Knowing From The Inside by Jonathan Foulger

Jonathan Foulger

Knowing From The Inside

Vernacular and Authenticity in Cambridge

Knowing From The Inside Vernacular And Authenticity in Cambridge Jonathan Foulger 180207844

SSoA - MArch Year 6 ARC566: Dissertation 2 16th October 2019 Supervisor: Daniel Jary 6,573 Words

With thanks to Dan Jary for his supervision during this study, Stephen Proctor and Meredith Bowles for being so generous with their time to share their insights, and my parents for their unending support and assistance.

Knowing From The Inside

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Contents 08

Research Question 10

Introduction 26

An Ever-Evolving Product 44

Jonathan Foulgfer

Objective Circumstances 72

Art of Inquiry 100

Conclusion 104

Bibliography 112

Figures 116

Appendix 118

Interview with Stephen Proctor

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Interview with Meredith Bowles

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Research Question:

How can approaches to the vernacular be viewed as a way to bring authenticity to todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s generation of architecture? Jonathan Foulgfer

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fig 1.

Patterns by William Morris ARC566

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Jonathan Foulgfer

01 Introduction

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The built environment has an enormous influence over the way we experience a place. Particular buildings and styles inform the ways that a city is composed, and as such localised identity is created through dialogue between the urban form and built environment that has developed over time. Traditional styles of building which typically are associated with vernacular are often perceived as an ‘essential’ quality that defines local character and brings authenticity. This view focused on aesthetics has the potential to overlook a more in depth and engaged understanding of place.

Knowing From The Inside

Patrick Lynch outlines that for a building to be successfully 'present' in its urban situation it relies on the collaboration of architects working across different times in order to 'represent the city anew' drawing upon something already there.1 What this may be has many interpretations, and a regionalist approach focused on what distinctively informs the architecture of place is a starting point. When considering the array of different local materials, climate and social customs,2 the notion of vernacular is given a greater breadth of understanding. This implies that there is an inherent quality of place enduring across time informing architecture’s character and identity. This conversation is not new and has taken place for hundreds of years. Today it can be seen in identity crisis seen in contemporary architecture across the UK, where the impact of globalisation is affecting local building styles as technologies change. Alongside this is how contemporary design today appears to accord to ‘formulae’ which serves to fulfil demands of economic trends.3 From this, the question of what is, or is not, authentic and enduring to a place comes into consideration.

1 Lynch. P, Civic Ground (London: Artifice, 2017) pp.67-68. 2 Bowles. M, ‘Anglo Saxon Vernacular’ [Internet] The Architect’s Journal, 28 March 2015, available: < https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/culture/ anglo-saxon-vernacular/8680548.article > [accessed 17 Jun 2019] 3 Celsing. J, ‘Decorum: Tentative notes on its contemporary relevance and use’ in Journal of Civic Architecture, Issue 01, 2018, p.29.

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Regional identity has a complex relationship with issues of nationalism, kitsch and sentimentality and it is suggested that discussions need to return to a focus on geographical location rather than a focus on historical form and tradition.4 This study will explore the relationship between identity and place, understanding how vernacular is derived from topography, environment and the locality of materials which can bring depth to architecture while also defining a path forward for the next generation of architecture.

Jonathan Foulgfer

By primarily looking to traditional and new ideas of vernacular, the study will examine how as a design tool it can be used to compose places. The approach will be to understand how contemporary buildings can remain 'present' within an urban condition and engage with the essence of a place. This will be done through the study of how anthropology and architecture are able to work together, and define a methodology for designers to ‘know from the inside’ when exploring a place’s inherent physical qualities, rituals and identity.5

4 Branscome. E, ‘Globalisation or Regionalism?’ [Internet] UCL, 15 May 2012, available: < https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/architecture/news/ may/2012/globalisation-or-regionalism > [accessed 5 Oct 2019] 5 Ingold. T, Making, (Oxon: Routledge, 2013), pp.5-6.

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Both the city of Cambridge and the wider Fenland setting will be used as case studies to serve as an example by which the ideas of innovation and regionalism have met. The knowledge based industries and academic standing have meant that the city has stood at the centre of the architectural stage since the post-war.6 The city has a highly concentrated urban landscape with an architectural history spanning 800 years, seen as a test site of many different styles of architecture (fig 03).7 Alongside this is the historic Fenland landscape which has been the setting of a distinct vernacular form that has responded to the given climatic and topographical conditions (fig 04).

6 Bradley. S, Pevsner. N, The Buildings of England: Cambridgeshire (London: Yale University Press, 2015) p.51. 7 Christiansen. R, ‘The Modernists Move into Cambridge’ [Internet] The Telegraph, 13 Jun 2013, available: < https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/architecture/10897576/ The-modernists-move-into-Cambridge.html? > [accessed 24 Jul 2019]

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fig 2. Cambridge city centre. The forms are derived from a mxiture of morphologies dating from Roman times

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fig 3. There is a distinct range of architecture from multiple styles, especially evident in the colleges that has defined a 'mild vernacular'. Pictured: Churchill College.

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Many of the new developments in Cambridge today were initiated by a significant demand for housing for students and residents at an affordable rate.8 It is a ‘boom town’ where the local authorities have selectively relaxed parts of the green belt and invited new high quality housing.9 With this high architectural standard the aim is that by studying the creative responses to traditional and the formation of new identities will create an architecture that supports meaningful engagement with the landscape and site.

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The primary methodology of this study has been partaken through an in depth research into the case study location. Select projects were visited over the summer of 2019, from the suburban fringe to the city centre, and were chosen based upon their relevance to the study (fig 07). Alongside this, interviews with leading architects who have worked in Cambridge - Stephen Proctor of Proctor & Matthews Architects and Meredith Bowles of Mole Architects - were undertaken to gain an understanding of how architects view the vernacular today, and how the next generation of architecture may develop. Their responses have helped form the outlook and approach of this study.

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fig 4. The Fenland landscape has driven the form of local building methods due to the delicate environment

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fig 5. Map of Cambridge and surrounding towns and villages

8 Witherford Watson Mann Architects in ed. Johnston. P, Project

Interrupted (London: The Architecture Foundation, 2018) p. 146-147. 9 Moore. R, ‘The quiet revolution in British housing’ [Internet] The Guradian, 16 Aug 2015, available: < https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/aug/16/ quiet-revolution-in-british-housing-architecture > [accessed 9 Sept 2019]

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Histon Impington

Bar Hill

1 Girton

A14

Madingley

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Riv er C

M11

Comberton

Barton

Grantchester Trumpington

Hauxton

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Haslingfield

Milton

Horningsea

Stow Cum Quy

Fen Ditton am

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Teversham

Fulbourn

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fig 6. The distinction between 'town and gown' has historically been a feature of the built form of Cambridge, where the separation is defined by the delicate landscape. Pictured: View of Cambridge from Castle Hill by James Ward.

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fig 8.

Projects and Places Visited in Cambridge 01: Eddington North West Cambridge: AECOM Design & Planning i. Phase 01 (2019): Mole Architects + Wilkonson Eyre ii. Phase 01 (2019): Stanton Williams iii. Phase 01 (2019): Mechanoo iv: Phase 01 (2019): Witherford Watson Mann v. Phase 01 (2019): Maccreanor Lavington vi: Phase 01 (2019): Alison Brooks vii. Storey’s Field Centre (2018): MUMA viii. University of Cambridge Primary School (2017): Marks Barfield 02: Abode at Great Kneighton: Proctor & Matthews Architects i. Phase 01 (2014) ii. Phase 02 (2018) 03: Marmalade Lane (2019): Mole Architects 04: Newham College (2018): Walters & Cohen 05: Churchill College i. Initial Competition (1960): Richard Sheppard ii. Cowan Court (2016): 6a Architects iii. Postgraduate housing (2019): Cottrell & Vermeulen 06: Jesus College West Court (2017): Niall McLaughlin Architects 07: Anglia Ruskin University, Young Street (2015): Richard Murphy Architects 08: Grantchester Village 09: Trumpington Meadows: Barrow Homes 10: Robinson College (1977): Gillespie, Kidd and Coia 11: King’s College (1441) 12: Christs Lane (2008): Panter Hudspith Architects 13: Kettle’s Yard (2018): Jamie Fobert Architects 14: Sanderson Manor, Hauxton: RedRow

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02 Great Kneighton

04 Newham College

05 Churchill College

03 Marmalade Lane

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01 Eddington

06 Jesus College

07 Anglia Ruskin

08 Grantchester

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09 Trumpington Meadows

10 Robinson College

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11 King’s College

12 Christs Lane

13 Kettle’s Yard

14 Sanderson Manor

15 Cambridge City Centre

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fig 9.

Projects visited during the course of the study

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fig 10. Abode at Great Kneighton by Proctor & Matthews Architects

An Ever-Evolving Product

Jonathan Foulgfer

02 An Ever-Evolving Product

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An Ever-Evolving Product

Vernacular is a word which is often misused by many architects and authorities. It has historically been understood as the ‘other’ opposed to the more purposeful and polite ‘architecture’. During the rise of modernism in the early 20th Century, vernacular and local buildings were seen as the product of ‘low culture’ blocking the progression of modernity.10 Despite an understanding that has developed over time, it can most basically be defined as ‘[native] architecture concerned with ordinary domestic and functional buildings rather than the essentially monumental’.11 This refutes many conceptions of it merely representing the traditional buildings of rural builders, and allows for an understanding that spans a much wider field.

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Ideas which align with this particular approach are be seen it Critical Regionalism,12 which rejected the sentimental, nostalgic and universal top-down ideologies presented in the previous vernacular approaches for a stance that recognises the individualised identity of the physical, social and cultural situation.13 Critical regionalism represents something beyond a particular style whereby it is self-conscious and recuperative,14 and raises awareness to reality rather than resorting to ‘hypnotic illusions’.15

10 Brown. R, Maudlin. D, ‘Concepts of Vernacular Architecture’ in Greig Crysler. C, Cairns. S, Heynen. H, eds. The SAGE Handbook of Architectural Theory, (London: SAGE Publications Ltd, 2013) p.342 and Asquith. L, Vellinga. M, ‘Introduction’ in Asquith. L, Vellinga. M, eds. Vernacular Architecture in the Twenty-First Century, (London: Taylor & Francis, 2006) p.1. 11 ‘Vernacular, adj. and n’ [Internet], OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2019, available: < https://www.oed.com/view/ Entry/222608?redirectedFrom=vernacular#eid > [accessed 24 Jul 2019]. 12 Initially defined by Kenneth Frampton and expanded upon by Alexander Tzonis and Liane Lefaivre 13 Tzonis. A, Lefaivre. L, Critical Regionalism: Architecture and Identity in a Globalized World (Munich: Prestel, 2003) p.11. 14 Frampton. K, ‘Ten Points on an Architecture of Regionalism: A Provisional Polemic’ in Canizaro. V. B, ed. Architectural Regionalism: Collected Writing on Place, Identity, Modernity, and Tradition (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2007) p.378. 15 Tzonis. A, Lefaivre. L, Architecture of Regionalism in the Age of Globalization: Peaks and Valleys in the Flat World (Oxon: Routledge, 2012) p.199.

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These ideas suggest that societies have an ‘essence’ which is maintained and preserved.16 This is linked with the original cognition of how the vernacular was formed, through responding to the physical qualities of place consisting of climate, geography, readiness to material and local custom. By thinking this way frees vernacular from the ‘stylistic baggage’ that the term suggests. This is made evident by Bowles, who states:

‘the whole point about vernacular is that it’s not about style, it ends up having things that look a certain way, but it’s about function and use of available materials, especially function in relation to the climate.’ 17 Jonathan Foulgfer

It is this approach that will inform the stance taken by this study, where the importance of morphologies and scale are paramount to the continuation of the ideals of vernacular over qualities of style and artifice. While these qualities are by no means likely to disappear, this chapter will outline the limitations created from the use of a narrow interpretation of the term. This will be done first studying how it originated and then comparing how architects and developers have resorted to the superficial practice of applying style in the name of creating vernacular.

16 Richardson. V, New Vernacular Architecture (New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 2001) pp.15-16. 17 Bowles. M, Interview with author (Cambridge, 14 Aug 2019).

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Vernacular Origins Notable research on vernacular has been done over the past 50 years, primarily by Paul Oliver, Bernard Rudofsky and Hassan Fathy,18 who have explored the common associations of vernacular as ‘architecture without architects’. These texts have been paramount for understanding how cultures across the world have defined and built regional architecture. There is a narrative to this, formed over time by processes that analogue evolutionary biology, where variations over time that are selectively and adapted across generations.19 This is defined by the methods of building which historically were driven by craftsmen following flexible ‘rules of thumb’ over precise instructions laid out in advance.20

Knowing From The Inside

Roderick Lawrence outlines the seven main lines of inquiry which have been explored in Western studies that seek to engage with the definition and evolution of vernacular (fig 11).21 Ultimately, he states that no building can be classed vernacular simply by virtue of its own qualities, but rather it is how it is viewed relative to the qualities shared by many others.22 How buildings are arranged together and share common morphologies brings a depth to the idea of vernacular that is often overlooked.

18 Notable texts by these authors include: Oliver. P, Built to Meet Needs: Cultural Issues in Vernacular Architecture (Oxon: Routledge, 2006); Rudofsky. B, Architecture Without Architects: A Short Introduction to Non-Pedigreed Architecture (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1965); Fathy. H, Architecture for the Poor (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000). 19 Ingold, 2013, pp.66-67. 20 Ibid, p.69. 21 Lawrence. R. J, ‘The Interpretation of Vernacular Architecture’, in Vernacular Architecture, 1983, Vol 14, Issue 1, pp.19-24. 22 Ibid, p.19.

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fig 11. There is a range of understanding of the definitions of vernacular outlined by Lawrence.

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fig 12. Design for the Daily Mirror Cottage, Sheerwater Estate, Byfleet. Designed in 1910 by Castle & Warren.

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fig 13. Semi-detached housing in Dereham Road, Norwich, 1956.

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fig 15. The 'Vernacular Zone' is outlined by R. W. Brunskill as a formalist approach to the categorisation between 'polite' and 'vernacular'.

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fig 14. The evolutionary process of structure advances vernacular building and methods, such as crunk truss to box frame.

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The traditional buildings which have come to epitomise the vernacular have since been recorded, collected and made as artefacts of a material culture.23 The approach taken by many designers today that reference these buildings shows an approach that relies on aesthetics to evoke traditional forms which often have no reference to the intentions underlying the original production. An origin of this particular mindset can perhaps be seen in the 1880s during the Arts and Craft movement, informed from critiques by the 'vanguards' of the time, William Morris and John Ruskin. This formulated an approach dictated by the fear that local traditions would be swept away by the threat of standardisation (fig 16). The architecture of this period lead to an approach taken by the house builders between the First and Second World Wars, and is distinctively recognised in the semi-detached houses seen across the UK (fig 13).24 Knowing From The Inside

Following this, outcries of dissatisfaction were made in Ian Narin’s 1955 article ‘subtopia’. He referred to the increased homogenisation within suburban areas across the UK following mass rebuilding, describing the ‘annihilation of the difference’ across the country (fig 17) resulting in increased monotony seen during the post-war rebuilding.25 Among many others, these discussions portray a yearning to find an architecture that rejects the pitfalls of standardisation and one authentic to the qualities of place.

23 Brown, Maudlin, 2013, p.344. 24 Richardson, 2001, pp. 8-13. 25 Narin. I, ‘Ian Nairn’s Subtopia, from June 1955’ [Internet] The Architectural Review, available: < https://www.architectural-review.com/essays/campaigns/outrage/iannairns-subtopia-from-june-1955/10030723.article > [accessed 24.06.19].

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Jonathan Foulgfer

fig 16. William Morris helped pioneer the Arts and Crafts movement which refuted the abandonment of local traditions and building styles. Pictured: Morris' Red House.

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fig 17. Ian Narin’s Subtopia critiqued the homogenisation of streets across the country.

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Architecture of Anywhere Past Since the end of the 20th Century the continued effects of modernism and rise of globalisation lead to the vernacular becoming associated not with nostalgia, but rather resisting ‘the homogenizing force of global capitalism’.26 Generally, these responses have typically been limited to new build developments responding to typical English cottage typologies arising largely from planning policy to create a sense of ‘Englishness’.27 Maudlin describes this as an ‘architecture of anywhere past’, where mass new build developments by volume house builders have often been ‘designed by regulation’ set by government informed design codes. While these guides do not explicitly require a ‘traditional’ approach, the default solution by many seems to be the easy option of standardised house types. Knowing From The Inside

This can be seen in new recent developments to the south of Cambridge, particularly RedRow’s Hauxton Meadows (figs 18 & 19), where a huge variety of different housing types are collated together to form an array of possibility and choice. Maudlin states that in this context, ‘the consumer is sold choice, not tradition and identity.’28 Echoing Narin’s critiques these houses are not relevant to the typical stock of Cambridge, and rather air based from ‘design banks’ of offthe-shelf housing.29

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fig 18. Sanderson Manor, Hauxton Meadows to the south of Cambridge by RedRow Homes

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fig 19. Much of the housing is an array of different types of housing plots arranged with little consideration for historic morphology.

26 Richardson, 2001, p.16. 27 Maudlin. D, ‘Constructing Identity and Tradition: Englishness, Politics and the NeoTraditional House’ in Journal of Architectural Education, Vol. 61, Issue 3, 2009, pp.51-63. 28 Ibid, p.61. 29 Ibid, p.59.

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Jonathan Foulgfer

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Bowles, who has been critical of the approaches taken by volume house builders, claims that while part of the issue is the ‘half-hearted’ stylistic application of visual tropes that do not have any actual reference to the historic models that are usually explored, another problem is the allowance for quality in streets, scale and concentration, where the patterns of everyday life are overlooked.30 This is not the case with every housing development across the country, but when the future landscape of everyday architecture is defined by a select number of developers using the same number of materials, it raises a question for what an authentic response to vernacular might look like. Proctor outlines the critical aspect of responding to vernacular ideals by means of the urban grain and patterns of development that have evolved over time.31 The important aspect of creating new architecture begins not with the built form itself, but rather the relationship in the landscape. Proctor explains this as a response to: Knowing From The Inside

‘wider issues of how built form has evolved in relation to landscape, and also how you capture and tame wild landscape, […] we weren’t particularly interested in vernacular detail, we were more interested in scale, vernacular scale.’ 32 The approach taken by the house builders is antithetical to this, where housing of varying cottage styles are built along winding streets with ‘no real consideration of their relevance in relation to local vernacular’.33 This is not to say that referencing historic form is the problem; memory can be seen as a part of the ‘region’ where future buildings will become apart of and should be taken into account as any topographical quality is.34 It is not the architecture itself that is the main issue, but the wider morphology and arrangement of buildings.

30 Bowles, Interview. 31 Proctor. S, Interview with author (London, 12 Aug 2019). 32 Ibid. 33 RedRow Design Centre, staff interview with Maudlin, quoted in Maudlin, 2009, p.53 34 Tzonis, Lefaivre, 2012, pp.188-189.

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New Vernacular Looking at inner-city developments, there are attempts to promote more contextually aware design through a renewed focus on materiality. In London, brick has become the prevalent style (fig 20), resultant of ‘New London Vernacular’ which largely arose from a planning requirement in 2010.35 While on the surface this may appear to respond with an integrity to the context, in many cases it is manifested more prominently as a ‘decoy aesthetic’ applied to the side of the same steel-framed buildings that developers have been building for many years prior remaining a generic response to London’s architectural style.36

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fig 20. New Lodon Vernacular is heavily based on applying brick to buildings of all shapes and sizes. Pictured: Saxon Court & Roseberry Mansions by Maccreanor Lavington.

35 ‘A new vernacular does not propose a singular architectural style, but recognises that the best housing comes from robust guidelines in planning and regulation, together with a deep understanding of particular architectural and social contexts on the part of designers and developers.’ See: Design for London, London Housing Design Guide, Interim Edition (London: London Development Agency, 2010) p.5. 36 Jennings. W, ‘London Brick: The Value and Meaning of Brick in Neoliberal London’ [Internet] Medium, 22nd Aug 2018, available: < https://medium.com/@ willjennings80/london-brick-ecfa5d55a4e0 > [accessed 28 March 2019].

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fig 21. Accordia designed by Fielden Clegg Bradley, Alison Brookes Architects and Maccreanor Lavington. The layout is rigid forms terraces that focus on communal spaces.

This ‘New Vernacular’ can perhaps be seen as originating from Accordia in Cambridge (figs 21 & 23). It won the 2008 Stirling Prize due to ambition to push forward architecture in an ordinary way.37 The blocky brick shapes comprising the housing project can be seen as mild and modest which drew inspiration from an Oxbridge orthodoxy and the mild modernist vernacular common to the post-war in Cambridge colleges (fig 22).38 The style it adopted since spread as a result of its self-effacing approach, and while many projects across the country display excellent responsiveness to local traditions and materials,39 others seem to overlook the morphological qualities of the project which was a key driver for success.

Jonathan Foulgfer

Ultimately, many cases following this display a more general result that is not a far stretch from the pastiche vernacular responses of the neo-traditional, whereby style acts as a veneer of ‘fashion and false modesty’ that arises from necessity to comply with policy and rules. These may have a significant effect on how a style develops and progresses through time, where they often become overbearing. As stated by Peter Blundell Jones:

‘There have also increasingly been rules, regulations and standards about how buildings should be planned, including technical demands and cost limits. Although taken for granted in practice as inevitable or even as mere ‘common sense’, from an anthropological viewpoint such textual prescriptions can be seen as strong cultural impositions.’ 40 37 RIBA, ‘Accordia, Cambridge’ [Internet] RIBA, 12 Aug 2012, < https://www.architecture.com/awardsand-competitions-landing-page/awards/riba-stirling-prize/accordia-cambridge > [accessed 12 Oct 2019]. 38 Hatherly. O, ‘London’s new typology: the tasteful modernist non-dom investment’ [Internet] Dezeen, 21 Aug 2014, available: < https://www.dezeen.com/2014/08/21/owen-hatherley-londonhousing-typology-yuppie-flats-tasteful-modernist-investment/ > [accessed 28 March 2019]. 39 Ibid. 40 Blundell Jones. P, Architecture and Ritual: How Buildings Shape Society (London: Bloomsbury, 2016) p.11.

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Knowing From The Inside

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This may be seen as a marker to identify our age, and if continued at a surface level may ultimately dissipate like styles of the past.41 It raises questions as to how the architecture built today will be judged and remembered in the future. Today, there is an increased monoculture resulting from globalisation, and these cultural impositions can be seen as a defining factor for how architecture derived. Viewing vernacular architecture is an ‘ever-evolving product’ of culture,42 where tradition has guided and defined the design process arising from iterative processes helps to place these projects into a genealogy. Adam Caruso describes vernacular as a ‘physical artefact containing the continuously evolving social and technological situation in which it was built’,43 and developing upon this is not a ‘new vernacular’ but rather a continued process that gives greater priority to way people can engage with buildings by their essence and application within particular technologies of the time.44 Jonathan Foulgfer

Whether the issues presented by design codes are at fault is difficult to say, but what Accordia made evident was that good housing can shape people’s lives, and previous agendas defined by meeting targets can lead to an ‘anti-design’ approach.45 Rather by interrogating the roots of vernacular, understanding local morphologies and integrating with the technologies of the time will help to form a vernacular that exists within a continuum.

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fig 22. Harvey Court by Leslie Martin (1962) formed a 'mild modernist vernacular' by which Accorida responded.

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fig 23. Accordia in turn influenced the modest New Vernacular style which focused on brick and blocky shapes.

41 Heathcote. E, ‘Is a new architectural style emerging in London — Brickism?’ [Internet] Financial Times, 19 Feb 2016 available: < https://www.ft.com/ content/61ea50cc-d0d4-11e5-831d-09f7778e7377 > [accessed 11 Sept 2019]. 42 Nash. C, Contemporary Vernacular Design (London: RIBA Publishing, 2016) p.15. 43 Caruso. A, The Feeling of Things (Barcelona: Ediciones Polígrafa, 2008) p.53. 44 Ibid. 45 RIBA, 'Accorida, Cambridge'.

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fig 24. Abode at Great Kneighton

Objective Circumstances

Jonathan Foulgfer

03 Objective Circumstances

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Objective Circumstances

Australian architect Glenn Murcutt presents a key example of working within the stripped back notion of vernacular. Working primarily in the rural outback, his small scale work has come to represent an Australian vernacular (figs 25 & 26). With the sparse environment and lack of given history or tradition, the resultant architecture responds practically by negotiating the climate and terrain while relying on suitable materials for survival. The subsequent dwellings echo the forms of aboriginal farm structures and can be seen as responding to the ‘objective circumstances’ that all builders have engaged with and responded to over time.46

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While this is a unique example physically applicable in few locations, it highlights the processes necessary in understanding the vernacular and how making within the given conditions can be used. It is a methodology of design which much can be learnt from, highlighting how stripping back to the core values becomes necessary in forming basic responses to climate, terrain and material. Similarly, Peter Salter claims the ‘undeniable logic’ derived from a history of adapting to the landscape.47 As discussed previously, scale and layout are as important as the built form itself. Continuing from this, the process of interpreting design methodologies that have historically been associated with vernacular and identifying a contemporary interpretation will be discussed. This chapter will explore alternatives to the common cognition of vernacular, revealing how it is not static but can evolve and refine through a balance of not only material, climate and terrain but also the interpretation of tradition and history.

46 Richardson, 2001, p.15. 47 Ibid, p.138.

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fig 25. Magney House by Glenn Murcutt.

fig 26. Short House by Murcutt. The use of corrugated metal is dictated by the ease of transportation over long distances.

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Objective Circumstances

Unselfconscious ‘Design’ Vernacular dwellings arose to give shelter to their particular climatic conditions and over time developed on their own to form a sustainable architecture applicable to materials at hand.48 Bowles states that within this frame of reference it is ‘unselfconscious building according to need.’49 Unselfconscious building is a key process of vernacular (fig 27), and how it guided Cambridge’s built form can be seen through the materiality found in historic structures across the whole of Cambridgeshire. Drawn from the geology of the local area it is seen that a large amount of the building stock is derived from Jurassic deposits of limestones and clays (fig 28) which forms the Gault clay which gives the signature colour to Cambridgeshire brick (fig 30). Knowing From The Inside

There is much influence from the Fens on the placement of roads and settlements throughout Cambridgeshire (fig 33). The low lying land and necessity for dykes and drainage resulted in an ancient landscape that was ‘well-attuned’ to a delicate environment.50 The architecture that arose was distinct to its location and was defined from its ability to adapt and survive in the environment. Settlements were planned with long high streets that would meander around marshes in order to negotiate the landscape (fig 36).

↑ 48 Nash, 2016, pp.13 49 Bowles, ‘Anglo Saxon Vernacular’. 50 Pryor. F, The Fens: Discovering England’s Ancient Depths (London: Apollo, 2019) p.329.

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fig 27.

Objective Circumstances

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fig 28. Cambridgeshire Bedrock Geology. The Gault formation Cambridge sits on has defined the brick colour of the area.

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Objective Circumstances

Examples of geographical diffusionism from the Dutch can also be seen in the Fens since for a time it was easier to access the Netherlands than the rest of the UK due to forests and bogs. This influence has come to create a distinct approach to both style and construction methods used, and arose out of challenges with the environment.51 Proctor challenges the idea that new buildings adhering local influences are not always as important as it may seem,52 and in this case, history has shown that learning and sharing across cultures can allow for a more beneficial engagement with the landscape.

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Cambridge itself has history dating back to Roman times and development was limited to the southern and eastern parts of the city, originally to negotiate the ditches and rivers. While on the southern border with the Fenlands, it shares characteristics with the placement of roads in its initial formation. As shown in the development over time (fig 37), civic depth is created from the interplay between the high street and the background city quarters.53

51â&#x20AC;&#x201A; Nash, 2016, pp.44-45. 52â&#x20AC;&#x201A; Proctor, Interview. 53â&#x20AC;&#x201A; Lynch, 2018, p.40.

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fig 29. Grantchester village to the South West of Cambridge

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fig 31. Red brick housing is also a local building stock.

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fig 32. Historic taming of the Fenland landscape was required in order to survive in the delicate environment.

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fig 33. The Fens occupy and define a a landscape that spans Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire and East Anglia.

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fig 35. The Fenland landscape is defined by its low lying topography and drainage patterns.

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fig 36. The scale and morphology of the Fen villages are distinct in their meandering layout of main roads and placement of burgage plots.

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fig 34. The Black House by Mole Architects responds to the given Fenland conditions. It responds to what it observes, and sticks up and out across the landscape.

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01: 1600-1688

02: 1688-1798

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04: 1830-1859 New growth Growth shown in previous diagram

05: 1859-1959

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fig 37. Growth of Cambridge since 1600, the development was limited to the South East of the River Cam to account for the environment.

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This type of architecture is linked with anthropology, ritual and the development of settlement, assisting in understanding how vernacular forms develop. From this is connection with bricolage, an idea brought forward by anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss.54 The analogue of bricoleur in this case is used to make the distinction as one who makes do with what is at hand in a closed world, described as ‘inventory’, contrasted by the engineer who procures and invents materials specifically for a project.55 The unselfconscious process of design can be seen as a hallmark of vernacular, whereby what is given in a bricoleur’s ‘inventory’ that defines the process of building shelter where form follows material.56 The constraints on resource by economic or natural factors creates a distinctive character and form which offers rational solutions to climate and need.57 Knowing From The Inside

In this case, design acts as a process of applying a traditional method of making that relies on the stability of society whereby what has been done historically presents sound solutions to reoccurring problems, which as seen in the Fens creates a distinct built landscape derived out of a need for survival. Structures are made out of events which are done with what is available around the bricoleur. The contingency of events in this case triggers a design solution out of necessity which in turn presents an evolutionary process.58

54 Lévi-Strauss. C, The Savage Mind (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1966) pp.16-18. 55 Scalbert. I, 6a architects, Never Modern (Zürich: Park Books, 2013) p.108. 56 Armstong. D, ‘Bricolage Part 2: Bricolage, Techne and Mimesis’ [Internet], 18 August 2013, available: < https://www.donaldearmstrong.com/2013/08/18/ bricolage-part-2-bricolage-techne-and-mimesis/ > [accessed 15 Sept 2019]. 57 Salman. M, ‘Sustainability and Vernacular Architecture: Rethinking What Identity Is’ [Internet] InTechOpen, 16th November 2018, available: < https://www.intechopen.com/ books/urban-and-architectural-heritage-conservation-within-sustainability/sustainabilityand-vernacular-architecture-rethinking-what-identity-is > [accessed 6 Oct 2019] 58 Louridas. P, ’Design as Bricolage: Anthropology Meets Design Thinking’ in Design Studies, 1999, Vol. 20, No. 6, p.10.

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Selfconscious Bricolage While at first selfconscious bricolage may appear contradictory, it is possible to translate the meaning of bricolage to a contemporary context. The contingencies which defined particular vernacular styles are no longer present, but the notion of what was historically ‘given’ can be translated to today’s society by means of planning guidelines and modern cultural impositions. The notion that freedom correlates with selfconscious is deceiving, and Panagiotis Louridas claims that there are a range of different contingencies and limitations that the modern architect-bricoleur must engage with:

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‘His resources are always bounded. His choices regarding his inventory are always limited. The tools and materials that he may use are constrained by all sorts of considerations: financial, environmental, social, regulatory, and so forth, depending on the situation.’ 59 While metaphorical, redefining ‘inventory’ to include the entire world of things accessible to the creator can drive the form and purpose of architecture that mirrors the vernacular process.60 Cultural impositions made by regulations and laws reduce certain freedoms of the architect, and making do within set constraints requires a form of bricolage. The infrastructure supporting cities today that now form the social background for how we live is significantly different from the times where many traditional buildings were rooted. Adaptation of historic forms rather becomes a ‘caricature of history’ failing to support new lifestyles or suitably extend regional traditions. Instead an authentic evolution of tradition relies on integrating 21st century living requirements.61 Bringing together historic forms, traditional responses to objective circumstances and the living-practices of people today are avenues that may lead to a renewed idea of vernacular. 59 Louridas, 1999, p.13. 60 Armstong, ‘Bricolage Part 2: Bricolage, Techne and Mimesis’. 61 Proctor & Matthews Architects, 2019, p.23.

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In Cambridge, an example of this can be seen at Proctor & Matthews Architects Abode at Great Kneighton (fig 39), which began through defining a morphology based on given circumstances. They reference the fine grain developments of the high streets and burgage plots found in Fenland settlements along with the typology of collegiate courts.62 The development can be seen as composed from vernacular inspired forms, and inventory is drawn from the scale of existing buildings where a response to contemporary living patterns are overlaid and drawn alongside the imposition of regulatory requirements.

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Proctor references this as a design methodology which involves ‘teasing’ out of the landscape by which a narrative can play a more significant role in negating historic forms.63 Composing places through morphology is the key aspect in the development, and does more for defining the vernacular response to fenland settlements than the material application can. Bringing together such morphologies can not be seen as adhering to a criteria set by vernacular, but like the process of bricolage that brings together fragments and items available that respond to historic forms.

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fig 39. Great Kneighton, with Abode by Proctor & Matthews Architects highlighted. 01: Central roundabout, 'tamed' by the court surrounding it. 02: Trumpington Primary School. 03: Mews type housing. 04: Barn type housing. Abode by Proctor & Matthews Architects Other developments within Great Kneighton

62 Young. E, ‘Better for everyong’ [Internet] RIBA Journal, 27 October 2014, available: < https://www.ribaj.com/culture/better-for-everyone > [accessed 22 Sept 2019]. 63 Proctor, Interview.

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fig 40. The urban scale varies throughout: a dense courtyard graduates into a series of mews followed by strips of barn-style housing.

While the scheme’s design methodology is successful, it is difficult to suggest that it is the solution for building new housing on the suburban fringe. Currently it is an pocket of 445 homes among the 2207 homes that comprise the Great Kneighton development, most which are conventional developer style housing. Despite this, it does present a positive, more involved future for a methodology of engaged design that pushes against the limitations set by volume housebuilders that is not much more expensive.64

64 445 total homes in the scheme with a contract value split over 2 phases of combined cost of £81M. See: < https://www.ribaj.com/buildings/regional-awards-2019-east-proctor-matthewsarchitects-housing-abode-at-great-kneighton-phase-2 > [accessed 11 Oct 2019] < https://www.ribaj.com/buildings/abode-great-kneighton-cambridge > [accessed 11 Oct 2019]

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fig 41. Car parking is allowed to become apart of the streetscape, and roads weave in and out of the changing scales.

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fig 42. Barn style house: reference is made to local material while also allowing them to evolve and define their own signature.

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fig 43. Mews style house: reference is made to local material such as the Gault coloured brick and black timber, but it is not made the focus

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The Everyday Boundary Referencing the original definition of vernacular as ‘domestic’ and ‘ordinary’, Brown and Maudlin place it within the frame of the ‘everyday’. This reconceptualises it within a more inclusive and continuous field. This allows for an understanding that moves away from the reductive ‘traditional’ and towards a progressive ‘living condition’ sitting within all everyday architecture.65 They state:

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‘Concepts that are used to articulate the vernacular are fundamental to our understanding of all architectures; concepts that relate to the production of life of buildings such as incompleteness, shift and transience; and concepts that explore the relationships between buildings and people such as time, memory, place and identity.’ 66 Maudlin questions the necessity of basing vernacular status on the prerequisite of it being ‘traditional’ suggesting it is open to a wider range of architectural and urban spaces.67 This could include modern and contemporary buildings, ordinary autonomous places along with ‘non-places’ that fill in the gaps such as motorways, car parks and alleyways.68 Within this, the boundary between ‘vernacular’ and ‘architecture’ still exists, but is considered a more fluid separation that can widely span a wide number of methodologies and perspectives.69 What the ‘everyday’ is defined as is a difficult question and easy to generalise. Henri Lefebvre has explored the topic in detail, describing it as residue left over once ‘specialist’ activity has been separated.70

65 Brown, Maudlin, 2013, p.345. 66 Ibid, p.355. 67 Maudlin. D, ‘Crossing Boundaries: Revisiting the Thresholds of Vernacular Architecture’, in Vernacular Architecture, 2010, Vol 41, Issue 1, p.13. 68 Auge. M, Non-Places (London: Verso, 2009). 69 Ibid. 70 Lefebvre. H, Critique of Everyday Life: Volume 1 (London: Verso, 1991) p.97.

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fig 44. The diffusion in paving marks the boundary between public and privateon the street Public Semi-public Private Decking ARC566

Objective Circumstances Mole Architects’ recent co-housing development of Maramalade Lane helps to epitomise this by catering for ‘different kinds of people in a simple street based model’ which makes up the ‘ordinary background’.71 The project is composed of a series of terraced houses set around two communal areas (fig 45), and while not formally respondent to a traditional typology local to Cambridge, much can be learned from its stance towards everyday integration (fig 44).

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While well designed and carefully considered with an excellent approach to sustainable building,72 the architecture itself does not act as the primary focus for the scheme. Forms are subservient to the act of creating a setting, mirroring the communal use of in-between spaces created by vernacular forms through avoiding spectacle and focusing on living patterns. This is the impact of designing within a co-housing model, and while not applicable or relevant to every new development allows for an engaged understanding of integrated contemporary living patterns and of a future as we move towards reduced building energy usage. The everyday shows that opening up the settings of ordinary places helps to bring a cohesion. Jan Gehl states that flexible boundaries forming connections between the public and private parts of dwellings like at Marmalade Lane improves the quality of the place by being human in scale while also opening up spaces for community to develop.73 These are distinct qualities of vernacular dwellings where street patterns and neighbourhoods retain a relatable scale which becomes easier to connect with.

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fig 45. Marmalade Lane by Mole Architects. There are a range of privacy levels through the scheme. Car parking Public facing 'lane' Private meadow 71 Bowles. M, ‘Meredith Bowles RIBA Annual Lecture 2018’ Youtube, 7 Dec 2018, available: < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiHY2BJL6GU > [accessed 16 Sept 2019] 72 Grylls. G, ‘Marmalade Lane is a co-housing exemplar that could spread’ RIBA Journal, 16 August 2019, available: < https://www.ribaj.com/buildings/co-housingmarmalade-lane-cambridge-mole-architects-george-grylls > [accessed 30 Sept 2019] 73 Gehl. J, Life Between Buildings (Washington: Island press, 2011) pp.184-189.

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fig 46. Terraced house at Marmalade Lane is modest in appearance.

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fig 47. The space in between the buildings forms the everyday setting, where the architecture acts as a backdrop

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fig 48. The meadow at the centre of the development is the more private communal space.

fig 49. Cowan Court by 6a

04 Art of Inquiry

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Anthropology is closely tied to vernacular and has historically been a place to gain insight into cultural meaning and social practices of different civilisations, forming an inside understanding influenced by the anthropologist’s first-hand experience.74 Ingold states that anthropology can work with architecture as a method of creating within an ‘art of inquiry’ that engages in correspondence with the world like an anthropologist.75 There is always a practice of anthropology in architecture when engaging with what has previously been made; all projects are ‘inscribed’ in a particular time and place, and as such can be explored to reveal their making.76 The correspondence between 'what' and 'how' is an ever moving process which Ingold states should not be separated (fig 49). Knowing From The Inside

Looking at the architectonic and selfconscious acts of designing, this chapter will explore an alternative approach to vernacular which treats its qualities as something open to interpretation. This chapter will look to move beyond cognitions of New Vernacular and Neo-Traditional, and tie the idea of vernacular as an artefact of ‘everyday human culture’77 with the practice of anthropology to gain an authentic response to both people and place through the process of materials and making.

74 Stender. M, ’Towards an Architectural Anthropology—What Architects can Learn from Anthropology and vice versa’ in Architectural Theory Review, Vol. 21, Issue 1, 2017, p.29. 75 Ingold, 2015, pp.5-6. 76 Scalbert. I, 6a Architects, 2013, p.66. 77 Maudlin, 2010, p.13.

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fig 50. The process of corrospondence outlined by Ingold where instead of moving back and forth between image and object, they should be considered together.

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Adapted and Evolved Morphology Much like the ‘flexible rules of thumb’ which informed the procedures of builders in the past,78 it is the flexibility and adaptation of existing practices that guide architects today. Ingold calls this an improvisational process:

‘To foresee, in this sense, is to see into the future, not to project a future state of affairs in the present; it is to look where you are going, not to fix an endpoint.’ 79

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As shown in Great Kneighton and Marmalade Lane, forms of buildings and their placement largely involve the interplay between both the individual and collective. The individuality of a building may be measured by its participation within ‘shared conditions’ which inform the topography.80 Leatherbarrow uses the analogy of eating at a table to explore how settings and situations create this topography of use which vary from the individual user and the wider experiential setting. Table Manners by Sarah Wigglesworth81 (fig 50) helps to visualise this, where the stages of eating are seen before, during and after, helping to show the disarray that comes in this process outlined by Leatherbarrow. This indicates a given ‘type’ before the meal begins, a ‘trace’ once the meal is over and a ‘tacitly’ of the experience.82

78 Ingold, 2013, pp.68-69. 79 Ibid, p.69. 80 Topography being the wider terrain that is enriched by implications of use, context and practice and as such stretch further beyond the settings, playing host to distinct objects and events. See: Leatherbarrow. D, Architecture Oriented Otherwise (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2009) p.11. 81 Wigglesworth. S, Till. J, ‘Table Manners’ in Wigglesworth. S, Till. J, eds. The Everyday and Architecture (London: Acadamy Press, 1997) pp.31-35. 82 Leatherbarrow, 2009, p.123.

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fig 51. ‘Table Manners’ by Sarah Wigglesworth and Jeremy Till, 1998: Architects often focus primarily on the type and trace and can often overlook the tacit voice which is of equal import.

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fig 52. Queen's College court.

The setup indicates that what is expected is a ‘cultural specificity’, but objects may move during the process or hold their place, where instances of change show a play between long-standing and temporary elements.83 The built environment changes and adapts, yet certain things remain the same. This can relate to the study of how regulatory processes and living patterns inform different types of buildings, but certain aspects of their making will remain tacit through this process. Bricolage can be seen as a process of making do within this situation and observing what remains tacit.

83 Leatherbarrow, 2009, p.127.

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fig 53. Queen's College court: the Collegiate court is a simple typological feature with Cambridge that has been used as the basis for colleges old and new.

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fig 55. Cowan Court by 6a architects which interprets the original college court.

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fig 56. Churchill College Cowan Court Original Shepperd College Other college buildings

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One specific example in Cambridge is the college which a typology synonymous with Cambridge and over time shows how architects have adapted the given typology to remain relevant to the ideology of the time. Churchill College designed by Richard Sheppard in 1968 (fig 56) is materially distinct from the rest of the city with its Brutalist appearance of brick and concrete but is clearly resonant of the collegiate typology. It is organised by the repeated placement of interlocking courts whereby the scale and morphology is dictated by an awareness of the given typology.

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The recent addition of 6a Architects’ Cowan Court (fig 55) shows the act of bricolage through the interpretation of the given ‘inventory’ which in this case includes a clear remaking of the layout and scale of the original Sheppard Courts, along with the figurative echoing of brutalism through the use of timber.84 While it does utilise these given aspects, it is clearly of its own making, whereby ‘[its] resonance lies in the way the very clarity of its references, materiality, and details has ultimately given it an unexpected aura of otherness.’85

84 Merrick. J, ’Is 6a architects’ Cowan Court really timber Brutalism?’ [Internet] The Architect’s Journal, 30 Jan 2017, available: < https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/buildings/is-6aarchitects-cowan-court-really-timber-brutalism/10016711.article > [accessed 22 Sept 2019] 85 Ibid.

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While the idea of vernacular as discussed in this study doesn’t strictly fit within this example, a good deal can be learnt from the way by which it interprets and adapts existing forms to work within the context of today while not strictly adhering to materials. It is a building that shows the evolution of the architecture of Cambridge, while also being unquestionably a part of Churchill College. While the materials of Cowan Court are by no means local,86 the modern architect-bricoleur can be seen at play through the process of ‘translating the situation’, whereby they modify part of the existing model, take stock, and then modify again in an attempt to understand the underlying topography of a place.87

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The changes within morphology is evidence of a trajectory where each new incarnation carries and represents a record of ‘processes and occurrences that went into its formation.’88 Nothing is ever finished, and the locus of growth and regeneration allows for the ongoing production of life to influence new forms.89 Critical Regionalism did this by making traditional elements seem ‘strange rather than nostalgic’ which in turn can become unnerving.90 This is further explored by Bowles who claims that it’s how one comments on a place, as to ‘take something that you observe and exaggerate it, slightly.’ 91

86 The building is structurally composed of German-made Slovenian timber and clad in recycled French railway sleepers. 87 Louridas, 1999, p.15. 88 Ingold, 2015, p.81. 89 Ibid, p.78. 90 Lefaivre, Tzonis, 2012, p.199. 91 Bowles, Interview.

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fig 58. Cowan Court. While referencing scale and morphology, the distinction in material use means that the new court stands on its own through observing, and refining.

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fig 60. Cowan Court internal space. The mirroring of morphologies and inclusion of trees within the court creates a distinct paralell with the original college typology.

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Self-Evidence Authenticity is a problematic word, and much like ‘vernacular’ it is open to many definitions which may mislead. This study uses Blundell Jones’ four part series on authenticity as a basis, where he states that it relies on a resonance between the buildings, beliefs and expectations of those who use it and failing to communicate with the world beyond alienates those who attempt to relate.92 He claims that increased awareness is required on the issues at hand today linked with a new approach to history and tradition to recover from the ‘ideological impoverishment’ of the late 20th century.93 Despite this, he concludes that the ‘absolute’ idea today may be unobtainable, but instead authenticity may arise differently. He claims: Knowing From The Inside

‘[Buildings] tell stories about themselves, their relationships with their ancestors and their myths of origin. These stories are the means through which use, construction and image unite to produce an impression of self-evidence. Such self-evidence we call authenticity.’ 94 The self-evidence may arise from stripping away unnecessary artifice leading to a more engaged understanding of climate and material use that comes from a place.95 While drawing from the landscape in a similar way as the generations before us does indicate an authentic response, the ability to engage with given materials in the same way is largely redundant as many have since been divorced from their origins.96

92 Blundell Jones. P, ‘In Search of Authenticity’ - Part 4, in The Architect’s Journal, 8th January 1992: pp.29-32. 93 Ibid. 94 Ibid. 95 Bowles, Interview. 96 Blundell Jones. P, ‘In Search of Authenticity - Part 2’, in The Architect’s Journal, 6th November 1991: pp.32-36

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As such, defining a vernacular of today based on the historic use of materials that are readily available does not result in the forms of buildings that were built using traditional methods. The Gault deposits once local to Cambridge have since depleted, and now in order to obtain a similar brick colour builders must source from The Netherlands and Belgium.97 The inventory of available materials is now noticeably different. Bowles speculates that a vernacular of today may be that of the cheapest available materials available from home improvement retailers (fig 61).98 Whether these are seen as authentic or not is difficult to say, but if there is self-evidence and a relationship with what has been before then there is potential of connecting by unconventional means. Jonathan Foulgfer

97â&#x20AC;&#x201A; Proctor, Interview. 98â&#x20AC;&#x201A; Bowles, Interview.

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One example is Eddington (fig 63). The new urban area separates itself from many suburban developments across Cambridge and the UK by consisting of apartment blocks of four to five storeys. The intent was to build a large number of homes without using too much space, and was masterplanned to contain 13 individual plots designed by separate architectural practices working collaboratively.99 The scheme follows the successful framework of multiple architects working together as seen previously at Accordia but at an increased scale.

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Bowles, who worked on one of the plots, claims that a view of vernacular focused on replicating the visible qualities of a place would not lead to the development as it was designed due to the unprecedented height and density (figs 64 & 65). However, in this case he claims it was the right thing to do in order to make a new place that works individually and is not subservient to Cambridge.100 It is about making somewhere that works in relation to streets, spaces, routes and squares where architects are invited to continue a design rather than to start.101

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fig 63. Eddington masterplan 01 Sarah Wigglesworth Architects 02 Alison Brooks Architects 03 Marks Barfield 04 MUMA 05 Alison Brooks Architects 06 Witherford Watson Mann 07 MUMA 08 Stanton Williams 09 Town Squ re 10 Mechanoo 11 Wilkonson Eyre + Mole

99 Stirling prize winners include Alison Brooks, Witherford Watson Mann, Wilkinson Eyre and Stanton Williams. Other notable practices include Mole Architects, Marks Barfield, Mecanoo and MUMA. 100 Bowles, Interview. 101 Bowles, 2015.

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fig 65. Eddington lots by Wilkinson Eyre and Mechanoo. There is a noticeable difference in scale between the existing centre and the new build.

While not adhering to the common idea of authenticity, it presents a new perspective on how the future of housing might be built. It is less an extension of Cambridge and more an individual piece of urbanity itself which has gone about defining it’s own signature. Certain aspects hint to an awareness of traditional form and material awareness - the Collegiate court is expressed in Stanton Williams’ plot alongside the use of pebbled pavement and Gault coloured brick - however the morphology of the site is noticeably distinct. Knowing From The Inside

The procedures put into place to account for how people live creates an architecture which is respondent to the attitudes of today. It can be seen as a form of vernacular adhering to the practice of enhancing community while assisting in sustaining local economies.102 The project is an edge case when it comes to the depth and quality of design made possible only by the investment of the University,103 but still presents a model for a future of residential developments as demands increase.

102 Richardson, 2001, p.108. 103 The University are able to look at the project over a 40 year development cycle which enables them to build the most important aspects first which aim to build and maintain community. See: Bowles, Interview.

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fig 67. Greenery and landscaping is given focus to the scheme, as seen in Stanton Williams' lot.

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fig 68. Eddington lots by Wilkinson Eyre and Mole.

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fig 69. Mole Architects lot displays a clear logic behind the facade spacing and scale.

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Material Engagement While engaging with the vernacular can create an engaged morphology and understanding of today’s living patterns to service form, it is also necessary to understand how the sustainable factors of these buildings will influence the architecture of the future. The climate emergency has made it clear that architecture and building practices need to drastically adapt, and the awareness of the elements of sustainable design core in every established form of vernacular architecture can suggest a course of change.104 The tried and tested solutions have proven successful in the past, where Bowles claims that ‘we can draw heavily on vernacular architecture that understands how it works’ 105

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With increased requirements on designing sustainably and the impact that sourcing materials from distant markets that produce a higher carbon footprint from travel, it is becoming necessary to ensure that the materials used in new projects are locally sourced and technologies that suitably work with the climate and environment. As such, a return to the vernacular ideal of function in relation to climate and material sensibility is critical, and within a constantly evolving pattern it has the potential to produce starkly different architecture which may have not been seen in a particular place while still adhering to objective circumstances.

104 Salman. M, ‘Sustainability and Vernacular Architecture: Rethinking What Identity Is’ [Internet] InTechOpen, 16th November 2018, available: < https://www.intechopen.com/ books/urban-and-architectural-heritage-conservation-within-sustainability/sustainabilityand-vernacular-architecture-rethinking-what-identity-is > [accessed 6 Oct 2019] 105 Bowles, Interview.

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While the practice of replicating forms has shown to be problematic, assessing and updating the ideas present a more grounded solution relevant to a place. Proctor outlines how the orientation of buildings is becoming increasingly relevant for solar gain and the positioning of voltaics (fig 71).106 These aspects are defining qualities of today’s vernacular that responds to the requirements of the future. This has recently been seen is Mikhail Riches’ Goldsmith Street (fig 70) which won the 2019 RIBA Stirling Prize; a scheme promoting human scaled design to Passivhaus standards.107 Much like Accordia 11 years prior, there is a chance that a scheme such as this may raise awareness of the thoughtful consideration of climate and morphology on the wider stage. 106 Proctor, Interview.

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107 RIBA, ‘Goldsmith Street Wins RIBA Stirling Prize 2019’ [Internet] RIBA, 8th October 2019 < https://www.architecture.com/awards-and-competitionslanding-page/awards/riba-stirling-prize > [accessed 10 Oct 2019]

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fig 70. Goldsmith Street features many of the positive place making features inherent in vernacular composed places disccussed within this study.

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fig 72. Eddington lot by Witherford Watson Mann

Conclusion

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05 Conclusion

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Conclusion

The perceived duality of what constitutes vernacular or not has proven to be an array of interpretations and understanding of what the term both means and signifies. The research question this study posed was whether the vernacular can bring authenticity to today’s generation of architecture, and the focus on scale, morphology and grain to bring meaning above just material and detail is an aspect often overlooked and successful in composing contemporary places. While vernacular in it’s most common understanding remains distant to the contemporary architecture of today, the ways shown in this study of engagement with objective circumstances, the everyday, making with relevant materials and applying 21st century living patterns are able to create an authenticity to vernacular whereby it exists within a genealogy rather than a defined 'new vernacular' (fig 73). Knowing From The Inside

This study concludes that the notion of vernacular can remain relevant to today, but through careful consideration of existing morphologies, and scale can architecture physically respond. While vernacular is different across the world, it can be stated that the lessons learnt from Cambridge are able to define a design methodology applicable to different contexts that architects can may use to remain involved within the places they are apart of even if there may be little there. Proctor states there is always something to draw upon, through a process where:

' you tease out of the landscape and whether it’s the built landscape or the natural landscape something that triggers a line of thought, and starts to build a narrative.'108

108 Proctor, Interview.

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While design codes and planning requirements may result in uninvolved pieces of architecture, they will still remain and continue to be necessary for future buildings. It is the continued strive of architects that seek to push things forward through exemplar projects that can adhere to these codes, fit within a locally defined framework while also producing well considered places that exhibit their own signature and are sustainably long lasting. Whether something is 'vernacular' or not does not matter as it is a term which, as shown, encourages misconception and conjures up incorrect images. What does matter is appreciating and understanding why specific vernacular developed over time, how architecture is defined by its response to place and through responding to attitudes of today will create places that are relatable and human. Jonathan Foulgfer

Use of materials 'at hand' to the maker Consideration of local morphologies and scale

Relatable and human

Acting as the everyday 'background'

Use of sustainable practices

Vernacular Genealogy

Self-evident: without artifice

Participation with objective circumstances Respondant to attitudes of today

â&#x2020;?

fig 73. Methods for engaging within a continued vernacular.

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fig 74. Churchill College dining room

Bibliography

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Brunskill. R. W, Illustrated Handbook of Vernacular Architecture (London: Faber and Faber, 1988) Canizaro. V. B, ed. Architectural Regionalism: Collected Writing on Place, Identity, Modernity, and Tradition (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2007) Caruso. A, The Feeling of Things, (Barcelona: Ediciones Polígrafa, 2008) Chevin. D, ed. Distinctively Local [Internet] 2019, available: < http:// distinctively-local.co.uk/storage/app/media/Distinctively-Local-FnalReport.pdf > [accessed 16 Sept 2019] Design for London, London Housing Design Guide, Interim Edition (London: London Development Agency, 2010) Fathy. H, Architecture for the Poor (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000) Gehl. J, Life Between Buildings (Washington: Island press, 2011) pp.184-189. Greig Crysler. C, Cairns. S, Heynen. H, eds. The SAGE Handbook of Architectural Theory, (London: SAGE Publications Ltd, 2013) Ingold. T, Making, (Oxon: Routledge, 2013) Johnston. P, ed. Project Interrupted (London: The Architecture Foundation, 2018)

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Leatherbarrow. D, Architecture Oriented Otherwise (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2009) Lefebvre. H, Critique of Everyday Life: Volume 1 (London: Verso, 1991) Levi-Strauss. C, The Savage Mind (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1966) Lynch. P, Civic Ground (London: Artifice, 2017) Nash. C, Contemporary Vernacular Design (London: RIBA Publishing, 2016) Oliver. P, Built to Meet Needs: Cultural Issues in Vernacular Architecture (Oxon: Routledge, 2006) Pryor. F, The Fens: Discovering England’s Ancient Depths (London: Apollo, 2019)

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Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the City of Cambridge (London: Her Majesty’s Stationary Office, 1959) Rudofsky. B, Architecture Without Architects: A Short Introduction to Non-Pedigreed Architecture (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1965) Scalbert. I, 6a architects, Never Modern (Zürich: Park Books, 2013) Till. J, Architecture Depends (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2009) Tzonis. A, Lefaivre. L, Critical Regionalism: Architecture and Identity in a Globalized World (Munich: Prestel, 2003) Tzonis. A, Lefaivre. L, Architecture of Regionalism in the Age of Globalization: Peaks and Valleys in the Flat World (Oxon: Routledge, 2012) Wigglesworth. S, Till. J, eds. The Everyday and Architecture (London: Acadamy Press, 1997)

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Lawrence. R. J, ‘The Interpretation of Vernacular Architecture’, in Vernacular Architecture, 1983, Vol 14, Issue 1, p19. Louridas. P, ’Design as Bricolage: Anthropology Meets Design Thinking’ in Design Studies, 1999, Vol. 20, No. 6, pp.517-535. Maudlin. D, ‘Constructing Identity and Tradition: Englishness, Politics and the Neo-Traditional House’ in Journal of Architectural Education, Vol. 61, Issue 3, 2009, pp.51-63. Maudlin. D, ‘Crossing Boundaries: Revisiting the Thresholds of Vernacular Architecture’, in Vernacular Architecture, 2010, Vol 41, Issue 1, p.13. Stender. M, ’Towards an Architectural Anthropology—What Architects can Learn from Anthropology and vice versa’ in Architectural Theory Review, Vol. 21, Issue 1, 2017.

Visual Media Bowles. M, ‘Meredith Bowles RIBA Annual Lecture 2018’ YouTube, 7 Dec 2018, available: < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiHY2BJL6GU > [accessed 16 Sept 2019]

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Christiansen. R, ‘The Modernists Move into Cambridge’ [Internet] The Telegraph, 13 Jun 2013, available: < https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/ art/architecture/10897576/The-modernists-move-into-Cambridge.html? > [accessed 24 Jul 2019]

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Buxton. P, ‘Cottage Industry’ [Internet] RIBA Journal, 4th May 2016, available: < https://www.ribaj.com/culture/cottage-industry > [accessed 10 March 2019]

Grylls. G, ‘Marmalade Lane is a co-housing exemplar that could spread’ RIBA Journal, 16 August 2019, available: < https://www.ribaj.com/buildings/ co-housing-marmalade-lane-cambridge-mole-architects-george-grylls > [accessed 30 Sept 2019] Hatherly. O, ‘London’s new typology: the tasteful modernist non-dom investment’ [Internet] Dezeen, 21 Aug 2014, available: < https://www.dezeen. com/2014/08/21/owen-hatherley-london-housing-typology-yuppie-flatstasteful-modernist-investment/ > [accessed 28 March 2019] Heathcote. E, ‘Is a new architectural style emerging in London — Brickism?’ [Internet] Financial Times, 19 Feb 2016 available: < https://www.ft.com/ content/61ea50cc-d0d4-11e5-831d-09f7778e7377 > [accessed 11 Sept 2019]. Jennings. W, ‘London Brick: The Value and Meaning of Brick in Neoliberal London’ [Internet] Medium, 22nd Aug 2018, available: < https://medium. com/@willjennings80/london-brick-ecfa5d55a4e0 > [accessed 28 March 2019]

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Magouliotis. N, ‘Genius Loci 2.0: Vernacular Beyond Traditional’ [Internet] ETH Zurich D-Arch available: < http://topalovic.arch.ethz.ch/news/geniusloci-2-0-vernacular-beyond-traditional/ > [accessed 28 March 2019] Merrick. J, ’Is 6a architects’ Cowan Court really timber Brutalism?’ [Internet] The Architect’s Journal, 30 Jan 2017, available: < https://www. architectsjournal.co.uk/buildings/is-6a-architects-cowan-court-reallytimber-brutalism/10016711.article > [accessed 22 Sept 2019] Moore. R, ‘The quiet revolution in British housing’ [Internet] The Guradian, 16 Aug 2015, available: < https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/ aug/16/quiet-revolution-in-british-housing-architecture > [accessed 9 Sept 2019]

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Narin. I, ‘Ian Nairn’s Subtopia, from June 1955’ [Internet] The Architectural Review, available: < https://www.architectural-review.com/essays/ campaigns/outrage/ian-nairns-subtopia-from-june-1955/10030723.article > [accessed 24 Jun19] Nourse. B, ‘Red, white and grey… a standardised national landscape’ [Internet], CPRE Essex, < http://cpressex.org.uk/red-white-and-grey-astandardised-national-landscape/ > [accessed 26 Jul 2019] RIBA, ‘Accordia, Cambridge’ [Internet] RIBA, 12 Aug 2012, < https://www. architecture.com/awards-and-competitions-landing-page/awards/ribastirling-prize/accordia-cambridge > [accessed 12 Oct 2019]. RIBA, ‘Goldsmith Street Wins RIBA Stirling Prize 2019’ [Internet] RIBA, 8th October 2019 < https://www.architecture.com/awards-and-competitionslanding-page/awards/riba-stirling-prize > [accessed 10 Oct 2019]. Salman. M, ‘Sustainability and Vernacular Architecture: Rethinking What Identity Is’ [Internet] InTechOpen, 16th November 2018, available: < https://www.intechopen.com/books/urban-and-architectural-heritageconservation-within-sustainability/sustainability-and-vernaculararchitecture-rethinking-what-identity-is > [accessed 6 Oct 2019] Slessor. C, ‘Editorial View: Reframing Critical Regionalism for the Current Age’ [Internet] The Architectural Review, 25th July 2013, available: < https:// www.architectural-review.com/essays/editorial-view-reframing-criticalregionalism-for-the-current-age/8651301.article > [accessed 24 Jul 2019].

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fig 75. Churchill College

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07 Figures

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Figures

All figures by author, unless stated below: Fig 1: < https://www.fashioninteriors.co.uk/wallpaper/william-morris-and-co/strawberry-thief-216476/p180508.html > (accessed 11.09.19) Fig 4: < https://www.discoveringbritain.org/activities/east-of-england/aerial-2/britain-from-the-airthe-fens.html > (accessed 13.10.19) Fig 6: < https://www.museumofcambridge.org.uk/event/discovering-cambridge-with-honor-ridout/ > (accessed 11.09.19) Fig 10 + 11: < https://www.ribaj.com/culture/cottage-industry > (accessed 11.09.19) Fig 16: < https://live.staticflickr.com/5307/5693885734_48af2e35e3_b.jpg > (accessed 11.09.19) Fig 17: < https://www.architectural-review.com/ian-nairns-subtopia-from-june-1955/10030723. article > (accessed 11.09.19) Fig 18: < https://www.harrowestates.co.uk/what-we-do/ > (accessed 11.09.19) Fig 19: < http://www.mlaplus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/UK-London-Saxon-Court7.jpg > (accessed 28.03.19) Fig 20: < https://flickr.com/photos/iqbalaalam/8163421154/in/photostream/ > (accessed 12.10.19) Fig 23 + 24: < https://www.dezeen.com/2019/02/18/glenn-murcutt-key-projects-architecture/ > (accessed 08.10.19) Fig 31: < http://www.greatfen.org.uk/heritage/drained-fens > (accessed 16.09.19) Fig 32: Pryor. F, The Fens: Discovering Englandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Ancient Depths (London: Apollo, 2019) Fig 33: < https://freshwaterhabitats.org.uk/willow-tree-fen-flagship-site/ > (accessed 12.10.19)

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Fig 21: < https://cargocollective.com/matthewsmitharchitecture/Harvey-Court > (accessed 12.10.19)

Fig 34: < https://www.molearchitects.co.uk/projects/houses/the-black-house/ > (accessed 16.09.19) Fig 36: < https://www.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/cambs/xxxii-lviii > [Edited by author] (accessed 16.09.19) Fig 37: < https://www.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/cambs/lxxxviii-xcviii > [Edited by author] (accessed 16.09.19) Fig 49: < http://compmaking.scripts.mit.edu/index/?research=i3-imitation-iteration-andimprovisation-human-machine-making > (accessed 16.09.19) Fig 50: < https://strawbalehouseislington.wordpress.com/design/ > (accessed 16.09.19) Figs 51 + 52: < https://www.queens.cam.ac.uk/visiting-the-college/history/college-facts/the-buildings/ old-court-history > (accessed 13.10.19) Fig 59: < https://www.thesun.co.uk/money/8685183/easter-bq-opening-times-bank-holiday/ > (accessed 13.10.19) Fig 67 + 68: < http://www.mikhailriches.com/project/goldsmith-street/#slide-11 > (accessed 13.10.19)

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fig 76. Kings College Chapel ceiling

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08 Appendix

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Interview with Stephen Proctor,

Director of Proctor & Matthews Architects

12th August 2019

Proctor & Matthews Architects Office, London

Stephen Proctor / Interview Jonathan Foulger Thanks for talking with me. Basically, as an overview of the project I’m looking at how the idea of vernacular has changed from, say, the past and kind of is worked today in various projects. For example, yourself where you have worked on a lot of project in Cambridge that respond to local typologies and material contexts. So I am looking at how there sort of a certain authenticity within that which isn’t necessarily related to the pastiche or imitation, but rather is actually rooted within a regional identity. Stephen Proctor vernacular? JF

So we’re interested in studying the evolution of

Essentially, yes. SP So we’re interested in making something that’s very contemporary that picks up on those regional patterns, I suppose, and orthology.

Jonathan Foulgfer

JF Ok, so I think the sort of idea that I am interested in looking into. So, I am looking at Cambridge as the study for this. It’s a city with a lot of history, lots of architects, especially in the 20th century have worked there and sort of had certain innovations within architecture and have developed new forms and ways of working within different sorts of styles. So, to start I was wondering how you view the city of Cambridge as a place to work in and what it presents to architects today in terms creating new ways to work? SP Well, we’ve done various projects over the years in Cambridge, obviously the most recent one in Great Kneighton which is on the southern fringe, and I suppose it is through that project in particular that we were interested in the development of a neighbourhood that draws on the history of not only Cambridge historic core but also the, sort of edge of Fenland settlements that grow up around Cambridge and as far afield as places like March and Chatteris, those villages, really. And the reason for that was it’s a city fringe site and it’s closest neighbours are places like Trumpington and Grantchester. But the scale and density is very much trying to make a new, denser settlement. It’s not necessarily a rural density. All of a sudden rural densities are quite high. So we looked at two different precedents for that one. We were interested, I suppose in the idea that we were, sort of, given a green field as a site. And although to be designated for quite some time within the Cambridge city plan for housing, it was originally a show ground site, so technically it was sort of a brownfield site, but the reality was that it was fields. And, so, we just thought where do you begin to place a relevant form on that landscape that avoids the, sort of, suburban cul-de-sac model that gets replicated everywhere in the country. So, there were starting points: one was to look at the evolution of that sort of monastic and later collegiate courts in Cambridge, and we

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Stephen Proctor / Interview were fascinated by when you look at that tight court in Cambridge, fascinated by the idea that you capture a piece of virgin territory, if you like, and you tame it with a courtyard. So we were quite interested with that. But we also we were interested in the relationship between the rural landscape and Fenland settlements, so that idea of a grain that, I suppose is a burgage plot: you get the high street and then you get a series of long thin yards that rather than working parallel with the high street are actually perpendicular with the high street because they were about getting produce from the fields to the market street.

Knowing From The Inside

And so you get this very fine grain of development. And so we sort of combined those two ideas, we were interested, I suppose, one of the things we inherited on the site was this enormous roundabout, and we couldn’t think of how to develop the first phase of this neighbourhood around a roundabout that came with it’s own inherent problems, acoustics and all sorts of things. And so, we thought we put the footprint of Trinity court over that, and could it tame this infrastructure? Whether it does that successfully or not, I don’t know, but that was the starting point. And then we started to think, well actually, you start to get this sort of urban form, and then you get a gradation of, sort of, mews and then these long thin barn like houses that filter out to the landscape, so there is sort of fingers of landscape coming in off the edge, and fingers of built form coming away from that structured court. And so that, then, was a response to a sort of grain, and response to wider issues of how built form has evolved in relation to landscape, and also how you capture and tame wild landscape, I suppose. But we weren’t, at that stage, particularly interested in vernacular detail, we were more interested in scale, vernacular scale. And it’s something that we’ve explored on quite a few projects now, in terms of something that helps us to deliver a narrative that grows out of a place, and I think that’s probably why we’re interested in the vernacular. But then, later on as we started to develop an architectural language, then there was the idea of the Gault Cambridgeshire brick, for those more formal elements, and the mews spaces, but when you actually went out to the edge of the neighbourhood with the fingers of built form, maybe they took on more of the qualities of some of those agricultural buildings that you find in villages, or the long thin yards that you find. That’s why they become that black boarded buildings. JF So has it got something like new town, or garden city about the scale, well not necessarily the scale, but sort of the ideology of putting these residential developments within a different array of built forms and multi-use at the edge of the town? SP Yeah, I’ve never really seen it as anything, I mean, you know, it’s an urban expansion, and it’s creating a new edge to Cambridge on the southern side, so that’s, sort of, has it’s own inherent issues about how you

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Stephen Proctor / Interview stop future development. So there are very clear edges, so for instance we have a country park that wraps around along the line of the Hobson’s Brook, there are very strong edges that we’ve created, you can’t extend further. I think that’s quite interesting as well when you look at the relationship of Cambridge with the backs, there is a very formal, crisp edge. It’s no the filter that you might find on other edges. So yeah, I don’t think we ever thought of this as a Garden City, kind of in position really of a philosophy about living that I think is more of an Ebenezer Howard kind of thought process, this was very much about looking for a narrative that grew out of the site, and then apply it into 21st century living. JF Ok, so thinking about taking things from the past and applying that to the 21st century, how did you go about deciding or refining these historical aspects to be relevant for today?

Going back to the vernacular, what would you say vernacular is today? SP Well I don’t think, is there a vernacular today? I don’t know. I mean, people have talked about the new vernacular style in London apartments which is a stripped down brick.

Jonathan Foulgfer

SP Well, I think, the 21st century and the living patterns and the density requirements take over. So it’s always a two way process, which is why we’re not keen on pastiche or mimicry in that sense. We’re more interested in building a narrative of place. So, I wouldn’t say that what we do is neo-vernacular, I don’t think it is. But certainly the vernacular forms the way we compose places.

JF Just brick on the side of buildings you would have had before, really. SP Yeah, which is slightly worrying. So is there a new vernacular? I don’t know. We weren’t searching for a new vernacular. JF Ok, so from what I’ve looked into so far it seems that a lot of it relates to the vernacular being the everyday style of building, so I think the idea of vernacular has gone now. SP Yeah, I think for us the interesting thing is for us, is if you are working on s sloping site and that’s a distinctive topography for the locality, we looked at how people have responded to that topography in the past. I suppose that’s the interesting thing for us. So you distil from the vernacular key characteristics. So we’re just working on this project at the moment [points to drawings] in Northstowe which is North of Cambridge. Where we are working with a modular supplier. Now the interesting this for us is that…we’re interested in this challenge that the government has at the moment.

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Stephen Proctor / Interview They want to deliver housing quicker, more efficiently and greater densities, but they have opposition from people who don’t want it in their back yard basically. So how can we make all these more efficient building systems work and deliver a narrative that grows out of the locality? And so again we did a lot of research about the archaeology on this site, and the pre-Roman evidence of settlements on the site and the round houses and protected ditches and all these kind of things. Then we start to build a narrative that is about building a defined settlement as a piece of raised gravel bed, so you take Long Stanton, for instance, next door to this site. And a lot of these fenland settlements were on a raised ridges of gravel within the floodplain. And so they were defined places, they were called in homes, I think.

Knowing From The Inside

So we are interested in that as the starting point for a narrative, that new place. Because we’re also interested in the fact that suburbia on the whole doesn’t express threshold it’s about this, sort of, George Orwell referred to it as gravy stain that kept spreading. So we’re interested about the thresholds that you find in historic settlements that appeared for specific reasons but you are aware when you’ve entered those villages, and you are aware when you go from one neighbourhood to the other that you are crossing a series of boundaries, if you like. So, we then start to overlay that with those ideas with the modular project. Then you start to think, what is the signature of this architectural signature which I think is where you are getting to. So what is the expression of this, and why does the modular housing here express the self differently to its same use in Salford or Birmingham or wherever. And, so we are in the process of trying to define the Northstowe signature, if you like, which might be about a low plinth that rises to capture the entrance doors. And that loosely comes from an investigation of Fenland architecture which tends to be very much two storey buildings, with the top floor being in the roof and dormers rising, so you get this ground hugging form that articulates the upper storeys within the roof space. Here we are talking about three storeys that have all got flat roofs, so we can’t replicate and don’t want to replicate the vernacular forms, but we are taking certain characteristics of those and beginning to apply them to make this place it’s own thing. JF Ok, so Northstowe is your masterplan, from what I have read… SP We’re also designing some of the unit types as well. But we’re also absorbing pre-designed unit types. So it’s quite an interesting one, it’s an interesting role for architects because I think the big challenge, you know, I’m sure the discussions in the Ministry of Housing and Homes England are about this idea of how you make it local, how do you make it not a standard volume house build product, which maybe utilises a

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Stephen Proctor / Interview different material on the porch, or a window, or whatever. And it is quite challenging, when you start thinking about it. I don’t think there are many people who are actually, really, trying to develop a methodology for reconciling those very disparate aspects. JF Yeah, so it seems in Cambridge you’ve got, say, Northstowe and there is also Eddington in North West which is an interesting case as it is all these different architects coming together to try and essentially define a style that unique to Eddington, but they’re all defined by the overall masterplan. Is that something you’ve had experience in?

And then when we were doing the project, the developer pulled out, so we got it just nearly to planning, though we were looking for the language of the high ground, you know, I don’t think there is a language for the high ground, but we were trying to evolve that and we were looking at the geology of the area as well which was quite fascinating as you’ve got the red sandstone beds of Girton on one part, and of course you’ve got the Gault clay as well, and this site straddled the two, so we were looking for an architectural language that could actually morph from one to the other as you got further towards Girton.

Jonathan Foulgfer

SP We did a bit of work for North West Cambridge, I find North West Cambridge’s site particularly interesting as it’s got the Ridgeway running through it, and that is Alps for Cambridge, isn’t it really? It’s about as tall as you get. It’s again, quite interesting that because it was the high ground and because it was a south facing slope, that archaeology they found across that site was all about settlement, you’ve got a lot of Roman, pre-Roman, Medieval, in fact they discovered a whole medieval village that disappeared off the radar in 1400 or something, which is quite fascinating, really.

JF Ok, so you’ve mentioned you work a lot with archaeology and finding aspects in the landscape. How would you approach designing buildings which have a lot less to draw from? SP You can always find something to draw on, I think. The other thing is that should we be looking at just very local to a site, or should we be looking regionally? Or should we actually be looking further afield? We just produced a document for Ebbsfleet, which was a narrative study really, we didn’t do any designing as a part of it. But we were interested in provoking developers into asking a series of questions on what is the narrative for the whole of Ebbsfleet? One of the things we were interested in…because some of the sites are obviously in floodplain, and there are some historic settlements, I suppose, within Kent that come onto the estuary and are influenced by that but we’re talking about building at high density, so we suggested looking at Dutch examples of that, but they

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Stephen Proctor / Interview were not interested in that at all. It has to be…if you’re citing an example it has to be local. And I’m not sure that is that important. Yeah, I just think that you tease out of the landscape and whether it’s the built landscape or the natural landscape something that triggers a line of thought, and starts to build a narrative. And there is a point where you can suppress that, or you can heighten those issues, but you overlay something that also is responding to the 21st century. Living patterns are very different. JF It is interesting that you talk about drawing from Dutch examples, there is a history, for example in Copenhagen which was basically designed by the Dutch after it was damaged, I can’t remember exactly, but in some description. Is that something you…

Knowing From The Inside

SP Well there’s a big example of the Dutch in the Fenlands, of course. And there are various pretty good novels flying around at the moment about that. I’m just reading a book on the archaeology on the Fenlands and of course there is centuries of reclamation that was driven by the Dutch. So why can’t we look further afield? JF Yeah, I think that is interesting. So, when you are thinking about the more day-to-day lives of people, how would you say you look towards a more anthropological way of working? SP Ok, for instance, on the project we did for North West Cambridge we made an architectural speculation that was based on a series of round ditches that we discovered on the site, and those were sort of bronze age. Then there were the Roman orthogonal field patterns when there were asparagus fields, or what ever they were. Again, they were ditches, and mounds. So then we started to say, ok well maybe that informed the fact that a collegiate court or a monastic court has this orthogonal arrangement and then you sat to make that connection back to century of Cambridge. And so then when we started to talk about all the houses, which were all courtyard houses, and that then suddenly starts to tap into a move away from the large rambling front and back garden, people that are looking more for manageable external spaces, more usable external space, more space that has a extended seasonal use because it’s more adjacent to as many habitable spaces within each dwelling, and living spaces, so the kitchen, the dining room, the living room than a conventional back garden that can only ever be off one space on a tight plot. So in that sense there is a reconciliation between these sort of history of the site and contemporary living patterns. You try and bring it together

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Stephen Proctor / Interview as a coherent narrative then. We did a similar thing down in Kent in a place called Horsted where we were interested in farm yard patterns, because you get this sort of protection in a court holding back the elements of the fields around it. So we started to develop a masterplan that was formed very much about that. But again, you start to then work in how do you get a frontage into a central space but also a frontage into onto a landscape, that then you start to think about houses that don’t have the gardens on the front or back, they have them to the side and walled gardens, so you get a ladder of these things. And it’s quite interesting getting the feedback then from the developer who liked the idea that two or three spaces of their house actually opened up into their courtyard, and they became more usable. JF So, looking into this historic aspect of a site, would you say that it makes your architecture more authentic? Or what would you interpret as being authentic?

Jonathan Foulgfer

SP I think it probably means it’s more anchored in its context. And I think it’s probably…you know, people moving into here, would they ever know that we were inspired by Bronze Age settlements? Probably not. But it actually informs, hopefully, the richness of the scheme, because it will be very different from the first stages of Northstowe which are very conventional sort of suburban sprawl. But do people need to know you’ve made those references? I’m not sure, it’s more of an aid to design. More about being more rigorous about the things, the marks you make on the paper because they belong to that narrative. JF Ok, so even though people might not necessarily appreciate that, would you say it makes in more engaged with people? As it is a very different sort of layout compared to where you see elsewhere in the country. SP I think so. There will be references to materials. In Great Kneighton there are people that will have said they understand the black barn buildings, I don’t know whether you’ve seen the scheme…? JF

Yes, I’ve had a look at it. SP And they understand that kind of typology, but it doesn’t stop councils all over the country saying, we’re putting a design code together for our housing down in Devon, or where ever, can we use photos of your housing? And you think, well, there is nothing stopping you doing that but this wasn’t a particular response to this site, and people suddenly think that if you put a pitched roof on something and use a few clay tiles and some boarding that suddenly how that is a Neo-vernacular scheme. But that wasn’t the intention.

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Stephen Proctor / Interview JF

No, I think it shows. SP The same with the Gault brick, of course. We are interested in using as close as we could get to a Gault brick, but we wanted to do something slightly different with it because we wanted to…we’ve got very complex typologies that we have maisonettes, and apartments in one building. And we wanted to make sure that you could read the houses separate from the apartments above. And therefore we sort of have the Ralph Erskine thing which was to cut the brick in half and expose the frog of the brick to give a texture, so each house has a profile within the brickwork. It’s quite interesting that when a lot of the first residents were interviewed, they actually said they bought into it because they liked the brickwork.

Knowing From The Inside

It’s not a particular vernacular response, bit it’s taking those brick’s textures, and you can’t really get a proper Gault brick anymore because all the clay samples have been exhausted, so a lot of things that people are talking about being ‘Gault’ come in from Holland and Belgium and Germany. So they are no longer locally sourced. So it was really taking the Gault brick and trying to do something slightly different with it. That again was the signature of this particular place. JF So looking forward to the future, you have mentioned earlier that the idea of the vernacular isn’t really around any more… SP Well vernacular forms last through time, and become vernacular because they have been tried and tested. So I have no idea if someone in 200 years time even if our housing is still standing, but if it is I have no idea if something will see a response to the landscape, or a response to environmental conditions or the materiality, or if we’re going to cues to that, I have no idea. But until that is the case I don’t see how it can be considered as a vernacular response. I don’t know, what’s your understanding of it? JF That’s why I guess I’m looking into this. I think its how we define, say, the architecture today and what it is that’s driving these particular reasons that we are building. SP I think that vernacular is the architecture of necessity, isn’t it, and therefore what we are doing…we’ve got a palette of materials that are a lot wider than anything that were available centuries ago, and we can control our internal environments so that orientation driving force probably will be getting more so, and certainly when you start to think about higher densities and we talked about that fine grain and orientation is quite key as you try to get sunlight into smaller, more confined places.

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Stephen Proctor / Interview So I suppose there is a response to climate in that. And the orientation of voltaics and all those kind of things they start to generate a certain form. JF That sustainability aspect, which, I guess, has always been aspect of vernacular. SP Yeah, quite an important one. We’ve been working on a scheme in the Outer Hebrides in Benbecula, and you look at the black houses, you know, that came about that were very crude long row houses with turf roofs, I suppose, and of course they don’t have any windows, and people for people working in there it was purely to do with shelter, they didn’t have time for relaxation, they were either working on the croft or sleeping. And so the idea that should we replicate that now just because someone wants a holiday house there, they want to be able to experience the landscape.

JF Yeah, that makes sense. They are sort of redundant otherwise other than the nostalgic aspect. Ok, I think that is probably enough for today, unless there is anything else you would like to add?

Jonathan Foulgfer

So we can control and probably get a better thermal performance now through a triple glazed window than they could through their turf roof. So, should we really be responding to that slavish coming to the vernacular, or are there certain things about how the black houses go together that give a sense of protection, in the way they are clustered? Those are the more interesting things, than the architectural features.

SP I don’t think so. I mean I think it’s quite an interesting…the idea of looking at the landscape, and the built form, but not in terms of just the materiality and just the architectural detail. I think it’s to do with scale, I think its to do with the relationship with the landscape, the grain that you’re trying to investigate things that provide you with a narrative, that move the design on. That’s quite exciting. JF Yes, I agree. I think it seem like its inspiring to be able to see what you’ve done and it’s interesting to see how that can translate to different places and different urban densities and how that might work into the future.

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Interview with Meredith Bowles,

Director of Mole Architects

14th August 2019 Mole Architects Office, Cambridge

Meredith Bowles / Interview Jonathan Foulger Again, thanks for meeting with me. Just as an overview of the project, I’m looking at the idea of vernacular and authenticity and how that is integrated within architecture today within new developments. So, I am looking at Cambridge as a case study, which obviously you have a lot of involvement with being based here and having worked on a good number of projects here. So I am trying to understand whether the idea of the vernacular is still relevant today, if it means something different from what it has meant in the past, or if it has evolved to encapsulate something that is completely different. So I’m looking to see how this fits in a time when a lot of developments around the country are struggling with seeming to portray a particular identity, where some seem to be inspired by pastiche, and never really seem to fit into anywhere particular. So there has become this globalised regional identity which seen everywhere you go, so this uniqueness that is missing in a lot of places.

Jonathan Foulgfer

I’m looking at how people engage with buildings, and how this is appropriate based on what has been designed, and how the architect has considered how people work within these buildings and if there is an authenticity that comes with that. If, say, considering site in a particular way actually makes or encourages people to engage with a building in a particular way, and how that can reflect where it is from and how it is anchored within a site. Again this goes back to the idea of vernacular where you are representing something that looks at the everyday lives of people and how can work within the 21st century. To start with, as I mentioned I am looking at Cambridge as a case study, and it has got a long history with medieval origins, and even Roman to some extent, where there has been architects coming and going, especially in the 20th century where it seems it has had the image of it being an innovative place where lots of new technologies and influences from around the world have been here and there are markers of particular ideologies. So I was wondering what you viewed Cambridge in regard to these images and how it is portrayed, and how you view it as a place to work in. Meredith Bowles Well I think its a really rich area in which to think about architecture, but the idea of contemporary vernacular is a bit of a tautology, isn’t it? JF

Yes. MB So what do we mean by vernacular? Does it have any currency, can it have any currency? Would be my question to you.

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Meredith Bowles / Interview JF I’m tempted to say the historic idea, or what people typically associate with vernacular, is not relevant today in that same way. But I guess it’s just seeing how the ideas are present. MB So I think you have to be really clear as to what you’re talking about. So, I think there is a vernacular. You said that you read that essay I wrote called ‘Angle Saxon vernacular’ its suggesting that there is a vernacular if vernacular is an everyday way of doing things through expediency of using available materials without artifice. And actually, if that’s the case, you have mentioned that we are in a globalised economy, and to a larger extent we are in a globalised culture, that’s our current context by which to see ourselves say, never mind the difference between people who live in the Cotswold or in Norfolk, there is very little difference between people who live in Cotswold or a suburb close to Stuttgart. So both culturally, and in terms of available materials to deal with how we build in a way that works and functions, actually I think the vernacular is now global to a large degree.

Knowing From The Inside

So I think if vernacular…vernacular speech is everyday speech, isn’t it? And vernacular building is everyday building. So in some ways the buildings that we as architects often decry from a lack of sense of creating a place of belonging, are true vernacular buildings. Modern vernacular. JF It seems that throughout history there have been influences coming and going across different countries, for example in a lot of Cambridge and the Fenland area there has been a Dutch influence, these comings and goings and nothing is really, if you look at the history of the place, local, until you go as far back as the need to survive where building comes from materials that are found in a place. I guess as that idea evolves. MB That's generally what people think about vernacular, isn’t it? We think about a way of building with vernacular buildings, don’t we? The way of building, which is attuned to a place and a climate and using available local materials, and actually building materials starting to be seriously imported and exported during the middle ages, didn’t they? Certainly by the 1700s, if you were wealthy you would build materials out of the ones you fancied, rather than the ones that were around. By the Victorian age stuff was being imported around the world, never mind here in East Anglia. So what I think we’re really talking about, in terms of the idea of a contemporary vernacular, is the idea of a regional or a local identity as being something that we think is important.

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Meredith Bowles / Interview JF Yes, I think so, less that notion of vernacular and more that sort of critical regionalist view where many projects are not looking towards that idea of Neo-vernacular but its trying to finding that rooting that is of a place but isn’t copying or pastiching. MB Yes, so that’s what interests me. I have a problem with the idea… with the use of the word vernacular as I don’t think that’s what we are talking about. JF Yeah, I think it’s a word that can be used with a lot of confusion and not necessarily in the right way. You talk about ‘New Vernacular’, such as in London where you talk about the ‘New London Vernacular’ which is basically putting bricks on the side of buildings which is very much a materialist view.

That's the real interesting bit. It’s about function, not about aesthetics. And I think in that that’s another aspect in terms of how contemporary buildings need to work for our changing climate, where we can draw heavily on vernacular architecture that understands how it works. Especially as we’re going towards a southern European climate, or what we think of as a southern European climate.

Jonathan Foulgfer

MB Well its about style. And actually the whole point about vernacular is that it’s not about style, I mean it ends up having things that look a certain way, but it’s about function and use of available materials, especially function in relation to the climate. So vernacular architecture of Northern Africa is very different from the vernacular architecture of Malaysia and from England.

JF Yeah, absolutely. So when looking at Mole’s or your particular way of working in existing places. How would you say that you look to generate forms or take inspiration from the existing surroundings, that may be classed as vernacular but may be classed as more engaging meaningfully within the context? MB Well the starting point for a design in a place, looking at the history of that place is really important for us in understanding what a building might need to feel like, and what its antecedence were, if you know what I mean. And whether those qualities that you find by looking into the history of the development of a place lead one to a different conclusion in one place over another in terms of how you should develop. In thinking about the development around Cambridge, if it’s a single house, that’s one thing. If its a small development then you start looking at other settlements or small settlements or parts of settlements in the area and try to get an understanding of how those were developed over

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Meredith Bowles / Interview time in order to understand why a settlement in Cambridgeshire might be different to one in Norfolk or the Cotswolds, or wherever. And often that’s to do with the topography or the geology and that’s nothing to do with style, its to do with where people have built and how they dealt with water, basically. So seeing the villages around Cambridge that are often on a single route, so a really long high streets that meander, and that’s because of the bogs that used to be around, so concentrating settlements along a route was much easier, whereas if you go further out finding a bit of solid ground, so you get the Fen island developments which are no longer quite as apparent since everything was drained, but originally there would have been a great logic to those.

Knowing From The Inside

To understand those and then apply those a new development, of course we don’t have to do that anymore as it is all drained, but there might be something about the way in which the proximity of houses to each other or what that morphology ends up being in terms of a place, which if you take some of that and make it in a new place, it will have some kind of resonance with other places nearby. I guess if you did that in Cornwall, say, when its about the weather in the valleys and the concentration of houses in relation to the sun in a valley, you would end up taking that information and in thinking about that could be replicated in a certain way of making a new development in Cornwall. We did a project in Cornwall where we looked at the way in which private space next to houses in relation to the lane ways in the streets worked. Often its to do with levels, and containing stone walls and the quality of the continuous wall which was commonplace lead to an incredibly different relationship to what we are used to around here where there is a much more immediate connection with the front of the house with the street made it a really different kind of quality of place. So its those kind of deeper investigations into why a morphology developed over time, as to what kind of a place it created. JF So its looking at that wider level of landscape and buildings, and how that interacts. I guess its like the micro and the macro looking at what you are drawing from there. MB I think that’s the first thing. It’s looking at a pattern of development as opposed to looking at the individual building. And in fact if you are doing an individual building that’s relevant. So, the house that I built for myself out in the Fens, so only one house, but the observation about to what extent houses in the Fens, once you are outside of those settlements that are sitting on the islands, to what extent they are strung out. There is a brilliant quote I found, a local - Hugh - was quoted in a

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Meredith Bowles / Interview document when they were interviewing local people about the landscape and he described the houses like dice on a green base, like a card table. They are little individual houses that are scattered. Which is a brilliant image. So its a maker building, the planners were arguing that that building, called the Black House, should be lower and shouldn’t be as tall and shouldn’t be black, and actually the quality of the Fens, I pointed out to them is not for things to be low and invisible but to stick up and be evident. Thats the quality that houses have in the Fenlands, and so flat and actually by the time it was the Victorian times they weren’t building little houses, that was an earlier part of Fen history, they were building two storey houses. So they looked like cubes which stick up in a flat landscape. So I think that point about critical regionalism and how you make evident or bring out the qualities that are inherent within a particular landscape or place in my view as an architect not doing vernacular architecture which is not thought through but actually its very knowingly thinking about how we are commenting on a place. Its to take something that observe and exaggerate it, slightly. Jonathan Foulgfer

So it becomes, in some ways, and to some people, unnerving. But the thing that we like to do is exaggerate something in a way that allows you both to be separate from it, it’s not pastiche, you’re not replicating it, but to point out what you’ve observed. The Black House is taller than the houses around, which makes you realise that the other houses also stick up, and flat. JF So, in the past you have been quite critical of how volume house builders are dealing with the approach to new developments which as mentioned before have a pastiche way of working, how might you think about or come up with a way that comets this way of thinking or finds a different way of working that could be more successful. MB Well, this is a lot more complicated in relation to the subject you are studying. When we think about vernacular architecture, the basis of thinking about pre-industrial revolution development and…I don’t know what the population growth is between 1820 and 2018, I guess it is 5 or 6 or 7 times, so for 150 years probably, we’ve had as a society and culture to address the problem of how to house large numbers of people, often in concentrated places, and the relationship that that has to what we think of as vernacular architecture or medieval architecture is pretty strained, I would say. And I think to think that we can draw on some of those observations in order to inform a sort of how we make a new town you know 3000, or a suburb of 3000 new houses, I think is a stretch. So how do we make them

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Meredith Bowles / Interview good places? I think the reasons it’s so terrible at the moment, the way it’s done, that house builders use all of the visual tropes of historic buildings, so they had porches, or chimneys or overhanging eaves or you know what ever it might be. You may as well put the fake Jacobean timers on the front of them as well as they did in the 19th century, harking back to a mythical golden age, so you may as well do that as well. I would advocate doing that if you’re going to. I would go for it whole heartedly rather than half heartedly. But it doesn’t actually do anything to create good places that have any reference to the kind of historical models that they usually are looking at. So, better still, to understand what good urban development can be that very little to do with village or small market town life, but is much more to do with how we live together in close proximity. And that is again nothing to do with style, generally, it’s about scale, about cars, about street making, about attitudes towards privacy and communality. And making a good civic life. That’s what I think should be done and should be thought about and looked at in relation to making new places that are hundreds and hundreds of homes, not the odd few. Knowing From The Inside

And it may be that there is historical precedence that can be drawn on to make a development in Cambridgeshire different to one in Lancashire, again based upon the quality of landscape more than anything else, I would say. But inevitably there is going to be some commonality, as there was in the Victorian times. A Victorian or Edwardian street on the edge of Sheffield is broadly similar to one on the edge of Cambridge. There might be a greater propensity to use stone in that time when it was more readily available, but actually in the 20th century no one is using stone, everyone is using mostly brick or panellised materials or whatever, and most of those now come from Belgium anyway. So it’s more to do with again, the kind of structure, the morphology, the scale, and landscape and how it connects with existing locations that becomes important. And actually it’s not so much that I object to a fake porch that house builders want to put on its more I object to all the other things that don’t do. Not that they do do, but what they don’t do. And that’s about thinking about the quality of streets, public spaces, scale, concentration, density, and then generally bad decisions about car parking and relationships between fronts to backs. JF So, how do you say that people might actually engage with places in a more meaningful way as a result of how you might have considered the ways that patterns of life develop in particular places, or how they might vary based on where you are? MB

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Meredith Bowles / Interview JF

Everyday. MB So, it seems that people still do value community. And it’s a question of what the means and how it comes about. And to me what it means is people communicating and for where they live to facilitate that. And it’s not easy, at all actually. And the thing that most readily assists that is the things that are not the houses. The main one is a primary school, and then subsequent ones are shops and facilities, and because that’s when people get out of their cars and have a reason to go somewhere where other people might also be going. So the need for developments to include for those non-profitable bits of the development early one to establish a sense of place or community is really vital, unless if they are not to remain basically a dormitory place where people sleep and have their dinner or watch the television.

Jonathan Foulgfer

And they go somewhere else to do all those things that they could that would otherwise give it a sense of communal activity. Parks and play spaces. Some of it is enshrined in law, in planning law, you know you do have to provide play spaces, people with young children absolutely form the backbone of community because they are the ones that are out there doing stuff, so you put a park in the middle of a place and people will meet up. If there is also somewhere they can go and get a coffee, or there is a community facility, so that people could organise a pilates class, or a jumble sale, or whatever it is, that again makes it easier. Not so completely known about that it’s encouraged, but it’s difficult, financially. JF So, you have recently been working on the North West Cambridge development which is quite unique for the part of the country that it’s in where it is on the outskirts of town. And it seems that when thinking about new developments, for example new towns, in a way, looking back to post-war era where in new towns you can see a lot of the failings in terms of the things you mentioned. So when it comes to North West Cambridge would you say there is a particular difference in ideology and how a lot of the development was planned out that varies from and is critical of how things are done in the past? MB Although I’d say it’s not so much the new towns - the post war new towns - because I think they did put in a lot of facilities and they were municipal developments that had libraries and so on as apart of them. It’s more post-1980s developments of houses, especially the post 90s, actually when regional spatial strategies were got rid of, and its been left to the market, that’s when all of that municipal facilities has disappeared. And North West Cambridge, now Eddington, is very different because its owned fully by the university, they are retaining a huge amount of building there as landlord, in effect. And they have a long view of it. In fact it’s not unprofitable, because they are retaining it and most of the

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Meredith Bowles / Interview first phase they are for rent. But they are able to look at it over a 40 year development cycle, if you like. So they can plan their money around 40 years because they are still going to be there in 40 years and the assets will go up. What that enabled them to do is to put all of those things which I’m saying should be in places right at the beginning. So they built the middle first - usually what happens is all the suburbs get built and eventually when there’s enough people who are going to buy stuff, basically, then the rest happens. With the University the first thing they opened was the primary school. The first thing! Unheard of. They started off with one class, I think it’s a four class building, maybe six. Anyway, there’s one class that started. They got the whole building first, then they built the community building. And the community building with the nursery attached to it is big enough, you know it was shortlisted for the Stirling Prize. JF

Ah, the MUMA one.

Knowing From The Inside

MB The MUMA building. You know its a community building for a future community of 3,000 new homes, you know 12,000 people of whatever but they built that first when there was only 300 homes. And then they built a supermarket, and managed to persuade the supermarket to come in because they gave them extremely favourable terms, so they could anchor them. So it becomes a place. And the supermarket overlooks the market square, you know now they are looking at trying to activate the shops by getting people in there probably on zero rent, I don’t know exactly, but that’s normal that you have to give the rent free periods on order to make it possible because the flow of, you know the foot traffic is not enough to sustain and give them their heating income. So all of that’s possible because they have a long term future. Now that could be possible for municipal authorities who can borrow money cheaply and could do all of that, it could retain the buildings as assets and have a 40 year plan if they weren’t short term in their views. Or, if we didn’t have a government policy which required the local authorities to flog their stuff off. So that’s why Eddington, I think, is different and will be more successful. That and the fact that also that it’s a dense development of 4-5 storeys on the edge of a town that is 2-4 storeys. You know, almost unheard of. So you are talking about vernacular, a view of vernacular which says ‘let’s figure out what a place is like, and make a place like it’ wouldn’t lead you to Eddington, because this is taller than the middle of Cambridge, but is absolutely the right thing to do, in terms of making a new place that works. JF Yeah that makes sense. It’s more forward thinking in terms of looking less to the existing and being more critical to find a better alternative.

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Meredith Bowles / Interview MB It’s a suburb. But it’s actually a… what’s the word? Exurb. Instead of being something that’s suburban, or subservient to the town. It’s making its own place, with its own centre, its own centre of gravity, if you like. JF So, looking forward to the future, and do you think that maybe the idea of vernacular might continue on the path that it’s on now, which is sort of something that’s been idealised or romanticised, or do you think there is a more positive future where there is a view that looks more towards this idea of creating places that stand for themselves? MB Well, vernacular as the sense you’ve just used it, which is backward looking, and you’re not using it in any different way to how it might be used in a planning document. But it’s just weird because it’s not what the word means. So, is vernacular going to continue, in other words, is a style that suggests it should look the same as something from the past going to continue? Jonathan Foulgfer

The answer to that is yes, it is bound to, it is part of our cultural make-up, and that’s been around for many centuries. Britain has always, culturally, looked back to its own past and the strength and power of people like the Pre Raphaelites and William Morris who were often held up as being forward thinking, you know there was shock when some of the things were coming up. They were the kind of modern vanguard in the 1880s to 1890s, but they had a romanticised, idealised version of medieval England that they were putting forward as the new creed, you know culturally we are completely wrapped up in the ideas of the past. So Modernism took off much more wholeheartedly in other countries, the British version of Modernism is often a little bit weedy. So that’s not going to change, and there’s aspects of it from my own culture I also love… I’m a member of the National Trust for Christ’s Sakes! We have a fantastic heritage that is antithetical for us to think about in a Corbusian sense, about getting rid of that and looking to the future. So of course that’s going to continue. Fortunately I think from the work that’s been done by people like CABE, Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, and documenting how we do design good places and what good design is, I think some of that has gone into the planning systems, there’s lots of local plans that write it in. So ideas that Kenneth Frampton was writing about that essay in 1986 or whenever it was are now embodied within our planning law, so job done. Then so it’s a manner of interpretation of that. We have to take consideration of the past, by law. So in that sense, looking backwards and understanding the past in a way of thinking about how we design for the future is not going anywhere, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. If any interpretation of it which is a stylistic thing

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Meredith Bowles / Interview and unfortunately there are too many people by seeing something that looks like it’s old, they think that they have ticked the box of contextual architecture. And in my view, they rarely have, because it’s not a deep enough analysis. JF I guess that brings the idea that if something is contextual it can be viewed as ‘authentic’, what would your view towards something that is authentic to a place? MB

It’s another really problematic word.

JF Yeah I know. I’m trying to think how you might interpret that word. MB Again it’s a really good thing to be looking at and really complex I think. I haven’t managed to yet, because I’m interested in it as well, and I haven’t managed yet to get to the bottom of it. So what does authentic mean? Does it mean without artifice? Knowing From The Inside

JF I think it’s a lot less superficial, and it’s difficult, as you say. MB True to itself? To have a set of principles and if you develop something that is true to those principles without artifice, not attempting to pretend it’s something else or disguised that makes it authentic? Something about authenticity is without pretence, isn’t it? I mean, one of my mentors has been Glenn Murcutt, whose work I greatly admire, and when he’s talking about his work, he is almost always talking about it as its function. Of course it has an aesthetic quality which is consistent but in his mind its derived from its function and that’s where its authenticity comes from. And I think his work has been looked at as an authentic, modern Australian vernacular. It’s often seen in that way. And if that is the case, I think it is about stripping away things that are unnecessary, understanding the climate in which it’s designed for and thinking about material use and he has a reason why he builds out of steel in instead of out of timber which is a practical one. And as a consequence the buildings end up looking a certain way, he refines them to a particular level, and actually if you look there is an awful lot of Australian architecture by now which has similar kinds of tropes. So how do you design something that is authentic, or is there such a thing as authenticity? I think stripping away things that are unnecessary, allowing the building to speak through expressing its function and how it works. And that can be a wider function, in terms of how it works in a neighbourhood with landscaping and connects to a wider environment, it doesn’t just have to be how the air flow works, although that’s a big part of it.

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Meredith Bowles / Interview JF So the idea of vernacular has always been associated with technology from the primitive roots of creating shelter and has always had an angle of sustainability of creating places which last appeal to climate. Would you say that with the idea of sustainability becoming apparent within buildings and how buildings are fixing on engaging with local materials that’s a new version of that, or technology has got a continued interest in it? MB Did you say that vernacular architecture has always been connected with technology? JF In the most primitive sense, with technology being what’s available at the time.

Jonathan Foulgfer

MB I think vernacular buildings are about comfort more than anything else. They are making shelter, aren’t they? And we learn a lot about vernacular buildings, especially comparing ones around the world about how you deal with climate using materials. And I look at that from the last 20 years, because if you are interested in adapting a building in a way that allows for a comfortable internal environment in any particular climate without using energy, passively, most of the principles that were in the historic vernacular buildings become or remain relevant. So in that sense there is a clear relation between contemporary sustainable construction and vernacular construction, a really clear one. That to me is the biggest possibility of seeing an expression of a modern building which has some similarities with the buildings in its context. And the differences which I say between Stuttgart and here is going to be very little. The difference between Morocco and here is going to be very great. So contemporary building which is designed sustainably in Morocco is going to look more like the Moroccan antecedence than it is going to look like our vernacular. It will still looking different. So I think technology may be able to solve certain things, so films on glass that allow glass to function as windows as well as keep heat in or out, for instance, allows us simply to make bigger windows. So, aside from the technology that gives us air conditioning, there’s plenty of technological advancements that can enhance our internal living environment that distances the building from the vernacular antecedence, but is actually using the same principles. JF Ok, I think that’s probably all I have got for today, unless there is anything else you like to add or can think of?

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Meredith Bowles / Interview MB Other than materials, I think it would be interesting to think about materials, embodied energy, sustainability and availability, and wonder what that means for a contemporary vernacular. It’s something that I’ve been meaning to look more into. I think that’s quite interesting. The Glenn Murcutt buildings which are made of steel, they were corrugated iron which was the cheapest way of getting building materials travelling in from great distances because the corrugation makes it very stiff over big sheets. Fantastic! But yeah, what’s available at B&Q, that kind of thing. Is that our vernacular?

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