CA09

CAMBRIDGE ARCHITECTURE A REVIEW OF CURRENT ARCHITECTURAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES AND EVENTS IN THE CAMBRIDGE AREA PRODUCED BY MEMBERS OF THE CAMBRIDGE ASSOCIATION OF ARCHITECTS A S AN INTERNAL NEWSLETTER, THE V IEWS IN THIS NEW S LETTER ARE THOSE OF THE INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTORS AND NOT OF THE ASSOCIATION PUBLISHED

BY IAN STEEN ARCHITECTS, 48 MILL WAY, GRANTCHESTER, CAMBRIDGE

Number9 July 1989

SOME NEWS INBRIEF Since our last issue, the proposals for the Eagle Inn inB ene’t Street have been withdrawn. There is talk of negotiations between the landlords (Corpus Christi College) and the City Planning Department.

The College are considering their next move which, let ui hope, will be constructive.

Details of the Design Competition for the 'mprovement of theMarket Square are now .vailable (free) from the Planning Department. Submissions have to be in by 13th October 1989. Prizes in the professional category are £500, f200 and£ 100. The Conditions, apparently devised by David Taylor, are rather unimaginative if not restri ctive for an ideas competi tion, particularly as it is open to school children and 1 ay people general ly as well as professional designers. One is told, for example, that no proposals can be made for thetreatment of the facades surrounding the square, and yet improvements to the street frontages, particularly to the Guildhall itself, could make sucha difference to the quality

Date

Guest Editors: Archimage of this space.

For those who might not have seenB D (23/6) or the Evening News (3/7), the first David Urwin Heritage Awards were made for New Court, Fitzwilliam Co llege (MacCormac Jameson Pritchard Wright)“ new building category“ All Saints' Church, Jesus Lane (Hirst Conservation) “ conservation category“ 9 Hertford Street (Nicholas Jellawell)“ extensive category.

Assessors were Sherban Cantacuzino, Peter Carolin, Amanda Baillieu, Jon Harris and Robin Johnson. The presentation of certificates was made on July 1st at the Guildhall by the Mayor. Jon Harris on behalf of the assessors made some introductory comments on each scheme including the losers.A total of 12 schemes were submitted and have been on public exhibition.

Schlumberger was in the running but could not be givena prize because it is more than2 years old. All schemes have to be nominated bya member ofthepublic. Those nominated madea rather odd collection ranging from thedistinguished to the banal. It is haped to hold the next Award within2 years, when efforts must be made (bywhatever means) to

EA.A. PROGRAMME OFEVENTS

Event

Venue

September Thurs 7th

"ELECTRICAL PERFORMANCE SPECIFICATIONS"

by CRABTREE LIMITED.

University Anns Hoiel 6.45 for7.00{an.

October

"ARCHITECT AS DEVELOPER" Speaker to be confirmed

Ibs«›ck 6.15 for 6.3Qan.

November Wed 22nd

"INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND OFFICE DESIGN" byJonathan Grieg (P.C.L.)

Ibsiock

Janaary Wed l7th

"ELECTRICAL SERVICES UPDATE"

by E.E.B.

Milton Hall 6.(D for6.30jxn.

Wed 18th

6.15 for 6.30tmi.

C.P.D. - YIDEO EVENINGS TheC.A.A., in associaii‹xi with Design Group Cambridge, have organiseda series of5 evenings at D.G.C.'s offices, Merlin Race, Milton Road, when recently released C.P.D. videos will be viewed and discussed. Each evening sessi‹m will begin at 6.15jxri.

Date

September Thurs l4th

Video Title

"PERFORMANCE SPECIFICATIONS" "COORDINATED PROJECT INFORMATION"

September Thurs 21st

"BUILDING DEFECTS"

September Thurs 28th

"ENERGY EFFECTIVENESS" "COMMISIONING OF BUILDINGS"

October Thurs 5th

"CONTRACT PROCEDURES"

Oaober

"INTEGRATION OF CLADDING AND STRUCTURE"

FOR Ff7AFHAA INFORMATION CONTACTJOZfN BLAIR (0223j 67'733

Printed by LABUTE secure farmore entries.

Peter Murray is currently working on an update to the RIBA publication on British Architecture since 1945. Local soundings have been made on which significant buildings in this area completed between 1984-9 should be included.A final short list has been forwarded (there may be others) Schlumberger, Napp, New Court Fitzwilliam, St Johns Innovation Centre, Downings Howard Building, Clare Library and rather belatedly the Cornford House.

Our new CAA chairman has initiated the idea of invitinga guest to the monthly committee meetings. These meetings as always are open to allmembers of the Association. So far we have had thenew City Planning Officer John Popper and the Chief Architect John Wheelhouse.

John Popper gave a resume of his background, why he has come toCambridge, what he b.as found here and wb.at he would like to do for the City. Those who came to listen seemed to be impressed asI certainly was by his obvious planning expertise and ability, clarity of thinking and the speed with which he has identified and got to grips with the planning problems here. One of his primary objectives at present is to develop some coherent planning policies and it is hoped thata set of policy guidelines will be available by the Autumn toforma basis for day-to-day development contro1 and guidance.

Last month John Wheelhouse gave. an informal and frank account of changes which have been taking place in the architect's department. The department has suffereda decline in its public. He sees the unit developing intoa kind of local (and possibly national and international) consultancy offering project management skilb, helping the city to develop parmership schemes with private firms and organisations and helping in the development control field.

Those who attended the Hertfordshire Association Ball at Fanhans Hall recently and have also attended the slightly dull Cambridge Association Dinners must wonder why we don't hire ourselvesa band.

They had 3,all excellent (including Dave Barrett’s Cambridge Jazzband from Bar Hill).A formal College Dinner perhaps starting half an hour earlier followed bya band anda bar forthose who don't want to dance would seem to me to bea perfect combination to take us from say 10 until2 am. What do others think?

David Raven

Ten Years a Sod Late in 1982, ina Norman brick vaulted dungeon, below theMinistry of Defence in Whitehall, the President of the RIBA presenteda selection of those responsible for the Festival of Architecture. Meta van derSteege had placed me on the end of the line to be introduced as representing the grass roots. The Secretary of State, Tarzan, with his straw thatch, was disappointed that I did not have green turf.

I liked the image of the sod. The local member forwhom thewhole field of RIBA turf exists. Having joined the branch committee (under 40)I have recently quit (under 50); cynical about an organisation where only 10'o of the membership is active in its affairs (a further 10'o participates passively and an apathetic 80'7o moans from time to time, too busy to participate). All local committee and RIBA council members arebusy.

I came totheconclusion that “too busy” to participate in RIBA affairs was an attitude to the RIBA rather than an incapacity.I told Phillip Jordan that;I was encouraged to see him grow into the self-appointed stimulator of the under 40s atPortland Place; but when will other local grasses turf up and seed.

CPD SEMINAR: PLANNING APPEALS TheRegional CPD office organiseda very useful three hour seminar on Planning Appeals on 8th June, 1989. Roger Shrimplin, an architect/planning consultant from Luton and Derek Horne of Covell Matthews Wheatley Planning Ltd. spoke about when toappeal and about appeals procedures.

A

well known QC specialising in planning appeals has asserted that whereas the prediction of horse race results is an exact science, the prediction of planning appeals is not. An inspector hears an appeal as though nothing has gone before and will listen to fresh arguments in support of the stated grounds forappeal.

The first important principle is to check whether planning permission is really needed and forwhat particular element ofa project; then to apply in specific terms.A refus a1 must be supported by specific

Bricks and Beer

reasons showing how the application harms some planning aim but many planning officers pad out a refusal with vague and sometimes irrelevant reasons.

Secondly, close security of the Structure Plan and other policies quoted to supporta refusal can give scope to an appellant; similarly the Government's Planning Policy Guidance Notes, Circulars, and Development Control Practice Notes are very useful. It is important to have regard to the context in quoting from these. The Inspector is in the Secretary of State's shoes and s hould be assumed to support his publication.

The most significant advice offered is not to overstep the bounds of your experience.

Experienced planning consultants or counsel representing the other side can often run rings round an inexperienced architect ora dull inspector.

Tim Eaton

y

What hashappened tobeer is happening tobricks. The big brewers, like the big brickmakers, bought up and wasted the small local companies. Corjx›rate profits were boosted by massive and economical production and distribution ofa uniform product, passable, even sparkling but lacking in savour. The campaign forreal ale has ensured that there is an alternative market for thedistinctive, local product.

the concern of architects who feel isolatea from the RIBA was answered by the paper which we put forward locally in resjx›nse to the Hay proposals. Hay ignored the grass roots plea for access to decision making and proposed strengthening of the regions, interJx›singa talking shop anda secretariat between the local branch and the RIBA council. Recent changes in the bye laws strengthen that.

We proposed that some of the RIBA administration should be decentralised from London, economically, but without regional duplication of resources, and the membership should be restructured. 50 branches of 500 members, each branch represented by a councillor; groups of5 or so branches served by a group secretary to deal with the minutes, paperwork and distribution of information. B ranch committees of 20, each committee member actively representing 25 grass roots members;a chain of representation with1 member in25 on thebranch committee,1 councillor per branch on the RIBA council.

Council could then havea small number of nationally elected or co-opted sages to add their wisdom without the trouble of branch representation.

Watered asit passed through region, watered as it passed to council our proposal was dismissed; was it too radical to be supported by the status quo which it sought to change?

Tim Eaton

Society's supporting role readily availa to those who are suffering genus N

LIME

Anyone formnate enough towork on historic buildings should be thoroughly familiar with lime. It is central to good conservation practice. Lime is no longer easily available and many contractors may need persuading to use it, though it is successfully employed on many building sites without difficulty. It does not require rare and complicated skills.

The binder for mortars and plasters in most forms of old building was lime. This gave soft textures and allowed the buildings to breathe freely. Since the 19th Century Portland cement has been used inthehope of producing more durable, rigid, buildings, but serious problems arise when theless permeable modern cement mortars and plasters are used in the repair of old buildings. The general aim should be to chose mortars and plasters which breathe more freely than the materials they protect.

For this limé is still essential.

Lime gives the building opportunity to move nd many historic buildings have taken ona onsiderab1e lean without causing damage to themasonry or lime renders.

Lime foruse inbuilding repairs comes in various forms, each of which has slightly different properties. The normal commercial product is dry hydrate sold in paper sacks

through builder's merchants. This is the most inferior type of lime to use on historic buildings but should not be used in best quality work.

can be spread more intimately around the sand grains when it is mixed ina mortar.

This retenñon of water improves thebonding between mortar and masonry.

Hydrated lime should never be used straight from thebag. Its performance (particularly its plasticity) increases markedly if it is allowed to soak for24 hours.A putty may be prepared by mixing thehydrate with water to a creamy consistency and leaving it to stand ina covered container. This can then be mixed witha sharp sand for masonry work anda very small amount of pozzolavie material such as PFA or HTI powder to cause an initial set without destroying the properties of the lime.

The ideal of slaking is so alien to most builders today thata useful alternative is the supply of ready slaked lime in the form of lime putty supplied in large plastic bins.

A superior lime mortar is obtained by slating freshly burnt lump lime with water. After the chemical reaction has taken place the slaked lime is sieved to remove unslaked lumps of burnt limestone. The residual lime putty is kept below the slating water until it is required; fora minimum period of two weeks or forseveral years in the finest work.

Lime putty can only be stored like this where the limestone burnt to produce lump lime has no hydraulic characteristics.

The longer the putty is left the more tenaciously it will hold onto the water it has absorbed. The plasticity increases so the lime

SEVENTEEN YEARSA CADDICT When I attended the 1972 RIBA Conference on computers in architecture, three days of demonstration and discussions left me convinced that by 1982 all architects would be using CAD. Much of what we do now was feasible then but with two (Cambridge) bo&ins between the simple architect and the work. The cost of equipment was phenomenal.

In 1981 we joined the Construction Industry Computing Association for idvice on the systems which by then were more user-friendly, ready for an architect to sit down tomake hisown drawings. We bought GD S and enjoyed a cosy

relationship with the system software house, Applied Research of Cambridge.

Not all architects found an easy aptitude to computer draughting although those who did find it, do enjoy both the drawing activity in itself and the ability to detail their own work directly on the computer.

This leads toa welcome absence of team co-ordination problems on the larger projects.

The cost of CAD systems has fallen recently with the more powerful micros and the proliferation of software and we arenow investigating whether to stay with

ARABIAN NIGHTS A few years' ago I had the dubious

pleasure of being resident architect on a large Middle Eastern contract.

I headeda team of architects, engineers and clerks of works attempting to aida

right. These were times when thesite

more closely resembled Paschendaele than the early days ofa large building.

Eventually, after much barracking from ourselves and the clients the structure

Third World contractor to builda £30M

began to emerge from thedesert, inspite

To this day, I'm convinced that this particular contractor was of the opinion that he could execute the works usinga flat backed pick up truck and thousands of labourers with shovels. Perhaps in the days of Tutankhamoun when the F.I.D.I.C. contract did not exist and Arabs were not so impatient, he was

The monthly sile meetings were bizarre, but a1ways entertaining. On one particular occasion we were having trouble with the concrete being cast inaccurately. The site rang like bells on Sunday with the sound of hammers and chisels cutting back surfaces to the correct alignment At times we felt it

building.

of the contractor's efforts.

Lime putty is available from several sources, none of which is local to Cambridge.I can providea list.

It would be invaluable to architects worl0ng on conservation if small or large amount of slaked lime could be purchased froma local builder’s merchants wherea large pit of maturing lime putty is retained.

The small but steadily growing demand for lime putty has been brought to the attention of Ridgeons of Cambridge. Already they have offered to supply lump lime.

I would be grateful if practices or individual architects who specify traditional lime mortars could inform me, in order that discussions may continue with Ridgeons, and with your support be all the more fruitful.

Shona R. McKay GDS ortoinvest ina different system. The main change of thelast few years has been the extension from pow erful 2D draughting into 3D modelling, extending the use of the computer into the earlier design stages although the greatest time and cost saving remains in production drawing. After seventeen years watching CAD development I am continually surprised to find that the architects who drive sophisticated cars and enjoy sophisticated sound and video systems are often apprehensive about the use of what isreally onlya sophisticated pencil. The word processor has made thetypewriter redundant and the computer mystique is now only so much eyewash. CAD asa tool makesa pencila fool toa caddict. him Eaton

would be easier to carve the building from the solid than to proceed in this manner.

The clerk of works,a Stockport lad with

a dry wit, suggested to the contracts

manager, ‘we have 550£D cubic metres of concrete sitting out there in the desert, all of which has been cast in the

wrong place’. Without blinking the

manager replied, ”You areabsolutely wrong Mr. Clarke, quite wrong. The vast

quantity is in exactly the right place, its

only the tiny bit at the edges which is wrong’.

At that momentI must admit my mind

wandered to the green fairways of the Gogs.

Alan Dobie

BRICKS IN RESTORATION When selecting bricks for restoration work, especially pre 1750, an understanding of the clay is essential.

All bricks up until the mid 18th Century were made from surface deposits of clay; sandy loams, formed in river beds, estuaries or by glacial deposition; geologically young clays which make bricks to match the early soft red mellow textured English bricks.

Beautiful bricks also come from the Weald, from geologically older clays. Lower fired Wealden bricks can be successful, providing the brickmaker does not put anthracite in the clay to reduce the cost of firing. (This gives the familiar dark speckles unacceptable when patching medieval work).

Sm.all brickworks which remain on geologically young clay include the Bulmer Brick& Tile Company in Suffolk who only make 144,000 bricksa year, most of which go to places like Hampton Court, Oxborough Hall and other buildings of national importance. A few, bought up by the big manufacturers, just about retain some of their original manufacturing processes.

Please contact me ifa list of these brickworks is required.

The process by which thebricks are made will also affect the end result.

If the brickmaker tells you his bricks are from say Keuper Marl, burnt ina continuous kiln using gas, but are hand-made and arecalled ‘Tudor’, do not waste his time asking fora sample. The brick can be judged without seeing it. Gamp, downdraft and Scotch kilns will all give the wonderful variety of shades from orange to plum. Unfortunately, as specifiers demand, these are all sorted to give an homogenous pack of bricks which in the author's opinion, is quite dead.

A brickmaker who sells A.T.R. or As They Rise (ie from thekiln) will

providea wide selection of bricks whether forrestoration or new work.

Vitrified headers are alsoa problem to replace. Every architect and brickmakerI know hashistheory about how they are made. Historical references give away few secrets in sufficient detail that the method can be copied. In my researchesI have found only one works, on lacustrine clay, where thetemperature can rise locally within the kiln sufficiently high to cause the sand in the clay to vitri fy, or turn to glass. Close examination of what one is repairing is necessary. If the glass remains on the draper design the pattern reflects white, if this has gone, or more often

as in Victorian work,a contrasting colour of brick is the only physical difference, then the search fora truly glazed header need not be undertaken. There isa handful of works who have attempted glazing headers asa separate process, but they do not work well. Examples of these can be seen in my office.

This is just the tip ofa vast and fascinating subject. Red rubbing bricks could also be the subject ofa mighty tome: so could the lime mortar which should be used to str( them all together.

Shona R. McKay

THE WALKER CONSULTANCY On behalf of clients in and around the Cambridge area, we are now seeking candidates for the following opportunities:

1) CAMBRIDGE Vacancies exist for newly-qualified architects to joina number of successful practices en.joying exp an.ding and ch*.l1enging workloads. The post tions encompass the complete range of skills and attributes and give scope for those wishing lo develop their professional expertise whilst enjoying good salaries/benefits and prospects of advancement.

2) CAMBRIDGE Both senior and intermediate technicians and assistants required fora number of local practices. Opportunities for CAD training, design team running and complete involvement with projects from start to finish are available. We would particularly like to hear from those based south of the city (or able to get there) for the chance to get in on the ground floor of an exciñng new office which we believe offers prospects to rival and match any available elsewhere in the area.

3) NEWMARKET Ourclients would be pleased to hear from both Architects and Technicians wishing to work in their attractive offices.A wide range of projects is undertaken, the practice uses AutoCad facilities and will offera very competitive and allembracing package to theright people.

4) BEDFORD Three vacancies exist within our clients' expanding and busy multidisciplinary practice for ambitious, newly-qualified Architects capable of contributing ata high-level in this established office. These are key appointments and the successful applicants should be able to tolerate the prospect of early associateships! (as well as excellent remuneration and other benefits).

5) HUNTINGDON Ourclient seeks an architect with approx. two/three years post qual. experienced evident design capabilities. The successful candidate will be rewarded not only by the salary and car available, but the chance to work very much on his/her own initiative and to see projects through from inception to completion. We would also be interested to hear from Part II assistants and junior technicians (day release facilities available) who would like to work inthis area of the region.

FOR

DETAILS OF THESE AND OTHER OPPORTUNITIES, PLEASE CONTACT: THE WALKER CONSULTANCY 33EGREMONT ROAD, HARDWICK CAMBRIDGE CB37XR OR PHONE ON 0954-211346