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Autumn 1995

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8 33 A quarterl y review of cu rrent arch itectural, urbanist and environmental issues and events in the Cambridge area produced by the Cambridge Association of Architects.

The views in this gazette are those of the individua l contributors and not of the Association .

DELIRIOUS ORNAMENTALISM The continuing depression in the con struction industry generally is gainsayed by the turbulent output of recent University and College building in Cambridge, and no doubt that the high quality of building achieved is a reflection of the value for money these conditions impart. The summer of 1995 seems particularly memorable for the wealth of new building reaching completion in time for this academic session; not only numerically, but also in a return to the 50s and 60s faith in design stables, the big

names; and the plethora of state of the art design practice that makes this City a living museum of the best of contemporary and historical architectural design.

Whilst from the City side, its most significant recent achievement in the bui lding of monuments resides (setting aside the Regional College) in the laying of the odd trial cobblestone in the Market Square. If you count Old Addenbrookes as a public building, and the pending disposal of public building sites on Parker's Piece, you might think the City has even

regressed. And, by comparison,the University continues to grow and grow. From the cod classicism of Downing and Sydney Sussex, to bright new futures on the Sidgwick site, the ornamental high jinks of Old Addenbrookes, to the post-modern exorcism of John's new library and historicism of the new library for Jesus, from the aesthetic primness of Burrell's Field to the folksiness of the University Sports Centre on Adams Road.

The pluralism of design genres is dazzling and bewilderingly representative of all that is happening in the architectural realm; all that is saving deconstructivism, which is fast going out of fashion before even settling on Cambridge clay.

We focus again, in this issue and the next,on some of the newcomers to the local scene.

u G7J® JJ lli](ill~® ~ u=u@~ □ ~lliJ~@ of management studies

Professor Sandra Dawson

Front approach from Trumping/on Street

It was curiosity, an intrinsic trait of the human psyche, which led to my first visit to the Judge Institute building, but two steps inside I was assailed by feelings of deep regret.

This strikingly revitalised presence on the Cambridge scene, with its barbarous and calorific architecture, stands as a landmark to changing culture. The irony is that this comically licentious building is home to one of the most serious ventures in ensuring the relevance of the university to the modern world.

In today's increasingly technological milieu , management has emerged as a dominant discipline, destined to provide the necessary control over systems and bureaucracies that defy human scale and responsibility .

Traditional professional competencies are subsumed in the cause of simplification of process and administrative efficiency . It is a division of skills that inexorably (but not inevitably) bestows primacy to administration over production, bringing its own tensions and distortions.

It is said, with good grounds I believe, that the less understanding one has, the more opinionated the view. To test the truth of this I made a further visit, when the Judge Institute was occupied , to discover by what grace this efflorescence of management in Cambridge might disabuse me of my twinned prejudice.

The Cambridge Institute , a latecomer by Harvard Business School standards, is set to make a substantial impression . Like the Science Park before it, it is destined to impact on Cambridge life at many levels, and (unlike the Science Parks) its physical presence in the centre of the City (with the Engineering and Architecture Schools adjacent) makes it even more apparent as a symbolic hinge between academia and the real world .

There is a tradition of management studies at Cambridge reaching back to its inauguration in the Department of Engineering, where it was introduced some forty years ago to provide insights into management. In 1986 a Tripos opened the subject to undergraduates from any discipline. An institute was formed in 1990, shortly afterwards named the Judge Institute of Management Studies, after principal benefactions made provision for a purpose designed building, on the site of the Old Addenbrookes Hospital. Opened for the 1995/96 academic year, but with the building installations still continuing. Its new Director, Sandra Dawson , three days in post , spoke about its aims and signifi cance.

The new building complex is planned to house 70 teaching and research staff and an increasing number of students, attracted from around the world, presently about 50 enrolled in MBA, and a similar number of full-time graduate students in MPhil and PhD programmes. Today's student is expected to have a notebook computer ( and portable printer) and an electronic mail address for internet communication with the institute whilst on in-course work experience . The courses sandwich a practical

learning experience between theoretical studies, with a host of local , national and international companies participating in the programme . The interaction of wo rk and study is locked into the ethos of the Study Centre a reflected in the age and background of its students . '--.......: The objective of the Institute is to establish itself by the end of the century as one of the world's leading providers of high quality management education and research . The distinctiveness of the Cambridge agenda is focu sed in 3 areas : internati ona l manageme nt a nd bu siness (European integrati on ,the Pacific Rim): he relationship between IT technology and manageme t a d the interaction between technology and organisai1 s: institutional and envi ronmental economics - with a· ematical modelling exploring the implications of c a ge.

Before Cambri dge , Professo r Dav son • ad spent 26 years at Imperial Col lege . Londo . 1•,1 ere she was Professor of Organisat iona l Be ha iour and Deputy Director of the Manageme nt Sc hoo l . Her post as Chairman for 3 years of the NHS Riverside ental Health Trust reflects a personal involvement with health management. She talks of the centrality of management: the importance of critical reflection against the importance of practical experience and participation ; the marriage of theory and practice, of thriving research and of relations with industry , of drawing on case material from arou d the globe, of affinities with the role models of MIT ( th(;ln of Harvard} of Stamford, and its strong links with .,,e Ul'Tiversity of collaboration with like-minded persons and units in the University and with other organisations.

To her the importance of the new building lies in its role as incubator of discussion and debate, to wh ich its programme of distinguished guest speakers , funded out of endowment, adds considerable weight. The limited formal lecture/debating spaces are complemented by the multiplicity of stacked niches in the hypostyle hall that joins the three elements of the plan, the MBA room and by the shared common room in the centre of the building , confirming the value of informal discourse and small group teaching . One sensed some misgivings about the arrangement of offices "tacked on the back". The band of glass-fronted interior offices lining the atrium, which might be expected to cause disquiet, are in practice and ambience perhaps more in spirit with the vision of highcontact working style.

A cauldron of intellectual ferment? The visual impressions conjured by the as yet relatively unpeopled interior create a sense of frenzied endeavour. Our discussion left me in no doubt of the rigour, scope and vitality of the institution . More impressed certainly by the virtual real ity of the managed , information-centred future , but left still arrogantly clinging to the ativistic belief, despite the material evidence before me, that it is the people who make things that hold the secret of the universe.

Colen Lumley

Juxtaposition of Castle, Ark & Galleria

Galleria with flying walkways

No Tasteful Buff and Grey The Judge Institute has probably been the most talked about building this summer and organised visits have been a sell-out. Why should this strange and controversial building provoke so much interest? It is no doubt partly its prominent city location and the associations and affections in which Old Addenbrookes is still held (its • • .ct and lack of use, for the most part, over so many , ./ '> has been a travesty) but it is perhaps primarily what John Outram has done to it. It is a fairly massive intervention. Has the architect been a little self-indulgent at the expense of the users or is it all a legitimate and glorious expression of function? We might need to go deeply into ancient Egyptian mythology to answer this.* The very fin e colonnaded Vi ctorian frontage by Matthew Digby Wyatt has been much improved by restoring the original veranda's and by its bold new cornice and central pediment; devices which unify the ragged eaves line resulting from later additions. The green rustic tiled roof over the central atrium gives the building a classical identity within the City sky-line. The additional colours introduced on both existing frontages , particularly the purples and blues, work well with the buff brick and warm stonework and the attractive mix of colours reinforces the layered qualities of the main frontage . But the circular replacement windows, which match those used for the additions seem alien within the existing openings. Should a circular window be placed under a semi circular arch without acknowledgement?

The Addenbrookes lettering carved like a frieze in stone gives an essential clue to the buildings history and would have been removed without the vigilance of the city conservation office. The forecourt was intended to be paved and planted with trees and shrubs (see CA30) - reading as a natural extension to the hard materials of Trumpington Street. As a cost cutting exercise large areas of lawn have been introduced losing much of the

quality conveyed by Outrams original drawings, (and currently causing the city planners some concern) . The grand proportions of the Nightingale Wards are retained as part of the listed frontage for Library and Computer uses. The central bay forming the main entrance with Common Room above has been largely rebuilt behind its facade . There is visual confusion here as to what is refurbished and what is new and to my mind, clearer distinctions should have been made, in the way the interior is articulated and expressed, between what is just retained as facade and what is retained as a series of volumes and details.

The full height central Galleria or Atrium with its flying stai rs and walkways forms the link with the new study and lecture blocks behind , named respectively 'The Ark' and 'The Castle'. Its sequence of spaces, terraces and boxes , intended to encourage easy social interaction , achieves a fluidity which is welcoming and relaxed. The volume is well lit with 60% wall glazing expressed as a series of vertical strips between service columns with a solid roof to ease the potential problems of temperature control. This central space provides the means, with sensor controls, of expelling warm air at high level in the summer and recycling it via the columns in the winter.

The columns are massive, comfortably accommodating all services, even drinks machines and phone booths.

The flared capitals act as the intakes for recirculated air and bring fresh air taken from under the eaves down to low level. Outram sees his system of column, capital and entablature as a network of working robots* the equivalent of the classical orders with 'their magic agencies'.

The Castle, which takes service deliveries from Tennis Court Road, is treated robustly as a free standing building . It has a battered and rusticated base and above service pilasters containing the lecture room ventilation are expressed externally under a heavy cornice and glazed tiled roof. The Ark is clad in patterned brickwork and is flatter in appearance with a splendid roof terrace with serpentine balustrade overlooking Downing College.

Outram has used some strong colours and some unexpected and unfamiliar forms . Detailing in some areas is clumsy and there are some unhappy juxtapositions of forms and far too many materials which sometimes devalue each other. The lack of refinement in his work and a certain lack of initiation conveys a kind of naivety which is actually appealing . On the whole people seem to like it. It stops you in your tracks, lifts the spirit and makes you smile. People find it refreshing after so many restrained and rigorous essays in tasteful buff and grey. As a building it feels comfortable and human with its rounded contours, natural forms and earthy colours which are sympathetic to people and to the landscape.

There is perhaps a primitive appeal to..peoples ' basic instincts and an emotional dialogue which many buildings never achieve. It is definitely not a thuggish building like so many we are familiar with which neither work within an established context nor have anything to say in themselves. This is built by an architect with a conviction if not an obsession. Like Fosters' new Law Faculty it has its own kind of integrity. The Law Faculty for all its intellectual rigour, or perhaps because of it, probably has far less impact on our inner being.

As architects we have a tendency to overdesign rather than create things which people actually like and want to use. The Judge Institute may perhaps seem more controversial to those who are architects than to others?

David Raven *See 'The Robot Colony'. Blueprint Sept.95 and Rowan Moore, Daily Telegraph 26/9/95 'Assault on the Senses'

CONSERVATION AWARDS 1995 Eleven schemes were shortlisted by South Cambridgeshire District Council and all were visited by their Conservative Committee over two days recently.

Craftsmanship Awards go to E.G.Anderson for the repair of leaded lights, at 1 Broad Lane, Haslingfield and LO.Leader for reinstatement of longstraw thatch, at 11 High Street , Little Shelford .This years Conservation Award goes to for Bacons Farm , Triplow , builder A.Johnson

CAMBRIDGE URBAN FORUM 'Learning from Newmarket Road'

The article in Cambridge Architecture summer edition , generated a substantial response.

Cambridge Evening News gave it headline news and made it part of their editorial. Cambridge Radio gave the matter prime time listening . Many individuals responded independently. Clearly Newmarket Road and Elizabeth Way, upsets a lot of people.

The Urban Forum intends to hold a workshop, along the line of the two earlier successful events, to consider what planning controls might be introduced to bring some dignity, civic pride and quality to this anarchical and blighted entrance corridor to the city.

David Yandell

Forthcoming Meetings Tuesday, November 7 'Mapping the City' - project launch 1 7p.m.

276 Hills Road .

Tuesday, December5.The West Cambridge Master Plan how to achieve urban complexity out in the fields - project launch 2. 7pm Kings Parade.

Tuesday 9 January. Newmarket Road - project launch 3. CAP Fen Ditton .

YOUNG ARCHITECTS CPD Meetings of year-out and part Ill students are held at monthly intervals in the Martin Centre at 6 Chaucer Road . Cambridge beginning at 5.30 p.m. and lasting one to one and a half hours. Topics include building case studies , contract administration, views of consultants , builders, architects etc. Last year speakers included John Outram, Norman Foster associate Chris Connell.

Facil ities Manager Andrew Rabeneck , local solicitor Jane Lichtenstein and builder Roger Bailey.

Please make sure you are on the mailing list for YACPD by filling in the forms sent to all Eastern Region practices or by contacting Tim Brading on 01223 461458 or Jerry Lander on 01223 366555.

Programme dates: Tuesday 14 November 5.30p.m.Mike Taylor of Sir Michael Hopkins & Partners on the Queens Building for Emmanuel College and other work by the practice .

Tuesday 12 December 5 .30 p.m.Roger Shrimplin: An introduction to Planning Law.

The ascent into imaginary space - from Quadratura the architect I artist collaboration at St Peters Church, Cambridge and the Architecture Gallery, 1995.

COMMISSIONS EAST Two years at the frontline Commissions East is an independent non-profit organisation for the promotion and enabling of art in public places and in publicly accessible buildings .

It was brought into being by the Eastern Region Arts Board and is one of a network of similar agencies throughout the country. Funded from private and public sources it is an interacting component of the Architecture Centre in Cambridge. Its Director David Wright explains the role played by Commissions East and describes its inaugural projects

Commissions East's formation in 1993 was a clear endorsement by its founders of the need to address the regional issues surrounding work of artists and craftspeople in the built and landscape environment. The multitude of opportunities that occurred in the 1980's had passed East Anglia by, mainly because its large rural areas and small settlements did not offer the opportunities of the urban regeneration projects taking place elsewhere. This created an opportunity to learn from the excesses of the 1980's boom.

Operating from a visual arts perspective, Commissions East acknowledge the importance of a sympathetic and collaborative approach which fuses art with architecture.

The Board includes not only artist, planner and educationalist, but representation from the architecture profession .

The placing of the organisation within the Architecture Centre further endorses this, aiming to break down barriers, encourage joint projects, and provide an accessible resource of information and assistance to the region's architects.

Pragmatism is a characteristic of Commissions East's approach combining research , advocacy and an advisory service with a programme of regional workshops for artists, architects and planning officers. An early finding was a lack of common language and a reserve about collaboration . The workshops aim to address these issues and they provide potential commissioners with information about the processes and possibilities and artists with the skills to respond to the special requirements of public art practice.

Early involvement of artists in the design process ensures greater understanding , effective integration and cost-effectiveness . Commissions East's projects with Essex County Council include a series of artist appointments to design teams. Artists Julia Manheim, Michael Brennand Wood , David Mackie and David Gross have worked closely with the teams for a number of schools

and a library resulting in projects which include a fibre optic floor, brick patterning and glazing. These projects move toward a more thorough collaborative process but are limited by rigid physical requirements and funding .

Commissions East is working to influence the process at an even earlier stage and is discussing a project for a regional crafts centre , where they hope to be involved in both funding and architectural deci_sions.

Commissions East's work involves the development of precedents and their demonstration through model projects. The programme encourages the use of new media and forms of practice . The first of these , 'Lightworks', which was co-organised with Kings Lynn Arts Centre and the Borough Council of West Norfolk and Kings Lynn , involved artist Charlie Holmes, producing a series of light, projection and video works for key buildings in Kings Lynn . More recently Quadratura, coorganised with the Architecture Gallery, aimed to examine joint practice and propose new ways of working .

The project by architects Beevor Mull and sculptor Edward Allington resu lted in an examination of the planning process , an installation and an exhibition , all of which are documented in an elegant publication . The project sets a new agenda for artist/architect partnerships. Our establishment of the organisation in a period when the market was depressed , necessitated an approach which questions assumptions. The 'Percent for Art' strategy gained momentum during the 19~ culminating in the publication of Percent for,{ ) } Review by the Arts Council in 1993. 'Percent for' Arf has proved hard to implement due to lack of legislative commitment by central government. This, combined with the depression , meant that by the early 1990's expectations were not being met. It also raised questions as to whether a fixed percent was workable for all architectural projects . Commissions East acknowledges that some projects may not benefit from artist involvement whilst others depend on involvement that far exceeds 'Percent for Art' legislation.

The National Lottery is likely to catalyse an increasing number of architectural opportunities. Guidelines set for applicants by the Lottery Board recommend the involvement of artist and craftspersons, and the decisions taken to date indicate that commitment to this is being taken seriously. It is difficult to assess the quantity and quality of the projects generated . One of the first lottery projects that Commissions East is working on is the redevelopment of Cambridge Arts Theatre by architects Bland Brown and Cole. The decision to concentrate art funds on a single major project for the main staircase should be considered by other potential ,,, \ missioners and architects. _ Commissions East is also committed to the development of projects of a small scale such as schemes for commissioning furniture for the University of East Anglia and Bedford Borough Council , and pedestrianisation and landscap ing projects for Hertfordshire County Council , Cambridgeshire County Council and Cambridge City Counci l. Many of these projects are competitive in cost terms with commercially produced alternatives.

Public art projects are often the subject of public debate. As with architectural projects there is little to be gained from the uneasy compromise which is often the result of public consensus. However public consulta tion is becoming an increasingly important issue in the development of public art schemes . Commissions East's approach is of continuing re-evaluation of forms of consultation in order to develop an approach which is achievable . Public Art is most successful when it represents an unfettered creative expression of the hopes and aspirations of a particular time. The period running up to the Millennium will offer countless opportunities for partnerships between artists and architects, and Commissions East is in a strong position to encourage and facilitate proj ects to mark this important period.(Commissions East welcomes the opportunity to discuss and assist with projects that involve the com-

missioning of art and craft (01223 356882) .

David Wright

Of Specious Origin DARWIN HOSTEL Wordsworth Grove is a leafy suburb in west Cambridge, at the back of Newnham College. The sale of Newnham's hockey pitch resulted in a crop of new houses along the road , and at the end a little wagon circle of folksy villas.

Just before the end, on a plot overlooking Caius College's sports ground, is a new hostel for Darwin housing twenty eight graduate students. Architects for the scheme are Jeremy Dixon, Edward Jones, fresh from their new library on Silver Street.

From the road powerful massing in Stamfordstone brick, four-square windows and a high brick wall at the front give an impression more of a fortress than a residential building in a quiet backwater. Two large towers clearly light something important, but why two? There are two of everything: two entrances, two front doors, two staircases - it's a semi-d, perfectly symmetrical about its axis.

Internally the building is split down the middle into two groups of five rooms on the ground and first floor and two groups of four on the top two floors each sharing a kitchen. The rationale for this is quite logical and standard for new college buildings but here it has been applied with the utmost rigour, reinforced by the door entry system, so that the groups of rooms are forced to operate as separate Were they occupied by families this would make • :J but in a hostel for a small friendly college it appears antisocial. The kitchens adjoin but are separated by fire doors which , I was solemnly informed, would always be locked . Is this a way around the building regulations which now require lifts for disabled access, except where buildings are broken down into small enough units?

The kitchens overlook a courtyard , decked chequerboard style in Douglas Fir, its south side open to a public footpath and the Caius sports ground beyond. This will be a pleasant space, if the deck does not weather too badly, and a magnificent oak tree is framed beautifully. The upper floors have balconies and at the top a wonderful azure-backed belvedere. There will be few better places to watch cricket from . Strange, then, that with such a wonderful view only two rooms face directly this way. The rest face north or are tucked in echelon round the sides, and on the ground floor the southern edge is taken up with bike sheds. On the south side brickwork gives way to white render and nautical imagery abounds. We have a bridge and funnels, decks and portholes, bulkhead lights and guard-rails. It looks like the Woolwich ferry is about to steam out across Caius playing field . The building is ,, •d with a large expanse of teme coated stainless s,-.. _, sloping down gently to single storey height. This must have been a hugely expensive item and one has to ask: was it worth it? It is bright and brash and,. of course, fashionable but slate would have sat far more happily in its suburban setting without compromising the building's 'modem' credentials. It also makes for a tempting slide down from the belvedere and a handy route up for someone who has lost their key. Hopefully it will not present a more serious security problem.

Above the steel sheeting are a series of grey and white boxes housing the attic storey and water tanks. As formal devices they help resolve the strong diagonals of the roof but, as with Darwin library, the roofscape elements are themselves a little unresolved, clashing awkwardly with each other. The glass towers, which from outside look so important, turn out to be lighting only the top landings of the two staircases.

Here is a building in search of itself. As an Oxbridge building, the architects appear to have reasoned, it needed a strong identity and, to be on the safe side, why not give it several? The beaux-arts symmetry, the modish materials, the elaborate skyline are all saying this is architecture with a capital 'A' . But here in this quiet location, with context given only by family housing and open spaces, one is left wondering what a less self-conscious approach might have achieved.

Jeremy Lander (Building Contractor: Thackray Construction in succession to Morris Preston.)

Inventing a tradition What do the Japanese, make of it all? Old and new stand side by side in contemporary Japan - skyscrapers peer down on ancient temples - but they stand distinct. So the visitor to Cambridge must be struck by the richness of its architecture , and the way new building quite literally embraces the old .

In her talk for the Cambridge Women Architects' Group , on 19 September Margaret Reynolds took 13 examples of recent buildings in Cambridge and looked at how each incorporates elements of its setting . Since this was a foretaste of a lecture to be given in Tokyo - she included two endowed with Japanese money . Firstly , EPA's masterplan for Pembroke, where the Master's Lodge currently stands like an isolated country house in the 'wild area' along Tennis Court Road. Under the plan , it will form an element in a new court completed by residential blocks which pick up scale , eaves line and roof. At New Hall , Austin -Smith : Lord have taken themes from Chamberlain Powell and Bon's original to create luxurious new accommodation and, at last, a genuine entrance to the building.

Intriguing glimpses were given of schemes nearing completion.The residential development for Trinity by MacCormac Jamieson Prichard at Burrell's Field off Grange Road , is well worth the detour. Although our speaker could not take any interior photos of the Evans and Shalev library at Jesus , she assured us it was truly astonishing .

Phrases like "3-D Georgian windows" and "detailed within an inch of its life" arouse pleasurable curiosity.

One of Margaret Reynolds' central ttfemes was how new architecture can give client or public , a starting point in familiar territory before launching into innovation . Every project described plays fascinating games with its context. Hopkins takes a cue from the Wren cloisters at Emma , and at old Addenbrookes Outram borrows Digby Wyatt's polychromy and takes it way, way over the top. Some (like Quinlan Terry) have succumbed to the "Prince Charles syndrome" Others outwit the tide of nostalgia with a crafty mixture of the familiar and unexpected (e .g.van Heyningen and Haward at Lucy Cavendish) .

In the 1960's, Margaret Reynolds suggested , new architecture acquired a bad press through arrogance - it was only for those tough enough to take it.

Nineties design is less blatant and simplistic, in fact deliberately complex: it is harder to dislike because it is harder to take in all at once. Design integrity no longer means single-minded adherence to an individual building's programme: it implies wholeness, integration into the landscape, the cityscape and the expectations of its users. The results are delightful , profoundly comforting , and flatter our intellectual appreciation . But would they have such value if appraised by a alien eye?

Helen Mulligan.

Baillie Scott's drawing of Elmwood Cottages

BAILLIE

scan

The Artistic House Dr Mervyn Miller discusses a new book on his work by Cambridge architect Diane Haigh and reviews the exhibition at Kettle's Yard October 1995.

Mackay Hugh Baillie Scott (1865-1945) has often been undervalued. For those with a Hegelian perspective, following Pevsner in Pioneers of Modern Design (1936), Scott represented a timid advance from Victorian convention, compromised by the fey, romantic presentation of his ideas through his illustrated articles in The Studio in the 1890's, and his book , Houses and Gardens (1906) . Scott is sometimes viewed alongside his contemporary, Charles Rennie Mackintosh (18681928), and found lacking in originality and sophistication . The comparison was inevitable, given their participation in Alexander Koch 's ' Art Lovers' House' Competition in 1900, in which Scott was awarded the second prize, and Mackintosh a 'special prize '. Hermann Muthesius witnessed the revival of English domestic architecture under Richard Norman Shaw and Philip Webb, and its diversification to the smaller scale of the 'ideal suburban house' under C F A Voysey

Open plan Living Room/ Dining Room 48, Storeys Way,(1912-13)

(1857-1940) and Scott. In Oas Englische Haus published in 1904-5. Muthesius celebrated the achievements of English domestic architecture and reserved a place of honour for Scott as 'the Northern poet'. Undoubtedly Scott's Studio articles, and Muthesius's enthusiastic advocacy of his work helped him to obtain commissions in Europe, beginning in 1898 with the redecoration of the Ducal apartments in Darmstadt. Scott lived , and practiced , long enough to witness the eclipse of Arts and Crafts architecture by a polite Neo-Georgian and the radical aesthetics of Modernism during the interwar period , when his work appeared little different from Stockbroker Tudor and the sham pastiche versions of his houses along arterial roads and by-passes. His reputation sank until the 1970's when he was the subject of a comprehensive re-appraisal in J D Kornwolf's M H Baillie Scott and the Arts and Crafts Movement: Pioneers of Modern Design. Komwolfs study had a limited circulation in Britain, was poorly illustrated, and tended to over-emphasise links between Scott and the U S shingle style, and his influence on Modernists, including Le Corbusier. Nevertheless , as Di Haigh states , Kornwolf is an essential adjunct to any study of Scott's architecture . But Di Haigh has attempted 'to capture the core of Baillie Scott's creative intentions and achievements ... by going back directly to the surviving houses'.

In this she has succeeded triumphantly, both in the exhibition at Kettle's Yard, and in her book, Baillie Scott: The Artistic House. Scott had a conventional upbringing in a wealthy Scottish land-owning family, gaining his first experience of architecture in Bath, under the City Architect, Settling in the Isle of Man in 1889 after his honeymoon, Scott worked at Onchan, then expanding with residential estates, and set up his own practice in 1892. He built his own home, The Red House, in 1893, and remained on the isle until the tum of the century when he moved to Fenlake Manor, Bedford. The Red House is the earliest building to be explored in Di Haigh's set of case studies - externally an immaculately detailed and crafted example of domestic revival , internally an intricate spatial progression featuring three interconnecting living spaces which could be opened out or closed off according to family activities. Such internal planning remained one of his strengths. Along with Voysey, Scott's Studio articles set the agenda for the smaller middle-class house, and ultimately the Garden City cottage. The relationship between writing and built form was explored in Five Gables, Grange Road, Cambridge (18978). Scott also received commissions for country houses, notably Blackwell, Windermere (1898-9) . Here the harled gabled exterior and plain mullioned windows bespeaks the northern vernacular to which Mackintosh also responded positively. Internally, however, the house is anything but conventional, with its new-old two storeyed living hall at its core , accommodating a billiard table , with a sheltered inglenook fireplace at one end , with a studded, galleried eyrie above. Beyond lay a serene white-painted drawing room, with an ingle flanked by attenuated columns with carved foliated capitals, suggesting a woodland bower.

After the move to Bedford , Scott's work proliferated.

Among the five houses in the First Garden City at Letchworth, 29 Norton Way North (1906) stands out, both

for its originality, with its massive hipped roof sweeping idiosyncratically down to within a metre of ground level, and because it has remained virtually intact. Regrettably , 'Elmwood Cottages' (1905) nearby, entered in the Cheap Cottage Exhibition, have been insensitively altered. Scott also contributed to Hampstead Garden Suburb, a complex multi-gabled terrace turning the corner from Hampstead Way to Meadway, and Waterlow Couct, a quadrangle of flats for single business ladies are among the best pre-1914 buildings in 'the Suburb salubrious'.

Scott designed several houses in Cambridge. It is instructive to compare 48 Storeys Way, built 1912-13 for H A Roberts , Secretary to the University Appointments Boards, with Church Rate Comer, built in 1924. The former represents a Scott classic, a long strung out plan with openplan living and dining spaces interconnecting and welcoming a sunlit garden. Canted bay windows emphasise the connection between indoors and out. The entrance elevation is more reticent with a long low sweeping roof, and projecting gabled stair turret and service wing . Sometimes Scott overdid the picturesque sweeping roofs externally, to the detriment of the bedrooms and first floor corridors.

Church Rate Corner seems more conventional , hesitant even . Its plan is less adventurous and more compartmented. However, it makes a virtue of minimalism in its carefully textured external rendering, and internal details It is an elegantly understated house asserting the continued radical values of its creator without rhetoric or polemic. Both ' es are beautifully presented in the exhibition and book.

Di Haigh takes themes which Scott himself examined in Houses and Gardens and illustrates them with reference to his buildings, with examples drawn from all periods of his career. Scott's best work transcended the enchanting, but sometimes misleading medievalism which suffused his drawings. Plans were practical, and arranged rationally to make the most of limited space and budgets . Simple , enduring materials were used, in which the texture added a richness to the ensemble quite removed from superficial decoration . Traditional craft skills were exploited in iron window catches, wooden door latches and plasterwork. The houses, materials and details are brought to life in Charlotte Wood's superb photographs in a way that illuminates their subjects .

Di Haigh has extended our knowledge of Scott's work in several ways. She has revealed a totality which explains his appeal particularly to German-speaking aficianados.

The best example of this is Waldbuhl , a country house at Uzwil , Switzerland, with a design which externally owes a debt to Lutyens, particularly in its loggias. However, the detailing includes an unexpected richness of polycrtile work in the garden features , a development o. ~chevron brickwork seen at Waterlow Court. The interiors are vividly coloured , as Scott himself advocated, with furniture enriched with linear marquetry decoration in tune with the work of Viennese Secessionists , notably Josef Hoffmann, different in character and accent, but as sophisticated as the contemporary pieces by Mackintosh . She has underlined the interrelationship between house and garden, and has provided a welcome corrective to the hitherto scathing views of the late work. For all this we must be grateful.

Furthermore, the book contains simple, practical advice to owners of Baillie Scott houses. Although many are now listed buildings, this has not prevented unsympathetic alterations, and interior decoration which fights the serene simplicity of the buildings, and often lies beyond control. Di Haigh has restored several Baillie Scott houses, notably 48 Storeys Way Cambridge, and her timely comments carry unobtrusive authority. The exhibition, appropriately, moves to the Isle of Man, and will be seen in Letchworth at the First Garden City Heritage Museum in April 1996. It is to be hoped that others will match the sensitive display and setting at Kettle's Yard, itself a modern reincarnation of Arts and Crafts values. The book, handsomely illustrated, will provide and enduring record of this timely reappraisal of one of the finest architects of the Arts and Crafts Movement.

Mervyn Miller

Out of the Frying Pan ...

NOTH I NG TO LOSE BUT YOUR DRAINS

The last 20 years have seen a massive increase in litigation in the construction industry. There is now even a specialist court, the Official Referees Court, dealing mainly with construction disputes. The potential liabilities of architects and other consultants have been under the legal microscope with alarming regularity.

This article give a brief review of the main legal decisions of the 1990s which affect architects. The decade started well but the current trend is bad news for con sultants.

First the Good News ... Prior to the 1990s the courts seemed relatively willing to expand the scope of liabilities within the construction industry. This was particularly so in the tort of negligence . In a 1984 case, for example , an employer succeeded in his claim against a negligent sub-contractor to recover the cost of rectification of the sub-contractor's bad work.

In 1990, the House of Lords in Murphy v Brentwood District Council put a stop to this expansion. The court made it clear that a building owner could not claim the cost of making good defective work from the original builder or designer (unless the building owner had a contractual relationship with them) . In legal terms the cost of repair is called "economic loss", and is not recoverable in the tort of negligence . This was good for consultants and their insurers. :1en the Bad .. . In the Murphy case the Lords recognised that there may be an exception to the rule against the recovery of "economic loss" when one part of a structure damages another part of the same structure . The building owner can then recover the cost of repair of the second part, but not the original defective part. In Jacobs v Morton & Partners (1994) the court allowed a building owner to claim from consulting engineers the cost of rectifying defective work caused by the engineers' negligence . There will undoubtedly be further building owners who rely on this exception .

The expansion of consultants' liabilities is perhaps best illustrated by the recent decision in Gable House Estates Limited v The Halpern Partnership. An architect prepared a preliminary cost plan for a commercial development (worth #5 .8m) showing "usable office space" of about 34,000 square feet. As built, there was only 32,000 square feet. The developer sued the architect. The court decided the architect was in breach of contract but also owed a duty to the developer in the tort of negligence. As a result , the developer recovered ~,st for the missing 2,000 square feet but for all his ' s in going ahead with the project which were me..; greater in view of the property crash .

The trend seems to be an increase in the scope of liabilities of construction professionals . The consequence will be more claims and probably higher premiums for P.I. insurance.

CFC/ evening lecture Moller Centre 13 September By the end of Robert & Brenda Vale's persuasive and entertaining talk describing the design, construction, and initiation of their latest autonomous house, I really wanted to believe them, who cares about the drains anyway? However what the Vale's were talking about was a change of lifestyle, and not a theoretical one, a demonstrable one, one they and their children are living, and evidently thriving upon , sabbaticals in New Zealand not withstanding. Not only that, they suggested we can all do it, live it, if we are serious about protecting our environment.

But are we? How many architects really agree with Robert Vale, when he says "What matters is not what a building looks like, but what it does to the environment"?

The Vales 4 bedroom, 170m2, £155 ,000 house is located in the heart of Southwell on a plot originally granted permission for a bungalow. It may be a low energy design but its "south" elevation actually faces west protecting the private garden and respecting the historic building lines and settlement patterns of the conservation area . Furthermore its "traditional" brickwork and pantile exterior, screened by a hedge, fools curious vis itors searching for a more overtly obvious autonomous house. The Vales seem to have delighted in the medieval context of Southwell, making deliberate reference to it both in the barn like structure of the building and the necessary sustainability of the medieval lifestyle. However, no dovecote , stew pond or rabbit warren are evident on the site plan . Instead there is a pergola structure forming a south facing diagonal , its dual function being to support £15 ,000 worth of electricity generating photovoltaic array above and espallied apple trees below.

The house is two storeys over a full height cellar stretching its length and breadth partially used to store the households water supply. No concern over privatisation here the Vales deal direct with the manufacturer.

Rather than digging a well , they collect rainwater in cop per guttering , storing it in 20 steam cleaned Israel i orange juice vats and filtering it through sand . No drought for the Vales this summer, they still had half their vats full when the rains came . The principal reason they saved water was not through rationing bathing but by taking the water out of their water closet and replacing it with a composting latrine , more of a flume closet whose construction , combined with the household cleaning regime encourages accuracy in use . Forget the "toilet duck" , you just stir the composter every six weeks , and feed your tomatoes! Bath-Water irrigates the garden.

The Vale's explained the design strategy employed to produce the low running costs . The house has enormous thermal mass and acts as one large heat store .

The 150mm insulated wall cavities follow Danish construction practice and have a U-value of 0.14W/m2K. The roof has 500mm of insulation giving a U-value of 0.065W/m2K . The intermediate floors are concrete block and beam construction with quarry tile finishes .

Windows, imported from Sweden , are draught sealed and triple glazed with two layers of low-E glass and Krypton gas fill. The Conservatory glazing has a Uvalue equivalent to the solid walls of the neighbouring Victorian terrace houses. Internal partitions are thermally insignificant lightweight timber construction. The Living room , with its pitched ceilings and attic platforms, is on the first floor taking advantage of the higher temperatures upstairs . There are other lifestyle conse quences. For example ventilation has to be closely con trolled . The children , and their friends, have had to learn not to leave doors open! This summer the Living room has reached 2s·c and is expected to remain so for several months . The bedrooms below have been a more comfortable 22·c . By February it is projected that house temperatures will have reduced to 16"C. There is no central heating system , solar gain, electrical appliances and bodies heat the house although there is also a

Raith Pickup, Mills & Reeve, solicitors.

SPECIALIST CONSTRUCTION LAW ADVICE Mills & Reeve provides a full service to all sectors of the building and engineering industries, including advice on : ,:, Construction documentation (contracts, bonds, warranties, etc) * Health and safety, particularly CDM ,:, Insurance aspects ::: Dispute resolution , including mediation For further details please contact Raith Pickup or Ron Plascow Francis House, 112 Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 !PH Tel: 01223 34422, Fax 01223 355848

small canal boat stove as insurance against cold snaps . One can 't help wondering how acceptable it is to live in a heat store although paying no heating bills certainly has its attractions.

As you would expect the Vales also took a personal interest in every building component tracking down its history to ensure a complete knowledge of its embodied energy. The "local" bricks, no longe r manufactured locally , but obligatory in the conservation area , were transported from Bradford, where they were fired us i ng landfill gas. The Danish plastic wall ties incurred minimal postal costs. The American photo voltaic array has a 20 year guarantee and was manufactured using pv power. One can 't help speculating that it would take a committed client to insist on knowing the history of every building component used in their building. Perhaps it could be offered as a special architectural service?

Anne Cooper

LETTERS .......

I was interested to read the article "Taking Off" in the summer issue of Cambridge Architecture.

You may be interested to know that my Council who own and have developed Milton Country Park over the past ten years commissioned Peter Fluck after he was introduced by my colleague Councillor Mrs . R.L. Cannon . Mrs.Cannon represents Duxford on the Council and has been Chairman of the Parks Development and Management Committee from the outset.

Discussing the model with Peter Fluck , as an architect myself, I was impressed by the technology , colour and movement and the idea of siting in the lake to reduce vandalism . Mrs Cannon and I were able to con vince Council of the merit and appropriateness of the piece and, despite the inevitable criticism , believe the decision has been amply vindicated in the installation .

Chris Tulitt, Chairman South Cambridge District Council

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Cambridge Women Architects Group Jane Carmichael, of Rowland and Carmichael, will be talking about their project.

Petersfield Mansions, on the former GPO site.

Architecture Centre Tuesday 7 November 8.00pm Joint RIBA/CIBSE meeting 'The invisible Architecture of Eng ineering Services' Prof. D.J .Croome .

Royal Cambridge Hotel November 9th 7.00 for 7.30 p.m . (buffet) CAA Executive Committee, including discussion with the new Eastern Region Di rector November 13th 6.30 p.m.

6 Kings Parade Colloquium - Directions in Architecture - involving th clients for Jesus and Dowr, College libraries, the Law Facu lty and T he Judge Institute.

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7.00 p.m . Corpus Christi new lecture theatre.

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