Year 2 Stephen Henderson, Alishe Khan, Fong Yi Khoo Year 3 Rebecca Li, Patrick O’Callaghan, Amalie White, Alexander Zyryaev Amalie White, Year 3 The Bartlett, Architectural Pedagogy and Wates House – An Historical Study The subject of this dissertation is the design of Wates House, opened in 1975 and now on the cusp of a major refurbishment. To produce this work, Amalie used interviews with Bartlett staff, journal archives, and the original designs for the building. The year 1960 marked a significant turning point for the Bartlett when Lord Richard Llewelyn-Davies was appointed Chair of Architecture. During his time as Chair, he not only changed the Bartlett architecture course, but also created a whole new Faculty in which the discipline was to be taught. He made an amalgamation between Town Planning and Architecture, along with other research groups to form a new Faculty for UCL, The Bartlett Faculty School of Environmental Studies in 1969 (the Faculty was renamed the School of the Built Environment in 1992). This project then developed into organising the commission (1971) and construction (19731975) of a new building for the Bartlett: Wates House. Wates House was to physically reflect the newly established ideas in architectural pedagogy as established by the 1958 Oxford Conference. Understanding this contextual background is what makes Wates House such an important building to study. It is a living artefact of one of the most pivotal historical shifts in architectural education in Britain. […] The architecture firm commissioned for the design of Wates House in 1971 was Architects’ Co-Partnership Incorporated
(ACP). The firm was founded in 1939 and had since expanded to working in both the public and private sector in the UK and across the world. During the 1960s they had designed buildings for educational institutions such as the universities of Oxford and Cambridge and by the 1970s had gained a range of awards from the Royal Institute of British Architects, the Civic Trust and the Ministry of Housing and local government. Their profile suggested therefore their suitability for the job of designing a Faculty for UCL. It is worth highlighting that the client for the new Bartlett building was UCL, not the Bartlett Faculty itself. UCL, an institution comprising a vast range of departments, located in the centre of London, with many listed buildings in its surroundings, meant that it was, and remains, a difficult task for it to expand and construct new spaces. Therefore, when the opportunity arose for UCL to buy a plot of land in Bloomsbury, formerly the site of Endsleigh Hotel, the agenda was not entirely focused on fulfilling the specific needs for the Bartlett Faculty alone, but on creating a new stock of spaces for the university generally. Moreover, not only did the client set the brief it also financed it, which in the economic climate of Britain during the 1970s did not allow for an extravagant design. The budget was boosted by a donation from Neil Wates’s Wates Foundation (Wates was a friend of Llewelyn-Davies), giving £450,000 (with an average inflation of 6.2% a year this amount would be worth £5,386,500 in 2012). The donation was specifically given for the efforts of housing the School of Environmental Studies; hence the Wates name was given to the new building. Through this donation, the Wates Foundation set a condition that the building was to be completed within three years of the architects’ receipt of the brief. In addition, the Wates Foundation had its own construction company, which UCL then employed to build Wates House. Therefore, Wates’ donation was a smart investment for the foundation. Limitations in time and budget were not the only concerns affecting the design of the Bartlett Faculty. The site itself was restricting, due to the narrowness of Endsleigh Gardens and the requirement for surrounding buildings to access daylight, which limited the height of the new building. The site, therefore, predetermined a rectangular block to occupy the space, as much of Georgian London had done, and it was likely for this reason that ACP never explored any other alternative form. The most interesting aspect of the entire design process is the relationships between the Bartlett staff and students, and the client and the architects. An extended Wates House Committee (WHC) was set up, combining professors, junior staff and students from the Bartlett to outline the user requirements and specifications. The new building was to include workshops, demonstration rooms, laboratories for lighting, acoustics, thermal studies, wind tunnel, and a photographic room, a library for 20,000 volumes and 60 readers, seminar rooms, a college flat, and work space for some 180 undergraduates, 200 postgraduates and between 80 and 90 full-time academic, technical and administrative staff. We can see from the list of laboratories and workshops 143
The Bartlett School of Architecture 2013
The Dissertation in Architectural Studies enables students to undertake an independent research project of 10,000 words. The emphasis is on conducting original research and producing an in-depth written report, supported by appropriate visual and textual documentation. This course is taught through individual or small group tutorials, supplemented by occasional seminars and group meetings. The aims of the Dissertation are to enable students to conduct primary research, to think critically about issues with architectural implications, and to develop and showcase practical writing and presentation skills.
BSc Architectural Studies
BSc Architectural Studies Dissertation