THE ARCHITECTURE OF JAMES STIRLING AND HIS PARTNERS JAMES GOWAN AND MICHAEL WILFORD For my grandchildren, Michelle, Alex, Abigail and Zachary THE ARCHITECTURE OF JAMES STIRLING AND HIS PARTNERS JAMES GOWAN AND MICHAEL WILFORD A Study of Architectural Creativity in the Twentieth Century GEOFFREY H. BAKER First published 2011 by Ashgate Publishing Published 2016 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © 2011 Geoffrey H. Baker Geoffrey H. Baker has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. The author and publisher gratefully acknowledge the permission granted to reproduce the copyright material in this book. Every effort has been made to trace and to obtain all permissions for the use of copyright material. Due to the manner in which some images have been sourced over a number of years, it has not been possible to record the source of every image or to include full reference details. The publisher apologizes for any errors or omissions and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Baker, Geoffrey H. (Geoffrey Howard) The architecture of James Stirling and his partners James Gowan and Michael Wilford : a study of architectural creativity in the twentieth century. 1. Stirling, James (James Frazer)--Criticism and interpretation. 2. Stirling, James (James Frazer)-- Aesthetics. 3. Stirling, James (James Frazer)--Friends and associates. 4. Gowan, James. 5. Wilford, Michael, 1938- 6. Architecture, Modern--20th century. I. Title 720.9'2-dc22 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Baker, Geoffrey H. (Geoffrey Howard) The architecture of James Stirling and his partners James Gowan and Michael Wilford : a study of architectural creativity in the twentieth century / by Geoffrey Howard Baker. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 978-1-4094-0926-7 (hardback) 1. James Stirling, Michael Wilford, and Associates--Criticism and interpretation. 2. Stirling, James (James Frazer)--Criticism and interpretation. 3. Architecture, Postmodern--Great Britain. 4. Gowan, James. 5. Wilford, Michael, 1938- I. Title. II. Title: Study of architectural creativity in the twentieth century. NA997.J34B335 2011 720.92--dc22 2010046222 ISBN 9781409409267 (hbk) Contents Preface and Acknowledgements vii Prologue and Introduction xiii PART I EDUCatION 1 James Stirling’s Formative Years 3 2 Stirling’s Assessment of Modernity 23 PART II JAMES STIRLING AND JAMES GOWAN 3 Laying the Foundations for a Fresh Approach to Design: Research and Development in Architectural Practice 35 4 Variations on the Square as an Archetype 65 5 A Heroic Architecture of Planes and Light: Early Modernism’s Functional Paradigm Reinvented 87 PART III JAMES STIRLING Cambridge Analysis 107 Florey Analysis 131 6 The Sixties: A New Architectural Language 155 7 An Architecture of Context and Association 173 PART IV JAMES STIRLING AND MICHAEL WILFORD 8 From Greenfield to the City 197 PART V AN OvERVIEW OF STIRLING’S APPROACH TO DESIGN 9 Function, Form and Meaning 211 Stuttgart Analysis 249 10 James Stirling and Classical Architecture 303 11 James Stirling: Interests and Influences 339 12 Circular Forms in Stirling’s Late Work 369 13 Interview with Michael Wilford, October 1998 379 Braun AG Analysis 397 Conclusion – James Stirling: Last of the Masters 453 Colour Illustrations 467 Illustration Sources 479 Index 483 Preface and Acknowledgements This project was supported by a grant from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in Fine Arts Eighteen years have now passed since engrossed with this sophisticated processes involved. With some hesita- James Stirling’s untimely death in monument to modernity, when a very tion I mentioned that I would like my 1992. His work seems a distant mem- angry young man came rushing to- study to continue and take the form of ory. New kinds of architecture are in wards me bellowing ‘what the hell do a book. How would he feel about that? being, and fresh names fire the en- you think you are doing?’ This scary We were sat facing away from each thusiasm of students as Stirling once moment broke my reverie. ‘You must other at the corner of a table and he did. Amongst them are Rem Koolhaas, have permission to take photographs’ turned and looked me full in the face Herzog and de Meuron, Renzo Piano, he shouted. Suitably chastened and saying – always a man of few words – Steven Holl and Zaha Hadid; it seems unnerved I apologized, explaining that ‘Yes please’. a bygone era when the Leicester Uni- I did have the necessary permission. It was a poignant moment and as versity Engineering Building caused Glowering, he walked away. The meet- memorable as our first meeting (of the kind of stir we associate with ing left its mark. I was absolutely which I didn’t remind him). Later he Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum within my rights and was as furious as wrote a most generous foreword to my at Bilbao. he was. introductory reader Design Strategies in Stirling’s timeframe (four decades The last time I met James Stirling Architecture: an approach to the analy- of practice beginning in the fifties) was in the Fitzroy Square office of sis of form and we corresponded about places his work alongside that gen- Stirling/Wilford in 1987. An article of my intended book.1 The last time we eration of architects who faced the mine had been published in Architec- spoke, he rang me in the United States challenges that followed the Second tural Design about his competition and asked my permission to reproduce World War. They link him to the mas- entry for the extension to London’s my National Gallery Extension article ters of modern architecture who dom- National Gallery. Several months in a special issue of Architecture and inated the scene mid-century; Frank later I thought it worth getting his re- Urbanism (spring 1990). Lloyd Wright, Mies van der Rohe, action as I had set out what I thought I was looking forward to having Alvar Aalto, Louis Kahn and Le Cor- were the main design moves. Re- more contact with him on writing the busier. Perhaps only those of us who calling the earlier encounter, I was book, but this was delayed, and I was lived through that period fully under- apprehensive and ready for anything shocked and saddened to learn of his stand his importance and stature at a when I telephoned him. I asked if he death in June 1992. On reading the time of enormous upheaval, turmoil had read the article. ‘Yes’, he boomed moving tributes to this larger than life and transformation. in his most forthright manner; ‘it was and colourful personality I was glad Preface and Acknowledgements Preface I met James Stirling twice. The first very good’. to have experienced, however briefly, occasion was unexpected. I was taking He invited me to the Stirling/Wil- both the fierce anger and the warmth photos inside the newly completed ford office where, over a mug of tea, and generosity of the man who many Cambridge History Faculty Build- we had an engaging and lively conver- believe to be the finest British archi- ing. It was 1964, and this stunning sation. He had read the piece several tect since Edwin Lutyens. masterpiece gripped me with its dra- times and was surprised I revealed de- With a sabbatical from Tulane matic forms and spaces. It was not yet sign subtleties that he hadn’t realized University, I began serious work on opened, the Reading Room empty of at the time. He felt I understood most the book in 1998. With the help of a furniture. I was setting up my camera, of the design moves and the intuitive grant from the Graham Foundation, ix I visited Stirling/Wilford buildings in Russell Bevington, senior partner for his meticulous analytical survey of Britain, the United States and Germa- with Michael Wilford, for sharing the Florey Building, Queen’s College, ny, and must thank Daniela Sorgan for with me many entertaining recol- Oxford. This study, which I tutored facilitating my visit to Melsungen and lections of what it was like to work when Graham was a student at Brighton Christopher Dyer for helping with my with James Stirling. I must also thank Polytechnic, formed the basis for my documentation of the Braun Factory. him for his discussion of the design own investigation of that building. I must also thank Gerhard Schewitz approach of the Stirling Wilford office, for showing me round Braun HQ and for his identification of sketches done I must thank Dean Donald Gatzke at Laurence Bain for his kind assistance by members of office teams working Tulane University for assistance during during my visit to the British Embassy on museum projects in Dusseldorf the entire project. Others who deserve in Berlin. Thanks are also due to and Stuttgart and for drawing my thanks at Tulane are librarian Francis Manuel Schupp for showing me round attention to works by George Steiner Hecker and the many faculty and stu- the New State Gallery in Stuttgart and that address the creative process.