The Worshipful Company of
Tylers and Bricklayers TRIENNIAL AWARDS 2017 for
BRICKWORK ROOF SLATING AND TILING WALL AND FLOOR TILING Presentation of Awards Grocers’ Hall Thursday 6 July 2017
In the presence of Alderman Charles Bowman
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BACKGROUND TO THE AWARDS
The Worshipful Company of Tylers and Bricklayers is one of the historic Livery Companies of the City of London and is unusual, if not unique, in being involved with three distinct crafts – Bricklaying, Roof Slating and Tiling, and Wall and Floor Tiling - for which we present awards today. The Company can trace its history from as early as 1416 and at that time and during the subsequent 250 years, it exercised almost total control over the three crafts within the London area. Liverymen were responsible for training the future generation of craftsmen through an apprenticeship system and it presided over disputes within the trades, monitored levels of craftsmanship and enjoyed draconian powers over members of the Livery who fell short of the required standard. It was, simultaneously, a cartel, an employers’ confederation, a trade union, a trading standards authority and, through the fraternity which existed between its members, a source of welfare and support to those who fell on hard times and to their families. Over the succeeding centuries the Company’s powers diminished with a substantial loss of influence followed the relaxation of the craft monopolies which had to be sanctioned following the Great Fire of London in 1666. A significant part of the Company’s role today is the fostering of the crafts it represents within the construction industry through the giving of awards and prizes. In this way the Company seeks to encourage the development of these crafts and the training of aspiring craftsmen and craftswomen giving recognition to individuals at the outset of their careers and ultimately conferring Master Craftsman status on those that are able to demonstrate the very highest standard of craftsmanship over a range of work. The work of craftsmen is particularly recognized and celebrated with the Company’s Triennial Awards for Bricklaying, Wall and Floor Tiling and Roof Slating and Tiling. The competition is open to buildings within the M25 area completed in the qualifying three year period and applications are encouraged and welcomed from building owners, architects, contractors, members of the Company and the general public. The Awards are judged against agreed criteria by panels made up from a cross section of members of the Company with the final stage of the judging carried out by those with the required level of specialist knowledge of the various crafts – either as designers, specifiers or craftsmen.
Winning buildings in recent years have included major corporate and public buildings, private houses, railway stations, hospitals and office buildings. Recognized work over the years has included new buildings as well as sensitive refurbishment projects and specialist finishes related to the crafts. Among the large scale buildings recognized by the Awards have been The Battersea Power Station, The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, St Pancras Chambers, The Cruciform Building for University College London, The Reform Club and the murals for the 2012 London Olympic Games. On a smaller scale, roofing and brickwork awards have been won for sensitive refurbishment works in St Katherine’s Dock and the Victoria and Albert Museum, for high rise housing, for a commercial office development in Croydon and for the ceramic tiling at the Coram Early Childhood Centre. The collection of entries submitted for consideration over this three year period ensured that the assessors had an extremely difficult task in making their selection and the Company is grateful to those of its members who proposed buildings for the awards and to those from the crafts who submitted entries. Particular gratitude is expressed to the Brick Development Association, The Tile Association and the National Federation of Roofing Contractors for their generosity in making available to the Company details of the entries within our catchment area submitted for their own very prestigious awards over the three year period.
CHAIRMAN’S COMMENTS
‘‘Assessing buildings for awards is always a fascinating experience. But the Tylers and Bricklayers Awards are particularly intriguing because they focus specifically, and exclusively, on the making of buildings. These awards are not about design, but about craft, and what they recognise is the fundamental contribution of craftsmanship to the realisation of fine architecture. It’s what makes buildings beautiful, and it’s also what makes them last. Over two days of visits we saw examples of remarkable craftsmanship. What surprised me – as each project was explained to the panel - was the realisation that craftsmanship is a product as much of the brain as it is of the hand. Manual dexterity is, of course, a prerequisite, but just as impressive - in all the schemes we saw - was their intellectual rigour and their aesthetic sensibility. Everywhere subtle judgements and careful calculations are being made to ensure the proper execution of the work. Above all, I suppose, what all the projects revealed was an extraordinary level of care. And in a world in which speed of delivery seems to trump everything else, it is wonderful to be reminded of the qualities that care, and real craftsmanship, can bring to our physical environment, and of the pleasure that can be derived from them.” Bob Allies 21.6.2017
2017 BRICKWORK AWARD NEWPORT STREET GALLERY, SE11 6AJ Photographs courtesy of Clare Banks
The lower courses are constructed in Newport Dark bricks laid in a header bond fronting the Newport Street elevation with a stretcher bond on the remaining elevations laid on a dark mortar. The bricks are blended variants of Northcot Brick’s standard production but additionally some 6,000 bespoke or handmade bricks were utilised to match the two blend types and to create the tapered appearance of the entrance and the sawtooth roof detailing.
Award Citation: Newport Street Gallery comprises a terrace of brick built buildings which have been converted and rebuilt to form a contemporary art gallery to house the owner’s private collection and works. The original buildings comprised three listed properties which had been purpose built as scenery painting studios in 1913. The exterior has been handled sympathetically to give an attractive contrast between the new and renovated elevations yet still provides a coherent street scene. The majority of the new brickwork is constructed in Newport Light bricks laid in a Flemish bond on a light lime mortar.
Internally the gallery’s four curved elliptical staircases have been finished with specially designed and fired Oslo white bricks manufactured by Roben and laid on white lime mortar. The internal brickwork is highly complex incorporating embedded handrails, brick clad lintels and soffits and numerous purpose made special bricks. The contractor had to utilise eight setting out points at the base and soffit with piano wire strung between. Given the complexity of the task foreman bricklayer Graham Woods oversaw the delivery of a stunning result. The final judging panel concluded that this was a complex scheme extremely well delivered to a high standard throughout particularly having regard to the scale of the project. The panel were also impressed by the brickwork design elements incorporated by the architects Caruso St. John in delivering a highly contemporary building within the historical context of the original buildings and location.
Building Owner
Science Ltd.
Architect
Simon Davison, Caruso St. John Architects
Brickwork Contractor
Grangewood Brickwork Services Ltd.
Brick Manufacturer
Northcot Brick
Foreman Bricklayer
Graham Woods
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York Handmade is one of the leading independent brick makers in the UK. As such they are involved in a variety of prestigious projects encompassing innovative new brickwork design. For example the Renzo Piano Design for the Shard incorporated a 290 x 100 x 47mm format brick as does the adjacent London Bridge Place designed by the same architect. Both projects involve special detailing - something at which York Handmade excel. The Company are proud to be sponsoring the Triennial Brickwork Awards for the Company and totally support the dedication to craftsmanship which have been its hallmark for many years.
The Tile Association is delighted to be able to support the Worshipful Company of Tylers and Bricklayers Triennial Awards. The Tile Association represents over 750 manufacturers, suppliers and contractors in the wall and floor tile industry and its main aim is to focus the UK tile industry on making tiles the wall and floor covering of choice for consumers and the trade.
The National Federation of Roofing Contractors is the UK’s largest roofing trade association covering over 60% of the roofing industry by value. By using an NFRC registered contractor for your roof tiling and slating you have the comfort of guaranteed protection and quality. NFRC ensures that members offer high standards of workmanship and sound business practice through a strict Code of Practice and an independent vetting procedure, including site inspections and adhering to Government endorsed TrustMark standards. All NFRC trade members hold comprehensive insurance cover and insurance backed warranties are available. Trained and reputable solar installation and heritage specialist roofers are available.
The TTA focuses on - Setting Standards, training, technical issues, marketing the industry and helping members run their businesses The NVQ qualifications TTA has put in place for tilers have been written by industry specialists. The Association has launched TTA Centres of Training Excellence, and works continuously with the Construction Skills to increase the number of colleges offering tilefixing courses. With CS Skills help, TTA has developed skills tests - for Scottish SNVQ students, and experienced fixers aiming for an NVQ and then a CSCS card. As well as this a specialist qualification for master craftsmen is being developed, allowing those at the top of their profession to have their skills and expertise recognised On the technical front, the Tile Association is very much involved in developing British, European and International Standards for tiles, tile fixing and tile related products, and has published a number of specialist technical documents on tiling in specific conditions. The TTA has an annual awards event to promote excellence in products, businesses, projects and people in the industry. Their website attracts 850000 hits per month and a TV campaign promoting TTA is currently underway. Regular articles also appear in consumer and the contract press.
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From roofing slates to architectural products ...
Welsh Slate manufacture high quality slate products
roofing paving flooring walling cladding aggregates
Established 1872 Tel: 020 8520 2275 www.fullersbuilders.co.uk In 1868, Edward Fuller walked up from Woodbridge in Suffolk to work as a carpenter in Walthamstow where he formed his own business four years later. Since that date, the family company has continued to build and refurbish a wide range of buildings, from houses costing £130.00 each in 1886 to the repair of over 450 listed buildings since the millennium.
www.welshslate.com
www.brick.org.uk The Association of Brickwork Contractors is a body made up a number of well-known brickwork contractors throughout the United Kingdom. The aim of the ABC is to promote the role of the bricklayer &brickwork contractor and to continually strive to improve standards through the focus of QUALITY OF WORK, EMPLOYMENT, HEALTH & SAFETY and TRAINING & EDUCATION. www.associationofbrickworkcontractors.co.uk
The Brick Development Association represents the United Kingdom and Ireland’s clay brick and paver industries. Our role is to ensure clay brick and pavers are recognised as the material of choice by architects, engineers, planners, specifiers, developers, landscapers, builders and property owners. The demand for brick buildings continues to increase and this is clearly evident in the continuing success of the annual Brick Awards. Organised by the Brick Development Association, the Awards, which first took place in 1977, are one of the top design and construction awards in the country – and the definitive showcase for what clay brick can do.
BRICKWORK SPECIAL COMMENDATION 2017 31 GREAT JAMES STREET, BLOOMSBURY, WC1N 3HB Photographs courtesy of Clare Banks
The project comprised the renovation of the front elevation of this early Georgian townhouse which had suffered from neglect and inappropriate repair in the past. The building owner oversaw the project and commissioned Heritage Pointing to undertake the cleaning and re-pointing of the brickwork. The project involved careful cleaning of the brickwork and removal of cement mortar and the finalisation of the mortar colour required multiple blend samples before re-pointing was undertaken. The final result is as close to perfection as the judging panel has seen and as a consequence is one of the finest examples of tuck pointing and the panel felt that they had no alternative but to formally recognise the execution of one of the bricklayer’s finer arts. The impact on the street scene demonstrated by the photographs will hopefully inspire other building owners to adopt a similarly enlightened approach!
2017 ROOF TILING AND SLATING AWARD NEW PLACE, PARK ROAD, BANSTEAD, SURREY, SM7 3EH Photographs courtesy of Clare Banks
Award Citation: This project involved the comprehensive re-roofing of an arts and crafts mansion as part of a full renovation by the current owner to revert the property to residential use it having previously been used as offices. As can be seen the roof slopes are extremely complex with a variety of dormer and hip features, extensive leadwork and full flush valleys. The project involved matching some 8,500 reclaimed clay tiles with new tiles manufactured by Keymer. In order to achieve consistency on each slope the foreman tiler needed to oversee and set out a workable blend before laying. The tiles were laid on 25mm x 38mm John Brash red battens with 25mm x 50mm counter battens over a Tyvec Supro breathable underlay. The challenges presented by the roof design and scale of the project are perhaps best exemplified by the fact that 7.5 tonnes of milled lead sheet were required for the flashings and small flat roofed sections. The contractor was also able to afford an apprentice the opportunity of working alongside the tiling team and to gain valuable experience of a Heritage Roofing project. The Assessors were unanimous in their view that this scheme exemplifies the highest standard of craftsmanship and represents one of the finest examples of roof tiling seen in the long history of these awards.
Building Owner
Mr Tony Dakin
Roofing Contractor
Karl Terry Contractors Ltd.
Foreman Tiler
Steve Headeche
2017 WALL AND FLOOR TILING AWARD PAOLOZZI MOSAICS, TOTTENHAM COURT ROAD UNDERGROUND STATION, W1 Photographs courtesy of TRI Contracting
Award Citation The mosaics at Tottenham Court Road Underground Station designed by Sir Eduardo Paolozzi CBE RA are past winners of these awards following their completion in 1984. In the subsequent 30 years the Mosaics had fallen into disrepair due in part to wear and tear but also to a degree of vandalism and the actions of ‘trophy hunters’. Further areas were to be disturbed or demolished as part of renovation works at the station. As a consequence TRI were commissioned by main contractor Taylor Woodrow BAM Nuttall to survey and restore the affected areas. Initial surveys took some two months to complete and involved over 500 photographs. Recoverable material was removed from site and cleaned in acid baths before sorting into different colour fields and grades. TRI, in conjunction with specialist mosaic supplier Cube STM Ltd., had to source and research appropriate replacement materials as some of the original mosaics were no longer able to be utilised due to their containing hazardous materials and others could not be reproduced due to changes in manufacturing processes. The task of renovation and of providing new and replacement sections was made harder as some of the original designs had been lost. Accordingly an element of design and innovation was required to produce products that were acceptable to the Paolozzi Foundation.
As new materials were being sourced the task began of sketching and tracing the original panels so that the new material could be set out and prepared off site and so that removed or replacement panels could be matched as perfectly as possible. During this phase it became apparent that the numbering of the individual mosaics would not suit the sequence of laying on site and the individual mosaics had to be re-numbered and repackaged. The scale and complexity of the mosaic work were not the only difficulties presented to the contractors. Works had to be undertaken over a two year period whilst the platforms remained open to the public and given the need to transport all materials from the surface by hand via escalators and stairs, and allowing for preparation and clean up time, this severely restricted the time available on site. Two closures, each for a two week period, enabled more extended working times but platform level temperatures in these periods of up to 120 degrees Fahrenheit presented their own challenges. The new installations also required the construction of a curved frame to support the mosaics over the tunnel ring and bulkheads and other structural elements also required modification to receive the installation.
When all of the individual challenges facing the contractors are considered the achievement of such a consistently high standard across such a large scheme, on a much loved public installation, is quite simply astonishing and the assessors felt they had no alternative but to acclaim the scheme as the worthy winner of the 2017 Award notwithstanding the strong claims of the two specially commended schemes detailed below.
Building Owner
Transport for London
Tiling Contractor
TRI Contracting Ltd.
Foreman Tiler
John Ludlow
Tile Design & Manufacture
Cube STM Ltd.
Project Manager
Taylor Woodrow BAM Nuttall Joint Centure
2017 WALL AND FLOOR TILING SPECIAL COMMENDATIONS ST. STEPHEN’S HALL, PALACE OF WESTMINSTER, SW1 Photographs courtesy of Adam Wartrobski
As part of the re-building of the Palace of Westminster in 1834, Architect Sir Charles Barry proposed that the floors of the principal halls, corridors and galleries should be formed of encaustic tiles. Barry was assisted in the design of the original floor tiles by Augustus Welby Pugin who commissioned Herbert Minton to manufacture the tiles. Pugin considered the finished product to be the finest example of design, manufacture and workmanship anywhere in the world. After 150 years a process of renewal and renovation is now being undertaken and St. Stephen’s Hall is one of the first sections to have been completed. Craven Dunnill Jackfield were commissioned by lead Architects Donald Insall Associates to manufacture the replacement tiles throughout the Palace, a process which began in 2008 led by Chris Cox of Craven Dunnill Jackfield and required extensive development and testing of colour, design and firing techniques to achieve an exact reproduction. The floor in St. Stephen’s Hall involved the supply of some 4000 encaustic tiles in five repeating panels set between black Valentia slate with each panel incorporating ten different designs in red, white, blue and buff colours with the perimeter edged in tiles depicting the Coats of Arms of the Knights of the Garter. The project has been finished to an exceptionally high standard and the assessors particularly wished to recognise the tile manufacturer and the Palace’s Architect in achieving a near perfect reproduction of the original tiling.
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THE CHAPEL OF ST. GEORGE AND THE ENGLISH MARTYRS, WESTMINSTER CATHEDRAL, SW1 Photographs courtesy of Gary Bricknell
To mark the centenary of the Battle of the Somme the barrel vaulted ceiling and main arches of the Chapel were redesigned by artist Tom Phillips CBE RA. The design depicts the forty Catholic martyrs’ burning names set against a dark sky. Gary Bricknell and Trevor Caley of TMRC worked on the scheme which incorporated over 500,000 pieces of hand cut Venetian glass and gold faced tesserae. The installation faced a number of challenges including the removal of centuries of candle soot from the surfaces and the need to work without disturbing the Cathedral’s seven daily masses. This involved developing a flexible and fast scheme of work and Ardex AM 100 Rapid Hardening Tile Render was utilized on a metal frame as this product requires no gauging sand nor cement, speeding up the mixing process. The final judging panel agreed that this is an extremely well executed intricate scheme which exhibits a consistently high degree of craftsmanship particularly given the complexities of the scheme and the constraints imposed and which is deserving of recognition on many levels.
The Company’s gratitude is expressed to all those who assisted with the arrangements, assessment and presentation of the 2017 Triennial Awards. The short listing was carried out by members of the Craft Committee and the assessments were carried out in stages by two preliminary assessment panels. The preliminary assessors were Don Slade, David White, Emma Simpson, David Williams, Chris Causer (Deputy Chairman, Craft Committee) and Jeff Fuller (Upper Warden and Chairman, Craft Committee) with additional input from Bob Howard MBE and David Cole-Adams. The Final assessments were carried out by Bob Allies (Chairman), David Szymanski (The Master), Jason Wright, Don Slade and Jeff Fuller (Upper Warden and Chairman, Craft Committee). The Company is extremely grateful to Liveryman Clare Banks for photographing many of the schemes and to all our sponsors for their generosity without which these Awards could not take place. The majority are shown in the centre pages of this brochure but the Company also wishes to acknowledge Liveryman Colin Beeck and Wyvern Properties Ltd. for their generous sponsorship.
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The Worshipful Company of Tylers and Bricklayers Clerk: John R Brooks 3 Farmer’s Way, Seer Green, Bucks HP9 2YY clerk@tylersandbricklayers.co.uk website: www.tylersandbricklayers.co.uk