Miller Architect

The question of what to do on a wet Easter Saturday with the family visiting was solved by a one hour drive and an afternoon at the ‘Watts Gallery – Artists’ Village’ in the village of Compton near Guildford www.wattsgallery.org.uk.

The Victorian painter and sculptor George Frederick Watts and his artist wife Mary Fraser-Tytler built their house ’Limnerslease’ in Compton in 1891 as a retreat from London. The part of the house that Watts used as his studio has recently been opened as the Watts Studios – a new extension to the Watts Gallery. The project is featured in this month’s RIBA Journal so I was looking out for the chance to make a visit.

The Watts Studios is part of the group of buildings which has grown over the past 10 years into a visitor attraction. The Watts Gallery, which was originally opened in 1904, reopened in June 2011 after a major refurbishment. The site also houses an art nouveau inspired ‘arts and crafts’ chapel designed by Mary.

GF Watts ‘Hope’ photo Tate Britain

In the Watts Studio, the large studio actually used by Watts is the main event and it was the highlight of the visit for me. It is an authentic restoration of a purpose built ‘arts and crafts’ style studio space complete with artworks, easels, brushes and all the paraphernalia of an artist so it has a ‘time capsule’ feel about it. It is a double height space overlooked from a viewing balcony with a south facing double height window to the garden (unusually Watts preferred to work in the variety of southern light rather the uniformity of northern light) and an east facing sloping roof window. The studio gives an insight into the ‘process’ of an artist.

GF Watts Physical Energy at Kensington Gardens photo David Hawgood

There are over 100 paintings by Watts in the Watts Gallery. Like much Victorian art Watts was at one time badly out of fashion and his allegorical, symbolic and mystical images do seem a bit weird – even spooky but that’s probably because I’m not up to speed on his spiritual ideas. The best bit of the gallery is the sculpture studio, complete with two original ‘gesso grosso’ (plaster mixed with glue and hemp) models by Watts used for the creation of bronzes. One of these is the model used for the giant bronze ‘Physical Energy’. Another insight – this time into his ‘process’ as a sculptor.

The journey home included a discussion about why the painting ‘The Ghost Ship’, which hangs in the gallery, sways on its hanging wires when you approach it. Is it a draught, a pendulum effect, breath or body heat? Or is the ghostly hand of Watts still at work?

I’ve just finished Rosemary Hill’s epic biography of Augustus Pugin ‘God’s Architect – Pugin and the Building of Romantic Britain’. It reads a bit like a prequel to Fiona MacCarthy’s definitive biography of William Morris ‘William Morris – A Life for Our Time’ which I half finished some time ago and finally finished last year. Two absolutely marvelous books that bring two design giants of the Victorian era to life. Though they had much in common, and Morris was heavily influenced by Pugin, their paths never crossed. Morris (1834-96) was entering Oxford when Pugin (1812 – 52) died aged 40.

Barry and Pugin House of Lords

Pugin was an artist, writer, critic and designer who pioneered the Gothic revival and packed more into his short life than most do into a long life. He was hardly out of childhood when he started his architectural career in his father’s architectural drawing school. The school travelled to measure and draw gothic architecture in France for publication in volumes of architectural drawings. So Pugin was completely immersed in the glories of late medieval gothic even before his architectural career began. He matured from the authentic copying of gothic archetypes (pointed or ‘Christian’ architecture as he called it) to a completely original free use of gothic elements applicable to all building types. As well the design of buildings he designed interiors, furniture, stained glass, metalwork, textiles and jewellery. When I think of gothic architecture I think of cold, dark, damp gothic churches but Hill’s book brings to life the splendours of high vaults, buttresses, rose windows, towers, spires and pinnacles. Along with many fine buildings of his own Pugin is known for his work with Sir Charles Barry on the interiors for the Palace of Westminster (Houses of Parliament) and the Elizabeth Tower (Big Ben).

Morris was an artist, writer, poet, designer, craftsman, publisher and socialist. Artistically he was associated with the Pre-Raphaelites and the arts and crafts movement which grew out of concerns over the effects of industrialisation on traditional skills. For Morris the arts and crafts movement was about the politics of living and working not about style. MacCarthy’s book pulls the multiple strands of his life together and shows how they led to his role as one of the founders of the socialist movement. Like Pugin, Morris was a pioneer who owed much of his success to his vision, determination and sheer hard work.

Webb and Morris Red House Bexleyheath photo David Kemp

Amazingly there is much here for the practicing architect of today especially for those of us who believe that the current way of doing things is in the process of a slow disintegration that will lead to a more hand crafted world. The championing by Pugin and Morris of the practical role of the skilled artist-craftsman in terms of creativity, inventiveness and problem-solving is especially relevant to these changing times. As the realisation dawns that the current economic model, based on debt that cannot be repaid and the impossibility of an infinite supply of cheap energy and natural resources, is broken, we will see a gradual re-setting of how things get done – towards a more local, sustainable and hand crafted model. Such a model might even be recognisable to Pugin and Morris.

When I was asked by ‘Wealden Times’ to name a building that has been a particular inspiration and explain the choice in 150 words I had no hesitation in choosing the Glasgow School of Art (completed in 1909) by Charles Rennie Mackintosh for personal as well as architectural reasons.

I first visited the building in the early 1960’s as a small child with my father who taught drawing and painting there. It sits on a steep hill and I remember us standing looking over the city below from the glazed loggia at roof level. I returned in the mid 1970’s as an architecture student at the Mackintosh School of Architecture and spent all my architectural education in and around it.

It is a building of contrasts – simplicity versus decoration, large versus small spaces and dark spaces versus light airy spaces. It is both a landmark of early modern architecture and rich in traditional Scottish and art nouveau detail. Mackintosh used the skills of the various tradesmen and craftsmen to add a level of decorative detail to a rational design making it a fine example of what can be achieved on a limited budget through imagination, the skills of all involved and the true nature of the materials used.

Glasgow School of Art Library

The highlight for me is (was?) the Japanese inspired library with its intricate detail and exciting use of space, natural light and colour. Sadly when fire ravaged the building a couple of years ago the library was completely destroyed with only the masonry ‘shell’ into which it had been inserted remaining http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/13162087.Lost_in_the_fire__Mackintosh_library_has_gone/. After much debate the decision has been taken to rebuild the library exactly to Mackintosh’s original plans. Some think that this will constitute a ‘Mockintosh’ copy and that the school should instead install a contemporary design that reflects the present time. But it seems to me that since there will be sufficient detail to create an exact copy this is the right course of action to return this little gem to the city. On any project detailed drawings are produced and then one of multiple potential building / craftsmen teams is selected to build it. Here we will have a second team going through the process again from full information just over a century after the original construction. In fact, since the library was inserted into a masonry ‘shell’, couldn’t multiple versions be created for insertion into suitable ‘shells’ in art galleries or libraries throughout the world? If licenced, these could help cover the cost at the Glasgow School of Art and allow more visitors to enjoy this unique space.

The Burrell Collection Gallery in Glasgow’s Pollock Country Park http://www.glasgowlife.org.uk/museums/burrell-collection/Pages/default.aspx was designed by Barry Gasson and Brit Andresen. It opened in 1983 and houses one of the greatest art collections ever created by one person – a unique collection of over 8,000 objects gifted to Glasgow in 1944 by Sir William Burrell.

The Burrell Collection Gallery, Pollock Country Park, Glasgow 1983 by Barry Gasson and Brit Andresen

William Burrell was a passionate art collector who made his fortune in shipping. In the book ‘The Burrell Collection’ (pub: Collins 1983) Richard Marks explains how the fortune of William and his brother George was made:

‘The formula was quite simple. In times of depression they would order a large number of ships at rock bottom prices, calculating that the vessels would be coming off the stocks when the slump was reaching an end. Burrell and Son was then in a position to attract cargoes because it had ships available and could undercut its rivals. Then, after several years of highly profitable trading, the brothers would sell the fleet in a boom period and lie low until the cycle would begin again. It sounds easy, and Burrell himself described it as making money like slate-stones, but none of the firm’s competitors was bold enough to take such risks. The operation was repeated twice on a large scale’

I have seen the construction equivalent of this. During the 1989 – 1993 recession, I was part of the architectural team that built the Glaxo pharmaceuticals research campus in Stevenage at a cost of around £500 million. It was generally held that this figure could have been around £100 million more had the work not coincided with the bottom of the cycle. I have seen the opposite as well – inflated construction costs – especially during the final months of 1999 leading up to the Millennium celebrations (remember the Millennium dome and it’s various themed zones?) when clients were obliged to pay ‘silly money’ to get things completed.

Right now the market for construction work in the south east is patchy. Whilst there is plenty of work in London, where there are some skills shortages, in the wider south east prices have recovered since the ‘bargain basement’ prices that resulted from the ‘great recession’ that started in 2008 but there is still spare capacity. If the upturn in prices continues to roll out from London this year the pent up cost pressures in construction caused by years of cost freeze / cost reductions will continue to be released – though it remains to be seen at what speed prices will harden. Thankfully, from my point of view, there have been a few ‘Burrells’ about taking advantage of current prices.

The concepts of ‘peak oil’ and ‘sustainability’ are closely related but with the cost of crude oil at the lowest level since 2004 http://www.cnbc.com/2016/02/19/ ‘peak oil’ is not so much on the mainstream agenda these days (even though there is obviously less of it). But what of ‘sustainability’ and the ‘green agenda’?

Something similar has happened there too. After last year’s general election the ‘greenest government ever’ decided to cut ‘the green crap’. In July 2015 the ‘Zero Carbon Homes’ policy was scrapped along with tighter energy efficiency standards which would have come into force this year. Government funding for the ‘Green Deal’ has now been pulled and feed in tariffs for electricity-generating renewable energy technologies have been steadily reduced with talk of larger contributions towards the cost of grid infrastructure.

My take on it is that ‘sustainability’ is simply now assimilated into mainstream practice. Photovoltaics and heat pumps are now commonplace and a reduction in government support was inevitable. As the government steps back the future of the ‘sustainability’ agenda now has to be in the hands of the construction industry and building owners and users. It has to offer a return on investment.

I’ve seen plenty of new ideas which were originally much talked about ‘fringe’ activities become part of mainstream practice – key performance indicators (KPI’s), benchmarking, off-site prefabrication (the site as ‘assembly yard’), cost risk management and allocation, life cycle costing, zero defects, partnering, framework agreements, building information modelling (BIM) and so on. ‘Sustainability’ is another of these.  The reduction in the ‘noise’ associated with it recently is an indication that it has become part of the mainstream and not an indication of its demise.

Reports such as this one http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/jan/09/housing-crisis-tenants-shelter-private-rent on the housing crisis appear with alarming regularity. It is a complicated and highly political issue but it seems to me that it is more a matter of national priorities than of government action or inaction. We simply don’t put enough emphasis on the supply of affordable housing and the standard of living of those who are in need of it. At both the national and personal levels what do we want to spend our money on – basic needs such as food, clothing and shelter or other ‘needs’ such as nuclear missiles, foreign holidays, flash cars, Sky TV?

The government gets blamed but ‘in a democracy people get the government they deserve’ (Alexis de Toqueville 19^th century French  political thinker). Any ‘visitor from outer space’ would have to conclude that we are an odd lot.

‘Modernism’ in architecture emerged in the early part of the twentieth century.  It has developed many strands but the common themes are functionality, rationality, man made materials, factory made components and a lack of ornamentation. In Britain it has always been met with an ambivalent, even suspicious, attitude – similar to the attitude held by many nowadays towards the European Union – a fraudulent foreign intellectual exercise!

Whilst the latest iteration of ‘modernist’ architecture is just about acceptable nowadays for certain buildings such as schools and hospitals it is still rare to see it used for privately owned houses.  It is even rarer to see that sub-species of the ‘modernist’ house – the ‘glass house’.

Other designed objects such as ‘Concorde’, sports cars, laptop computers, fashion etc can all be totally ‘modern’ but when it comes to ‘home sweet home’ the response is generally a polite ‘no thank you’.  This is probably for a complex set of reasons that include our national traditions and character, our insularity as an island nation and the fact that privately owned houses are the main asset that many families possess so need to be ‘marketable’ (ie ‘traditional’).

I reflected on this when I read of the death of the London ‘modernist’ architect John Winter.  He is best known for the Cor-Ten steel (a ‘rusty’ carbon steel) and glass house that he built in Highgate in 1967-69.  This was one of a celebrated group of steel and glass houses built in this mature part of north London which included Michael Hopkin’s house in Hampstead (1976) and Spence and Webster’s pair of courtyard houses in Belsize Park (1978).  I was lucky enough to work for Spence and Webster in one of the Belsize Park houses when I came to London in 1985 – 86 when they used it as an office.

Left: John Winter Cor-Ten House, Highgate, London 1967-69 Centre: Michael Hopkins Hopkins House, Hampstead, London 1976 Right: Spence and Webster, Courtyard Houses, Belsize Park, London 1978

These houses were ‘tolerated’ by being almost invisible (the Spence and Webster houses are hidden behind a tall wall) or neutral (the Hopkins House is see through / reflective as if it somehow isn’t really there).  Contrast this with America where the ‘glass house’ is a celebrated cultural phenomenon dating back to the ‘granddaddy’ of all ‘glass houses’ – the Farnsworth House by Mies van der Rohe (1945-51).  This famous line runs through the Eames House (1949), Philip Johnson’s ‘Glass House’ (1949) and, my favourite, the Stahl House by Pierre Koenig (1959) which sits in the Hollywood Hills with a commanding view of Los Angeles below.

Top Left: Mies van der Rohe, Farnsworth House, Plano, Illinois 1945-51 Top Centre: Philip Johnson, Glass House, New Canaan, Conneticut 1949 Top Right: Charles and Ray Eames, Eames House, Corona del Mar, California 1949 Bottom Left and Right: Pierre Koenig, Stahl House, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California 1959

What does the future hold for people who want to live in ‘glass houses’?  There is certainly no technical impediment since glass technology has kept one step ahead of the demands of the Building Regulations for low carbon design through triple glazing with argon / krypton / xenon gas filled cavities and warm edge spacer bars, solar control and low emissivity coatings.  Flat roofing technology, insulation materials and steel coatings are vastly superior to what they were in the days of the early ‘modernists’.  The main impediment to building a ‘glass house’ is confidence and desire and the commissioning of a high quality design that will obtain planning permission.