Pilot study context

In 2008, Liverpool celebrated its year as the European Capital of Culture and as part of the events held across the city, a catalogue and exhibition called ‘The World in One School’ was launched (Dunne and Richmond 2008). This documented the history of the Liverpool School of Architecture and its notable alumni, including the fact that there have been six Royal Gold Medal winners amongst the former staff and students (Dunne and Richmond 2008). Stirling is one of the school’s most notable alumni and holds considerable admiration and influence in the international architectural community (Jacobus 1975, Rowe 1984, Girouard 2000, Berman 2010). In addition to receiving the Royal Gold Medal in 1980, he received the Pritzker Prize in 1981 as well as having the Royal Institute of British Architects Stirling Prize named in his honour. Stirling’s legacy can be seen in buildings such as the Engineering Faculty at Leicester University, which he designed in practice with Gowan between 1959-63, as well as later work with Wilford, for example the Neue Staatsgalerie at Stuttgart between 1977-84 (see Figure 5.2). As such a significant former student, it was decided that a physical model should be constructed of his Newton Aycliffe community centre design to form part of the ‘World in One School’ exhibition.

Figure 5.2: The Neue Staatsgalerie at Stuttgart by Stirling and Wilford (left) and the Engineering Building at the University of Leicester by Stirling and Gowan (right).

5.1.1 Why Stirling?

Stirling’s community centre design was initially conceived as being limited to a ‘reconstruction’ project. It was a result of reconstructing the lost model that the potential for such investigations in a research context was realised. Therefore, the rationale of its inclusion as a study was initially retrospective. In the first instance,

91

the physical model was commissioned as a way of enhancing the exhibition staged in Liverpool, and later at the RIBA in Portland Place, London.

In gathering all of the source data available to construct the model, it soon became apparent that the information available was incomplete. This initiated an investigative process of how to fill in the missing elements of the design and how to make inferences based on other sources of information. The development of this process began to reveal new information about the design and acted as a catalyst and starting point for further research in this thesis. In this sense, the starting point for this project was arrived at somewhat serendipitously. The results reported here suggest initial findings into the use of computer mediated techniques as a method of augmenting understanding of an unbuilt work of architecture. Additionally, Stirling was chosen because of his connection to Liverpool as a former student and resident of the city, meaning that source information was accessible locally, making the logistics of the project more practical.

5.1.2 Sourcing primary and secondary information

The first task in preparation for constructing the physical model, which was aided using digital techniques, was to source all of the primary information available. The starting place for this was the University of Liverpool’s archive, which has photographs of some of the original drawings and a photograph of a small-scale physical model produced for the Newton Aycliffe master plan design, which is now presumed to be lost. Additional sources of primary information were provided by the authors of the catalogue and exhibition in the form of further architectural drawings of the community centre design (Dunne and Richmond 2008).

Once it became clear that the drawings available were fragmented, additional information was sought by studying biographies and monographs of Stirling. This offered further architectural images of the community centre design as well as written descriptions of the design itself and the context in which it was produced (Arnell and Bickford 1984, Jacobus 1975, Rowe 1984, Stirling and Krier 1975). The key drawings can be found in Appendix A. It was also known that further drawings and information might have been available from the Canadian Centre for Architecture, where the majority of Stirling’s work is archived. However, the budget for the project in comparison to the amount of information known did not justify visiting these archives.

92

5.1.3 Contemporary context of the design

In order to understand how Stirling came to design the community centre thesis at Newton Aycliffe, it is important to understand the context in which he was working and influences that had an impact on the design. This will then be used to aid decisions that may be required to resolve unknown elements of the design for interpolation and extrapolation purposes.

The starting point of this context was to investigate the history of the Liverpool School of Architecture in the period leading up to Stirling designing the community centre for his thesis in 1950. At this time, the school was undergoing a period of major transition. Between 1904 and 1933 Reilly was head of school, which was associated with traditional styles, particularly the Beaux Arts and Neo Classicism. After this, Budden became head and remained there during Stirling’s education. Budden’s era marked a significant move towards Modernist teachings in the school, although a traditional approach was still apparent. The students themselves began looking to the architecture coming from mainland Europe and were less influenced by historical sources (Dunne and Richmond 2008).

A significant shift in attitudes towards design also occurred with the arrival of the Polish School of Architecture in 1942-45. The Liverpool School of Architecture offered sanctuary for Polish architects and students during the Second World War with the idea that they would return home afterwards to assist in the rebuilding of their country (Dunne and Richmond 2008). In contrast to the more traditional style of Liverpool students, who used techniques such as watercolours, the Polish students primarily produced Modernist line drawings. This acted as a catalyst for students in Liverpool who were dissatisfied with the more traditional approach of the school. Stirling himself witnessed this after most of the Polish students had left;

“The School of Architecture was in tremendous ferment as the revolution of modern architecture had just hit it, second hand and rather late. There was furious debate as to the validity of the modern movement, tempers were heated and discussion was intense. Some staff resigned and a few students went off to other schools; at any rate I was left with a deep

conviction of the moral rightness of the new architecture.” (Stirling and

Krier 1975, p.14)

Due to this conflict of styles, Stirling’s education was an eclectic mix. Maxwell, who studied at the Liverpool School of Architecture at the same time as Stirling, commented how design projects ranged from Cistercian monasteries to a Baroque garden pavilion and a Corbusian suburb (Maxwell 1998b). This meant that Stirling

93

engaged with design in both historic and modern styles. He had an affinity for earlier building periods, such as English Baroque and Neo-Classicism as well as the works of engineers such as Brunel (Jacobus 1975).

During his final year at Liverpool, in which he produced the community centre thesis, the Modern Movement further influenced Stirling. He had access to books by Le Corbusier such as his ‘Oeuvre Complete’ and ‘Towards a New Architecture’. Rowe, who tutored the thesis project, stated that the community centre design bears a resemblance to Le Corbusier’s St-Dié Factory in its longer elevations (Jacobus 1975). He also comments that Stirling gained professional experience in New York the year before the thesis was undertaken. During this trip he visited many buildings in the city and further afield in the United States, by significant architects such as Wright, Breuer and Gropius. Rowe discusses the experience Stirling gained from his trip to America and how it influenced the thesis design, particularly how he believed it references Mies van der Rohe’s IIT unbuilt library design and ‘raised it up on Corbu style pilotis’ (Rowe 1975, p.14). The thesis also utilises Corbusier’s ‘Plan Libre,’ which combines various types of accommodation into a single building (Jacobus 1975). The comments by Rowe suggest that Corbusier’s St-Dié Factory, Mies van Der Rohe’s IIT library building and Breuer’s houses could form key precedents when dealing with incomplete sections of the community centre design.