London’s National Theater, by Denys Lasdun, was completed in
1976 was meant to house three separate theater spaces. When Lasdun was hired
for the project, it was meant to be in a different site originally. It was
later moved to its present location where the architect drew inspiration from
the Waterloo Bridge, the view of St. Paul’s, and the Somerset House. Lasdun was
interested in creating theater where people create it simply by coming together
in a space. During his time working on the project, this concept was always on
the back of his mind, because he kept a picture of Piazza San Marco in Venice
on his wall. There were plans of redevelopment for the south bank of London.
However, with an unlikely alliance from the National Theater, the English
Heritage Society, and the skateboarding community, there have had their
development efforts hindered. The submission by Simon Hickman, English Heritage’s Inspector of
Historic Buildings and Areas, complains of “insufficient understanding of the
communal value of the Undercroft area”. It states that skaters “draw their
identity from…and have emotional links to” the site. English Heritage also
claims that the South Bank Centre’s plans could have an “adverse impact on the
setting of the National Theatre in views from the Hungerford footbridge.”
Moreover, skaters state, “The street culture of the Undercroft interplays with
the more formal high culture above and is an important component of the South
Bank.”
Blitz Plane Flying (1940) by Clive Branson and Ruby Loftus Screwing a
Breech-ring (1943) by Laura Knight shows that much of the work during the World
War II is now carried out by women, and is carried out quite successfully. The
latter’s setting is a factory setting; it means this war is not only fought in
the battlefield but in the factory too. It is a continuation of the First World
War, but the scale is different. The first painting is about a disruption in
everyday life. The everyday life is found in the woman, carrying grocery bag.
The bread that is only large because it is one of the foremost symbols of
everyday life. War artists painted this. He places both British symbol and Nazi
symbol on the plane, to further highlight that no matter who’s side you are on,
if you are one of the ordinary people, you lose. It is meant to highlight that
aspect of World War II. The image of post London after being bombed only leaves
the tectonics and the structure of the building. There is a merging of the
interior to the exterior; this drives the new kind of architecture, where
buildings are stripped to their essentials. Stripped to the tectonics and the
essentials. Infrastructure becomes super structure, structure is no longer just
ground level, but now you see below ground, it is viewed from a vertical scale.
Tube spaces are used as shelter during air raids. Tube stations are
infrastructure that people do not regard as inhabiting it, but now you regard
it is as protection, and inhabiting the machine. Corbusier’s house is a machine
for living, now is a sort of reality. Modernism is not as radical as it used to
be. Due to war experiences, you have a situation where people have to live side
by side in a communal space that is also infrastructural.
The Anderson Shelter:
these spaces were types of unintended architecture. These were examples of
architecture that were properly architecture. Like shelters that were created,
designed, and bespoke to shelter from the war. These shelters were delivered to
families. It is like Ikea furniture, the families are encouraged to build the
shelter. By setting it up, you become part of the architectural process. It
comes complete with instructions. The parts in the shelter, it is an
architecture that is stripped down to its bases. It is mass-produced,
corrugated iron. It changes the way in which the public views situations. The Morrison
shelter, was another shelter during the war, it was supposed to be set up in
your living room, and doubles as a dining room. Spaces that were small and
criticized as being inhumane now become a reality of how to live as a
necessity. Shelters were seen as important as weapons.
The Utility Scheme
(1943-1952) was a scheme that claimed that three to five designers produced all
the dining room chairs, and only a handful of people manufactured them. The
reason for this is efficiency. And another reason is because you do not have
enough materials. You cannot dedicate the usual amount of materials you did
back then to dedicate to chairs. There is a smaller work force than before.
There was also an interest in structure. This is a characteristically a
modernist undertaking. The government makes it quite a big deal; it is
presented as a political and social opportunity that speaks of “good design,
available to the masses”. The masses are an emphasis on the public that becomes
the main actor. There is an idea of good design. Good design is the umbrella
concept, as what the architects are aspiring towards. Every bomb that falls is
a stimulus to creativity.
Peckham Health Centre, built from 1933 to 1935, was by Sir Owen
Williams. It was supposed to be a health center that would prevent disease
rather than cure it. Two doctors that really advocated the new approach to
disease launched it: prevention before cure. They are shifting lifestyle; they
are invested in scientific discovery and they are invested in
experimentation. The doctors wanted to
be one step ahead, the idea that you don’t settle with solving problems, but want
to be able to anticipate problems. This is a characterization of modernism.
Modernism wants to be one step ahead, in social and political agenda. It wanted
to solve problems before they even happen. The agenda is deeply embedded in
technology. There is no fluting, no columns, and no clearstory windows. It is
really a sort of visual set of features that are derived out of tectonics. It
is created by the idea of social progress and technological progress. Technological
progress is evident in the materials being used and how they are being used.
They believed being healthy was dancing, and exercising. These were radical
thoughts back then. The building used concrete, glass, and steel, extensive use
of glass. They had cruciform columns, because you reduce the space you need to
take up for structure, so increase and maximize the space needed for people to
occupy.
MARS (Modern Architecture Research) Group existed from 1933-57. This
was a British initiative that came from continental Europe. CIAM is the French acronym
for the “congress international Modern
architecture”. Mars had a representative from different parts of Europe,
however they lacked one from Britain. This shows how further along Britain was
with modernism. The other name for modernism is the international style.
Britain is really resisting the latest architectural style that we call the
international style, or early modernism. The group set up sub-groups and each
sub-group is dealing with a question that is absolutely significant to the
socio-political effects of that time. They are kind of like a government, kind
of like ministries, like education and other topics, etc. They are really
trying to put forward, socio and political visions. They are drawing attention
to real issues, burning issues. They do not produce anything as a collective,
but they do have an exhibition, in 1938, that is the first platform for
modernism. They group created an urban plan that offered different scales. This
plan provided not just housing and amenities. Scale went from residential to
neighborhood, to burrow, to district. The concept of neighborhood formed by the
MARS group does not exist at the time; the legacy of that concept is what will
be built after the war. The way in which they think of these units are each
social units. Unit is the key word there.
Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens’ bust has a fluted column, the hat is an
egg-shaped dome. He is a colonialist. There is now stylistic versatility. The
statue is a colonial architect. The architect went into practice as a home
extender. He worked with different styles in the houses. He interacted with
different materials. He did country houses, so he had the freedom and money to
explore. One of his houses is known as the Cotswold Manor House, a type of castle style architecture, late
medieval feudal house. He puts exterior ornamentation in the inside. He used
classical qualities in the inside, it’s kind of like his bust that uses
multiple styles. On the outside, it looks very different. He is doing this
because he thought the audiences of this building would rarely see it from a
distance, the only people that would live in it would engage only in the
interior. He queries the stone on site. Rather than bringing it from somewhere
else, he queries it in the exact site that he is building the building. This is
a material way of saying how the building belongs in its context. You can say Cotswold
Manor House influences this or you can say it is influenced by the picturesque admirers
who see it from far away, and the other audience are people who live inside the
building, who experience the multiple different styles. He was very much
interested in gardens and garden designs. He works with a woman named Gertrude
Jekyll. This woman was from that area; she was from southeast England. She knew
the material and area. By collaborating with her, he was able to bring the
context and materiality into the process of building the house. The idea is
that he is interested in the weathering. These people are much more interested
in architecture belonging to the context. This stone weathers well, and handles
the problems of that location’s weather. So this stone, you already know,
weathers well in that location. The chimneys in the house create surprise, joy,
and a varied roofline; the gabled roof also contributes this. This house is an
H plan. This shows that he is also influenced by arts and crafts. He is using
different stylistic approaches, and this is the pinnacle of when architects are
well versed in different styles. He uses pediments on top of doors in the interior;
he uses it inside, because the interior is associated with grandeur.
Lutyens is
born in the height of industrialization. That is why he is embracing new
industrialization methods of construction. During the last periods of his life,
the empire is trying difficultly to hold onto its territories. Architecture
will play a part in maintaining some of the negative effects experienced by the
losses of colonialization. First industrial revolution was about production.
The second industrial revolution was focused on communication. Lutyens had a
relationship to context: temporal context in history, and spatial context in
the site. He is interested in architecture as a practice that is produced on site.
He chose to leave education and go straight to practice, half way through. The
way in which architecture and style was viewed at this time, is not something
you would learn by practice and doing, and often that would take place in site.
From 1837-1901, there is a gradual move to an era that architects are
able to practice in many different styles. Style becomes politicized. Certain
styles come to embody certain ideologies. Historicism is looking at history for the sake of it. You are religiously
holding onto history, rather than engage with it to progress, you look at
history as the ideal style. Revivalism,
meaning you are going back to an older style. There was an accidental fire in
the house of parliament. There have been a series of revival of styles. It is
the house of parliament, so there is the question of what sort of building will
be built, or what sort of style will it be in. One of the few surviving bits of
the building is the great hall. The great hall is only surviving section of the
building and it is gothic, so that gives a good case that the rest of the
building was supposed to be built in gothic. On top of this, you had a
government that was doing away with discriminatory policies (such as catholic
hate). Some of this involved nostalgia of gothic and involved reconciliation
for this style, it was pushed because of its political associations. Robert Smirke was assigned for the
reconstruction of this project.
There was a competition. In the brief, it was
told that it needed to be gothic. Therefore, there were a bunch of people who
submitted their designs and many architects were surprised that the need was
gothic, and there are not a lot of people that practice in gothic. Charles
Barry designs the Palace of Westminster. Barry will collaborate with Augustus
Pugin who designed the wallpaper and carpet and smaller details of the
building. Charles Barry is the mastermind of the building but Pugin is spoken
as the actual gothicist. However, this building can really never be gothic and
that is because the method and the manner of construction. The way this is
built is that it adheres to how it was designed and drawn, then constructed. It
uses modern material. The production methods are modern. The spatial aspects of
the building are quite symmetrical. In that sense it is much more contemporary.
That is what gothic revival implies, that means that the style is more about
the contemporary moment of an idealized past.
Augustus Welby Northmore Pugi designed
a bunch of gothic revival churches. More than the architecture, he published a
lot of interesting written pieces. In his book he contrasts the present day,
that is dominated by neo classicism, with what he sees as the ideal past, that
is the medieval past. He talks about things we have already talked about. He
highlights around the medieval area and how things were centered around
churches, he likes that because it distributes responsibilities. The
congregation of the churches knit community and this is his model of society.
For him gothic is an architectural style that aids social model. That is why he
is praising the gothic style. He openly criticizes the Panopticon. He says the
model of architecture that centralizes authority is not what he likes. The
contrast of these things is how he manifests space. He is basically making a
case of gothic/medieval architecture that is constructed gradually and ground
up, that was built and designed by different individuals and these towns were
built gradually, like the city of London, and as a result of mercantile links, monarchs
were able to take over and carve through the town.
