Urban landscapes Lecture evening: Lasdun and the The RCP was a great success for Lasdun, and RCP – 50 years in Regent’s Park firmly established his international reputation 5 November 2014 as a leading British architect. Celebrate the 50th anniversary of our iconic building with an evening of lectures on Lasdun’s The commission helped Lasdun create his own work (advance booking only). unique ‘language of architecture’. It united his earlier interests in ritual spaces and classical architecture, and gave them a modernist twist. Weekend exhibition tour X October 2014, X December 2014, A key theme to emerge from the RCP is ‘urban landscape’ – where architecture is seen as an X February 2015 (dates to follow) extension of the city or landscape, connected Enjoy a curator tour of the RCP building and by bridges, platforms and terraces. Buildings exhibition (advance booking only). should take in ‘the whole of human experience’, by extending relationships and creating a sense Lasdun study walk of belonging and participation. This idea can 25 September and 15 October 2014 be seen most prominently in Lasdun’s university designs and his National Theatre on ’s XXXXXX – text to follow from Berwyn (advance South Bank. booking only).

Architect’s models Free first Friday Museum and architecture tours Models are powerful tools for architects. Before computer-aided design, they were the Join us on the first Friday of every month for most effective way for architects to visualise a 30 minute tour of the RCP (booking not and experiment with volumes and voids. required). Their captivating miniature worlds persuade Free clients, planners and the public of the value of entry Free first Wednesday even the most controversial schemes. Medicinal Garden tours Lasdun used models to present new designs Royal College of Physicians, 11 St Andrews Place, Join us on the first Wednesday of every month to clients. Unusually, from the mid-1960s, they Regent’s Park, London NW1 4LE. (March to November) for tour of our acclaimed were also used as a main design tool. Lasdun’s Medicinal Garden (booking not required). model makers created quick, rough models Open Monday–Friday, 9am–5pm, free entry. from balsa wood based on Lasdun’s pencil Library, Archive and Museum Services www.rcplondon.ac.uk/RCPLasdun sketches. Tel: +44 (0)20 3075 1543 Email: [email protected] ‘Wren said there are two types of www.rcplondon.ac.uk/museum-and-garden Step free access. Closed: weekends, public holidays and proportion, mathematical and customary. for RCP ceremonies – call us or see website for details. Location: 5 minutes walk from Great Portland Street I use customary. That is, I work by eye. and Regent’s Park, 10 minutes walk from Warren Street I make models, and experiment.’ underground stations. Denys Lasdun, 1997

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7_lasdun__8pp_A5_leaflet.indd 1 25/06/2014 17:46 In 1958, architect Denys Lasdun was handed A perfect building? Lasdun considered the RCP to be ‘by no means a perfect building – that would be boring’. an impossible task: design a radically modern In 1964 the RCP moved into its fifth home, It is however undeniably unique, a ‘one-off’ a modern building in Regent’s Park designed creation combining the specific needs of building for a 500-year-old institution. The bold by renowned British architect Denys Lasdun the client, the modernist design choices of new construction must ‘harmonise’ with one of (1914–2001). the architect, and the creative solutions of Today our headquarters is one of only a the engineers. Lasdun was also inspired by London’s most admired Georgian terraces and dozen post-war Grade I-listed buildings in the RCP’s rare set of anatomical tables, and the landscape of Regent’s Park. the UK, and is considered one of the finest described the building’s central staircase as an examples of Lasdun’s work, and of 1960s’ ‘artery’, linking important ceremonial areas. Whether you love or loathe , architecture in London. The briefing and design processes of the RCP Most avant-garde architecture of the 1950s building lasted for several years, and Lasdun’s discover the fascinating story of Lasdun’s and 1960s was designed to be big, with a lively and opinionated memos on client challenge, and how he succeeded in creating limited life, cheap and ‘of the people’. In discussions are preserved in the Lasdun contrast, the RCP asked Lasdun for a mid-sized, Archive at the Royal Institute of British the finest building of his career. lasting, luxurious home, in which the institution Architects (RIBA), and create an exceptional could retain a constant connection with its record of the day-to-day business of producing Critically acclaimed constructions Lasdun was a private man, yet his critically Opening in 1964, the Royal College of Physicians distinguished history. Lasdun’s building had to serious architecture. acclaimed concrete constructions attracted ‘match and rhyme’ with Regent’s Park’s grand Denys Lasdun is one of Britain’s most eminent national recognition. He was knighted in 1976, (RCP) is a complex blend of art and engineering, early-19th century terraces built by . post-war architects. His work cannot easily and made a Companion of Honour in 1995. be categorised as ‘modernist’, because he Lasdun’s most treasured award, his RIBA Royal An elegant solution was to divide the building elegantly enclosing ancient ceremonial history developed his own architectural ‘language’. gold medal, was presented after the completion into distinct areas – ceremonial and everyday. ‘‘HowHow do you put a building He blended classical tradition with inspiration of the National Theatre on London’s South and tradition within a white-tiled casket of Lasdun covered the historical ceremonial spaces of today next to a focal from architects as diverse as Nicholas Bank. concrete and glass. in porcelain mosaic tiles which matched the Hawksmoor and , combining stucco colour of Nash’s terraces. The functional point of memory and them with contemporary philosophies and The journey that led Lasdun to the South Bank, rooms, lecture theatre and offices, were built history without lapsing into cutting-edge methods to create his buildings. by way of a series of 1960s and 1970s high- 50 years on, our exhibition tells the building’s story from dark blue engineering bricks which echo profile commissions, began with the RCP. Nash’s slate roofs. The enormous Marble Hall some form of romanticism Early in his career Lasdun worked for Tecton, and celebrates the centenary of Lasdun’s birth. In his RIBA Royal Gold Medallist Address in windows were as large as possible so that the most exciting British modernist practice of 1977, Lasdun remarked: On display are rarely-seen original models of Nash’s terraces are clearly visible, and drawn or historicism?’ the time. In 1960 he set up his own architecture into the RCP building. Denys Lasdun, 1966 practice, Denys Lasdun and Partners, which ‘Architecture, for me at any rate, only makes Lasdun’s best-known buildings, including the produced some of the most innovative, and sense as the promoter and extender of human National Theatre and , alongside controversial, British architecture of the late- relations, but it has to communicate through 20th century. the language of form and space if it is said to be contemporary drawings, photographs and letters considered an art. And it is unequivocally an art.’ from private collections, the Royal Academy and the Royal Institute of British Architects. ‘Lasdun is a very individual designer, not one who can Visit: www.rcplondon.ac.uk/RCPLasdun be pigeon-holed, and one who would fiercely resent being pigeon-holed.’ @RCPLondon #RCPLasdun Robert Maxwell, Architectural Review, 1965

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