This course surveys the development of modern architecture in Britain. Beginning with the Art & Crafts movement of the nineteenth century, we will go on to examine the tensions between various historical revivals in the early twentieth century and the assimilation of new materials and methods of construction in the work of engineer-architects such as Owen Williams. The effects on architectural thought of wartime bombings will be discussed, as will the impetus given postwar reconstruction by events such as the 1951 Festival of Britain. Signal architects of the postwar period, such as Alison and Peter Smithson, James Stirling, and Denys Lasdun will be addressed, as will the pioneering planning and design sponsored by the London County Council . After considering important postmodern works from the 1970s and ’80s, the course will conclude with study of recent developments such as Canary Wharf and the Docklands. Since London teems with architectural monuments from this period, students should expect to visit many local sites.
Two books are available for this course at Labyrinth Books, New Haven: Alan Powers, Britain: Modern Architectures in History (London: Reaktion Books, 2007), and Ken Allinson, London’s Contemporary Architecture (London: Architectural Press, 2006). Other readings will be available online.
Tuesday, July 10: Introduction
Overview of British Architecture from the 19th century to the Present
Reading: Powers, “Introduction,” chap. 7, “Difference”
Assignment 1: Due in class
Wednesday, July 11: Architecture of the Arts & Crafts
Reading: Alan Crawford, “Ideas and Objects: The Arts and Crafts Movement in Britain,” Design Issues13:1 (Spring, 1997): 15-26; William Morris, “The Arts and Crafts of To-Day,” (1901); V&A online exhibition: http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/1312_artsandcrafts/
Thursday, July 12: Field Trip: Lloyd’s of London
London Sites for Arts & Crafts, Art Nouveau: Whitechapel Art Gallery; Horniman Museum, Forest Hill; Holy Trinity, Sloane Street
Tuesday, July 17 – Thursday, July 19: Glasgow School of Architecture
Glasgow Trip: Glasgow School of Art, Alexander “The Greek” Thomson, Hill House, Cumbernauld, modern churches, Culzean Castle
Reading: David Walker, “The Glasgow Years,” Mark Girouard, “Glasgow School of Art,” and John McKean, “The Hill House,” in Wendy Kaplan, ed., Charles Rennie Mackintosh (London: Abbeville Press, 1996), 115-200; Robert Proctor, “Churches and Changing Liturgy: Gillespie, Kidd & Coia and the Second Vatican Council,” Architectural History 48 (2005): 291-322.
Monday, July 23: British Architecture in the 1930s
Reading: Powers, chap. 1, “Efficiency”; J.M. Richards, “Architectural Criticism in the Nineteen-Thirties,” in John Summerson, ed., Concerning Architecture (London, Allen Lane, 1968), 252-57; Martin Briggs, “Style and Fashion,” Building To-Day (London: Oxford University Press, 1944), 26-36; Frederic Towndrow, Architecture in the Balance (London: Chatto & Windus, 1933), 3-7, 138-49; F.R.S. Yorke, “The Way Forward,” in A Key to Modern Architecture (London: Blackie & Son, 1939), 124-38.
Assignment 3: Due in Class
Wednesday, July 25: Field Trip: Red House and Danson, Bexley Heath, De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill on Sea
London Sites for 1930s: London Zoo; Hoover Factory; Pioneer Health Centre; Finsbury Health Centre; Ernö Goldfinger House, 2 Willow Road, Hampstead.
Monday, July 30: Britain at War, Postwar Housing, New Brutalism
Reading: Powers, chap. 2, “Compassion,” chap. 3, “Poetics”; Adrian Forty, “Being or Nothingness: Private Experience and Public Architecture in Post-War Britain,” Architectural History 38 (1995): 25-35; Joe Kerr, “Patching the Future. The Evolution of a Post-War Housing Estate,” Iain Borden and David Dunster, eds., Architecture and the Sites of History (New York: Whitney, 1995), 258-70; Royal Festival Hall, selected reviews, from Peter Carolin and Trevor Dannatt, eds., Architecture, Education and Research (London: Academy Editions, 1996). In addition, please skim: Miles Glendinning, “Teamwork or Masterwork? The Design and Reception of the Royal Festival Hall,” Architectural History 46. (2003): 277-319.
Assignment 4: Due in Class
Wednesday, August 1: Field Trip: Royal Festival Hall
Other London Sites: Barbican, Economist Building, Postwar Housing Estates
Monday, August 6: High-Tech and Pop Architecture
Reading: Powers, chap 4, “Production,” chap. 5, “Happiness”; Simon Sadler, “The Brutal Birth of Archigram,” Twentieth Century Architecture 6 (London: Twentieth Century Society, 2002): 121-28; Deyan Sudjic, “Three Careers” and “Architecture as a Political Art,” in New Architecture, Foster, Rogers, Stirling (London: Thames and Hudson, 1986), 9-31, 63-71. In addition, please skim: Peter Cook, ed., Archigram (New York, Praeger, 1973), selections; Peter Cook, “Amazing Archigram: A Supplement,” Perspecta 11. (1967): 131-54.
Wednesday, August 8: Field Trip: Goldfinger House, 2 Willow Road, Hampstead
London Sites for High-Tech: Gherkin, London City Hall
Monday, August 13: Postmodernism, Urban Growth
Reading: Powers, chap. 6, “Conscience”; Charles Jencks, “Post-Modern Architecture” [1977] from K. Michael Hays, ed., Architecture Theory Since 1968 (Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1998), 306-16; Charles Jencks, ed., The Prince, the Architects (London: Academy Editions, 1988), selected reviews; Jonathan Glancey, “Life after Carbuncles,” The Guardian (May 17, 2004); Peter Davey, “Fairy-Tale Prince,” Journal of Architectural Education 42:4. (Summer, 1989): 34-38; Martin Filler and Quinlan Terry, “Re: Neoconservative Architecture, Neoconservative Politics: A Mighty Fortress: Quinlan Terry and the Reformation of Architecture,” Assemblage 9 (Jun., 1989): 119-128; Diane Ghirardo, “London’s Docklands,” Architecture After Modernism (London: Thames and Hudson, 1996), 176-94; Nigel Whiteley, “Modern Architecture, Heritage and Englishness,” Architectural History 38 (1995): 220-237.
Assignment 5: Due in Class
Wednesday, August 15: Field Trip: Thames Barrier Park, Greenwich, Docklands, Canary Wharf
Other London Sites: Peckham Library, One Poultry Place
Due, July 10, at first class meeting
Find an image of a building, part of a building, structure, or landscape that interests you or has been significant to you or that you’re simply curious about. Be prepared to talk about it: what it suggests to you, anything that strikes you about it, what more you would want to know from it, or questions you might ask of it. Does it have a style? Would you call it “modern,” and why? Would you call it “British” or “American,” and why?
To facilitate this exercise, please email me a digital copy of the image so it can be projected in class. If you aren’t taking a picture directly, you can find many images online at sites such as Flickr or through Google image search tools.
Due, Various dates
Students will be assigned to learn about and to help guide our site visits. Prepare a discussion guide, with key historical points, information about architect, client, and site, important architectural and urban themes brought up by the building, significant terms or concepts defined, and a few notes on precedents and progeny. Students will work in groups for this assignment.
July 17-19: Glasgow School of Art, Hill House, Helensburgh, Cumbernauld, Culzean Castle
July 25: Red House, Bexleyheath, Danson, Bexleyheath, De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill
August 1: Royal Festival Hall
August 8: Goldfinger House, 2 Willow Road, Hampstead
August 15: Thames Barrier Park, Docklands, Canary Wharf
TBA: Architecture of Zaha Hadid
Due, July 23
Details contribute character and can reveal deeper processes of design. Often, they’re overlooked, subsumed within larger matters of form, function, and materials. This assignment asks you to consider a building’s details, to take some pictures, and try to tell a story about them, that is, to incorporate architectural details within a narrative, whether it is about the building or simply how you encountered and responded to the detail. Experiment by treating the detail as isolated, then as part of a larger ensemble, or in terms of form only, or materials, or position, and so on. Try pairing details, whether from a single building or different ones. You can think of your narrative as an extended caption: how do the image and the text combine to create a new object for our reflection? What in your commentary grows beyond the motivating detail?
Due, July 30
Visit a neighborhood in London, and try to gain a sense of it: typical building types, street network, relationships of different land uses: residential, commercial, civic, etc. Prepare an overview of the neighborhood, its history, its urban issues, its physical character, etc. (Keep in the back of your mind that the next assignment will ask you to choose a single building in this neighborhood to learn about and relate to its larger context.)
Due, August 13
Select a building in the neighborhood you visited for Assignment 4. Try to look at it a few times, at different times of day, and record your observations, both in words and pictures. Think about and describe the building in two ways.
First, in relation to the building itself: You might begin with the most basic observations — siting, massing, color, materials, etc. Walk through the building and consider the circulation and sequence of spaces through which you pass. How does this path relate both to the building and to your sense of the “whole”? How does the architect relate plan and section to create a single spatial experience? How have color, ornament and materials been used to articulate the interior and exterior surfaces? Consider the relationship between the form of the building and the program. How have the requirements of the interior spaces affected the massing? How does the choice of materials influence the structural system and how might that, in turn, influence the form of the building? Can you speculate on what the architect and client were aiming for? Does the building suggest a coherent point of view? How does it make you feel? If it were one of your friends, who would it be? Is this a building you’d want to go to a club with? In general, you should describe the building as a functioning entity that operates at many levels.
Second, in terms of the building’s relation to its urban context. How does it “work” in urban terms? How do its materials relate to the context and site? Or its massing and fenestration? Is it kin or contrast to the neighborhood?
Illustrate your points with your own photos and sketches. References should be listed and footnotes used if applicable.