The Architecture and Design Issue Winter 2010
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Blending the Old with the New
Richard Griffiths (SG 1967) runs his own practice of conservation architects – here, he talks to Lotte Elton and RJ Ang about his work.
Southwark Cathedral showing Richard Griffiths Partnership’s new Library and Function Room on the second floor of the new extension building – part of the Millennium Project
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Southwark Cathedral: The lower linking building which contains meeting rooms and a shop
More than most professions, architecture requires an unusually wide set of skills. Vitruvius, a Roman architect and engineer, said ‘an architect has got to be a diplomat, a geologist, a mathematician, a theoretician, a philosopher, a weather man…’ Combining both the art and the science of designing and erecting buildings, it is perhaps little wonder that Richard Griffiths, an all-rounder split between the arts and sciences, ended up in the field. As an architect specialising in restoration and conservation, Griffiths has enjoyed a prolific career, undertaking restoration projects of buildings such as Jesus College Oxford, Southwark Cathedral and Lambeth Palace. The last two, he says ‘we feel express something about the practice’. It is his intention that this practice, Richard Griffiths Architects, is ‘attuned to new architecture’ in addition to their restorative mandate, and Griffiths strives towards blending the old with the new. He describes his steel and glass bridge insertion within Lambeth Palace as a ‘new intervention within the historic 13th Century fabric’, mirroring the new building he designed at Southwark Cathedral for the Millennium Project to enhance the Cathedral’s visibility on the South Bank. This, too, involved new and modern designs amongst the old, recreating the scale of the monastic buildings and using for the most part traditional materials like the ones in which the Cathedral was built. As a conservation architect, Griffiths is presented with the challenge of trying to preserve the qualities of a building, ‘without trying to restore it to an idealised version of how it might once have looked’. An example of his approach is illustrated by his work for the National Trust on Sutton House. Sutton House is a Tudor home refronted in the 18th Century, and added to and altered by each successive generation. ‘It would have been ridiculous to try and unpick each stage of building’, comments Griffiths, ‘but then there were also things we wanted to restore’, including a cobwebfestooned Tudor privy, bricked-up by the Victorians – a surprise discovery. When Griffiths had finished reconstructing the building, he felt he had ‘ retained its layers of history’.
56 Feature Despite Griffiths’ evident passion for his job, he did not always set out to be an architect. Initially unsure about which career path to take, he went to Cambridge to read Engineering, having studied A-levels in double maths and physics. His Engineering career was however short-lived – he decided early on that the School of Engineering was not for him, since its general focus did not allow him to develop his main interest in the structural side of engineering. Whilst searching for a subject to engage his curiosity more directly, Griffiths became interested in the new buildings that were springing up in Cambridge and London at the time. This coincided with an architecturallythemed Open Lecture at Cambridge by Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, a British scholar of the history of art and in particular the history of architecture. Best known for his 46-volume series of historic buildings, The Buildings of England, Pevsner was also the author of Pioneers of Modern Design, which Griffiths describes as ‘a bit of a manifesto for the modern movement’. Inspired, Richard went out and bought the book. ‘I was interested in modern architecture and that book made me decide to change subjects to architecture.’
‘I was interested in modern architecture and that book made me decide to change subjects to architecture.’ His two full years in Engineering were, however, not wasted. Griffiths believes the engineering knowledge he gained ‘has always been useful in giving me a good sense about how structures work’. Says Griffiths: ‘when I converted some barns in Suffolk I sketched out some roof trusses which I thought looked as though they ought to work and showed them to the engineer and he said ‘yeah, that’s fine’. I’d guessed the sizes and everything and basically the drawing was issued as I’d sketched it.’ Yet, even such a valuable skill has its drawbacks. Somewhat inhibiting to Griffith’s artistic vision at times; ‘the engineering thinking is slightly more analytic and less intuitive’, putting the structural feasibility of the building at the forefront of his mind. Still, this has been little hindrance to Griffith’s work, as the aesthetic appeal of his work shows. As the owner of his own architectural firm, Griffiths understands both the advantages and disadvantages of running his own practice. Having thirteen to fourteen staff working under him, he feels ‘responsible for people and it’s not been an easy year with the amount of new work coming in’. Moreover, adding even more pressure is operating a practice under his own name – it is his reputation on the line. Yet this responsibility is one he embraces, enjoying his involvement in a wide range of assignments – a luxury often denied to those working for someone else’s firm. At his own company, it is possible ‘to remain engaged with a whole lot of different projects
TheCholmeleian Winter 2010 which other people are running’ – to be involved without having to oversee the entire project. Recently, pupils from Highgate’s Music Department had a glimpse of Griffith’s work, performing in the Southwark Cathedral Concert in the spring. They were all highly impressed by the architecture of the Southwark Millennium Project – a modern design perfectly responsive to its medieval context. At Highgate, Richard was a keen musician, and music at the School was something he ‘appreciated very much’ and which continued beyond Highgate. Under the direction of Michael Tillett, Griffiths became involved in choral music. He sang in concerts much like this year’s Southwark Cathedral Concert, no doubt with little idea that his own architectural feats would be the setting for performances by the next generation of Highgate musicians.
Southwark Cathedral, showing the new entrance from the Thames footpath
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Eastbury Manor, Barking. The RG Partnership converted it from a little-used building to one of the jewels in Barking’s conservation crown
Lambeth Palace – a remodelling of the crypt allows access to one of the least-known architectural treasures of London
Richard outside Southwark Cathedral with members of the School – potential architects and Cholmeleian journalists
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Mike with his telescopes made ‘the old-fashioned way’ in the garage at home. Astronomy is a passion which began in his schooldays at Highgate.
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THE RETURN OF THEMAN IN RED Mike Davies (GH 1954) is an architect of international stature as well as a keen amateur astronomer. He returned to the School recently to talk to Highgate’s aspiring young architects. Student Editor Alex Beaghton was in the audience. ‘It would be a narrow interpretation of architecture to assume an architect’s role is simply to draw plans,’ states Mike Davies, beginning his lecture on the profession, ‘architecture is far broader than that.’ A man who dresses exclusively in red, Davies is a potent visual symbol for the unbridled creativity and strength of mind needed for success in his field. At School, Davies recalled that his physics teacher allowed him to ‘muck about’ with the School’s toolset, a practice which would hardly be encouraged in today’s Health and Safetyoriented society. The trust of his teacher was not misplaced, however, as Davies built a working telescope, enabling him to view Saturn, a sight which ignited a lifelong interest in science and astronomy. Davies admitted that he still continues to build these telescopes in ‘the oldfashioned way’. Highgate also played a part in sparking another and more significant interest – in architecture, inspired by Kyffin Williams, the artist and Head of Art during his time at the School. His first encounter with architecture was in his ‘A’ Level art syllabus, which included a three-hour paper on the subject. He jovially noted that he was even able to get permission to visit museums and galleries in town from a ‘draconian Housemaster, who always assumed you were going down to the decrepit dens of London’. Leaving School in 1960, armed with only an interest in architecture, Davies imbibed
an appreciation of the architectural world ‘osmotically, driven by an interest that was far from articulate’. He dabbled in art – the painting of Pond Square included – and sculpture, before settling on buildings – ‘sculptures of a larger scale’– and took a seven-year course at an architectural school in London. He attributes his passion for architecture to the fact that it is permanent, international, and historical; it comes as no surprise that he sees himself as European rather than British: ‘I am an encourager of a 330 million mixed community of European nations, rather than us [the British] standing alone on an island worrying about the Euro’.
MIKE ATTRIBUTES HIS PASSION FOR ARCHITECTURE TO THE FACT THAT IT IS PERMANENT, INTERNATIONAL, AND HISTORICAL Davies was awarded an exchange scholarship to UCLA, describing Los Angeles as ‘the place in the sixties where everyone wanted to go – the complete and absolute opposite of the European city’. He was fascinated by the sheer space and greeness of LA, a city which prompted him to think about issues such as transport, zoning and demographics. He started his own architectural firm, called Chrysalis, with two other Brits, using the school’s telephone line for business, amongst
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ASTONISHINGLY, THE CENTRE POMPIDOU WAS ACTUALLY THE FIRST OPEN LIBRARY IN FRANCE ‘IT WAS VERY DIFFICULT THEN TO BE A YOUNG PERSON AND JUST WALK IN AND USE FACILITIES WHICH WE’RE USED TO NOW’
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TheCholmeleian Winter 2010 other ‘renegade’ tactics. Davies feels that he began his profession at a time of architectural upheaval, and it follows that he was fully part of the revolution: ‘It was reasonable for a young person to react against what was there’. Dealing in lightweight structures, he felt that he should leave behind more monumental styles, and avoid the production of ‘more of the same orthodox buildings’. Simultaneously, he observed that he was part of an age when ecology started to matter, and science (especially through the space race) was becoming increasingly accessible to the public. A few years later, he received a call from Richard Rogers, a fellow architect and former collaborator, at four in the morning: (‘he had not understood the time difference’). It was to be a fateful phone call, with Rogers asking him to assist in assembling a team of architects to help him design a new building in Paris, based on a design which had just won a competition. The building would become one of the most visited buildings in the world: the Centre Pompidou. The whole firm travelled from LA to Paris, and were greeted by a temperature of minus 9 degrees, with Davies recalling an amusing anecdote: ‘the floors of the apartment we stayed at were made of stone – I know a lot about thermal storage now.’
THE CENTRE POMPIDOU WAS INNOVATIVE AND RADICAL IN THE TRANSITION FROM FORMAL INTO INFORMAL, FROM PRIVATE AND EXCLUSIVE TO PUBLIC AND ACCESSIBLE Regardless of the daunting nature of the transition, he and his colleagues began to implement their ideas. ‘Traditionally, a curator has to work around the spaces that he is given; in the Centre Pompidou, the power is given to the curator. That is the essence of the building – a flexible, loose-fit, well-serviced, neutral space.’ The Centre Pompidou was innovative and radical in the transition from formal into informal, from private and exclusive to public and accessible. Astonishingly, the building was actually the first open library in France: ‘It was very difficult then to be a young person and just walk in and use facilities which we’re used to now’. However, the content of the building was not its only radical aspect, but its design, capitalising on open, light-filled spaces and flexible floor plans: it was essentially a football field with services for the public on one side and services to support it on the other. The firm’s next great project was the Lloyd’s building. Remarking that Lloyd’s insures ‘more than eighty per cent of everything that moves’, Davies made it clear that the company had
stellar ambitions, desiring a building that would be ‘at the forefront of world insurance in the 21st Century’. Davies’ firm managed to meet all of the company’s requests. Responding to a demand for their employees to be separated from the services, ‘because they make twenty million a day in premiums and the last thing they want is a man with a screwdriver wandering through their market trying to fix a duct’, Davies’ firm literally put all the service elements outside the building, leaving the inside uncluttered and allowing for more usable areas to increase the value of the building. Quality is a hallmark of the building, with high-quality materials, such as stainless steel, and the central trading floor area and computer floor being covered in carrara marble. His other projects were no less grandiose, and his next was just as much political as architectural: the Millennium Dome. Davies’ firm continued to implement their stylistic values by building the Dome for £43 million – ‘pretty much exactly the same price as that of a Sainsbury’s supermarket shed of the same size’, and focusing on the theme of winter and shelter. Regardless of the politics, the Dome was brilliantly designed, and the structure still remains today, the exterior mostly unchanged, as The O2. Terminal 5 at Heathrow is another famous building of which Davies was the project architect -a project that took nineteen years to complete, due to political and environmental considerations – another indicator of the social relevance of architecture – but the finished building is a great success, and a symbolically important gateway into Britain. Mike Davies’ talk provided a greatly engaging and compelling account of the world of architecture, especially considering that he began his work at a time when new values, issues and social agendas were beginning to develop. Moreover, his talk redefined what architecture truly is: an expansive profession hardly restricted to the designing of individual buildings – the fact that Davies has been one of a selected few commissioned by Nicolas Sarkozy to survey the growing needs of greater Paris for the 21st Century is clear evidence of this. In October, he was the recipient of the coveted Legion D’Honneur, which he received from the French Ambassador to the UK. Davies puts it perfectly himself: ‘architecture offers a huge range of sciences and arts. There are journalists in architecture, writers, researchers, historians, inventors, designers, craftsmen, artists, engineers and philosophers. There’s an enormous breadth, range and wealth of research and practice studying the past, present and designing for the future. For our firm, it’s one seamless continuum’. With that in mind, it seems hardly surprising that Mike Davies, a man of great artistic scope, a man who appears to both cherish and enrich his profession, should not wear anything but red.
The Centre Pompidou. An early triumph for the team of Richard Rogers and Mike Davies, later formed into the partnership of Rogers, Stirk, Harbour.
Heathrow Terminal 5 – a new gateway to modern Britain and another iconic building from the Rogers, Stirk, Harbour partnership
The Millennium Dome has redefined the London skyline, and is proving hugely versatile as a space for the public
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Chris Glaister’s design for a new folding kick scooter
Matt Marais won an ‘engineering elegance’ prize for these buoyancy shoes
Sir Clive Sinclair isn’t the only OC to be a design genius. Head of Physics David Smith has been talking to some of our young designers, one of whom hopes to be a millionaire before Christmas…
‘I am a designer and entrepreneur and I just set myself a new target: to become a millionaire before Christmas. This past week has been hectic. I have delivered a speech to 200 people, had a video conference with factory workers in Taiwan, been in contact with investors in San Francisco, built a website, written a business plan, invented a new material and tomorrow I’m flying to Hong Kong to set up a production line...It is an exciting, dynamic, challenging and rewarding way to live, but also totally exhausting.’ Chris Glaister (KG 1997) – who still maintains that he is the tidiest person in any workshop because of retired Head of Design Technology (DT) Don Bowles! – studied Mechanical Engineering at Imperial College London before moving on to train as a product designer at the Royal College of Art. After six years of higher
education, he left with a set of complementary creative and technical engineering skills. Understanding both worlds opened up some interesting opportunities and he finds himself in a different place, learning something new almost every day. As a designer he has worked on a wide range of products ranging from kitchenware to mobile phones, furniture to commercial lighting. As an entrepreneur he has started several venture capital funded companies focussed on new product creation and launch with reasonable success. ‘Nice, but no cigar.’ So on to the next project, his latest millionaire attempt: to produce and sell a new design of folding kick scooter, intended to fill the missing link between public transport and home/work for daily commuters. The 16 inch pneumatic tyres roll efficiently and its low centre of gravity gives it a unique, dynamic feel to ride.
When folded it can be rolled along on its front wheel and stored flat against a wall or under a desk. They have finished work on the design and have tested, to destruction in some cases, many prototypes. The supporting brand identity pack is complete and he and his business partner presented the plan to raise investment to launch the scooter last October. Maybe the champagne (and cigar) will have to wait until Christmas 2011?
They have finished work on the design and have tested, to destruction in some cases, many prototypes.
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gun turret that he had begun with Matt Marais a few years before, and they were able to sell it to the London Paintball Centre in 2008. The contraption – a full scale electro-pneumatic device capable of seating one person – was intended as a bit of fun, but also taught him an awful lot, from MIG (metal inert gas) welding to PIC micro controller programming. At the end of his gap year, Hugo went to the University of Nottingham where he is now following a MEng course in Product Design and Manufacturing Engineering. In his first long vacation he embarked on his second large project, spending 14 weeks over the summer building a sports car from the chassis up, using the engine and transmission from a Ford Sierra but fabricating the rest from scratch. The vehicle itself was completed over Easter this year and he has spent the last few months tackling the legal obstacles! The car is now on the road and he can often be seen, weather permitting, buzzing around Highgate in it. At the end of his second year at Nottingham, Hugo was nominated for an Ignite! Creative Sparks award based on his university project work. He is using the grant to investigate the viability of augmented reality data representation in an array of applications, which will offer the chance to learn a host of new skills, especially in the field of computer program development. There are still two years to go in the East Midlands, but in the holidays he can still be found around the school, helping to upgrade classroom AV equipment.
Hugo in the paintball gun turret he built with Matt Marais
The Department boasts outstanding facilities and a talented team of teachers and technicians… Hugo Wilson outside the Mills Centre in the car he built from scratch
Matt Marais (EG c/ 2007) is also thinking of postgraduate study at the RCA, which is widely recognised as the ‘Cambridge of the art world’, but meanwhile has just started his fourth year studying Product Design Engineering for an MEng at the University of Glasgow. There are not many such joint degree courses available and he really enjoys the opportunities that it provides to ‘do engineering with engineers, and art with artists’. The latter means crossing Renfrew Street to work in the iconic Charles Rennie Mackintosh building one day a week. He enjoys the city, having found that Glasgow has an ‘edge’ that Edinburgh lacks, and the course at the ‘very Scottish’ university is a year longer than its English counterparts – though he did not find the first year a waste. Both his GCSE as well as his A level DT studies at Highgate were good preparation for a third
year project to ‘walk on water’. The competition – involving groups of three working within a budget of £300 and not allowed to carry out any research into existing designs – gave Matt a chance to realise a teenage dream. While most opted for a catamaran design, Team Marais decided on separate buoyant shoes with fins that varied the drag on the two hulls as they moved between the forward and backward strokes. They successfully negotiated the slalom course in the test tank, winning the prize for ‘Engineering Elegance’ in the process. Hugo Wilson (WG c/ 2002) also graduated from Highgate in 2007, but was immediately offered a job as a technician in the DT department, a new position that has subsequently been filled every year since. The year enabled him to complete the paintball
Moving with the times has been a hallmark of the DT Department, and the sounds of hammer and chisel emanating from the old ground floor premises on the Senior School site are now but a distant memory, replaced by the hiss of soldering irons and the hum of microprocessors in the state of the art workshops in the basement of the Mills Centre. The elements of wood and metal work are still taught, but several of the techniques and skills that are commonplace in industry nowadays are also introduced. The recent purchase of a laser cutter is described by current HoD Andy Thomson as ‘like being given the keys to a spaceship – the sky is no longer the limit!’. The subject is offered to pupils from Year 3 to Year 13, meaning a fascinating educational journey from pneumatic monsters to automated sorting of coloured glass for recycling. The Department boasts outstanding facilities and a talented team of teachers and technicians, keen to inspire the next generations of designers and engineers. Maybe the next Clive Sinclair or Jeremy Dyson is among them.