THE YRM PARTNERSHIP ON MAKING A BUILDING
The YRM Partnership YRM YRM YRM YRM YRM YRM
Architects and Planners Interiors International Engineers Structures Management Service
ON MAKING A BUILDING
EdizioniTecno
It is perhaps stating the obvious to suggest that a good building requires a good architect: it is less well understood that it also needs a good client not necessarily a client who is fully conversant with the latest architectural styles and jargon but one who understands the complexity of the process of designing and building and who is able and willing to impart sufficient information about his own requirements to allow the architect to turn them satisfactorily into built form. In this book we study the process of design and attitudes of the YRM Partnership and its divisions - Y R M Architects and Planners, YRM Interiors, YRM Engineers, YRM International and the newly formed YRM Structures - with the aim of explaining to anyone contemplating building how a particular practice, incorporating a wide range of disciplines, goes about its job, what the end result looks like, and why. We look at the process of design and of building in-relation to projects carried out by the Partnership. In ali the work can be seen a dedication to modem design, an attention to detail and a desire for a sense of order, which is rare among British architectural practices. This sense of order creates buildings of calmness and repose that provide a background tying together the disparate nature of the activities that take place before them. Just as the simplicity of the Georgian terrace brought an order to the 18th-century British city, so does the architecture of YRM to the backlands of Smithfield or the deserts of Oman. It is an architecture that aims to be ordinary ratherthan monumentai, that satisfies by its order and quality rather than stuns by its novelty. Peter Murray
Heathrow Airport, Agents Building. The clean engineering detail istypical ofthe practice's steel framed building design.
THE YRM APPROACH
In the days before acronyms became fashionable, YRM was known less simply as Yorke Rosenberg and Mardall - after the three partners who founded the practice in 1944. Ten years earlier F R S Yorke had made a significant mark on the development of architectural thinking in the UK with the publication of his book The Modem House which celebrated, in particular, the white geometrical architecture of the 1930s. The reputation of this seminai work gave immediate intellectual credibility tothe practice, a credibility that, almost alone among practices founded at that time, it maintains today. Yorke Rosenberg and Mardall was, and YRM remains, a practice dedicated to the pursuit of a modem architecture. An approach it has successfully pursued in a wide variety of buildings for a wide variety of clients. The early work in the post-war period was predominantly from the public s e c t o r - schools, hospitals and universities - but today the balance is towards the private, commercial s e c t o r - w i t h even those clients that might be seen as public, like the British Airports Authority, moving towards privatisation. With this shift from Welfare State architects to broad ranging corporate practice, YRM has held fast to certain fundamental principles. Firstly, that architecture is a team game. Twenty years ago the partners wrote in Architectural Design magazine: "The prima donna architect should be a man of the past; the new architect should be the one who collaborates with other disciplines to produce a total solution." This principle holds good today even with the growing pressure for architectural practices to promote and market themselves. The partners have reinforced the idea of the collaborative effort with the creation of the special interior design and engineering divisions, providing the client with a full service which ensures co-ordination between the various members of the building team. Secondly, that architecture is the result of the rational analysis of the problems it is designed to solve, and that such a rationale forms the basis of a visual sense of order which is apparent throughout the practice's work from the design of the fagades of their buildings to the layout of the ceiling lights.
Top: Humana Wellington Hospital, London. Bottom: Greystoke Place, London. The offices of YRM during the period 1961-1976.
Top: Britton Street, London. The current offices of the YRM Partnership. Bottom: Agents Building, Heathrow Airport.
St Thomas' Hospital, London. The view across the Thames.
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Manchester Magistrates Court, designed in association with the Manchester City Architect.
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Underlying this desire for order is an o b s e s s i v e some might say pedantic - attention to detail. The late Mies van der Rohe was a major influence on the practice and his dictum, "God is in the details" has been followed religiously. The simplicity of the architecture will brook no imperfections-joints must line up, panels must be smooth and fiat, straight lines must be straight or the end result is unforgivably flawed. This obsession with detailing is best illustrateci by the fact that on a YRM building no tile ever needs to be cut. The areas are designed to a regular grid which means that whole tiles always fit exactly the space allocated for them. This provides a neat and clean visual solution, but also cuts down labourtime on site. The American practice of Skidmore Owings and Merrill were at one time also influenced by van der Rohe. YRM and SOM collaborated on the design of the Boots Head Offices at Nottingham and the Wills offices and factory at Bristol. This d o s e contact with one of the largest practices in the US had a major influence on the English architects in providing experience of sophisticated design and management techniques little experienced in the UK at that time. It also provided YRM with a reputation as designers of large corporate buildings. The two practices are now working together again on the vast Canary Wharf financial centre to be developed in the London Docklands. A Constant thread running through the practice over the past thirty years has been the commission for the design of various buildings and the planning of facilities at Gatwick airport. This long running project illustrates a cross-section of the practice's architectural attitudes over the period and has stretched its skills to create buildings that have to be built quickly, require frequent alteration and are able to handle vast numbers of people and ali the mechanics of a busy airport. From the brick formality of the first buildings to the blue steel panelled North Terminal there are signs of development, a greater richness, a broader palette of materials and colour, a greater interest in the reactions of the public. But there is no departure from the centrai principles. There is change, but no change of course.
A computer drawing showing the development of the design of an office block.
Four different options are investigated.
DESIGN METHOD
Architects approach the development of their design in a variety of ways. At one end of the spectrum is what might be called the "sculptural approach" where the architect starts from an idea of what the building should look like and then goes about fitting the various requirements into that predetermined form. To YRM this would be too arbitrary a method of approaching the problem. Theirs is a more scientific, a more rational way of development. The brief, the detailed analysis of the client's requirements, is centrai to the first stages of the design interviews and assessments of accommodation, working methods and servicing are carried out. The brief is studied in conjunction with the site, appropriate planning modules, the economics of the scheme and its function, and then shapes for the building are proposed. The design criteria can be fed into the computer and various options prepared which can then be studied in three dimensionai drawings on the screen and amended as required. Once the basic form of the building has been determined, the detailed design of room layouts, structure, mechanical engineering, and the selection of finishes and components begins. The development of the pian of the North Terminal at Gatwick and the University at Qaboos provide examples of this approach. The Gatwick Southern Terminal, the first phase of which was opened in 1958, was the first airport building in Europe to use a system of piers for parking aircraft and transferring passengers to the main arrivai and departure areas. Piers have the advantage that they can allow for expansion by simple elongation; they have the disadvantage that as they expand so the passengers have further and further to walk to and from their planes. An alternative to piers is the 'satellite' where a single waiting area services a number of exit gates - this has the advantage of reducing walking distances but cannot expand. The design of the North Terminal juggled the various advantages and disadvantages. The passenger approach to the Terminal was designed to continue the idea of Gatwick as an "airport in the country", where the relationship between the landscaping and the buildings is carefully considered. Passengers arriving at the airport via the rapid transit system will travel through pleasant landscaping with spectacular views as they approach the terminal.
Within the building, the conflicting requirements of the passenger handling divisions who require fast through-put of travellers, and the commercial section that wants the passenger to browse and buy in the duty free and souvenir shops, had to be balanced. The result is a three-level building arrivals on the ground floor, departures on the top and the commercial concourse in the middle, allowing each activity to continue unhindered by the other. This arrangement determined the use of bridges to the aircraft piers which take passengers to and from the correct levels. The planning of Qaboos University also developed out of a rational analysis of the problems - although they were of a somewhat different nature. A two-tier circulation system was one of the determining aspects of the design, where the necessary separation of the sexes in public areas has led to the placing of male circulation on the ground level and temale at first floor. It is interesting to note that a rational analysis of climate and living habits produces a curiously Arab style architecture despite the fact that there are no overtly historical or representational architectural elements in the building.
A diagram showing the various stages of the design and construction programme as carried out by YRM.
Evaluate: Social, economie and politicai forces
Agree structure of feasibility study.
Evaluate: Project finance
Designate client's representatives.
Sites Locai and services authorities, Amenities and communications
Review primary organisational options. Review secondary building and equipment options. Review costs.
Client's existing resources
CLIENT S ^ INSTRUCTION TO S T A R T I
Time factor Preliminary investigation of user's organisation Preliminary definition of environmental requirements (spaces, relationships, equipment, conditions)
Appoint consultants: Structural Cost (Quantity Surveyors) Mechanical Electrical Landscape
Preliminary definition of project management requirements
Present report on feasibility
Preliminary definition of constructional requirements
Other specialists
Building Shape option Study: Preferred planning module Gross areas Assessment of siting Potential shapes Structural assessment Planning and circulation Lighting requirements Heating and ventilation Component integration
Scheme design:
Design and costing
Detailed room layouts Specifications Cost checking throughout
SCHEME ^ DESIGN APPROVED
BRIEF APPROVED Parallel studies: Handling systems Lifts Service ducts Work stations Landscaping Constructional systems
Component selection Detailing Finishes selection Drainage design Structural detailing Mechanical and electrical design Landscape detailing
Preferred planning module Gross area Siting Building shape Developed structure scheme Planning Corridors Staircases and lifts Lighting Heating and ventilation Component integration
Interior Design: Cost planning and Draft Specifications: Statutory approvals
Furniture and equipment Layouts Special furniture and equipment design Colours and fabrics
BRIEFING
requirements: Organisational Analysis: Departmental procedures Organisational team structures. Communications Personnel
INFORMATION
CONSTRUCTION
Space requirements Relationships between departments and units Equipment schedule Air conditions Visual conditions Sound conditions Safety and Security Performance specification for building fabric
Drawing of the new North Terminal at Gatwick Airport illustrating the idea of the "airport in the country".
Drawings of the North Terminal at Gatwick showing (left) arrivai area for passengers
arrĂŹving by car and (right) those arriving by the rapid transit system.
The production area of the Hartcliffe Project, the head office and tabacco factory for WD & HO Wills designed in association with SOM.
FUNCTION
What the building will look like comes at the end of the design process - even in the interior design division a client may wait many months before he sees an image which gives any idea of the final result; the gestation period of the design involves research and familiarisation with the clients' and users' needs. The slogan of the Modem Movement in architecture "form follows function" can stili be applied to the work of YRM. The look of the building is determined by what goes on inside i t - windows, for instance, are placed where windows need to be and not because the pattern fits in with some predetermined formai elevation, as perhaps might happen with a Classical building. YRM pride themselves on their strong sense of structure in their buildings; that like a well drawn torso there is an awareness of the bone structure underneath - the rationale that lies beneath the surface. Despite this interest in producing a functional architecture, YRM do not use the functional elements in the expressionist manner of the so-called High Tech architects who display the mechanics of the building for ali to see - they decorously clothe the guts of the building. They would prefer to be thought of as High Performance, ratherthan High Tech.
A cladding system recently developed by the practice illustrates the high level of design skills that go into one element of the building. The system is flexible, in that the panels are on a modular grid which allows either solid or window panels to be used where required. This type of metal cladding is seen as a piece of high performance engineering ratherthan an amalgam of assorted parts; once the architects decided the type of panel and finish they required, they worked closely with a specialist sub-contractor whose business is the manufacture of cladding systems. A full height grid of neoprene gaskets has been used to ensure the cladding is waterproof and there are no less that three back-up gaskets should one fail. Vitreous enamel finish has been chosen not only for its rich and reflective texture, but also for durability and easy washing. A high quality of finish is vital in work of this kind if the panels are not to become distorted and detract from the architect's machine-like finish to his design. Such problems can be avoided by developing the finished design through one project to the next. The enamel panels, for instance, are a development from those used for the IBM building, CEGB and the offices at Gatwick. Which in turn followed on from the series of white tiled b u i l d i n g s - K e d d i e s Store, Liverpool University, St Thomas's Hospital - which developed the technology of small ceramic panels, each subsequent building improving the technique and the design. In an industry where effectively every product is a prototype, such corporate knowledge is an invaluable assurance that the building will work.
il The practice's own offices in Britton Street.
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The Department of Electrical Engineering and Electronics at the University of Liverpool. An example ofthe white tile period of YRM's work.
Pance Philip Dentai Teaching Hospital, Hong Kong.
IBM Midlands Marketing Centre, Warwick. The simple use ofrepetitive
elements creates a clean and elegant fagade.
STYLE
There can be no doubt that the massive post-war building boom of poorly executed glass and concrete boxes has created an environment of unparalleled dullness and banality. This has produced a reaction among architects and clients who in recent years have been investigating more varied styles of architecture, re-discovering and reinterpreting historical styles, adding various types of decoration to the fagades which, while acceptable perhaps as one-off monuments, when placed in the urban context create a visual cacophany that jars the senses, particularly when their fashionable garb begins to date and pali. The architecture of YRM provides a calmer picture, aiming to create elegance out of crisp detailing and clean lines. One might compare their buildings to a well cut s u i t - no loud checks, or this year's cut, but classic colours and fine tailoring and well pressed creases. Their buildings rarely attempt to dominate their neighbours, or tight with them visually. While the exterior architecture of the building is developed through a set of firmly established philosophical guidelines, the interior design team has to face up to an element of taste and customer choice that must inevitably be more flexible. YRM's distinctive approach to interior design - perhaps a better term is interior architecture since it aims to be consistent with the rest of the building - is based on the idea of the clarity of volumes of space reflecting the crisp exterior form and detailing, and creating a relationship between the fixed parts of the building fabric and the looser, moveable e l e m e n t s - t h e work stations, the shop counters, the check-in desks.
The Boots Headquarters building, designed in conjunction with Skidmore Owings and Merrill, was one of the first buildings in the UK to be designed on the lines of the American style corporate headquarters. For the first time a British company demonstrated an awareness of the idea that the building and the working conditions played an important role not only in the efficient operation of the work force, but also in improving the image of the company to its customers. Boots broke new ground. It was an early example of open pian office design, it had carpet throughout at a time when lino was the normal office floor finish and since there was no suitable off-the-peg system available, the furniture was designed by the architects. Desks were supported by pedestals which provided Storage space right down to floor level, rather than by legs that wasted valuable space and they incorporated wire management features- both standard elements of office systems today.
Interior ofan office in the Hartcliffe Project, Bristol.
The interior ofthe Manchester Magistrates Court designed in association with the Manchester
City Architect il lustrating the clarity ofspaces that the practice aims to achieve.
Hambro Life Centre, Swindon designed in association with Peter Carter, Architect.
A detailed drawing of the panel system especially developed for the North Terminal at
Gatwick Airport. The solid panels are in blue vitreous enamel, the window areas can be positioned where desired.
TECHNOLOGY
In contrast to most other modem industries, building uses a mixture of traditional materiate bricks, mortar and t i m b e r - as well as the latest products, such as Kevlar, Teflon, carbon fibre and other spin-offs from the NASA space programme. It combines a stili craft oriented site operation - messy, complex and prone to the effects of the elements, with an increasingly sophisticated off-site materiate and components production industry. To YRM perhaps the ideal way of building buildings would be from a kit of parts; structure, cladding windows, mullions, and internai fittings prefabricated to a quality only achievable in factory production and co-ordinated to provide design freedom. Such sophisticated co-ordination of the building products industry is stili to come about, nevertheless in much of its building YRM succeeds in creating an aesthetic which suggests a piece of industriai design, the antithesis of the crafts inspired vogue for brick and pitched roof vernacular. Even when they use brick, YRM detail it in a way that creates a crisp, clean, almost manufactured, look. As with ali other aspects of their work, the practice's fascination with technology is kept strictly under control. Pipes, ducts, structure, methods of fixing are underplayed, ratherthan expressed as features of the design. Aspects of maintenance, the ability to obtain an even finish, consistent colours and textures are given high priority. Despite the fact that they are rarely seen, as much attention is given to order within ducts, behind walls and above ceilings as in the more visible aspects of the building. Services must follow the same logie as the rest of the structure.
The practice set up its own engineering division to handle the design of mechanical and electrical services some ten years ago out of frustration at not being abie to find consultants with the same standards. It was the first such practice in the UK to set up a separate consultancy that also works for other architects - a precedent now being followed by a number of other larger practices aware of the poor reputation of much of mechanical and electrical consultancy and the increasing complexity, scale and costs of building services. Close liaison between the YRM divisions means that the engineers have an understanding of the architects' thinking and of the complete building system, allowing greater control of the design of services and greater co-ordination of the building programme. With a multi-disciplinary practice, where ali the building professionals are under one roof, the client can be sure that the whole team is working to common end, towards a solution where each piece of the building jigsaw fits neatly with the next.
The Sportsworld project for Liverpool South Docks. The giant barre! vault was plotted and
drawn on the YRM Intergraph computer drawing system.
Computer drawings showing the various stages in the
construction of a proposed building for Intergraph GB. Ltd.
Cast Ground slab and erect main columns
Drive piles to 20 m
Fix roof deck and fascia
Fix primary and secondary trusses
Place precast planks and power float topping
Erect internai and beams
Fix side wall
columns
cladding
BUILDING PROCESS
In larger building contracts it is rare today to find the 'traditional' method of commissioning where the client approaches an architect to prepare a complete design which is then built by a contractor employing a fully skilled workforce. The demand forfaster building and increasingly sophisticated management techniques have changed ali that. A variety of methods of procedure are open to the client and the d e s i g n e r - f o r speed, fast track methods allow commencement of work on the site even before the design work is completed. Under a Management Contract, the contractor's job is as the organiser of the various specialist and trade skills that go into the project; in Design Build the contractor is the clients' primary contact and he will commission the architect. The Qaboos University project is being built under a design build contract. Contractors Cementation International Ltd invited YRM International to carry out the design work on the complex which will house some 5000 students on a site 40km from the Omani capital. The massive 180 000 sq m university has had a building programme period of 21/2 years. To meet this schedule within the constraints of building on a virgin site with a limited choice of available building materials the architects developed, with the contractors, a prefabricated concrete shuttering system which was used to construct the major elements of the complex.
At Gatwick, the contract was complicated by the need to allow for the economical expansion of the North Terminal. The British Airports Authority decided to build the complete shell of the main building in the first phase although only a part of it would be initially required. This phase also includes one pier and one car park; future piers and car parks will be added when required. The contractual arrangements to handle this entailed a 'traditional' contract for the shell, while the fitting out is being carried out as a part of a construction management contract. It is important however in such contracts for the architect to maintain d o s e involvement in the detailed building work on site - there is a danger where contractors have to make decisions on cost control that the quality of the end product will suffer. For a practice as concerned about detailing as YRM such involvement is particularly vital.
Computer perspective of a new building in the London Docklands for Fluor (Great Britain) Ltd.
Construction shots of the North Terminal at Gatwick Airport illustrating the way the various elements ofthe building connects to the main structure.
Ari office project in Eastcheap in the City of London where a new building has been designed to fit in with its neighbours.
CHANGE AND GROWTH
The advent of the new technologies in even the humblest office in recent years has dramatically altered the specifications of commercial premises. Many millions of square feet of offices are virtually redundant because they are unable to provide the facilities required by computers and modem communications equipment. Buildings must be able to accommodate alterations in their use and occupation. Essential to the ability to change a building is the consistency and order that we have seen running through the work of the YRM practice. A building is a total system, the placing of structural members is consistent, many elements of the building fabric are interchangeable. The general approach of interior spaces with relocatable elements continues the concept. In the urban context architects must also accommodate changing attitudes. Although it would be out of character for YRM to design buildings in anything but a modem style, their buildings attempt to integrate the old with the new, reflecting the scale and the order of existing streets. YRM's buildings are, in the main, well mannered towards their surrounding environment, yet they also reflect a consistent approach to architecture which takes little notice of new fashions, but attempts continually to improve performance and design.
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Housing at Sultan of Qaboos University uses sun screens which create an Islamic style without resorting to pastiche.
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One of the covered walkways withĂŹn the Sultan of Qaboos University. The buildings use a precast concrete system of construction.
Modelof the centrai area of the Sultan of Qaboos University. The pian is symmetrical about the centrai axis,.
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ON MAKING A BUILDING is one of a series of books published by Edizioni Tecno with the aim of promoting excellence in architecture and design. The YRM Partnership: David Allford; Brian Henderson; Fred Woodhead; Tim Poulson; David Holland; John Ross; Trevor Davies; Barry Gore; George Young. Photographs: Richard Einzig (p2, 5, 8 , 1 8 , 2 6 , 28) Ken Kirkwood (p4) Henk Snoek (p4) John Roaf (p5,19, 24,40) Charles Dixon (p6) John Donat (p30) John Conran (p44) Glyn Genin (p46) Graphics: Centro Progetti Tecno Printing: Grafiche Mariano © C o p y r i g h t Edizioni Tecno 1985
Tecno spa 20121 Milano (Italy) Via Bigli 22 telephone 02/790341 telex 334153 Tecno (UK) Ltd. London W1Y 9HF, 19 New Bond Street telephone 01 629 0258 telex 22289 Edizioni Tecno 20039 Varedo - Milano via Milano 12, via S. Michele 5 telephone 0362/5899 telex 311485
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