2a, Witherford Watson Mann Architects

Chapter 2, Contemporary architects demonstrating an Architecture of Continuation

For each architectural practice I will give an outlook of their approach to architecture by dissecting their work through images of their completed buildings and the drawings used to create them. I will consider this in the context of their own writings, the architects own influences and other commentary written about the projects.

2a - Witherford Watson Mann Architects

Witherford Watson Mann Architects (WMM) are a London based practice who have become known for their work with existing structures. Their Sterling prize win in 2013 for Astley Castle (Fig A) sealed this reputation. The project created a holiday home within a picturesque ruin that had been created by eight centuries of inhabitation, disrupted by fire, and followed by abandonment 20. Their body of work with existing structures both precedes and follows on from this point of exposure, as does their thinking on the subject.

20 William Mann, Inhabiting the ruin: Work at

Astley Castle (WWM, 2016), 5.

(Fig A) Astley Castle, View from the West.

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21 William Mann, How longs do works endure, (Cassabella 2019).

22 Mann, Inhabiting the ruin, 11. At this point of connection, narrow bricks, laid in a quarter lap bond, meet the irregular edges of the weathered stone without violence. Pinks and purples from their gas firing give subtle irregularity, taking on both the colour of the stone and of the memory of the fire 21. The new structure completes the existing stone walls, stabilising a faltering ruin and reviving the outline of a lost castle.

(Fig B) Brickwork joins with the old stone wall.

This detail is a harsh rejection of two common contemporary approaches to such a found condition. Pure restoration, what William Mann dubs ‘Return’, is revealed for the lie that it is and stark modern intervention, or ‘Rupture’, is shown to be an arrogant negation of history. Mann writes:

“These positions share the belief that history is past. By contrast, we are convinced that history is not what happened to other people, but a dimension of human nature, and a fundamental part of our working conditions, even in the modern age.” - William Mann 22

By binding their work directly to the existing stones WWM refuse to perceive the ruin as a static ancient monument. They know though their research that it is the product of a multitude of distinct periods of construction, disaster and neglect (Fig C). Their work does not attempt a futile effort of returning the building to one of these lost points in time, nor does it package it up as a ‘visitor experience’

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(Fig C) Evolution of the castle: 12th century to Modern Day.

presenting what remains from these times as a flat expression of something past and distinct from our lives today. Instead, they present a new chapter in the story of its inhabitation, one which references those that have gone before, but does not pretend to be them, and indeed does not purport to be the last.

(Fig D) Visual comparison of the Alte Pinakothek directly after it was bombed by the allies and after Dollgast’s repairs.

Conversely, to write this new chapter of inhabitation one must freeze the process of ruination that currently grasps it. As Hans Dollgast froze the allied bombing raid over the Alte Pinakothek23 (Fig D), WWM froze the picturesque ruin that so captivated their client24. But where Dollgast revived the rhythm of the lost façade, WWM in their wide and deep openings made the experience of standing before the gashes of time habitable (Fig E).

23 Wolfgang Jean Stock, Creative reconstruction: Hans Dollgast, Karljosef

Schattner and Josef Wiedenman, (Hirmer, 2019), 18. 24 Mann, How longs do works endure.

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“Preserving the emotional charge of the rich, interrupted life of this house was our goal. While ruins can variously evoke the passing of hegemony, the restoring power of nature, the separation of the modern age from the reassurance of traditions, our individual mortality, they speak simply and directly through the house and its mundane routines.” - William Mann 25

(Fig E) The North court and the raised living space before and after the work.

25 Mann, Inhabiting the ruin, 29.

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This reinterpretation of the historical context is similarly present in the carpentry and joinery that forms the third part of the project’s material trifecta: Old stone, New Brick, New Wood (Fig G). As Mann states, both the masonry and timber additions are in the family of construction techniques that would be familiar to the builders who worked on the castle26. However, both materials are stronger and lighter than their historic for-bearers and critically they present a reversal of restorative convention. The joists and posts are cut to a crisp edge, placed precisely, and bleached to a cool grey. In contrast the brick takes its warmth from the sandstone and is treated more elastically in order to meet the rough edge of the existing walls and reflect their softness.

26 Mann, How long do works endure.

(Fig F) The stair is a rationalised timber-frame stalactite, evoking the existing masonry, heritage norms and contemporary crafted styles.

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27 Mann, Inhabiting the ruin, 26. This can be read as a decision to subvert the often bizarre logic that persists around heritage projects. It rebukes the restorative sensibility that implicitly requires certain materials to have certain treatments and, often without thought, demands indistinct weathering or pastiche detailing added. This Ruskinian miasma which hangs around British architectural culture has a particular affinity for timber frames. Thus by dancing around the edges of this paradigm but rejecting the irregular spacing and rounded edges it implies, WWM are able to achieve something much more interesting. They are able to position their work as contemporary but still part of the historical layering process that has led to current spatial experience and thus speak to all the layers in the building, past and future.

(Fig G) Concept model in cast plaster, describing the project’s material trifecta: Old stone, New Brick, New Wood.

“It would be too much to claim that the stair is a ruin, but its transparency and its impure figure, interlocking with other elements and spaces, make it part of a common family of material responses to the ruin” - William Mann 27

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Theatrical use of an existing masonry boarder (Nevill Holt Opera)(Fig H)

Nevill Holt Opera is situated in the grounds of a hall on the outskirts of Market Harborough, Leicestershire. Compared to at Astley, WWM were met with an existing condition both more complete and less layered. Their intervention would transform an external space into an internal one, making permanent a temporary structure that had inhabited the space for several years prior. Such conditions sparked a different set of spatial responses, but similarly reaffirmed their commitment to an architecture which works in collaboration with its found

condition to achieve its present purpose.

Crucially, WWM aimed to create a performance space that had immediacy and fostered a commonality between performer and audience. The stone walls of the courtyard already went a long way to creating a room akin to a box theatre. These sandy coloured ironstones would thus remain the boundary of the space. In order to highlight this, the proscenium, dress circle and even the ground floor

(Fig H) Stepped connection at ground and upper levels, the existing wall transverses the proscenium.

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(Fig I) Ground floor detail in Nevill Holt compared to Scarpa’s detail at the Castelvecchio.

stops short of touching them directly, creating a Scarpa-esque border around the perimeter of the stalls mediating the transition (Fig I). Thus the audience and the stage are enclosed by the same boundary, and so the theatre goer is transported through the proscenium and becomes part of the performances. Furthermore, this shared room between the audience and the performers can be manipulated by interventions from the outside world, with the skylight or stable door opening - further transporting the audience into the lived experience of the story on stage (Fig J).

(Fig J) The external atmosphere intrudes and is utilised in performances via the stable door and the roof light.

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