Materiality

Figure 28: View to shows the sites variety in materiality Source: Authors Own

Figure 29: Bungalow (Type E) Source: Authors Own Figure 30: Modernist Flat (Type A & B) Source: Authors Own Figure 31: Terraces (Type D) Source: Authors Own

One of the modernist doctrines main pillars was the rejection of decoration. With the introduction of concrete and steel frame construction, walls no longer needed to be load-bearing, it was considered false to add complexity in materiality onto the facade. Gibbered in 1933 echoed these beliefs coming from CIAM in his article 'Some wall sheathings' in with which he said the wall should no longer require decorative finishes46, executed later that year in his design of Pullman Court who's wall were left completely undecorated.47 However, after his wartime studies, influenced by vernacular villages he had a change of mind. In the same way, he rejected the modernist doctrine for repetition due to its cause of monotony, he had the same issue with the lack of materiality in modernist construction. Writing an article in 1940 titled Wall textures: A local study, Gibberd suggested it might now be acceptable to look again at traditional approaches, purely for the visual effects of their materials and textures.48 49Using photography he had taken on his studies he argues that contemporary architecture whether “modern or traditional lacked ‘the same range or variety’.50 Acknowledging that unplanned development can ‘become almost chaotic’51 he believed these unplanned villages were held together in a form of unity, because the buildings shared the same craft technique, and were constructed of local materials.52 Therefore it was not just variety it was a sort of controlled variety that Gibbered aspired to replicate.

Somerford Grove. Rather than the whole estate using the same material pallet, he selected a range of brick types and finishes to complement and contrast between each other. The two flat typologies consisting of ‘precise’ flat ‘pale pink putty coloured bricks’, contrasting with the warmer brick for the terraces and the rougher ‘more intimate’ dark red and blue used for the bungalows.53 The project is thought of as a whole composition, the materiality of each typology conceived through how it would relate to the other. "were they removed to isolated sites their formal characteristics would need to be modified"

This Variation doesn’t end at brickwork but is carried onto differing roofing tiles and thresholds. It is therefore for not obvious on the first inspection that all the differing typologies were designed and conceived at the same time. However, there are enough similarities such as window detailing and use of small areas of white rendering, that the development reads as a whole. Reinforced by the attention paid to design and detail of the spaces between the dwelling, notably complex paving patterns helps to knit the scheme together. Collectively this creates a richer warmer experience for an individual interacting with the estate, without the project lacking any sense of order or composure.