by
Esther Cox 3 STOREYS is a playful adventure of pattern and architecture inspired by the textures of John Piper and the journey of the Modernist movement in 20th Century British architecture. It is a book designed to be cut (along the dotted lines) to create ‘3 Storeys’, a flick book inspired by the ‘Heads, Bodies & Legs’ parlour-game played by childrens and surrealists everywhere. Open the book and flip the sections to create your own facades! Esther has described the making of her book in the following pages and this is followed by a ‘building spotters guide’ to some of the buildings that have inspired this book. There is a commentary that follows which I hope will point readers to explore these wonderful buldings.
3 STOREYS Esther Cox
Introduction The idea of a playful book of architectural styles was suggested to me by Esther Cox. I had known Esther through Instagram and her wonderfully informed feed, featuring her own textile design processes and influences, makes compelling viewing. We played with various ideas before settling on a fun book to cut out, in 3 Storeys, modelled on the parlour game of ‘Exquisite Corpses’. I hope you’ll enjoy the patterns and have fun dicovering the buildings and inspiration behind Esther’s illustrations. Joe Pearson
The Story of 3 Storeys This isn’t an exhaustive list of what I’ve looked at, in the making of 3 Storeys, but I think it’s probably enough to go on! Of course it doesn’t include the houses I pass daily, the one I grew up in (a 1970s span house as it goes) or the more mundane shop parades, estates, cinemas and seaside bungalows that aren’t covered in architectural glory, but were familiar to me and just as significant in the making of this book.
My intention was not to illustrate individual buildings but to project a feel for an era and to celebrate the abstraction of form and ideas that Modernism as a movement championed. I hope this is visible in the chronology the book follows. There is nothing from the war years for obvious reasons, though I do wish I had made one page a single storey Anderson shelter. They seem fundamentally modernist in their materials and style to me. But of course we live with buildings from all ages, stacked side by side, so the idea of being able to ‘mix and match’ architectural styles in a book of consequences, was immediately appealing to me. I was keen to try and dispel the myth that Modernist buildings are clean white boxes, or famously a concrete carbuncle, and to celebrate how diverse and decorative many of them are. I’m also rather partial to patterns. I hope the book is fun to play with and will encourage you to examine and enjoy the built environment that surrounds you. Esther Cox
The Hoover Building Wallis, Gilbert & partners
The Hoover Building was designed for The Ohio based Hoover Company in 1931 by Wallis, Gilbert and Partners and sited on the Western Avenue in Perivale. The factory opened in 1933 and work on various extensions continued until the outbreak of the Second World War. It was this piecemeal process that led to its lack of a cohesive overall form. Modern architectural commentators generally treat the Hoover factory as an ‘art deco’ design, but Thomas Wallis called his style ‘Fancy’. The building’s ornamentation is said to have been inspired by the art of Central and North American Indians, though there are Egyptian touches too. John Betjeman described it as, “a sort of Art Deco Wentworth Woodhouse - with whizzing window curves derived from Erich Mendelsohn’s work in Germany, and splashes of primary colour from the Aztec and Mayan fashions at the 1925 Paris Exhibition.” Contemporary critics may have condemned what they saw as its brash, vulgar style, but the company and its employees liked it and so did the general public, and indeed continue to enjoy its flambuoyant boldness.
New Ways
Peter Behrens
New Ways, in Northhamptonshire, is often credited with starting modern architecture in Britain. It was commissioned by W J (Wenman Joseph) Bassett-Lowke and designed by the German architect Peter Behrens. Bassett-Lowke was a remarkable man and, aside from his toy business, he was a design enthusiast and committed member of the Design and Industries Association, and also commissioned Mackintosh to remodel his previous house. New Ways was a simple, clear, symmetrical work, almost an Anglicised version of Behrens’ German factory buildings. It was a radical design in that it had a flat roof, something British architects had held out against. The front had a rather bold vertical window jutting out from the centre, crowned with the date, 1926, in a suitably chunky font. This window contrasts with the whitewashed walls. New Ways was also modern in it’s lack of outbuildings and use of concrete . Pevsner described it as ‘a completely new style of architecture then entirely untried in Britain ... how revolutionary this style must have appeared at the time’.
Forwards & Backwards Interwar architecture
Architecture reflects its time and the buildings of the interwar period reflect the tensions and social needs of a generation recovering from the horrors of WW1. WW1 had a profound effect on British architecture and, rather than turning to the modern house of concrete, steel and glass, the prevailing mood was to turn towards the comfort and reassurance of an England of older times. The English countryside, Tudor houses, Parish churches, Neolithic monuments, all attracted huge numbers of visitors and popularity. Artists retreated to the countryside seeking a new interpretation of ‘Englishness’, a neoromantic’ vision of an older England. In domestic architecture the Arts and Crafts style and houses inspired by the Tudor and ‘Wrenaissance’ of classical design become the norm. Truely Modernist houses were uncommon, the English approach tending to prefer stylish modernism with some sense of ancestry. Modern construction methods of steel freed architects, such as Lutyens and Holden, to build large scale buildings and these were ordered and elegant. They combined elements of classical Georgian buildings and form with modernist unadorned facades. A metropolitan aesthetic with a retrained cultivated taste.
Willow Road Ernő Goldfinger
2 Willow Road is part of a terrace of three houses in Hampstead, London designed by architect Ernő Goldfinger and completed in 1939. Goldfinger’s initial plans for a block of flats with studios were rejected by the LCC in 1936. He then had to reconcile the demands of construction, space, and social life with the guidelines from the authorities, whilst retaining its concrete frame. For modern architects like Goldfinger, building flats was a more socially conscientious exercise than building an individual house. 1–3 Willow Road was constructed using concrete and a facing of red brick. No. 2, which Goldfinger designed as his own family home, is the largest of the three houses and features a spiral staircase designed by Danish engineer Ove Arup at its core. The building is supported by a concrete frame, part of which is external, leaving room for a spacious uncluttered interior. The house makes thoughtful use of space and light, with its moveable partitions and folding doors enabling flexible use. Goldfinger lived at Willow Road until his death in 1987.
Winged Angel
Barbara Hepworth Winged Figure is one of Barbara Hepworth’s bestknown works; it has been displayed in London since April 1963, on the side of the John Lewis department store. The new John Lewis store was designed by architects Slater & Uren in 1956 and reopened in 1961. Hepworth had been asked to express “the idea of common ownership and common interests in a partnership of thousands of workers”. The work stands 5.8 metres high, resembling a boat’s hull, with two wide asymmetric wings, like blades, rising from a small plinth, curving towards each other and linked to each other by a series of radial rods.
Eric Lyons & SPAN housing
Span was the vision of the architect Eric Lyons. His aim was to provide a new style of private estate development, ‘affordable, well-designed homes in landscape settings, which would foster a village community atmosphere’. Span estates were typified by sharp Modernist designs with space, light and well-planned interiors, but also with traditional features such as hung tiles and stock brick work.
Priory Green Lubetkin
The Priory Green estate near King’s Cross was designed by Berhold Lubetkin, with his architectural partnership Tecton. Plans were drawn up in the late 1930s, and included an underground air-raid shelter, community workshop and laundry facilities. WWII stalled the building programme, and Lubetkin completed the estate in the 1950s. Lubetkin’s design for the elevations was said to have been inspired in part by Persian carpet patterns. Lubetkin pioneered the use of concrete and created some of the most sculptural stairways ever designed for social housing blocks.
Harlow New Town
London’s housing stock was depleted after WW2 and the government pushed ahead with building a series of new towns in a belt around London. One of these was Harlow New Town, the masterplan of which was drawn up in 1947 by Sir Frederick Gibberd. He brought on a number of leading architects to design individual districts including Philip Powell and Hidalgo Moya, Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew.
The Piper Building John Piper
The former North Thames Gas Board’s laboratory block, now renamed The Piper Building was constructed between 1959-62. It was a functionally led piece of architecture: consisting of a T-shaped, six-storey block. Artist John Piper was commissioned by NTGB to create giant murals illustrating a theme of ‘The Spirit Of Energy’. Constructed from fibreglass, the swirling, colourful patterns still stand today. Piper (19031992) was a painter, war artist, and stage/ set designer and one of the most significant British artists of the 20th Century The building is sandwiched between New King’s Road and former industrial areas along the river, which influenced its unique design. Using innovative concrete construction, it stood out to both the trained, and untrained eye; and in commissioning John Piper for the murals, the North Thames Gas Board ensured that the building would have a legacy long after they vacated. In 1994 The building was recommended for listing by English Heritage as part of a post-war thematic survey of office blocks but rejected by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
What to look for in a Modernist building
Modernism is the single most important new style or philosophy of architecture and design of the 20th century, associated with an analytical approach to the function of buildings, a strictly rational use of materials, an openness to structural innovation and the elimination of ornament. It has also been called International Modern or International Style. The style is characterised by: • • • • • • •
asymmetrical compositions use of general cubic or cylindrical shapes flat roofs use of reinforced concrete metal and glass frameworks often resulting in large windows in horizontal bands an absence of ornament or mouldings a tendency for white or cream render, often emphasised by black and white photography
Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier were the leaders of the movement. In Britain the term Modern Movement was used to describe the rigorous Modernist designs of the 1930s to the early 1960s. extracted from an article by Suzanne Waters British Architectural Library, RIBA
Concrete textures William Mitchell
William Mitchell is best known for his large scale concrete murals and public works of art from the 1960s and 1970s. Mitchell assisted the London County Council Architects Department to design and produce decorative works for the many new developments then springing up across the City. His work is often of an abstract or stylised nature with its roots in the traditions of craft and “buildability”. His use of heavily modelled surfaces created a distinctive language for his predominantly concrete and glass reinforced concrete sculptures. Mitchell’s interest in experimentation, resulted in a wide range of projects that varied in both finish and style and which included the use of recycled timber and old furniture to create mosaics; the use of recycled glass, melted down and recast; the use of poured resin and polyurethane to add colour and the use of contemporary construction materials such as GRP (Glass reinforced plastic) to create large scale paneled installations. After years of neglect, many of William Mitchell’s works are now being recognised for their artistic merit and contemporary historic value, and have been granted listed status.
Trellick Tower Erno Goldfinger
Trellick Tower is a 31-storey block of flats in London’s North Kensington. It was designed in the Brutalist style by architect Ernő Goldfinger, after a commission from the G.L.C. in 1966, and completed in 1972. Goldfinger’s design is based on his earlier Balfron Tower in Poplar, east London. It has a long, thin profile, with a separate lift and service tower linked at every third storey to the access corridors in the main building; flats above and below the corridor levels have internal stairs. The building contains 217 flats and was originally entirely owned by the GLC with the flats rented as council flats. The projection at the top of the services tower is the plant room. The grouping together of the boiler and hot water storage tanks reduces the need for pumps and reduces the amount of pipework needed. Trellick Tower inspired J. G. Ballard’s 1975 dystopian novel High Rise and features in Martin Amis’ black comedy, London Fields. In recent years it has become an icon of London, and in the song “Best Days” by Blur, Trellick Tower is referred to in the lyric, ‘Trellick Tower’s been calling’.
The Barbican
Chamberlin, Powell & Bon
The Barbican is one of London’s best examples of Brutalist architecture. It was developed from designs by architects Chamberlin, Powell and Bon as part of a utopian vision to transform an area of London left devastated by bombing during the Second World War. They sought to create a complex that created a clear distinction between private, community and public domains, but that also allowed pedestrians as much priority as cars. Balconies branch off bedrooms and studies, as well as living rooms, and give the towers their unique profiles. Externally, the raw concrete surfaces were bush-hammered to reveal the rough texture of the aggregate. The Centre took over a decade to build and was opened by The Queen in 1982, who declared it ‘one of the modern wonders of the world’ with the building seen as a landmark in terms of its scale, cohesion and ambition. Its stunning spaces and unique location at the heart of the Barbican Estate have made it an internationally recognised venue, set within an urban landscape acknowledged as one of the most significant architectural achievements of the 20th century.
Brutalism
Brutalism is architecture in the raw, with the emphasis on materials, textures and construction, producing highly expressive forms. The term Brutalism was first used in 1954 and it is also referred to as New Brutalism. It encouraged the use of beton brut (raw concrete), in which patterns created by wooden shuttering are replicated through boardmarking, or where the aggregate is bush or pick-hammered, as at the Barbican Estate in London. Scale was important and the style is characterised by massive concrete shapes colliding abruptly, while service ducts and ventilation towers are overtly displayed. WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN A BRUTALIST BUILDING Rough unfinished surfaces Unusual shapes Heavy-looking materials Massive forms Small windows in relation to the other parts extracted from an article by Suzanne Waters. British Architectural Library, RIBA
Hopkins House Sir Michael Hopkins
The Hopkins House, assembled from industrial components, is found in the Regency and Victorian suburbs of Hampstead, London. It was built as the home for the Hopkins’ as well as offices for their architectural practice within the industrial context of a High Tech building, a machine for both living and working in. A rectangular box of metal and glass it emanates a cool austere elegance. The house is divided into two storeys, accessed from the street by a short footbridge that leads to the upper floor. The metal deck floors and walls of glass and steel are supported by a steel frame. There is an economic use of materials and the structure is clearly expressed inside and out. The Eames House, California, designed by Charles and Ray Eames, in 1949, was an early pioneer in using factory components to create a home, and the Hopkins House is the logical successor. Most internal spaces are separated only by Venetian blinds to allow flexibility, with plastic panels for bathrooms and bedrooms to create additional privacy. Its full-height glass walls on the garden and street façades create a bright environment, and blinds allow occupants to control the entry of light and levels of privacy. It was the start of a line of innovative High Tech buildings designed by the Hopkins until the 1990s.
Abstraction John Piper
John Piper achieved recognition as an abstract artist during the 1930s and was a pioneer of abstract art in Britain, alongside his contemporaries including Henry Moore and Ben Nicholson. Piper remained committed to modernism throughout his sixty year practice, weaving elements of abstraction into his unique and naturalistic style. Piper had a strong attachment to the English landscape and in particular its monuments and churches. He was a regular contributor to Architectural Review and through his art, journalism and involvement with the Architectural Review, and also Betjamin’s Shell Guides, he steadily promoted an English vision. This he discovered in many things, AngloSaxon and Romanesque carvings, Neolithic sites, stained glass, even Public Houses, thereby helping to re-establish a sense of national identity in art, architecture and design.In these he found ‘immense personal conviction’ and his work references his spiritual journey. Across the span of his work we can see a wide variety of styles, the ‘Nautical Style’ of his seaside collages, the construction paintings of his period with the 7 & 5 Society and through to his foliate heads of medieval church bosses which he turned into patterns for silk scarves.
No 1, Poultry James Stirling
No 1 Poultry was James Stirling’s last completed building, designed in 1985 but not completed until 1997. It’s ship-like prow and clock tower with projecting balconies dominate the junction at Bank Underground Station. Its exterior is clad in stripes of pink and yellow limestone, and its two long facades are characterised by the layering of angular and curved forms. It was a controvertial design, attracting ridicule and criticism but has since grown in appreciation.
“This building is a playful, contextual masterpiece and a remarkable speculative office development from the 1990s. It is an outstanding example of Postmodern architecture, a style which is only just beginning to be studied and understood in historic terms” Catherine Croft, director 20th Century Society. Stirling was knighted in recognition of his contribution to architecture just days before his death and in 1996, the RIBA renamed their prestigious Building of the Year Award the Stirling Prize after him.
Post Modernism Collage & sampling
Post Modernism was a movement in architecture that rejected the modernist, avant-garde, passion for the new and looked to historical styles in creating a new style. The result is an ironic collage approach to construction that combines several traditional styles into one structure. A parallel is with contemporary musicians who freely sample music from differing cultures and times to create new modern sounds that reassuringly echo the familiar. As in collage, meaning is found in combinations of already created patterns. In Postmodern skyscrapers it is possible to find columns, ledges and balconies and one building form that typifies the explorations of Postmodernism is the traditional gable roof, in place of the iconic flat roof of modernism. Post modernism is a playful ‘anything goes’ approach. Postmodern architecture has also been described as neo-eclectic, where reference and ornament have returned to the facade, replacing the aggressively unornamented modern styles. This eclecticism is often combined with the use of angles and unusual surfaces, most famously in the State Gallery of Stuttgart by James Stirling and the Piazza d’Italia by Charles Moore.
3 STOREYS Esther Cox
& Design For Today
There are numerous websites and pages to explore the wonderful buildings and architects that inspired this book. These are just a selection. http://www.modernism-in-metroland.co.uk/ houses.html 20th Century Society www.c20society.org.uk Originally the 1930’s Society, tireless campaigners for recognition of 20th-C buildings. modern architecture london modernarchitecturelondon.com Excellent website exploring London’s modern buildings. Post War Buildings postwarbuildings.com Online resource detailing Britain’s Post-War buildings. Modernist Britain www.modernistbritain.co.uk Site featuring the many British Modernist buildings with wonderful illustrations. Hanger Hill East Residents Association www.hhera.com Residents association website of the Art Deco area of Hanger Hill and Park Royal. Modern Houses London www.themodernhouse.com Architectural guide to modern houses throughout London and beyond.