CA32

Summer 1995

Coilfluencc o[geometi ies

NORM AND FORM a A

quarterly reviewof current architectural, urbanist and

environmental issues and events in the Cambridge area produced by the Cambridge Associationof Architects.

The views in this Gazette are

those af the individual contributors and noto f the Association.

Thenewbuilding designed by SirNorman Foster and Partners for the Law Faculty, University of Cambridge, tucked out of general sight on the S idgwick campus,is reaching completion in read iness for the n ext academ icsessio n.

Looking like (and as congruous as)a tethered airship, the new 9,000sq m building for the Law Faculty houses the Squire Law Library on its top three floors, with administration, seminar rooms and staff offices on the ground floor. The two

Main entrance

floors below ground level contain five maple-panelled auditoria, witha total of 1,200 seats for lectures. Archival storage occupies the remainder of the underground space. These lower floors are linked spatially to the daylit upper levels and are reliant on high technology glazing to provide the only compartmentation in the building. Onerous acoustic criteria, too, had to be satisfied throughout. Unsurprisingly perhaps, the practical aspects of law are not manifest in this building. Where, in other places, one might expecta Moot hall, a place formock trials and practice, the architectural emphasis here is on containing social space, and rote learning lecture and reading spaces.

The Junior Common Room and social spaces are sited at the sharp end of the building, within the sensational and over-stated six storey volume of the main entrance hall. The hall contains the principal stairway, commanding views of the diagonal parterre and the History Faculty building, from which the site footprint geometry was generated. As described in an earlier article (CA30) this new component oftheSidgwick campus is locked into visual and technological dialogue with its 30 year old forbear. In the later case an independent consultant was engaged to audit the cladding and providea 50 year guarantee.

The project resulted froma limited competition; the architects commissioned also to redevelop the hard and soft landscape between the Law

Faculty, the H istory Faculty and the Casson Conder faculty buildings. This entailed relevelling g round levels against the edge of theH istory Faculty.

The structure of the curved 18m radiused form of the Law Faculty building, engineered by YRM Anthony Hunt Associates, isa double layered lattice of tubular steel, inspired, so .it is said, by airship tech nology. If so, it fits easily with the predilection of the practice for analogy of built form with dynamic vehicular models.

The sweep of steel and triangulated glass on the n o rthern a rc, sheltering tiers of readin g spaces, faces onto the lawns and mature trees of the villas West and Thorpe House on West Road.

The reading desks and all furniture has been cu stom design ed . The p lanning m od ule of 1.95cm (x4) setsa rythym picked up by the bookstacks and the vaulted ceilings which traverse the building.

The basic geometry of the section, a partly glazed, partly solid, membrane, housing tiers of floors set back from the envelope, is curiously red olent of F u t ure Syste ms e ntry for th e Bibliothéque Nationale, Paris competition. The transformations to the simple half-cylinder form on the south facing and west flanks introduce the expected indeterminancy of form characteristic of the Norman Foster studio.

The sinusoidal curve of the diagonal west end isa function of the triangular steelwork geometry.

Its prow like projection signalling the entrance to the building, whose skin is drawn back at this point to forma canopy. This, in turn, supports, or is supported bya mast-like corner post; the slenderness ratio makes it uncertain which. The confluence of curving and triangulated geometries at this part of the building would have been unresolvable without computers, and even so, the control of detailed shapes at these extremities is a very close run thing.

On the south side lhe arc of the section has been truncated and two vertical cladding systems introduced. A glass-g reen, curtain wall (with wind-speed regulated external blinds) allows naturally ventilated rooms witha view forfaculty; the lessons of staff reaction in the Sainsbury building UEA have not been forgotten. The remainder of this wall is clad in Portland stone aggregate precast panels (matching the adjacent Casson Conder buildings) masking service areas. Plant rooms below ground and at eaves level breathe through gill-like grilles, articulating, but not distracting from the buildings sleek surfaces and geometries. ”The building is, as its authors claim,a striking and in n ovative building for the University. It marksa stage of maturity of the Sidgwick site and of the westward shifting of centre of gravity of the University. The building also represents more thana new facility, as the owners already appreciate. With so many other Norman Foster buildings in the Region, Cambridge on this occasion isn otin the van g u a rd, b u t the vis itor demand will be none the less for this. Perhaps the time has come forrecognising and formalising tour arrangements generally, to allow this rich a rch itect ural h e ritage to b e m an ag ed and enjoyed as an accepted cultural phenomenon.

Colen Lumley

TAKING OFF Thecommission fora wind driven mobile forthe new Milton Country Park saw Peter Fluck (better known as co-founder with Roger Law of television's satirical puppet show Spitting Image) publicly launched intoa new career as artist of serious intent.

Peter and Roger met atthe Cambridge School of Art (now the Anglia Polytechnic University, née Cambridge Tech) and from there he turned illustrator and cartoonist before hitting the mark with Roger Law on television. The metamorphosis from this background to high art could not have been easy, but for Peter the transition marksa return toa cherished conception, which he has nurtured from artschool days. With care of the tv programme largely devolved toa younger generation, there is time now to dedicate himself to the studio in Duxford and its pastoral surroundings, and the experimental artwork linking three dimensional abstraction with movement and sound. Just as it is difficult to reconcile the pleasant and easymannered person with the vituperative outpourings of Spitting Image, so it is to imagine the visual wit and buffoonery of the puppeteer, within the same mentality as the latent artistic aspirations. It is the particular mark ofa late twentieth century generation of artist, marrying and merging different backgrounds to exploit mixed artand media disciplines.

The work represented by the Milton Country Park piece and the subsequent wind mobile erected this year in the grounds of his studio, reveal the beginnings of an oeuvre that is springing, seemingly, effortlessly and fully-fledged from its source. Peter Fluck talked to me about the sculpture ina CA interview that looked at his approach and current art practice.

A fascination with new materials and the emerging technologies for sensate and self-intelligent combinations of materials, is linked with the background expe rience ofp rodu ction of moving images; and now applied to rooted structures (appropriately, Peter also finds time to teach in the architectural workshops ofthe Bartlett - visitors to this year's show there will witness the two way stimulation that produces, even as they search for the architecture).

The 1993 wind activated mobile at Milton was erected on a floating mast, balanced on gymbols and counterbalances to accept and give with the wind loading. Even so,the power of the natural elements took this first effort at public art into unforeseen realms of dynamics, occasioning collaboration with aero-dynamic expertise to tame the unauthorised strip-tease tendency. The multicoloured sculpture isa composite fibre construction, combined with pvc foam and epoxy resin coated in glass. Havinga father-in-law founder of Aero-Resea rch (subsequently taken over by CIBA) which developed resins and honeycomb structures for monocoque aeroplane construction, was a spur to invention.

Peter Fluck envisions his structures as public art, complicated as that milieu is. Its exposure and attraction for gratuitous participatory additions, and subtractions, no lessa concern thana reactionary public view towards abstract and experimental art. The delicacy of an art form that is founded on new imagery and on moving parts is undoubtedlya practical problem forunsupervised sites. Solutions, however, must be found and the effect continued, unless we wish to see our world driven even more into private compounds.

The present preoccupations advancea collaboration of visual art, movement and music.A fascination with chaos theory and interacting mobiles has lead toa colourful interplay of electrically driven and electronically directed mobiles. In contrast to Tinguley's mechanical sculptures, the elegant arcing and intertwining elements and selfregulating switching producesa complex and unpredictable choreography to createa fourth

dimension ofviewing akin to human dance.

Work in progress on a piece for the Tate of West, St ives, evolves froma two year collaboration with Dr Tony Myatt of the Department of Music, York University. The installations resulting from this project establisha dialogue between sound and kinetic sculpture. With the aid of computer tracking techniques, electroacoustic music is generated directly from the chaotic movement ofthesculpture, employing system relationships which develop intricate aural and visual patterns within the constraints imposed by the artist and musician. Simple iterative rules governing pitch and loudness are modulated by the shape of movement anda second computer using an algorithmic composition programme, scripts the growth of larger musical structures.

The elegance and fascination of essentially rotational movement (moving on from Duchamp's gramophone table pieces) has certain limitations; what gives the work its bite is the artistic integrity of its fo rm. O pen Iy i nfI ue nced by Russian Constructivism and Suprematism, the work is undoubtedly referencial toa number of sources, notably the landscape and colourist work of the artistic milieu of Peter and his artist wife's second studio/home on the Lizard peninsular in Cornwall.

The work of Peter Lanyon has beena particular source of stimulus, and his, (not widely known), abstracted landscape constructions. It is in the combination of influences, skills and experiences that the u niquen ess of Peter FI u ck's wo rk resides. The experimental approach and continuing development of work that, despite its maturity, is just ata beginning in terms of its potentiality, is guarantee ofa future artistic level beyond its inuagural derivations.

Plans are in hand for a showing of photographs and drawings of Peter FIuck's mobiles at the Architecture Gallery, Cambridge.

ARTS STRATEGY FOR CAMBRIDGE

What strategy - whose strategy? Th ese are so me of the questions i ndependenta rts organisations in the Cambridge area are asking, finding themselves cited but inadequately consulted, or not consulted at all, ina Final Report of ambiguous provenance by independe nt co ns ultants, The Arts Business Ltd. The Report - Arts Strategy for Cambridge, was presented to the City Council in June anda decisionon its future deferred, for study and consultation by C ouncillo rs, until its September meeting.

This ostensib Iy significant and forward-looking exercise seems to have been managed adopting procedures of questionable probity, given the context and scope of the issues raised and of the nature of the bodies and agencies whom it affects and purpots to speak for. Th e rep ort h as g o ne throug h several d rafts and reacheda final stage of recommendations to Council without going to consultation with the City's art groups. It lacks basic information, its recommendations are inadequately substantiated, or represented, from the point of view of the City's art producers and providers and Colen Lumley above all, it lacks vision.

Which brings us back to the Director/Architecture Gallery questio n, who is the Arts Strategy for? And why market the Report asa public document and spend public money ofthis order if it isa document purely for the internal use of the City's Leisure Department?

We can o n Iyho p e Cou n cil members have time over the s ummer recess top ut this important venture into proper perspective.

CL

MADINGLEY HALL

A

Final Phase

B ui Id ing wo rkh as been go in g on n on stop at Mading leyHall for the past two and a half years, ina carefully plan ned prog ram me of improvements to the Grade1 Listed p remi ses of the B oard of Continuing Education who, through close coordination and cooperation between all involved, have been able to continue with their activities th rou g ho ut the construction programme. This has involved a mixt ure of new b uiId in g and con se rvatio n work, in which modern standards of comfort and design have been carefully integ r ated w ith t h e h is t o r ic s ett in g . (se e Cambridge Architecture 26) The fi nal phase of thep roject have created new teaching and function rooms within the main Hall and a brand new bar located on the kitchen terrace overlooking the m ag nificent g rounds. The illustrated design for the new bar uses state-of-the-art timber engineering technology to providea delicate oak structure s up po rting the tradition alp itch ed roof, the underside of which resembles the inside of a party marquee erected on the kitchen terrace.

The bar therefore uses the same materials as the adj ace ntb uil din gs with a f ree form composition of simple panels ofb rickwo rk, large sheets of glass and a simple plain-tiled roofscape in contrast with the ornate form and detail of the Jacobean north wing and the formal symmetry of the early 18C facade by James Essex. The silhouette of the building diminishes towards the Hall to maintain the vista of the James Essex elevation from the topiary garden, the north facing terrace commands impressive views over the grounds.

CowperG riffith Brimblecombe Associates E ‘I*!•deJ cor ilei Jetciil

Neiv e.xtension

MAIN ENTRANCE FOR NEW HALL New Hall for the first time in forty years, has its own purpose built official entrance. And it is no traditional gatehouse. Neither does its location adhere to the original masterplan which grouped New Hall along with Churchill and Fitzwilliam Colleges entering off Storey's Way. Instead New Hall have chosen to stick with the Huntingdon Road approach, replacing the the walk past the paladins witha shiny new administration block. A single storey rotunda backed by thedome andcontaining the porters withina cylindrical glass “lodge” is the new entrance to New Hall.

Circles within circles, or, more graphically, as one porter put it, “goldfish bowls"!

No attempt has been made tobreak away from or even re-think, New Hall's architecture. Indeed the Fellows specifically asked fora seamless join and that is what they got. The “grey” calcium silicate bricks and fairface concrete details have been assiduously continued. The fenestration of the new accommodation block, located parallel to the Library, isa careful reproduction of what went before. From theoutside you would never know that the invention and terror of the original New Hall split level rooms, legendary amongst romantic male undergraduates, have not been continued. Inevitably it seems financial constraints and the perceived needs ofthe conference trade have shaped thedesign and layout of the new rooms. No more staircase access. Just like the new rooms at Lucy Cavendish, Cambridge Architecture 28a, its all hotel style double banked corridors in New Hall now.

The study bedrooms vary in size but even the smaller rooms havea wide frontage with plenty of natural daylight. Individual space standards are impressive. Unfortunately this appears to have been achieved at the expense of communal spaces.

There are no shared sitting rooms and the tiny kitchens are no more than cubby holes off the corridors. Apart from arranging study bedroom entrance doors in groups of four demarcated bya set back in the corridor, there is no concession to communal activity or casual conversation amongst neighbours.

Time will tell, but if the instincts of the visitors looking around after the official opening are anything to go by, then the places to have conversations with your mates will be in the glass lift, which stops on every half landing, or on the top landing of the end stair tower with its glorious views over west Cambridge.

The buildings h ave been financed by the Japanese. (See “Developments at New Hall”, Cambridge Architecture 28). A phenomenon not unknown toOxbridge Colleges, and by all accounts soon to be emulated by others. The completion of the student accommodation block means New Hall are able to house all their students on site at reasonable rents, an important advantage when competing fortodays students. The exingencies of the conference trade notwithstanding one can not help speculating about just how far New Hall have been prepared to look this particular gift horse in the mouth.

New Hall new buildings were officially opened on Saturday 17 June by theRt Hon Betty Boothroyd, MP Speaker oftheHouse ofCommons.

Anne Cooper

HOBSON'S PLACE Thearea at the junction of Brookside and Lensfield Road by theCross Keys pub has all the characteristics of an urban ’place’, but whose use is unneccesarily compromised by road layout and enclosures.

A sense ofplace is conveyed both by the presence (scale, character etc) and enclosure of the frontage buildings, by its public/commercial functions (pub, pine shop/gallery, offices etc), by the subtle widening of the street at this point, by it beinga slight backwater off the busy Lensfield Road/ Trumpington Road intersection defined by the treea venu e foil owing the cut (Hobsons Brook) and the railings, and toa lesser extent by the landmark of Hobsons Conduit (although this presently relates more tothejunction itself). This marks the end of Hobsons Brook and the start of the runnels along Trumpington Street Brookside is used asa short cut by cars carrying children to and from the many schools in the vicinity. This is fortunately intermittent and perhaps not part of its essential purpose. There is also City pay and display parking following the

Brook.side

lree avenue and in front of the Cross Keys.

The Cross Keys with its permanent outside tables is botha student pub in close proximity to a number of University Departments (Chemistry, Engineering, Architecture etc) and a local for townspeople. It forms an edge to the residential area of Newtown together with the Spread Eagle close by around the corner on Lensfield Road.

Both are accessed from the Saxon Street cobbled lanes behind. This corner frontage with its public and commercial uses is the interface between the busy city centre and this residential quarter of Newtown. There is thereforea sense of it beinga meeting place of town and gown, public activity and private residential etc as also occurs elsewhere in the city, perhaps to greater

effect.

Now the adjoining Saxon Street carpark has reverted to housing, the edge of the city fronting the principal route of Trumpington Road has been reinforced. The new town houses (with their raised and enclosed front gardens) in spite of their slightly naff detailing, havea good scale and an appropriate form maintaining this public edge continuing the tall Victorian frontage of Brookside. The fine line of mature trees in front, and associated gardens, railings etc (continuing from the Botanical Gardens) formsa marvellous transition between the busy Trumpington Road and this residential quarter and gives Brookside itself (a mixture of office, educational and residential)a presence anda tranquillity.

The Cross Keys asa building is perhaps best viewed from Trumpington Road, its decorative strawberry gothic gable, erect and framed by the trees, at once contributing to the public face of Cambridge and thegenius loci of this corner.

In terms of urban scale and cha racter Trumpington Road is perhaps the best approach into the city. On the west side the principal buildings of the Leys School with their robust formal frontages and the terrace form of the Royal Cambridge Hotel convey an appropriate scale and presence on this primary route. The Hotel ma kes a g ood co rner b uild in g with Fen Causeway (in spite of its ill considered prominent gable) and as part of Scroope Terrace helps to form the gateway to the City Centre marking the beginning of the harder more urban edges to Trumpington Street. But looking ahead atthecorner leading into Lensfield Road this edge and

CAMBRIDGE

URBAN FORUM

A SENSE OF PLACE

One ofthestated aims of the Cambridge Urban Forum, (a multi disciplinary group of economists, architects, designers, ecologists, planners, and lay persons,) is to raise public awareness of theb uiIt environment. This is the first of a series of short studies entitledA Sense of Place in which members of the Forum wiII I ook at aspects of the City. It is intended to publish further material in future issues of Cambridge Architecture.

The Cross Ke ys

misplaced ’municipal planting’ and overshadowed by trees, in the predominant ambience of

The depression I feel on Newmarket Road really bit deeply last winter when sitting in the Lucas Autocentre trying to glean some mental sustenance froma grimy month-old copy ofa freebie broadsheet, and suffering the unavoidable outrages of standardised national-chain motor maintenance charges, I stared at the other side of the road across about 60 metres of forecourt, dual carriagway and concrete central strip.

Newmarket Road as an important entry to an historic city is profoundly disappointing. It starts mildly and promisingly on the city boundary p ass in g throug h farm stead s. The n ew Fountainbleau’ of motoring appears on the right: Marshalls multi franchise with its giant tubular lattice curve, if functionally questionable at leasta unifying gesture ona grand scale.

Furth e r o n there is m und ane h ousing relieved by the idiosyncracy of Ivett and Reed's workshop and the Parker/Unwin overtones of Elfleda Cottages.

Just before the railway bridge existsa great opportunity. Here the lake, close to the vast open Coldhams Common andthefootloose football ground, may combine one day to providea great place to live and work.

At the railway bridge there is optimism to be had from Alexander and Millar's neat wellscaled Signet Court offices, but the smashed fencing and leaning street furniture about the

Leper Chapel presages the gloom which is to come.

The striu

LEARNING

FROM NEWMARKET

ROAD

ELEPHANT INTHE GARDEN

The Queen's Building, Emmanuel College

Amply described in the national press, the brilliance and success of this new building by the Michael Hopkins and Partners architectural practice, and its contribution to the Cambridge scene, is deserving of its adulation. The building providesa new 150 seat lecture and performance auditorium for the Fellows and students of the college, and it houses reception spaces anda Middle Common Room with other areas for seminar, reading and music practice. This commentary castsa quizzical eye o n the Emmanuel project froma local perspective.

Ever since the College was founded 400 years ago on the site ofa Dominican Priory, it has, like all the other college foundations, built, torn down, replaced and extended its grounds and building fabric ina continuing process of growth, if not always with the times, still with the changes that time imposes. And like many colleges, that process has accellerated as this century rattles to its close.

The Master of theC ollege, Lord St John of Fawsley, was possessed of some higher state of immutability when he declared ata recent press The stretch from here on to Elizabeth Way day, that the new Michael Hopkins building is the resemblesa battleground, a deliberate area of last that can be erected within the historic college perimeter. The Queen's Building replaces the non-planning, or the sick version of monopoly. accretion of miscellaneous backyard service outThere is nothing remotely resemblinga townplanning principle - only fragmentation, incoherbuildings between the Masters Lodge, New Court ence, anarchic variety, discontinuity, and a lack of and Emmanuel Lane. Inconceivable, with our conidentity and civic pride for nearlya mile to the servation mentality, to imagine intrusion into the College gardens, or replacing, now, any of the Elizabeth Way roundabout.

On the north side, surprisingly, perhaps stalexisting ranges. Perhaps battle-hardening at the wartly clinging to life, terraces of small two bedRFAC haspickled the mind towards the radical room houses, interspersed by gaps of unrelated changes that have characterised the College's history. It isa conceit of our generation that it sees incident:- failed shops,a strange shed, the new Comet store not bothering even to run parallel to and fixates history as something that happened in the street, gates giving onto the old gas works the past rather than as something that might have (probably too polluted for economic redevelop- a future. ment) and pubs which with exhausting publican's A synd rome of the coll ege co urt fo rm in effort have their day then fade. The quick-stop Cambridge is the irregular space formed from the places hang on,thechip-shop, the sandwich bar, adjacencies of rectilinear building complexes with the newsagent, but there's no chance of any the freer geometries of medieval streets, as on the sense ofcommunity or place.

Emmanuel Street frontage. The Queen's building is Opposite, it is said, there have never been ‘snuggled’ intoa similarly randomly shaped plot houses, due to some early contamination. At one between New Court, the Masters Lodge, Fellows’ stage lhe motor-trade was ranged out here with Garden and Emmanuel Street. The sausage footits series of ‘palazzo's’ dedicated each toa particprint of the building, with its rounded ends isa ular manufacture. Now this brotherhood has partdevice for reconciling the geometries of adjacent ly disbanded. Marshalls having takena big leap, buildings fitting the building intoa tight non-orthogabandoning their massive frontage to B&Q. M.F.I. onal environment’ as Michael Hopkins explains. (initials save on lettering) came earlier and their The entrance formed from Emmanuel Street is an faceless giant tool-box sits between car-hires and echo oftheoriginal College entrance, which moved an abandoned video centre. toAndrew Street with the Essex reconstructions in This could all have the excuse ofa Las Vegas the 18C. strip, tawdry but lively, if it wasn't so disregarding, The new building continues the axes of moveslovenly and third rate. Is this the necessary sacment connecting N ew Court and the Fellows rificial element ofa city. (The dung cart at the Garden, penetrating the building and forminga wedding tokeep theflies off the bride). porte cochére. The axis is elided at its interconnecWhy is there so much prissiness and severity tion with the arcaded tunnel connection to Leonard attached to Conservation Areas? How cana town Stoke's North Court 1912, on the opposite side of, allow such self-righteous correctness in those and aligned with Emmanuel Street. The Queen's parts on the one hand and yetdo nothing to conBuilding takes its alignment in turn from North trol what goes on in this as far larger area which Court, in an effort, as the architect explains, to affects many more lives daily?

Why is there no Masterplan for Newmarket Road some visually disciplining guiding system, some control of scale and even colour, some compulsory purchase in favour of vegetation?

David Yandell

Site layout

PETER BICKNELL

Cambridge Architect

Architects inlpi ession draw thelatter more physically into the body ofthe college. The irregular, wedge shaped (and gravelled) court thus formed between the Old Library and new building, formsa forecourt to the Master's Lodge and is an ag reeabIe addition to the College's sequences of open space. Despite the sensitivty of its locational referencing, there isa residual strangeness about the shaping and orientation of the building mass which is not justa measure of its newness.

The new edifice is compared by its authors with the Wren Chapel and its wonderfully-scaled, arcaded cloister, anchoring the chapel into Front Court and framing the gardens beyond. The ’conversation’ between the two buildings extends to the external ambulatory, which w raps the whole ground floor of the Queen's Building, giving the mass an essential modelling in counterpoint to the taut skin of stonework and flush glazing on the upper levels. Aside from aesthetics, there would seem tobe little rationale for the ambulatory, which, if anything, loses value by its comparison with the artifice and usefulness of Wren's arcaded cloister.

The regal ethos of the building and its plan resides ina mentality of perfected form which results ina certain distancing from its utility. Part of the difficulty is the admixture of ceremonial and performance-related activity, and in these ambiguities it suffers the fate of all mixed-use facilities.

Monumental in its symmetries and manufacture, and in the deployment of materials and space, it has an all-pervading air of luxuriousness and completion that is hard to reconcile with student use and lifestyles. Some sense of ordinariness might have intruded to allowa peep ofworkshop performance activity, some possibility of ad hoc attachments to the fabric, ’some life in the body’, to discomfort its sterile beauty and rituals.

The secondary stairtower, which erupts like an hernia from the system ofthe plan, forms an important link between performance space and performers areas on the floor below.A coy adjunct, rather than an embodied component ofthe general form of the building, it is perhaps symptomatic ofa baroque tendency ofthe Hopkins practice, which is moving further from the guttsiness and sharp endedness of Schlumberger One, its first building (in Cambridge) and arguably still its best.

These same tendencies of perfection apply to the concern forthe materiality of construction.A taut masonry building with no exploitation of the glyptic qualities of the creamy brown Ketton limestone, introduced to the College by Wren and by James Essex in the Front Court. The homogeneity of materials and the questionable equality of “trying to make inside like outsidé’ -MH, using stonework, American oak, stainless steel and glass, lead-rolled roof; shifts of prominence of material (from more wood toless stone) distinguish the interior. The innovatory extension of tensile struclures married with the traditional qualities of stone and structural form, echoes the analogous admixture of cultural sources of the building's imagery. It is an attitude that produces building as ornament, rather like the specimen trees of the Fellows’ Garden, but short of another kind of perfection. Nice to look at (to paraphrase WC Fields) butI wouldn't like to own one.

Colen Lumley

Fenestrcttion cis huilt

Peter Bicknell, died in France on 31st May, aged 87.

He came up to Jesus College, in 1926 from Oundle School. At Cambridge Peter obtained Firsts each year and left to seek employment in 1929, armed witha glowing letter from the professor, Theodor Fyfe. On the recommendation of Lawrence Weaver, the influential editor of Country Life, he obtained employment with Louis de Soissons, who was working on buildings in Welwyn. De Soissons was a hard taskmaster: once he tore up one of his young apprentice's drawings because it was entitled “Back Elevation". None of de Soissons’ buildings was permitted to havea rear; they had front elevations and garden elevations.

Subsequently Peter worked for Grey Wornum on the RIBA Building in Portland Place. From thenew café on the first floor, one can now admire the splendidly detailed staircase which Peter drew.

Plcin

In 1935 H.C.Hughes,a lecturer at the school invited his former student to join his practice. Peter worked on Essex House and the flats in Regent Street opposite Downing. When he married Mari Scott Henderson the following year they began their life together in the top floor apartment, thus confounding the adage that architects never live in the dwellings they design. Hughes and Bicknell (Peter was swiftly taken into partnership) were responsible for Fen Court, Peterhouse, the most innovative pre-war college accomodation building, and numerous private houses. Like Hughes, Peter Bicknell combined teaching and practice, beginning in 1938 and being appointed toa lectureship in 1948. During the war Peter was employed by theMinistry of Health as architect in charge of repair of war damage in East Anglia. His post-war practice involved the repair and restoration of old buildings as much asthedesign of new ones.

He more frequently built outside Cambridge than within the City, for his Oundle School friend Peter Scott at the Wildfowl Trust at Slimbridge, for the King's School at Ely, or for the National Trust and RSPB. The sober and carefullyproportioned extension to Herbert Bakers Scott Polar Building (since added toagain, to its detriment) shows his preference in his own work for modesty and restraint, despite his personal enjoyment of the most flamboyant Baroque.

When Downing came tobuild its new combination room in 1966, Peter was instrumental in the appointment of his brilliant former student, Bill Howell, who produced perhaps one ofthe most successful post-war buildings in Cambridge.

Long section

With David Roberts, Peter could be said to have been the backbone ofthe Department in these years, as secretary of the Faculty Board, teaching several daysa week in the studio, and lecturing

on history, in particular the Baroque and the picturesque. In 1965, on sabbatical he prepareda report on teaching in American Schools. He was also the supervisor ofa PhD by Peter Eisenmann.

Graduates and undergraduates were entertained memorably by Peter and Mari at Finella, on Queen's Road which they rented from Caius from 1940 until 1980.

A previous occupant Mansfield Forbes had employed Raymond McGrath to createa spectacular metal and glass interior. Peter divided the house into two for the college and he and his family, were tenants of one house. Mari used the mirrored dining room as a studio for the Cambridge Ballet Workshop which she founded in 1952. The gardens were the scene of memorable fireworks parties. Peter was a perfect host and an entertaining raconteur with an eye for the absurd and an ear for the unusual. He was alsoa fund of the most unusual facts and figures.

Peter retired from the Department in 1974 but was actively engaged in his practice until 1982. Buta new career was in prospect. In 1981, he had prepared an exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum on the Picturesque and the Sublime entitled “Beauty, Horror and Immensity’. The catalogue published by the University Press, was the first ofa series of publications on the Lake District: The Discovery of the Lake District 1T50 - 1810,a context for Wordsworth”, with Ftobert Woof in 1982, followed by The Lake District Discovered, 1810-1850, the Artists the Tourists and Wordsworth in 1983. These formed the basis ofa successful exhibition at theV & A. Peter helda Mellon Fellowship for a semester at Yale and there were numerous contributions to Turner Studies during this glorious Indian Summer. Peter's interest was in the way that picturesque scenery was represented by artists; the subject of the memorable exhibition, later shown atGrasmere, “Drawing Masters and their Manualsi’. He had collected much of his own material which he later presented to Kings. Peter Bicknell's major scholarly achievement, the bibliographic study The Picturesque Scenery of the Lake District 1752 - 185iñi (1990) has already becomea standard work.

A final contribution, yet to appear in print isa review of the history of the Britain in Pictures books. This will be an appropriate “envoie”, as he had written “British Hills and Mountainsi’ for the famous Collins series in 1947.

Peter was alsoa devoted family man and leavesa widow and four children, thirteen grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Nicholas Ray This isa shortened version of an obituary to be published in the Downing College Magazine.

DEVELOPMENT HOT SEAT Development control is the formal system through which the community exercises an infl uen ce on the b ui It envi ronm ent. A ny healthy community will havea constructive and watchful contribution to make inthat regard; but it does not preclude the need for a critique of that system as stimulus to its effectivnes s. It is a tr uis m to state that Cam bridge isa special place, but to find yourself on a Planning Committee hot seat in th is City isn o I ight experience. Beth Morgan (who recently stood down from the City Council aftera period as Chairman of the E nv i ron m ent C o m m ittee and V i ce Chairman ofthe Planning Committee) distinguished herself and earned respect for her sympathy and particular interest in design and the qual ity of the buiIt environ ment.

Cambridge Architecture invited her to provide an overview of that experience.

An architect must bea skilled diplomat negotiator, otherwise, genius or not, she is doomed considerable extra time and effort of an Appeal. tolanguish unknown. She has to deal with the Then there is the local political situ ation. developer who employs her, the planning offiThere are some councillors who like to say that cers at the District Council, and the planning committee. Wello k, the developer pays the this committee is not besmirched by politics, piper, and the planners are professionals, but but just wait untila sensitive issue appears and who on earth are the planning committee? Not see how ward members react. And it is not only only are theya bunch of amateurs, they are a question of votes at the next election.

Many developments, from the house extenpoliticians to boot.

So how does the plan ning committee tick? sion to the extension of the Grafton Centre, result in both winners and losers. you are rarely what is it like to serve on one? supported by the winners, but the losers, or Beinga new councillor isa pretty confusing experience, but joining the planning committee those who perceive themselves to be losers, will have plenty to say. Councillors can come isth e m ost co nfu s in g ex p e rie n c e of a II. Development control works within a complex under considerable pressure from vociferous residents who focus on their own narrow interlegal framework and at least two development ests then come to listen to the committee's plans. It is necessary to consider impact on delib e ration s . It t a ke s so me tou g h n e ss to neighbours, traffic effects, visual effects; to ask speak and vote ag ainst this p ressure, even whether the development will be an invitation to the criminal; to understand the overall balance when you know that the greater good ofthecity is at stake. of land use within the city.

The planning committee in Cambridge meets Then there is the material provided with the monthly, each time dealing witha considerable planning application. You might be presented with models, drawings, plans, photo-montages, number of applications. Few councillors have but it takes imagination and experience to inter- the time to visit all sites and to study all the pret them. Most models and architects’ d raw- plans. They depend very heavily on the advice ings still look delightful to me. Perhaps it will of the officers. However, most will visita site if b ecome easier as mo re IT tech niques a re a member ofthepublico r a developer asks used, butI suspect not - one only has to think them to.I nevitably this means that these items gh Iy discussed and it of the way in which photos and films can glam- get much mo rethorou increases the likelihood of the recommendation o urize a scen e to see h ow any v is u al a id should be taken witha pinch of salt. And even being overturned.

The lesson from this is: if you are unhappy if the development is going to look good, how n in v ite the does one judge whether it will work, be people- with the officer recommend atio Planning Committee to visit the site. You might friendly.

After overcoming theh urdle of interpreting well be successful.

It is very easy to criticise the system and to this material there is still the thorny question of blame ‘the planners’ or ‘the council’ when fashtaste. The paramount consideration should be ions change or when we look back in hindsight. q u a I ity , b ut cou n c ilI o rs a re h u m an an d inevitably bring their own prejudices to commit- But in many cases they have acted asa brake tee. Since most of us are visually uneducated, o n th e wo rst ex ces ses of de velo p e rs.

Addenbrookes Hospital isa wonderful example and since saying ‘Yes’ can lead to something unloved being around fora considerable time, it ofa planner-free zone. But any system can be is safer to say ‘No’. It is alsoa sure way of improved andI have two suggestions: 1.A fundamental need is better education: appeasing residents. There is widespread fear councillors should have more training, but the of the new and a longing for the familiar: witness the howls of protest over Angela Conner's Ion g te rm app roach m ust be toe n courage school children to take an interest in the visual fountain design forthe Market Square.

I also think some planners are too conserva- aspect of their surroundings.

2. Increased opportunity for involving resitive and disinclined to take any risk concerning den ts in m atte rs affecting the irn eig h bo urscale and style. It is hard to imag ine King's hoods. There will always be Nimbies but most Parade being allowed today.

You soon learn that there isa game being people, when given the opportunity to consider all sides of an issue and to feel that their viewplayed out between developer and planner: the land owner wants to maximize value added and point counts, are perfectly capable of maki ng sensible decisions, and may feel more able to the planner tries to maximize benefits to the city. But there is alsoa g ame being played take risks. between committee and officer - the committee Beth Morgan might suspect that the officer has given in too easily, the officer will be concerned about the

N E W C A A C H A IR M A N Plan cit Lecture Room level

BENE'T COURT

New Accomodation and Lecture Theatre for Corpus Christi College Asa continuation of visits by the CWAG tobuildings which involve women architects, Jayne Bird, of Nicholas Hare Architects showed us thework in progress.

Corpus Christi had been trying to develop the Eagle Yard site for many years, but it was not possible until site trade-offs were made with the Arts Theatre, allowing the new fly tower forthe Theatre anda usable space forCorpus Christi. The site size governed the project. In response tothe clients brief fora lecture theatre and as many student rooms as could fit on the site, the architects have designeda 152 seat lecture theatre, set for4 fellows and 17 study bedrooms.A party room is also provided in the basement ofan existing building on the periphery of the site. Excavation for the lecture theatre required mandatory archaeological investigations, which had significant implications on the budget.

The lecture theatre incorporates air circulation below the seats - an update on the principles used in ancient Roman theatres. Structural concrete is left exposed and the elements which were poured on site havea remarkably good finish. The roof of the theatre isa coffered structure which supports the student rooms and theterrace above.

The construction above the theatre is typically residential, albeit with careful detailing in the wall separating the Arts Theatre fly tower from the Bene't Court Development. Where this building stands out is in its organisation, which takes full advantage of its site. The circulation corridors are organised about the fly tower. One of the internal stair wells uses walls of glass block to provide natural light to the centre and lower floors of the building. The main stair enclosure is largely glass so it does notprovidea solid barrier to the neighbouring buildings. The student rooms, of typical size, give the welcome impression of being rather larger than they are. If they can tear themselves away from these rooms, the residents can socialize beside their neighbours at the Eagle on their own exterior terrace over the lecture theatre. This terrace also providesa good view of the lead coated steel panels and the carefully detailed terne coated steel roof, which has been designed asa series of small roofs to respond to the scale of the roof scape around the site.

The architects have turned the restrictions of the site into assets and provided Corpus Christi witha building which responds well to the micro planning of the Eagle Yard.

Sherry Armstrong

LOCAL ARCHITECTS

Cambridge Association of Architects exhibition of members' work These are hard times for architects, and for architecture; here is an exhibition that seeks to engage you with both. Who are you? Clearly, the potential client, 30 practices set out their wares,

their personnel and products, their history, philosophy, awards. Whether you seeka carport,a college refurbishment, ora corporate headquarters, here are the experts who, demonstrably, can design and organise it. And some lovely things are shown, lifting the spirit with their particular co mb ination of fo rm, c rafts m ans hip, and acknowledgement of function and context Jonathan Ellis-Mill er's Future WorldH ouse, R . H.Pa rtne rship's co rpo rate offices, and Christopher Fleming Jones’ watercolours of traditional conversions, for example. That there are others which are depressing in their banality and clumsiness is perhaps partly at leasta fault of the times: when thedeveloper is,to an extent, king, some architects apparently pick up the trend and design like developers. Above all, this is an exhibition for its time, serious, focused - use us, we're highly competent.

On Iy one exhibit, by John Fawcett, clearly e n gag e s w ith the ge n e ral - inte rest viewe r, describing in general-use terms the processes involved from the start in tacklinga conversion: otherwise, we have herea catalogue of works.

With the flat, one-per-practice vertical A1 format, often densely packed-and, ifa picture tells, 1,000 words, 20, even 10, pictures can makea rather indigestible dissertation-enhancing the ‘functional’ theme.

But among all this rehabilitation and conversion, contextual brickwork and carefully detailed timber, where, oh where, is the truly, imaginatively, new? Which ofcourse also means, where are its patrons? Here we are ina city ongoing, over centuries, renowned forits innovative patrician architecture, and the ‘town’ element is getting awards forVictorian repro. Not, of course, an exclusively Cambridge situation, but one which surely deserves particular attention here, where museumisation by insistence on the ‘in keeping’ is an ever-present threat. Thus the perky new Eaden Lilley facade gains extra points for integrity, compared with the ‘georgian’ front to the cavernous, essentially late-twentieth-century, store next door.

Patently glad to get any work whatever, the question does arise among theexhibition as to what architects are doing positively to engage with today in the city and its environs? The impoverished townscape of the Grafton Centre extension? Where is the village/street/enclave - the layman's architectural experience - enhanced bya pleasurable shock ofthe altogether new? Yes, it's a two-way, client-architect problem, but someone might makea breakthrough. Just one panel showing an exciting proposal,a true vision for today, would be wortha lot of contextual details.

Such an entry might also help involve the layperson (who, who knows, might one day bea client) with the work on display. In between community projects and the enlightened clients wistfully mentioned in the low-key introduction to the exhibition, are an awful lot of people waiting to be wooed. Woo, and wow, us,please!

Margaret Downing (urban designer)

Viren Sahai OBE, architect and town planner, took over as CAA Chairman from David Yandell at the AGM on 17th May. Viren is perhaps best known to us as Architect in the County of Cambridgeshire,a post to be held from 1987 until 1993 and as author of ‘Discovering an Historic City’ in which his drawings illustrate the townscape of the City of Cambridge. He is also an accomplished painter and has exhibited in London, Oxford and Paris and his work has been chosen to represent India at several Commonwealth Biennale of Abstract Art. He now runs his own architectural and town planning consultancy, chairs the Cambridge Urban Forum and delivers papers ona range of subjects in this country and abroad. From 1974 until 1987 he was Regional Architect to the South Western Regional Health Authority and for part of that time Chairman ofthe Avon Branch of the RIBA and theBristol Centre for the Advancement of Architecture.

Whilst in his early teens he worked asa draughtsman with Francis Blomfield, who had been Lutyens Resident Architect. He then went to Burma towork on low cost indigenous housing.

After qualifying in 1962 he went to Nigeria as Resident Architect for Fry, Drew and Atkinson. He then returned to England tostudy town planning and subsequently worked in the offices of Yorke, Rosenberg and Mardall and the Architects Co-Partnership.

The July issue of the Archutectural Review contains his townscape study of Prague entitled ‘The Nature of Urbanism”. It is expected that he will bringa broad perspective to his new role as Chairman of our Association

David Raven

LETTERS.........

CDM

not bad for your health

Although reluctant to add yet more column inches on the subject of the CDM RegulationsI do feel that the “oh woe is me!” attitude of Jeremy Lander's piece in the Spring issue of Cambridge Architecture was unfortunate.

For most buildings the major input into the health and safety plan will be provided by the architect

including the co-ordination of any information from the engineering disciplines and it therefore makes sense forthe architect to take on the role of the planning supervisor (PS). The planning supervisor is not a health and safety adviser although the PS (or the designers) may wish to consulta qualified H&S Adviser in the preparation of the health and safety plan wherea particularly complex or specialist construction/installation technique is being used.

A better description, I feel, for the PS is that of health and safety co-ordinator and ultimately the precise details of how health and safety is to be controlled and managed on site are prepared by the principle contractor and included in his own health and safety plan finalised before work commences on site.

It is necessary to undertake some additional formal, structured training both as designers and as planning supervisors but as we are all committed to CPD this is an obvious area in which to expand one's capabilities. Considerable information is available for personal study; in particular the various handbooks on CDM and the h&s information sheets produced by the H&S Executive; and the site safety handbooks produced by CIRIA and BEC. In addition most manufacturers now produce clear h&s advice pertaining to their product and its application.

The question of conflict of interest is onlya problem if you wish to make it one. Certainly, to my knowledge, the H&S Executive do not see a conflict of interest if the architect acts as designer and planning supervisor. Everyone's responsibilities are clearly defined in the regulations and the advent of CDM does not in itself preclude the use of difficult materials and construction techniques. What it does require is that consideration be given to less

few large engineering practices will perform the role of planning supervisor for everyone else as Mr Lander suggests although articles like his will hasten that end. If, as an architect, you do not wish for whatever reason to act as PS on your projects then at least ensure that you advise the client to appoint another architect as PS who will, more than any other construction professional, be able to satisfy the criteria set out in the CDM Regulations particularly in respect of that person's knowledge of “construction practice; the design function; and ability to work with and co-ordinate the activities of different designers and bea bridge between the design function and construction work on site.” If the necessary training has been undertaken to satisfy the professional indemnity insurers thena basic knowledge of health and safety issues will also have been achieved. The new Association of Planning Supervisors (0131 229 7545) will providea list of corporate members who have satisfied the requirements formembership and arecommitted tofurther training.

There is no need forpanic. And it does not require 120 hours of training at the cost of £3,750 before you can act asa planning supervisor. We should not allow the engineers and surveyors to take over this influential position within the design team just because it appearsa b it risky and involves new responsibilities. Whether you do it yourself or involve another architect as planning supervisor it will ensure that the cost/benefit analysis is properly conducted and that the design process is not subservient to only one or two issues while still achieving the improvement in the health and safety of the construction site that is the raison d'etre of the CDM Regulations.

David Cottee

under0corheating.

Telephone and faxline mnbearranged.

Possibility of seoetarial assistance, iiseofphotxopieraridprinter,byagreernmt

48 Mill Way, Graiatchester Cambridge CB3 9NB 01223 845131

CAMBRIDGE DAY OF ARCHITECTURE

Convention and innovation The tour this year on Sunday2 July, operated and organised by Cambridge Association of Architects, Cambridge Heritage and the Architecture Gallery, was a sell-out success forits tours of the new Norman Foster Law Faculty building and the Queen's Building by the Michael Hopkins Partnership for Emmanuel College.A mixed participation of public and professionals provided privileged access and insights, conducted in the usual entertaining style of this annual tour series.

Proceeds from the tour have contributed towardsa dedicated Apple Mac forArchitecture Gallery and CAA mailing, databases and graphics.

CL

CAA/RIBA DIARY

Regional Dinner Speaker; The Rt.Hon John Gummer MP.Tickets E30/ head Corpus Christi College 22nd September

hazardous materials and constructions where the

efit analysis that will weigh the risks to health and

Parléng. View oversecluded garden,

CAA Committee Meeting Architecture Centre 6.30pm All welcome 10th July, 7th August, 4th September, 2nd October, 6th November

same orsimilar end result can be achieved. It is worth noting that the term ’reasonably practicable’ is used in connection with the requirements of the designer concerning the preparation ofa cost/ben-

safety produced bya design or work element against the cost of excluding the element. The cost of exclusion is to be measured notonly in terms of finance but also in terms of fitness for purpose, aesthetics, buildability and environmental impact.

The purpose of the health and safety plan is to highlight the hazards remaining in the design so that the contractor can develop and price for systems tomanage therisks effectively on site.

Finally it does not have to be inevitable thata

Office Space to Let

A room(16y2) avaihble inour office.

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ARCHITECTURE GALLERY 14th July - 8th September INSTRUMENTS OF MODERNITY Harris Armstrong, Albert Frey, Richard Neutra modern architecture in the USA during the 30’s and PRAGUE VISITED The City seen by thepupils of Leys School, Cambridge 11th September - 7th October Six Architectural Themes anexhibition of work by Weston Williamson This Newsletter isdistributed by

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Letters and contributions to Cambridge Architecture are welcomed. Copy deadline for Autumn Issue, 29th September T99

Editorial Board:

David Raven

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