Books
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Wells Coates
Format 234x167mm, 160pp, 120 illustrations, published 2012
PRICE: £20
ISBN: 978-1-8594643-7-3By Elizabeth Darling
Wells Coates was one of the most significant figures in British Architectural Modernism and designer of the landmark Lawn Road Flats (1934) in Hampstead that offered a new solution to the problems of urban living, still relevant today.
Through contacts in London’s bohemian circles, Coates entered architecture in 1929 without any formal training. He was soon at the forefront of the Modern Movement, starting with dress shops and moving on to interiors for politicians and actors, and studios for the BBC, while as an industrial designer, he created the classic circular Bakelite AD65 Ekco wireless. Coates was also a tireless champion of the Modernist cause and in 1933 co-founded the MARS (Modern Architectural Research) Group – a ‘think-tank’ which worked to theorise British Modernism through programmes of research and exhibitions, establishing links to the leading European architects of the day.
The outbreak of World War II and the subsequent decline in commissions almost brought a halt to Coates’s flourishing career, although he enjoyed one last success at the Festival of Britain, returning finally to his native Canada where he worked on planning and housing schemes. Three sublime blocks of 1930s flats form his principal legacy, and the book concludes by describing the physical decline of two of these, Lawn Road and Embassy Court in Brighton, charting the complex process by which each was repaired and relaunched in the first decade of the 21st century. There is a full gazetteer of Coates’s works and projects.
Elizabeth Darling is an author and academic at Oxford Brookes University, whose research focuses on inter-war British Modernism, on which she has published widely. The book is richly illustrated with historical images, many of which are previously unpublished, and includes specially commissioned colour photography by James O. Davies. It will delight architects, students, architectural historians and anyone who is interested in the Modern Movement in Britain.
This book is part of the Twentieth Century Architects series published jointly by RIBA Publishing, English Heritage and the Twentieth Century Society.
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John Madin
Format 234x167mm, 160pp, 120 illustrations, published 2011
PRICE: £20.00
ISBN: 9781859463673by Alan Clawley
John Madin was the indisputable master of post-war architecture in Birmingham, and this is the first major publication on his work. The work of Madin and his associates had a profound influence on the reshaping of the city after the war, producing some of the most iconic buildings of that period, such as the Birmingham City Library, the Chamber of Commerce and the Post and Mail Building.
Trained in the modernist style but too much of a craftsman to abandon decoration entirely, his work is characterised by attention to detail, a preference for natural materials and a desire for decoration and art in his buildings.
Many have characterised Madin as a commercial architect, but as the author argues, there was another side to his work. His conservationist approach to the development plan for the Calthorpe Estate, his workman-like master-planning of Dawley, Telford and Corby new towns, his public service commissions, and his design and layout of housing schemes that are still lived-in and popular today, testify to his commitment to human values.
Lavishly illustrated with images from Madin’s personal archive and stunning new photography, this book is an essential read for architects, students, architectural historians and modernist enthusiasts interested in learning more about a key figure in British post-war architecture.
This book is part of the Twentieth Century Architects series published jointly by RIBA Publishing, English Heritage and the Twentieth Century Society.
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Ahrends, Burton and Koralek
Format 234x167mm, 152pp, colour cover, published 2012
PRICE: £20
ISBN: 978-1-8594616-6-2By Kenneth Powell
Ahrends, Burton and Koralek (ABK) was established in London in 1961 by three young AA graduates, Peter Ahrends, Richard Burton and Paul Koralek. By the 1970s, ABK was known as one of the most creative and versatile of Britain’s younger practices, its workload ranging from college buildings in Oxford and Chichester to housing, public libraries, retail and industrial buildings.
While influenced by High Tech, their buildings were characterised by a concern for strong form and materiality. Major projects of the 1980s included stations for the Docklands Light Railway and the pioneering St. Mary’s Hospital on the Isle of White, as well as buildings at Hooke Park in Dorset designed in collaboration with Frei Otto. ABK’s victory in the prestigious 1982 competition for an extension to the National gallery in London reflected the firm’s standing but the scheme was abandoned following a controversial intervention by the Prince of Wales.
Written by eminent architectural author and critic Kenneth Powell, and lavishly illustrated with images from the practice’s archive and stunning new photography, this book will interest architects, students, architectural historians and anyone keen to learn more about a key practice in British post-war architecture.
This book has been commissioned as part of a series of books on Twentieth Century Architects by RIBA Publishing, English Heritage and the Twentieth Century Society.
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Journal 10: The Seventies
Format 255x198mm, 184pp, colour cover, Published 2012
PRICE: £19.50
ISBN: 978-0-9556687-2-2Edited by Elain Harwood and Alan Powers
As interest in post-war British architecture and society grows, the 1970s is increasingly seen as a crucial time of transition when, despite adverse economic conditions, new thinking emerged to modify the Modernist beliefs of the 1960s, incorporating greater concern for the realities of life. Wit, imagination, humility and sensitivity to people and environments helped to create more flexible approaches to the design of individual buildings and cities.
Described by Bridget Cherry as ‘essential reading for anyone who wants to understand that decade’, this journal includes eleven essays which demonstrate the variety and suprising zest of the decade.
Contents
From Downtown to Diversity: Revisiting the 1970s Elain Harwood and Alan Powers
Castles, Cows and Glasshouses: the Burrell Collection Architectural competition Barnabas Calder
Something is Happening Here but You Don’t Know What It Is Louis Hellman
David Rock: ‘Architecture is the Land of Green Ginger’ or ‘Form Follows Culture’ Catherine Croft
The End of ’Optimism and Expansiveness’? Designing for Drama in the 1970s Alistair Fair
‘White Wall Guys’: The Return of Heroic Modernism Geraint Franklin
The Centrality of Milton Keynes Roland Jeffery
Two Faiths: Modernism Meets Islam in London, 1969-1984 Hannah Parham
An Exemplary 1970s Building: Gun Wharf, Chatham Simon Wartnaby
Suburban Affinities Gavin Stamp
Terry Farrell, Jeremy Dixon and the Beginning of Post-Modernism in England Ken Powell
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Robert Maguire & Keith Murray
Format 234x167mm, 224pp, colour cover, published 2012
PRICE: £20
ISBN: 978-1-8594616-5-5By Gerald Adler
Robert Maguire was still a student at the Architectural Association in London in the early 1950s when he designed his first church. A committed Christian and enthusiast for contemporary design, he was a leading figure in the liturgical reform movement that sought to find an appropriate, modern setting for worship. His design for St. Paul, Bow Common in London’s East End was the first such church to be built in Britain, and was followed by a remarkable series of churches and other religious buildings in England in the 1960s and 1970s designed together with the silversmith and designer Keith Murray, with whom he went into partnership in the late 1950s.
The practice was famous for pursuing the intellectual and architectural toughness of the new Brutalism with the humanity and warmth of the Scandinavian tradition. They completely rethought the design of churches, and went on to reinvent the typology of both school buildings and student accommodation. Bow Common Primary School revolutionised open plan layouts, and Stag Hill court student houses for the University of Surrey set new standards in communal living with its finely judged mix of privacy and community.
Gerald Adler places this small but highly influential studio within the changing context of post-war architectural practice, where the Brutalism of the 1950s gave way to the more technologically oriented architecture of the 1970s, and the so-called Romantic Pragmatism of the 1980s. The book is richly illustrated with drawings from the office archive, in addition to new photographs.
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Stephen Dykes Bower
Format 234x167mm, 204pp, colour cover, published 2011
PRICE: £20
ISBN: 978-1-8594639-8-7By Anthony Symondson.
Stephen Dykes Bower (1903-1994) was unique among twentieth century British architects as a sincere practitioner of Gothic design whose career was mainly in the post 1945 period. He rejected modernism and continued traditions from the late Victorian period, with an emphasis on fine detail, craftsmanship and bright colour.
He built four completely new churches, including the remarkable richly-patterned St. John’s at Newbury. At Bury St Edmunds his extension of a parish church into a cathedral, ‘our finest modern cathedral’ in the view of Sir John Betjeman, was spectacularly completed in 2005 with the addition of a crossing tower, designed by Warwick Pethers, the last of his assistants.
Most of Dykes Bower’s work was in the context of older buildings, including Westminster Abbey, where he cleaned the grimy stonework of the interior and added sparkling colour to the monuments. At St. Pauls Cathedral, he created the sumptuous high altar and baldacchino. Parish churches across England bear witness to his skill and care, and to the team of craftsmen in silver, iron, stone and decorative painting who carried out his designs. In addition, he was an expert on organs and their cases, and one of the best designers of fine embroidered vestments, frontals and hangings.
Dykes Bower’s skill was not only in details but also in making harmonious spaces for worship.
Anthony Symondson draws on many conversations with Stephen Dykes Bower and people who knew and worked with him to create a revelatory account of a largely unknown career. It follows the same author’s major study, Sir Ninian Comper (2006). This book will appeal to lovers of churches and their decoration, to professionals involved in church design and conservation, and to all who are interested in the alternatives to Modernism in the twentieth century.
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Chamberlin, Powell & Bon
Format 234x167mm, 160pp, colour cover, published 2011
PRICE: £20
ISBN: 978-1-8594639-7-0By Elain Harwood
The Barbican is one of London’s landmarks and Britain’s largest listed building, yet its architects, Chamberlin, Powell and Bon (CP&B) are little known today. Their leader, Peter (Joe) Chamberlin, died young and their archive was thought to have been destroyed. But detective work has revealed a complex story about three determined characters and a surprising variety of fascinating architecture.
Chamberlin worked on the Festival of Britain, but the practice was formed only in 1952 when Geoffry Powell won a housing competition in London. The resulting Golden Lane Estate is as light and brightly-coloured as the adjoining Barbican that followed is monumental. In between the firm produced a range of buildings that pushed concrete technology to its limits, including houses and schools, Murray Edwards College (New Hall) in Cambridge, and major extensions to Leeds University. These projects are recognised as among the best buildings of the 1960s; this book explains how they happened.
Elain Harwood is a historian with English Heritage specialising in post-war architecture, and has researched the work of CP&B for many years, initially to secure the listing of the best examples.
The book is illustrated with images from CP&B’s rediscovered archive and specially commissioned colour photography by James O. Davies, and will delight architects, students, architectural historians and anyone who is interested in learning more about a key practice in British post-war architecture.
This book has been commissioned as part of a series of books on 20th Century Architects by RIBA Publishing, English Heritage and the Twentieth Century Society.
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Leonard Manasseh & Partners
234x167mm, 176pp, 120 illustrations, published 2010
PRICE: £20.00
ISBN: 9781859463680By Timothy Brittain-Catlin
Leonard Manasseh was an ‘architect’s architect’, greatly admired by his contemporaries both on a personal and professional level. He came to prominence at the Festival of Britain and went on to be one of the leading British architects of the 1960s, designing private houses and offices as well as major public commissions.
Timothy Brittain-Catlin, architect and architectural historian at the University of Kent, describes how the work of Leonard Manasseh and Partners expresses one of the central themes of the 1950s and 1960s: the apparent conflict between the architect as creative artist on one hand, and as rational technologist and scientist on the other. Leonard Manasseh and his partner Ian Baker were lauded for producing modernist designs that were in keeping with their historical settings or landscapes. Examples include industrial buildings in rural settings, a study for Kings Lynn, undertaken with architect-planner Elizabeth Chesterton, and the project that is most commonly associated with the practice, the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu.
Lavishly illustrated with images from Manasseh’s private archive and stunning new photography, this book is an essential read for architects, students and enthusiasts for modernism wanting to learn more about a key practice in British post-war architecture.
This book is part of the Twentieth Century Architects series jointly published by RIBA Publishing, English Heritage and the Twentieth Century Society.
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Powell & Moya
Format 234x167mm, 160pp, B&W cover, published 2009
PRICE: £20
ISBN: 978-1-8594630-3-1by Kenneth Powell
For the first time a comprehensive and engaging account of one of Britain’s most significant post-war practices, Powell & Moya, has been chronicled in this new book by eminent architectural author and critic Kenneth Powell. Founded in 1946 by Phillip Powell and Hidalgo “Jacko” Moya, the practice succeeded in being at the forefront of hospital design, brought modernism to the ancient universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and designed one of London’s most successful post-war housing schemes, Churchill Gardens. Ten years after the demise of the practice, they have continued to make the news into the 21st century with the high profile campaign to rebuild their iconic Skylon, originally constructed for the 1951 Festival of Britain.
Lavishly illustrated with images from the Powell and Moya archive and stunning new photography, this book is an essential read for architects, students, historians and modernist enthusiasts interested in learning more about one of the 20th century’s most successful British practices. It will also interest and inspire a new generation of architects who want to build in a modern way, in tune with the city and countryside, and in the service of people. It was that vision that drove Powell and Moya’s architecture – a vision still relevant today.
This book has been commissioned as part of a series of books on 20th Century Architects by RIBA publishing, English Heritage and the Twentieth Century Society.
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Aldington, Craig and Collinge
Format 234x167mm, 160pp, colour cover, published 2009
PRICE: £20
ISBN: 978-1-8594630-2-4by Alan Powers.
Peter Aldington started his independent architectural practice in 1962, quickly earning an international reputation for designing small houses that respected their village locations and achieved magical transitions between interior and garden. The group of three houses at Haddenham, Buckinghamshire (1964-68), now listed Grade II*, where Aldington created a well-known garden, is still widely admired and visited, and has been vested in a trust.
John Craig became a partner in the practice in 1970 and they went on to design ground-breaking doctors’ group practice surgeries, shops, office interiors and public housing. With the Royal Mail at Hemel Hempstead in the mid 1980s, Aldington, Craig and their younger partner, Paul Collinge, produced their own versions of high-tech. It is, however, for their houses, including the Anderton house near Barnstaple, now owned by the Landmark Trust, that the practice remains chiefly associated.
Alan Powers, Chairman of the Twentieth Century Society, draws on the recollections of the partners and on contemporary documents to describe the distinctive ideology of Aldington, Craig and Collinge through their built and unbuilt projects. He positions them against the shifting background of Modernism in Britain, in which Aldington and Craig played a role as educators and polemicists, calling for better public understanding of the value that architects could bring to every aspect of living and place-making. The narrative casts new light on the continuing work of the practice following the retirement of the two founding partners.
This book has been commissioned as part of a series of books on Twentieth Century Architects by RIBA Publishing, English Heritage and the Twentieth Century Society.