasses, a pipe and sible use of the architect’s office and papers. an Edwardian collar: ‘What I look like now, The book was published in 1950, and it is ap- in case you have forgotten.’ Another drawing LONDON REPLANNED propriately monumental, a two-inch-thick depicts an owlish Lutyens being leaned on by UNEARTHED green and tan cenotaph with gilt lettering. my great-grandfather, who is depicted as a The numerous documents One copy of The Life of Sir Edwin Lutyens clear couple of feet taller than the great man. we found relating to the resided prominently on a high shelf in my Hall served as honorary secretary of the plan for London are a grandmother’s living room. Despite enjoying committee, and we have since found fold- curious mixture, and I books about architecture and architects, I nev- ers of documents related to the replanning intend to write about them er took it down – it had a heavy look to it, both of London (see box). Though they had little in much greater detail later literally and figuratively. And there were plen- effect on the rebuilding of the city, the plans in the year. There’s very ty of other books about architecture to enjoy on were exhibited amid much interest in 1942, little architectural work lower shelves. My great-grandfather, Herbert and again towards the end of the war. That (one fascinating schematic Austen Hall, had been an architect, and his latter show was too late for Sir Edwin. drawing aside), but dozens daughter had kept some of his appreciation of Another drawing is a touching glimpse of of letters and minutes that buildings and their making, partly explaining his working relationship with Hall: it shows cast an intriguing light on how that appreciation came down to me. Lutyens as a baby, held by my great-grand­ the remarkable work of Great-grandfather had two claims to father, who is wearing the uniform of a nurse. a selection of Edwardian fame. One was that he launched his career by It had obviously meant a tremendous amount eminences in wartime. It winning the competition to design Lambeth to Austen, who had cherished these memen- was a popular family myth Town Hall, which he entered with his friend tos, and ensured their safe-keeping on a high that His Majesty George Septimus Warwick while both were still very shelf, where they listened to the ticking of the VI ‘liked to pop in’ and see Above Lutyens’ drawing how they were getting young men. This remains his most impor- of himself as a baby, mantel clock more than 60 years. • tant built work, as he later went on to design nursed by his friend Will Wiles is a journalist and author. Read him along – sadly I have found

HOLLY EXLEY HOLLY Odeon cinemas, almost all of which were Austen Hall. here every other month and at ribaj.com nothing that supports this.

The RIBA Journal March 2018 ribaj.com 58 Culture President

Instead, we must respond to the searing COME AND SEE questions of our time: whether we should The RIBA is hosting two State your weigh the public interest as an equal or a high- great new exhibitions er priority to that of our clients –and how we which open in March. RIBA define the public interest; what to do when North in Liverpool will positions ethical principles point one way and a client’s be showing ‘It Will Never Architects need to work needs or wants point in another; and how to Work’ – 25 years of Urban define ethics in countries where corruption in Splash. Meanwhile at together to show what the construction is rife. Can we share a position 66 Portland Place, from profession really stands for on these issues with our fellow professionals? 1-25 March, the Practice I am encouraged that we at the RIBA have Space will host the ‘Baltic now established an Ethics and Sustainable Material Assemblies’ an Development Commission which will col- exhibition on the crossover laborate across the built environment to share of geology, infrastructure knowledge and promote best practice. The in- and architecture through stitute is also launching a conduct review with time in Latvia, Estonia and a view to overhauling the Code of Professional Lithiuania. See more at Conduct and the Code of Practice, which set architecture.com mandatory standards for members and char- tered practices – and which should be ratch- eted up continuously to increase standards, in my view. This will run through 2018, con- sulting members, the industry and the public. Ben Derbyshire Architects need to The Architects Registration Board (Arb) As governments struggle to meet environ- stand apart from and the RIBA maintain standards of profes- mental aspirations, you’d think that archi- the hurly-burly of sionalism and accredit schools of architecture tects would be in greater demand as part of pure commerce but use slightly different codes of conduct and the solution. Unfortunately, this is not the procedures. This cannot be in the public in- case. Less than one per cent of the built envi- and act with terest and is confusing for professionals and ronment globally is overseen by architects. In strength and the public. Both organisations should come the UK, less than 10 per cent of new housing together as one to raise standards of educa- stock is architect designed. Has the covenant leadership tion, ethics and professional probity, and I’m between architects and society broken down? working with the Arb’s chair, Nabila Zulfiqar, Society desires a high-quality, attractive, to this end. We may not be able to agree on sustainable and efficient built environment everything, and our organisations are vari- and trains us to deliver on this expecta- ously constrained. But we both acknowledge tion. Yet much that is delivered without our problematic aspects of the relationship in our leadership is of undeniably poor quality. past, caused partly by misaligned policies and I have previously drawn attention to the processes and overlapping responsibilities. potential role for the institute in brokering Neither of us believe now is the time research to build problem-solving skills and for structural change – there are too many subject-specific knowledge. But equally we ­constraints to make this a practicable prop- must work on a redefinition of ethical profes- osition. But we are committed to being as sionalism if we are to create clear blue water ­effective as we can by demonstrating shared between architects and those who provide ­values, collaborative leadership and aligning services on a purely commercial basis. our approach. Together we can help deliver a The traditional status of the professions better designed, more sustainable built envi- was based on class – that anachronistic ba- ronment that contributes to social wellbeing. sis for values of trust and respect has rightly As the only independently regulated broken down. Our challenge is that we must professionals operating in the built environ- move faster to replace it with anything of ad- ment, architects need to stand apart from the equate value in a time when reputations are hurly-burly of pure commerce and act with made, destroyed and remade in seconds. As the strength and leadership that status de- architects, we must offer more than simply mands. Do let me have your views on any of professional propriety masquerading as an these demanding issues. •

HOLLY EXLEY HOLLY ethical position, which anyone could meet. [email protected], @ben_derbyshire

The RIBA Journal March 2018 ribaj.com

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Ian Morrison, director of planning at Historic England, speaks warmly of his love of heritage and how new design can bring it alive. But that doesn’t mean he’ll be a pushover Words: Eleanor Young Portrait: Edward Moss

FirmTo be director of planning at Historic Eng - handings (2013), looking at how old buildings are land means judging whether to seek call-in a base for new businesses, like Birmingham’s for planning inquiries, guiding staff to get the Custard Factory and Bristol’s Paintworks. best for heritage in a time of cuts, and proac- Permitted development rights allowing tively using the value of heritage to help areas change of use from industrial to residential where historic buildings are left mouldering. are eating away at these. In response Histor- But for Ian Morrison, six months into the job, ic England is embarking on a more in depth it most of all means loving heritage. As he study to tease out the relationship between talks with warm moderation of his many re- the creative economy and old buildings (they sponsibilities you sense a calming, confident are looking for tenders if you are interested). hand on the many processes and priorities of As Historic England’s mission statement this large organisation. There are also hints says, it is about ‘places’. Morrison certainly of a firmer stance on planning inquiries. sees HE’s role as wider than preserving the ‘Jane Jacobs’ thesis has been proved over set pieces and fragments of history. ‘It is a time, there is an economic need for old build- way of seeing heritage, less in isolation and ings,’ he says. ‘That agenda is very person- more how buildings relate to each other as al to me.’ Morrison started his professional a place. Our approach in the past has been life in the South West, as an archaeologist, too narrow.’ This was visible at St Michael’s before specialising in the regeneration of development in Jackson’s Row Manchester, former industrial sites such as Plymouth’s backed by footballers Ryan Giggs and Gary Royal William Yard with English Heritage. Neville. Starting with two Make towers Later, as head of historic environment at the and the demolition of a number of protected Heritage Lottery Fund, he set up the Herit- buildings HE originally objected to it not just age Enterprise grants programme to help for its simple demolition but for erasing layers communities bring life to old buildings. And of the city centre’s history. It pointed out that most recently, at the Architectural Heritage not only did the towers dominate; they also Fund, he was doing that working closely with focussed inwards rather than bringing life to building projects on the ground in Wrexham, the streets. The redesign by Hodder and Part- Derbyshire and Somerset among others. ners had a more positive response, although Back when Morrison was at the HLF he HE remains ‘unable to support’ the scheme commissioned New Ideas Need Old Build- which would still have an ­‘unavoidable­

The RIBA Journal March 2018 ribaj.com 61

Ian Morrison amid the rubble and rebuilding at Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings.

‘It is a way of seeing heritage, less in isolation and more how buildings relate to each other as a place’ ribaj.com The RIBA Journal March 2018 Caption copy here copy here

Caption copy here copy here

62 Culture Profile

­corridors. From HE’s City office Morrison and I look out over the roof garden that was built instead of extra storeys, preserving views of St Paul’s Cathedral. Not all such views have survived: from Richmond Park the glimmer of the dome in that protected view has been lost to a bully tower at Stratford. And over the last few years, as a rash of undistinguished towers have shouldered their way into prom- inence along the Thames, more people are asking the wider questions about how the city should deal with growth. Does London have to be a high, super dense city, losing sky to streets churned by vortices of wind, its in- frastructure creaking at the seams? Or could densification of the outer suburbs prove more Above and left Historic England palatable? HE-commissioned research on the is bringing the main historic character of those kind of areas will surely buildings back into use at Shrewsbury Flaxmill. It started lead to a more informed approach to any such with the visitors’ centre, and is moves through the London Plan and beyond. now refurbishing the 1797 grade Commenting on and contributing to local I list main mill and grade II listed plans is an important role for Historic Eng- kiln for public and office use. land. Beyond London and the South East, ­impact’. Notably it didn’t object though. the context is very different, says Morrison. HE must. ‘It’s hard to get a debate until the Morrison knows developers and HE won’t ‘With low land values it’s often difficult to wrecking ball threatens,’ says Catherine always agree. He believes the organisation­ produce economically viable schemes.’ His Croft of the Twentieth Century Society. It is has a duty to use its full powers to oppose previous jobs gave him experience of this. So also concerned that extra planning inquiries significant harm, including requesting call he was right behind HE’s campaign last year could also divert resources from front line in for planning inquiries. In recent years to make better use of old mill buildings – En- case work, but Morrison says not. He feels there was some retrenchment as costly plan- gines of Prosperity. Morrison is also pushing strongly about this but is not relying on pre- ning inquiries were avoided and costs rarely Heritage Action Zones. ‘Lots of our work is vious experience here. ‘The first thing I did claimed. But for 2018 Morrison has set aside reactive and we want to be more proactive in when I joined was to ask each regional team to national resources for inquiries that can be creating public value,’ he explains. ‘So we are show me a piece of casework they were proud seen looming on the horizon, plus some con- focussing expertise of staff from planning – of, that could have been better, that was live tingency. And he plans to go after costs as a and designation and research – where there and they were engaged with and one that had pragmatic approach, as HE did in west Lon- are opportunities for growth.’ This spring proved contentious.’ He saw many on site too. don on 9-42 The Broadway. Here Allies and and summer should show some of the results Morrison has a light in his eyes as he talks Morrison’s scheme for British Land was up from the second round of zones, including of the tangible and the heritage that makes up for inquiry with HE as the formal (rule 6) par- conserving fishing heritage in Grimsby and, the fabric of places over years. Shrewsbury ty. The application was withdrawn just days in Stoke on Trent, protecting bottle kilns and Flaxmill Maltings is a small project in the before the inquiry was due to start. HE was rejuvenating Longton High Street. scheme of things but one where his bit of HE awarded costs. ‘We are now working closely ‘Working upstream, there is more influ- is developer of last resort, working with FCB with British Land as to alternative proposals ence and a more efficient use of ideas and re- Studios. It is rescuing the oldest iron framed for the site,’ writes Morrison in his attentive sources,’ says Morrison. Others in the amen- building in the world – a precursor to sky- follow up after our interview. It is clear he ity societies that get consulted alongside HE scrapers. ‘We are getting to understand what is aiming not for a combative approach but fear such work doesn’t engage the public, as it is to be a developer,’ says Morrison with en- for boundaries to be drawn more clearly. ‘Of ergy. He likes what architects can bring to re- course it is the last resort,’ says Morrison. use and is editing a book that celebrates their ‘But when we are unable to agree we need to role, while looking at what can be learnt from be clear about our intention to use it and re- When we are unable to agree the many projects on the pages. He is excit- source it properly.’ ed by the ‘subtle’ ways the best practices use London has moved a long way since the we need to be clear about scrape and reveal: ‘You don’t have to go for planning battles of the 90s when English the big flashy exterior or adaptation. It takes Heritage, as it then was, appeared ranged our intention to use call-in an incredible skill and humility to produce against development in the City, character- something subservient to the original… it ised as defending antiquated ideas of viewing and resource it properly sets a context of the past for our future.’ •

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Sch-Jansen-N-285x235.indd 1 12/02/2018 11:24 64 Culture Review

Smaller pullquote Invention & 16/16.5 revelation

Richard Murphy’s great admiration for Scarpa has produced a daunting, but impressive, volume

Charles Holland

In an episode of the classic American sitcom and eroding whole sections of it while at the own house in Los Angeles in the 1980s. It is a Seinfield, one of the characters invents a cof- same time weaving in his own interventions. design approach that invents as much as it re- fee table book so large that it doubles as the For Scarpa this work was about honesty veals and that relies on deliberate ‘ruination’. table itself. Richard Murphy’s book on Carlo and historical accuracy, a laying bare of suc- This process is at its subtlest and most in- Scarpa’s Castelvecchio Museum in Verona cessive generations of habitation and centu- triguing in the alterations to the faux-Gothic could make an adequate dining table for two. ries of occupation. For the most part, Murphy facade that Avena constructed in the main So this is a big book, and reading it is some buys into this reading, labelling Avena’s work courtyard of the Castelvecchio. It was already undertaking. It is not simply a monograph as ‘fake’ and a-historical. But there is anoth- an ambiguous artefact that included gothic on an architect but one about a single work. er way of looking at it, which is that Scarpa windows salvaged from local houses and in- Scarpa worked on Castelvecchio from 1959 to was engaged in his own form of archaeologi- corporated into a symmetrical elevation rem- 1973, transforming a medieval fortress with cal theatre, a deliberately ambiguous decon- iniscent of a Renaissance palace. substantial Napoleonic and 20th century ele- struction of the idea of historical accuracy. Although Scarpa had no qualms about ments into a contemporary museum. To borrow a word that Murphy uses many removing the rooms behind or the garden in Murphy’s tome has its origins in a trip he times, Scarpa ‘delaminates’ the Castelvec- front of this, he retained the facade itself. But took in the 1980s accompanied by his stu- chio, peeling layers away and inserting new he destabilised it, sliding new glazed walls be- dents to comprehensively measure Scarpa’s ones in a manner that has resonances with hind which, through their pattern of transoms masterpiece. That trip resulted in an earlier the work of the artist Gordon Matta Clark or and mullions, reassert a subversive asymme- book – Carlo Scarpa and Castelvecchio (pub- even with Frank Gehry’s alterations to his try. The new glazing is also set back deep in lished in 1990) – that lies buried somewhere in this new, vastly expanded version. Like the Castelvecchio itself, it is the product of sever- al decades of painstaking effort and involves the obsessive reworking of older material. As Murphy concedes, Scarpa has been his architectural touchstone, a life-long influ- ence from whose work much of his own de- rives. It is a generous sentiment and the book confirms the depth of his love. It is organised as a visit to the building would be, unfolding as a journey through a series of spaces illus- trated by drawings, historic and contempo- rary photographs and textural description. The nature of Scarpa’s work at the Castelvecchio makes it appear as if he was re- pairing a ruin, although it had been rebuilt in the 1920s by Antonio Avena. Part of Scarpa’s approach was to systematically undo much of Avena’s work, de-domesticating the castle

The RIBA Journal March 2018 ribaj.com 65

­climate. He would not have been a fan of BIM. Scarpa’s is a design approach Murphy does a good job of deconstruct- ing these thought processes and Scarpa’s that invents as much as it evolution as an architect. The influence of Frank Lloyd Wright looms large, particular- reveals and that relies on ly his ‘destruction of the box’, most evident in masterpieces like the Robie House. For Scar- deliberate ‘ruination’ pa, Wright’s erosion of the corner became a lifetime’s work, leading to ever more com- plex and baroque details. No two materials ever meet at a right angle but instead jink in and out and back and forth as if in a complex courtship dance. This leads in later work to the ziggurat motifs where junctions become multiplied to the point of dissipation. But this purist approach has its limits. After a while it can lapse into preciousness: all those complex, articulated junctions start the facade’s reveals to accentuate a reading of to feel oppressive and cloying, like an endless Avena’s composition as a thin veneer. Above Typical Scarpa series of guitar solos at a prog rock concert. elevation of the Scarpa’s approach did not necessarily en- Castelvecchio overlaid I admit that part of me recoiled at the sheer dear him to conservationist tendencies. As with sketches and excess of this book, a feeling that no building Murphy states: ‘Scarpa was primarily inter- details. quite justifies so much time and paper. ested not in any concepts of restoration but The deification of Scarpa can sometimes in historical clarity, making history visible Opposite The rebuilt get in the way of an enjoyment of his work. Castelvecchio in the by the co-existence of overlaying fragments early 20th century Just as certain artworks are so admired as to of construction.’ This process was highly se- shows how radical almost preclude a personal reading of them, lective and involved value judgements as to Scarpa’s later the aura around Scarpa’s work can make it which fragments were worth preserving. ‘delaminations’ were. perversely hard to like. The playful manner- Scarpa’s design approach was inextri- ism of much of his design is as lovely as the Below The Cangrande cably linked to his working method. At the Space: Scarpa’s famous subtlety of his spaces or the impeccability of Castelvecchio he lived on site, constantly re- break-point in the castle his detailing, but is rarely mentioned. vising details up to the moment of construc- buildings. Despite this, Richard Murphy’s descrip- tion and sometimes beyond. For this reason tive text is clear-eyed and intelligent and there is nothing as banal as an ‘as-built’ set of avoids mawkishness. His book is by no means definitive drawings, merely multiple plans warts’n’all – the only negative criticisms I and elevations covered with other plans, pro- could find were of interventions that came jection planes and sketches and overlaid with either before or after Scarpa’s work – but it alternatives and equivocations. isn’t pure hagiography either. The richness The resultant building is a mysterious of Scarpa’s Castelvecchio ultimately justifies combination of precision and chance, some- what is clearly a hugely important personal thing frequently described as ‘timeless’, as if project for Richard Murphy, and one he has it could only ever have been thus, and yet we pulled off admirably. • know it might have taken many different di- Charles Holland is principal of Charles Holland rections. Scarpa’s architecture embodies this Architects and professor of architecture at the paradox: he approaches everything obliquely, University of Brighton taking a seeming eternity to accomplish the most straightforward thing and then making it look unavoidable. His intuitive method and uncompromis- Carlo Scarpa and ing approach represent a distant dream for Castelvecchio Revisited many architects. The realities of contempo- By Richard Murphy Breakfast Mission rary procurement systems, the rise of project Publishing, PB, managers, design and build contracts and 384pp, £70 change-control procedures render Scar- Available from RIBA pa’s techniques absurdly unlikely in today’s Bookshops

ribaj.com The RIBA Journal March 2018 66 Culture Review Art and artifice

Considered juxtapositions accentuate Andreas Gursky’s manipulation of what he sees in this self- curated retrospective

Jan-Carlos Kucharek

There’s a famous scene in Father Ted where Ted points out the window during a rural caravan holiday and explains to the feckless Father Dougal that the toy plastic cow he’s holding is ‘small, but that one is far away’. It’s a masterclass in comic absurdity, and one which touches on philosophical issues at the very core of Andreas Gursky’s work. For here, there are similar manipulations of scale, of flatness and depth of field, of artifice and reali- Above Amazon, 2016. ty, on display at this major retrospective of one Inkjet print 207 x 407 x He has earned a reputation of the world’s feted contemporary photogra- 6.2cm. Andreas Gursky/ DACS, 2017, courtesy phers – this inaugural show marking the re- Sprüth Magers. as the go-to chronicler of opening of FCBS’s refurbished and upgraded Hayward Gallery. It’s particularly satisfying the Modern Age to see the abstraction of his Rhein II – what was the world’s most expensive photograph – Utah, 2017. Inkjet delicately lit in the upper galleries beneath its Below print, Diasec 225 x 457 x once-contentious pyramid rooflights. 6.4cm. Andreas Gursky/ Gursky was born in 1955 in Leipzig to DACS, 2017, courtesy commercial photographer parents, and ed- Sprüth Magers. ucated at the Folkwang University in Essen and then with Bernd and Hilla Becher in the shadow of Gerhard Richter at Düsseldorf Art Academy. He has earned a reputation as the go-to chronicler of the Modern Age, with his huge scale representations of industrial infrastructure, corporate and commercial environments and mass socio-cultural in- teractions. Curiously it sits at odds with the slight, quietly spoken, casually dressed man at the press call, relating his difficulty with introducing display walls to the galleries to adequately represent his 40 years of output. Seen here, Gursky seems initially a vic- tim of his own success; the iconoclastic work

The RIBA Journal March 2018 ribaj.com 67

tance. But these landscapes are for the most ‘events’ at opposite ends of the political scale. part reproduced small, restrained; counter- This last, with the abstraction of Rhein pointed only by the empty heroic of his huge II and Almeria market gardening landscape Ruhr Valley. It’s a photo preparing you for El Ejido, placed together in such a way as you his massive Untitled I (1993), a close-up of can barely tell where the Rhine’s waters stop the carpet in the Düsseldorf Kunsthalle, a and the polythene starts, marks a later stage contrapuntal amuse bouche before the enor- in Gursky’s artistic development – one where mous digital works that characterise his later he actually manipulates reality. In Rhein II output. As an aside, his 1995 Turner Collec- he famously ‘disappeared’ a power station on tion re-presents three of Turner’s works on its banks and in Nha Trang, he insisted on all the walls of the Tate at apparent life-size; and the workers being dressed in orange. But it’s Salerno I – for Gursky a key work – takes this highlighted most clearly in the ‘made-up’ ex- city’s beauty, set on the Amalfi coastline, and hibition of Lehmbruck I, the benzene-addled, through flattening the depth of field, objecti- Last Supper doppelganger F1 Pit Stop I (2007) fies it into the same terms of reference as its and Review (2015), four recent German chan- industrial port area in the foreground. Infra- cellors fictionally brought together before structure as landscape, carpet as landscape; a 1951 Barnett Newman Abstract Expres- from here on in the artist no longer felt the sionist painting. Donald Trump might enjoy need to make a distinction. this last half of the show; it isn’t ‘fake news’ Gursky curated the show too, leading to so much as Gursky’s belief that, within the engaging juxtapositions. The small Superno- context of art, this is all simply a new truth. va sits beside the banal, enormous Unititled With so many complex contemporary I; the massive store interior of 99 Cent (1999), themes picked up and layered in, this retro- a consumer’s dream, glares ironically across spective showcases the work of an artist at to his highly detailed, delicate satellite mon- the peak of his powers. It’s almost a relief at tage Antarctic (2010). A tiny image of a 2001 the end to rest your eyes on Gursky’s recent Madonna concert is like an Orthodox icon mobile pics Utah and Tokyo, taken from a against the vast photo-fit scale of May Day speeding car and train and blown up to enor- IV (2000)’s German rave, while the fantasist mous scale as if to reflect the phone’s inviola- he authored now regularly copied as a means delirium of the mass North Korean Arirang ble cultural status. But though seeming non- of recording the global economy. But it’s in Festival, Pyongyang VI (2007) looks provoca- chalantly shot, look again; Gursky denies us the interrogation of his images’ layers, when tively at Nha Trang (2004), hundreds of Viet- the simplicity we crave to the very last. • everything starts to be read in a different namese workers constructing wicker IKEA Andreas Gursky runs at the Hayward Gallery light, that Gursky the artist reveals himself. furniture – two state sanctioned collective London, to 22 April. southbankcentre.co.uk The show also tracks the chronological shift from analogue to digital and the seamless ease with which he moves from one to the other – along with the latter’s potential for infinite manipulation. As if to mark the mo- ment, his 1995 Kodak is a pivot point for the show, his photo of the film giant’s Hong Kong HQ a last gasp of hubris – as toy-like and load- ed as a Thomas Demand art piece and as dis- posable as one of its own empty film cartons. This is what happens, it warns us porten- tously, if you don’t move with the times. Yet the show proves that Gursky didn’t need digital post-production to reveal him- self as a master of scale and narrative – he was playing with the themes from the very outset. His early 1980s landscapes at first suggest unbridled nature in the manner of Left Pyongyang VII Romantic Caspar David Friedrich, before 2007/2017. C-print, Diasec 307 x 223 x you register the human interventions; people 6.2cm. Andreas Gursky/ dotted beside trees or riverbanks, garden fur- DACS, 2017, courtesy niture, rubbish, a motorway bridge in the dis- Sprüth Magers.

ribaj.com The RIBA Journal March 2018 68 Culture Review

Architects in That Bengal Bangladesh constantly refer moment to vernacular but also to Kahn and The architects of Bangladesh Muzharul Islam, may be little known in who is still very Europe, but their work influential speaks for itself

Pamela Buxton

On a pilgrimage to see Louis Kahn’s National Assembly Building of Bangladesh five years ago, Swiss architect Niklaus Graber became interested in what he soon realised was a very lively local architectural scene. The visit was to be the first of many, leading eventually to his curation of the new exhibition at the Swiss Architecture Museum. It is the first overseas show about Bangladesh architecture. Above SOS Youth who is still very influential,’ he says. So why has it taken so long for the Bangla- Village and Vocational There is no single school of thought in desh profession to get any attention? It is rel- Centre, Mirpur, Dhaka. Bangladesh’s current profession however. Architect: C.A.P.E./ atively new, says Graber, and the sense of an Raziul Ahsan. The exhibition reflects a diverse contempo- architecture scene has only emerged recent- rary scene with designs for mosques, resorts, ly, partly due to these architects’ natural ret- schools, homes, village centres and retreats. icence about promoting themselves.‘But the Some practices work in rural areas in a par- scene has grown in the last 15 years and has ticipatory way with the user and might not become a driving force in society,’ he adds. even want to be identified as the author. Oth- The exhibition features 64 projects by 30 ers may work for NGOs on refugee facilities architects mainly from the 1980s to present for example. In contrast, some practices carry day, with scenography by Graber in collabo- out urban projects for commercial clients. ration with Bengal architect Salaudin Ahmed. ‘There is a whole range but they seem to More recent work is set in context by an im- point at a common thing – this “Bengal mo- portant section on the 1950s-70s, reflecting ment”. But the way they get that into their on how modernists in Bangladesh drew on work is very different,’ says Graber. Bengal cultural roots and vernacular archi- He identifies spatial porosity as a par- tecture. While Kahn’s work is best known, ticular theme along with the appropriation other notables active in the country at the time of the pavilion or traditional bungalow form. include Paul Rudolph and Stanley Tigerman. Architect Archeground took this approach in Architect Muzharul Islam (1923-2012), its Loom Shed for Amber Denim in Gazipur, who remains a hugely important figure, was a low-tech, simple building combining a big instrumental in bringing the trio, who he protective roof with plentiful natural light had met while studying in America, to Bang- and air flow – at odds with the poor factory ladesh. Commissioned to design the Dhaka conditions common to the textile industry. Parliament building, Islam stepped back and Graber is pleased with the positive re- generously invited Kahn to propose a design. sponse to the exhibition and hopes visitors ‘He was rooted to the past, but radically may take some lessons from it, on sustaina- Bengal Stream – The modern as well,’ says Graber of Islam. ‘His bility in particular. ‘We have forgotten some Vibrant Architectural work is a hybrid between East and West, and very basic but important things like space, Scene of Bangladesh, until 5 May, Swiss between past and present.’ These figures re- ethics and social responsibility. We can learn Architecture Museum main touchstones for architects in Bangla- from Bengal architects how to get back to the (S AM), Steinenberg desh today. ‘They constantly refer to vernac- core of architecture,’ he concludes. • 7, Postfach 911, CH- ular but also to Kahn and Muzharul Islam, More words and images on ribaj.com 4001, Basel

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IN MEMORIAM David Bernstein DEREK GEORGE MIDDLETON ELECTED 1949, RICKMANSWORTH

JAMES LEIGHTON RUSSELL 1937 – 2018 ELECTED 1949, READING ANTHONY MOSCARDINI Joint founder of Levitt Bernstein and housing association Circle 33, ELECTED 1949, LIVERPOOL LYDIA DRANSFIELD whose efforts to supply housing was inspired by Cathy Come Home ELECTED 1951, LONDON GEOFFREY CHARLES BODKER ELECTED 1952, LONDON IRIS DAPHNE AYLOTT ELECTED 1953, DROMORE JOHN STANLEY GRANT ELECTED 1955, NEW SOUTH WALES CLIVE FRANCIS HOWARD ELECTED 1958, CHESTER FRANCIS DAVID DIXON RANSLEY ELECTED 1960, MACCLESFIELD JOHN URQUHART BURTON BURN David Bernstein was born stein. Over the years, David Bernstein led a great many ELECTED 1961, TUNBRIDGE WELLS in New York in 1937. He social housing projects across the capital for the likes of RAYMOND HORSWELL first read architecture at the Peabody Trust, Metropolitan Housing Trust and Tower ELECTED 1963, WORTHING University of Cincinnati, Hamlets Housing Action Trust. He always insisted on en- PETER LLEWELYN GALLAHER ELECTED 1967, ST. HELIER before studying under Lou- gaging directly with residents, whether on estate regener- is Kahn at the University of ation projects such as Chalk Hill in Brent, or smaller sup- CHRISTOPHER JOHN FALCONER ELECTED 1968, WATERFORD Pennsylvania. ported housing projects like Arlington House. Here, he JOHN ARNOLD KRESS In 1964 he moved to introduced local artists to work with the residents, many ELECTED 1970, GREAT London with his econo- of whom had mental health problems. For David, design- MISSENDEN mist wife Beverly, initially ing social housing was always a process of collaboration GEOFFREY ROBERTS intending only to stay for between architect and resident. He also sat on the RIBA ELECTED 1976, HEATHFIELD a year. But they never re- community architecture group in the 90s. EDWARD AUSTEN JOHNSON ELECTED 1945, HUDDERSFIELD turned to the States; together making a significant con- It was David’s teaching reputation that led to the tribution to social housing and architectural education practice’s commission to design a theatre-in-the-round ROBERT SMITH ELECTED 1954, UCKFIELD in the UK. They took positions at the Architectural As- within the Royal Exchange in Manchester, a project that sociation, she as a senior registrar and he teaching, with was so successful (winning an RIBA Award in 1977), that Marco Goldschmied, Clare Lorenz, Tony Fretton, Henry Levitt Bernstein subsequently gained a reputation for de- Herzberg, Lyndall Scott, Gill Smith, Peter Blundell-Jones, signing arts buildings. Notably, David himself went on to John Stevenson, John Young and Mike Davies among lead the refurbishment of the ICA. those he taught. Despite Levitt and Bernstein’s relative inexperience, Alongside his teaching role, David worked under Wil- the practice’s reputation as a convivial and inspiring place liam Whitfield and then Patrick Hodgkinson, as one of to work meant that it grew quickly. Particularly unusual five assistants designing the Brunswick Centre. It was for the time, it also had a high proportion of female archi- here that he met David Levitt, and once the project had tects. David was keenly involved in all aspects of running completed, the two decided to set up on their own. the practice, later taking the role of managing director. The pair were moved by the plight of homeless people He was always modest and created an egalitarian culture as depicted in the BBC drama ‘Cathy Come Home’ and that put people first – both staff and the users of the spaces together dedicated themselves to creating better homes designed. for all, establishing the architectural practice Levitt Bern- Kind, light-hearted and full of integrity, David re- stein, and housing association Circle 33 (now Clarion mained a father figure for many long after his retirement Housing Group), in 1968. The charity Shelter, itself newly in 2003. The legacy of his social commitment remains at formed, provided much of the grant funding for their ini- the practice today, where the culture and ethos also owes tial Victorian terrace conversions, which created an abun- so much to his wonderful, open and compassionate sen- To inform the RIBA of the death dance of good, cheap homes for people across the capital. sibility. David died aged 80 following a short battle with of a member, please email The pair led both organisations until 1974, when they cancer. His wife pre-deceased him in 2012. • [email protected] left Circle 33 and dedicated all their time to Levitt Bern- Matthew Goulcher is managing director of Levitt Bernstein with details of next of kin

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Left Design for Leicester Military Hospital, RIBA Journal, 8 January 1916. Open air wards are at the bottom of the plan.

Death, unemployment and hospitals: architects at war

Hugh Pearman The Architectural work drawing up a plan for rebuilding London ‘Last year we were under the cloud of a great after the war, for much the same reason. war in its early stages. Many of us may have Association acted The war did of course generate work of a hoped that by now this cloud would have as a recruiting- kind that few would relish: many ­emergency lightened and that peace might at any rate military hospitals were needed to cope with be in sight. Unhappily, this is not the case. sergeant, packing the huge number of wounded soldiers return- The cloud is darker and more menacing than its students, staff ing from the Front. The Journal ran a long ever, and we cannot but realise that peace is and younger alumni article on these in January 1916. It showed still far off. As the months go on, the effect of plans and photos of several including a mil- the war is being more and more severely felt off to the war itary hospital in Leicester by Samuel Perkins by many architects, and the difficulty of or- Pick of Everard, Son and Pick (today known ganising means by which we can help those as Pick Everard). Built next to a former luna- whose work has come to a standstill is a very tic asylum, this featured single-storey flat- real one.’ roofed open-air wards facing south, with These words by RIBA President Ernest ­timber-framed opening canvas screens. Newton on 1 November 1915 show how bad- These ultra-functionalist brick, timber and ly the profession had been hit financially by concrete-screed wards cost, the Journal the First World War but that of course was the ­reported, £15 and 10 shillings per bed to con- least of it: the death toll, as reported in every struct, compared with a normal cost of £500 issue of the Journal, was of course extreme. per bed for a permanent hospital. They built Shortly after war was declared by prime min- enough wards for 530 beds in two months flat. ister Herbert Asquith on 4 August, 1914, the After the war its site was cleared to found the profession had mobilised. The Architectural University of Leicester, based in the old asy- Association had acted as a recruiting-ser- lum building which survives to this day. • geant, responding to Lord Kitchener’s appeal for military volunteers, packing its students, staff and younger alumni off to the war. The story was much the same around the country and in overseas territories. The RIBA undertook to provide support to the practices and families of architects left exposed: for instance appealing to older ar- chitects to step in and complete the jobs left hanging by the departure of their architects to war. By November 2015 it was estimated that 1,800 architects were serving in the forces – mostly officer class which proportionately took more casualties – out of a profession es- Right Open air wards with lifting canvas timated at 7,000-10,000. And then work back screens, fast and cheap home dried up. Jobs were created surveying at the Leicester military

RIBA COLLECTIONS (2) COLLECTIONS RIBA British cities – and the London Society set to hospital.

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Quattrocento Florentine Frescoes Hayward Gallery, London, 1969

In 1969, Carlo Scarpa was given the opportunity to create the Castelvecchio Museum in Verona in the 1950s.

his first work in London, a display of Quattrocento Flor- Scarpa, no fan of the Hayward’s brutalist architec- RIBA Journal entine Frescoes at the recently opened Hayward Gallery. ture, imposed a radical transformation on its interior www.ribajournal.com Published by the Olivetti sponsored the exhibition and insisted on an Ital- and surfaces, intersecting its cavernous spaces and hid- Royal Institute ian designer. Scarpa’s early career had been dominated ing the less favoured elements of its design such as the al- of British Architects. Registered office: by commissions for exhibition design. His first was the uminium ceiling with black fabric. Clever architectural 66 Portland Place, Venetian Goldsmiths in the Sansovino Loggetta in Venice solutions were devised for the display of fragments such London W1B 1AD. Registered charity no. in 1937, followed by further Italian installations includ- as these from Orcagna’s fresco in the Santa Croce which 210566 ing Klee (Venice, 1948) and Mondrian (Rome, 1956) and were angled to adhere to the height of the gallery but also Print Managed by Logical later permanent displays at the Academia and the Correr create a comfortable viewing experience for visitors. • Connections Ltd Museum in Venice, the Possagno Plastercast Gallery and Justine Sambrook logicalconnections.co.uk

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