Winning ways: 2012 Brick Awards 2012 Brick Awards The brick architecture of van Heyningen and Haward The brick architecture of van Heyningen and Haward First person: Steve Tompkins; Aalto’s Baker House First person: Steve Tompkins; Aalto’s Baker House NoA Architects’ Lo-Reninge town hall in Belgium NoA Architects’ Lo-Reninge town hall in Belgium Jestico & Whiles in London, MVRDV in Spijkenisse Jestico & Whiles in London, MVRDV in Spijkenisse Climate control: K2S Architects’ brick brise-soleil Climate control: K2S Architects’ brick brise-soleil WINTER 2012 BRICK BULLETIN
GGeenniiuuss lloocciiWhile brick is ever presentin many European townsand cities, it still has the powerto inspire and innovate when itcomes to issues of context andplace. Howarth Tompkins’influential Coin Street Irokohousing project was developedas an extrapolation of the tradi-tional London garden square.The concept behind MVRDV’sBook Mountain scheme inSpijkenisse, Holland, was tolay a ‘blanket’ of brick over thetown’s market square. And forvan Heyningen & Haward, itis brick’s emotional as well ascontextual appeal that actas key drivers in thecreative process.
Sarah Huelin AA Dipl
To find out more about the bricks or paversin featured projects, or to submit work, [email protected] or phone 020 7323 7030.
BB WINTER 2012 • 3
ccoonntteennttss4 NEWS
Projects in London and Norwich by AtelierPro and BPTW Partnership; winners of theThink Brick Awards 2012; First Person –Steve Tompkins of Haworth Tompkins.
6 BRICK AWARDS 2012Showcase of all 16 category winners.
10 PROJECTSJestico & Whiles in Hackney, London,NoA Architects in Lo, Belgium,James Gorst Architects in Suffolk,and MVRDV in Spijkenisse, Holland.
14 PROFILEChris Wilderspin, partner at vanHeyningen and Haward Architects,discusses the practice’s affinity with brickarchitecture over the last 30 years.
20 PRECEDENTHarry Charrington on Baker House inCambridge, Massachusetts, by Alvar Aalto.
22 TECHNICALK2S Architects’ brick brise-soleil at thePaasitorni hotel and conference centrein Helsinki.
ccoonnttaaccttssExecutive editor: Sarah Huelin AA Dipl t: 020 7323 7030 e: [email protected] Development Association, The Building Centre, 26 Store Street, London, WC1E 7BT
The BDA represents manufacturers of clay brick and pavers in the UK and Ireland andpromotes excellence in the architectural, structural and landscape applications of brickand pavers. The BDA provides practical, technical and aesthetic advice and informationthrough its website www.brick.org.uk, in its numerous publications and over the phone.
Carlton Brick t +44 (0)1226 711521 www.carltonbrick.co.uk
Coleford Brick & Tile t +44 (0)1594 822160 www.colefordbrick.co.uk
Furness Brick & Tile Co t +44 (0)1229 462411 www.furnessbrick.com
Hanson Building Products t +44 (0)330 1231017 www.hanson.com/uk
HG Matthews t +44 (0)1494 758212 www.hgmatthews.com
Ibstock Brick t +44 (0)1530 261999 www.ibstock.co.uk
Ketley Brick Company t +44 (0)1384 78361 www.ketley-brick.co.uk
Michelmersh Brick Holdings t +44 (0)844 931 0022 www.michelmersh.co.uk
Northcot Brick t +44 (0)1386 700551 www.northcotbrick.co.uk
Phoenix Brick Company t +44 (0)1246 471576 www.bricksfromphoenix.co.uk
The York Handmade Brick Co t +44 (0)1347 838881 www.yorkhandmade.co.uk
WH Collier t +44 (0)1206 210301 www.whcollier.co.uk
Wienerberger t +44 (0)161 4918200 www.wienerberger.co.uk
BBrriicckk BBuulllleettiinn wwiinntteerr 22001122
ARCHITECTURETODAY
NEWS FIRST PERSON
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Atelier Pro and Baca in Norfolk
Atelier Pro in association with Baca Architectshas designed a mixed-used, residential-leddevelopment for a 20-hectare brownfield siteon the ouskirts of Norwich, Norfolk. DealGround will comprise around 700 single-family homes, a small shopping centre andtwo new bridges over the River Yare and RiverWensum. Designed to be flood-resilient,the masonry dwellings will be planned aroundecological swales that drain into a CountyWildlife Site marsh. Brick has been chosenas the main building material for reasons ofaesthetics, sustainability and longevity. Theproject is currently awaiting planning consent.
Gateway development for Brixton
Due to start on site in the Spring, BPTWPartnership’s New Albemarle developmentfor the Network Housing Group andCommunity Trust Housing is located on thecorner of Brixton Road and Stockwell ParkWalk in south London. Intended as a gatewayto the Stockwell Park Estate, the mixed-useresidential-led development comprises 92apartments, a community resource centre,offices and a new public square. A yellowmultistock brick has been specified to com-plement the local context and to provide astrong, robust finish. A warm grey brick isset back from the multistock brick to createdepth and layering accross the main facades.
Clay is everywhere and unavoidable inLondon: in the stinking ooze of its river, inthe intractable clods of its suburban gardensand in the shifting, breathing foundations ofits buildings. And from Roman times onward,fired clay has composed the baseline of thecity’s architecture, the earthy continuumagainst which the dramas of scale, style andfashion have been played out. Layers of soot,paint, stucco and limewash have obscured it,outcrops of timber, steel and Portland stonehave punctuated it, but the underlying geolo-gy of Greater London’s architecture is brick,whether for the majestic power stations andrailways of the industrial age, the terracesof the East End or the elegant Regencyfrontages of Bloomsbury and Mayfair.
Our studio has been exploring the expres-sive possibilities of brickwork for domesticand public buildings in London since wedesigned the Coin Street Iroko housing proj-ect in Lambeth fifteen years ago. Here, thedevice of a thick, protective clay layer wrap-ping the street frontages to protect a softer,timber-lined communal space was developedas an extrapolation of the traditional Londongarden square. For the deep brick skins wedrew references of tactility and heft from theScandinavian masters Asplund, Aalto andLewerentz. Lessons in colour and surfacewere learnt from the Spaniards Moneo andCampo Baeza. The later Coin StreetCommunity Centre, on the same site, incor-porated a more theatrical public facade inblue engineering brick with asymmetricalopenings and brightly coloured reveals.This drew more on contemporary Dutchprecedents – a reference we extended inthe ‘woven’, glued brickwork of the nearbyYoung Vic theatre.
Steve Tompkins of Haworth Tompkinson developing a contemporary bricktypology for London urban housing.
2012 Think Brick Award winners
The 2012 Think Brick Awards organised byThink Brick Australia has produced jointoverall winners: the Infinity Centre atPenleigh and Essendon Grammar Schoolin Melbourne, Victoria, by McBride CharlesRyan (right, ph: John Gollings) and BillardLeece Partnership’s student residence atLa Trobe University, Wodonga, also in Victoria(below right, ph: Tony Miller). Evoking awalled citadel with gardens and ceremonialarches, the Infinity Centre comprises a library,student learning centre, classrooms anda cafe. Intended to convey a sense ofpermanance and solidity, the external wallsare clad with glazed brick in black and gun-metal. The banded masonry not only comple-ments the fluid form of the facades, but alsoreflects sunlight adding complexity and visualinterest. La Trobe University student resi-dence houses 28 bedrooms in a pair of two-storey buildings. Slimline 50mm bricks ingrey, brown and white tones were chosen tomanipulate the scale of the building and toaccentuate the linearity of the surroundinglandscape (details: www.thinkbrick.com.au).
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We have always enjoyed the straightfoward-ness and implicit democracy of brickwork,both timeless and yet capable of registeringthe passage of time in ways that feel humaneand familiar. The vernacular correlationbetween ground and building is a deeply felt,subliminal recognition, and nowhere is theassociation of material and place more appar-ent than in the familiar Peabody estates, builtbetween 1862 and 1885 to house London’sworking poor. Designed and refined insuccessive incarnations by the architect HenryDarbishire, the spare, carefully proportionedbrick housing blocks of the Peabody Trust arepart of the un-remarked backdrop to our lives,and remain a model for well-made, resilientLondon housing stock.
In 2007 we were asked to repair and extendthe seminal Peabody Avenue estate in Pimlico,where a large 1940s bomb site at the junctionof a 250 metre long avenue of tenements, andseries of later freestanding villas had left thedevelopment without a geographical centreor a communal sense of place. In choosing touse a similar palette of yellow buff and creamybrickwork for our new building, we were con-scious of the need to re-establish a cohesivelanguage connecting the two fractured halvesof the estate, and to maintain the stronglinguistic and material distinction betweenthe austere, earth-bound brickwork of thePeabody architecture, the Corbusian lightnessand whiteness of the next door ChurchillGardens estate, the polished stucco of thesurrounding Cubbitt terraces, and the gutsyparaphernalia of the Victoria Station sidings.For us, much of the personality of this partof Pimlico is generated on the tectonic faultlines between plates of wildly differing, but
internally consistent architecture and so forour new work we opted to increase the densityof the Peabody language rather than intro-duce a more visually oppositional or formallynovel object.
The external elevations of our addition aredesigned as a single, deeply incised but rela-tively unadorned brickwork skin, envelopingthe new L-shaped block of apartments. Gablesare undifferentiated from facing walls, so thatthe rhythm of windows and internal balconiescontinues around corners and folds onto the
existing terraces in a simple, direct way. A largeentrance portal, lined in pale precast concrete,has been carved into this wrapped brickworkblock, extending the long vista down theavenue toward the river and connecting theavenue to the nearby villas. The project isthe first of several Peabody commissions,which together give us the opportunity toresearch and develop the contemporary bricktypology of London urban housing.
Steve Tompkins co-founded Haworth TompkinsArchitects with Graham Haworth in 1991.
AAbboovvee Peabody Avenue in London is the first of severalPeabody commissions for Haworth Tompkins, and wasshortlisted for best housing development (26 units ormore) at the 2012 Brick Awards (ph: Simon Kennedy).BBeellooww lleefftt The facades of theYoungVic theatre inLondon are articulated using ‘woven’ glued brickwork(ph: Philip Vile).BBeellooww mmiiddddllee//rriigghhtt The Coin Street Iroko housingproject and neighbourhood centre in Lambeth, London.The deep brick skins of the former are inspired by thework of Erik Gunnar Asplund, Alvar Aalto and SigurdLewerentz. Combining blue engineering bricks withasymmetrical openings and brightly coloured reveals,the latter draws on contemporary Dutch precedents(phs: Phil Sayer, Edmund Sumner).
BRICK AWARDS
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The MAC, a new arts venue in the centreof Belfast by Hackett Hall McKnight (1)was named the supreme winner of the2012 Brick Awards, held at the MarriottGrosvenor Square Hotel in London on 13November. Brick is the dominant finishboth externally and within its dramaticfour-storey foyer. The masonry wallsincorporate precast concrete elements inreference to stone cills, string courses andlintels used on traditional Belfast brickbuildings. The jury, which was chaired by
Winners of the 2012 Brick Awardsselected from over 300 entries.
Bob Allies (Allies & Morrison), describedthe MAC as a fantastic building, andapplauded the prominent role assigned tobrick throughout the design. The projectalso won the best public building award.Winner of the best housing development
(1-5 units) category was Four Oaks, aWiltshire country house by ZMMAArchitects (2). Adopting a linear form, thebuilding is constructed from three non-standard-sized bricks together with carefullydetailed brick specials and an irregular bondto avoid repetition. Brush finished 18mmflush mortar joints are intended to blur thedistinction between the brickwork and thepointing. The jury praised the project’sambition and its strong connection to thesurrounding landscape.
Proctor & Matthews won the best housingdevelopment (6-25 units) award for HorstedPark in Chatham (3). Inspired by the ruralvernacular of Kent farmsteads, the unusualtwo-and-a-half-storey dwellings combineraised masonry panels with rich red andbrown bricks. Split to expose a roughtextured surface, the latter form distinctivepatterned panels adjacent to the groundfloor windows. The jury was impressed bythe design flair that the architect hadapplied to traditional construction methods.It also hoped that the project would be anexample to other developers.
Best housing development (26 units ormore) was awarded to Niall McLaughlinArchitects’ student residence at SomervilleCollege, Oxford (4). Described by the jury
as a ‘very high quality project’, strong brickforms are combined with crafted oak fenes-tration to create a sense of rhythm andpermanence. Brick colour, bond and jointtype are all carefully judged to complementthe historic context.The volume house building award went to
Barratt for three developments: Barrier Park(blocks B and C) in London, designed byAllies & Morrison (5); Canada Waters(blocks A1 and A2) in London by GlennHowells Architects and Hawkins Brown;and Old Merchant Taylors, Croxley Green,Hertfordshire, by Barratt North London.The jury felt that all three projects provideda safe, ordered and stimulating environmentfor several different housing demographics.In particular, it was impressed by the
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11 The MAC; architect: Hackett Hall McKnight; brickworkcontractor: Grove Builders; brick:Wienerberger –Mellowed Red Sovereign Stock.22 Four Oaks; architect: ZMMA; brickwork contractor:Daniel’s Traditional Carpentry; brick:TheYork HandmadeBrick Company – Bespoke Blend.33 Horsted Park; architect: Proctor & Matthews;brickwork contractor: Flahive Brickwork; brick: HansonBuilding Products – Chelsea Smoked Red and DarkMoroccan Smooth.44 Student residence, Somerville College; architect: NiallMcLaughlin Architects; brickwork contractor: ExploreManufacturing; brick: Ibstock Brick – Reigate Purple Multi.55 Barrier Park (blocks B and C); architect: Allies &Morrison; brickwork contractor: Barratt East London;brick: Ibstock Brick – Ashdown Bexhill Dark.66 Henrietta Barnett School; architect: HopkinsArchitects; brickwork contractor: Moss BarrettConstruction; brick: Michelmersh Brick Holdings,Lambs – Charnwood Light Victoria Red Handmade,Charnwood Hampshire Red Handmade, CharnwoodWindsor Red Multi Handmade, Lambs Ash Grey Glazed.
relationship between the brickwork andsurrounding site at Barrier Park.Designed by Hopkins Architects, Henrietta
Barnett School in Hampstead GardenSuburb, London, won the best educationbuilding award (6). Handmade 50mm-highred bricks laid in a Flemish bond with glazedheaders complement the existing grade-twolisted Edwin Lutyens-designed school. Themasonry is subtle yet sophisticated, incorpo-rating a brick plinth, loadbearing brickpiers, recessed brickwork spandrel panels,cant brick specials, and recessed mortarjoints. ‘Poetic in its three dimensionality anda modernist building in traditional clothing’,was how the jury described the project.Designscape Architects was the recipient
of the best commercial building award for
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Science Studio in Stroud, Gloucestershire(7). A crisp, white glazed brick skin withslender 4mm joints belies a host of technicalchallenges, including avoiding movementjoints, incorporating wall ties, co-ordinatingprecise wall openings, and conforming totight manufacturing and installation toler-ances. Brick specials, pistol bricks, brick slipsand glazed headers were among the solu-tions employed by the team. The juryapplauded the technical virtuosity of thebrickwork and the attention to detaildisplayed throughout the project.
A new category, the architect’s choiceaward, was won by Allford Hall MonaghanMorris for the North London Hospice (8).Pitched roofs and traditional masonry
construction incorporating a light texturedbrick instil a domestic sense of peace andwell-being. The brickwork is drawn intokey internal spaces, such as the entrance,kitchen and day care rooms, to emphasiseconnectivity between inside and out.
Upgraded both visually and environmen-tally by Plus Dane Group, Kitfield Avenuein Middlewich, Cheshire, won the refurbish-ment and renovation category (9). Externalinsulation boards and brick slips were fixedto the solid wall properties and then pointedto achieve an appearance in keeping withthe local area. The jury said that theapproach adopted by the architect was bothimpressive and eminently practical.
The award for best outdoor space went to
the Yard at the University of Roehamptonby Henley Halebrown Rorrison (10).Comprising a single brick-lined space, theYard replaces an old trades yard and work-shops at the heart of the campus with a newpublic space linking Froebel and DigbyStuart Colleges. One-third stretcher bondbrick skins are drawn over existing walls leftexposed by demolition works, while Flemishbond bench walls give the impression ofsolidity. The paving is laid in a variety ofbonds, including stack and herringbone.
‘Beautifully pieced together’, was how thejury described Landholt & Brown’s WestHampstead Station in London, which wonthe innovative use of brick and clay productscategory (11). A single plane of brick creates
a strong architectural connection betweenthe lightweight steel station building and theheavy piled retaining walls against which itsits. The use of a glazed sawtooth profilebrick adds visual interest and allows the wallto change colour from dark to light green,based on shades taken from the retainedlime trees opposite. The brick’s facetedhardwearing finish is also intended as adeterrent to graffiti and fly-posting.
The recipient of the craftsmanship awardwas Tupgill Cellar at Tupgill Park nearLeyburn, North Yorkshire, by MalcolmTempest (12). Expressive eight-vaultedmasonry arches and octagonal columns arerealised using bespoke brick specials andinnovative construction techniques.
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Accessed via moveable panels of brickworkset into metal doors, a series of secret under-ground passages lead off from the cellar.Lancashire-based PLF was named
specialist brickwork contractor of the yearfor three projects: Chetham’s School ofMusic in Manchester by Roger StephensonArchitects (13), Gateacre & Hope Schoolsin Liverpool by BDP, and Litherland HighSchool in Sefton by Sheppard Robson.In particular, the jury felt that Chetham’sSchool of Music was a ‘brick tour-de-force’,in which the beauty of the design, the choiceof brick, and the attention to detail werehard to fault.The international category was won by
Aughey O’Flaherty Architects for House onMount Anville in Dublin, Ireland (14). Thisstriking courtyard residence combines boldmassing, high levels of energy-efficiency, anda crafted brick envelope. Horizontal bands,expressed using four consecutive soldier-courses at first-floor and eaves level, addfurther material richness.Finally, Bolles & Wilson’s Raakspoort City
Hall and Bioscoop in Haarlem, Holland,won the worldwide brick award (15). Abrick skin of shadow stripes, flat fields andlight mortar joints articulates a complexmulti-functional project. The facadeincludes restored fragments of a nineteenth-century building that had previously occu-pied the site. The jury applauded the build-ing’s tactility and responsiveness to its site.
77 Science Studios; architect: Designscape Architects;brickwork contractor: Portcliff Building Services; brick:Ibstock Brick –White Glazed.88 North London Hospice; architect: Allford HallMonaghan Morris; brickwork contractor: Pavehall;brick:Wienerberger – Marziale.99 Kitfield Avenue; architect: Plus Dane Group; brickworkcontractor: Aldridge Property Services; brick: IbstockBrick – Brickshield using Brunswick Mixture.1010 TheYard, University of Roehampton; architect:Henley Halebrown Rorrison; brickwork contractor:Exel Construction; brick:Wienerberger – Herne DarkBrindled Slimpave.1111 West Hampstead Station; architect: Landolt &Brown; brickwork contractor: IrvineWhitlock; brick:Ibstock Brick – Umbra Sawtooth Glazed Brick.1212 Tupgill Cellar ; architect: MalcolmTempest; brickworkcontractor: CAT Builders; brick: TheYork HandmadeBrick Company –Thirkleby Blend.1313 Chetham’s School of Music; architect: RogerStephenson Architects; brickwork contractor: PLF; brick:TheYork Handmade Brick Company – Chetham Blend.1414 House on Mount Anville; architect: AugheyO’Flaherty Architects; brickwork contractor: SmithconBuilding Contractors; brick: Ibstock Brick – Birtley OldeEnglish Buff.1515 Raakspoort City Hall and Bioscoop; architect:Bolles &Wilson; brickwork contractor: Dura VermeerBouw Haarlemermeer; brick:VandeersandenSteenfabrieken –Viola Nr.JJuurryy Bob Allies (Allies & Morrison), Joanna vanHeyningen (van Heyningen & Haward), RichardLavington (Maccreanor Lavington Architects), JonathanDawes (Cottrell & Vermeulan Architects), Mark Grehan(O’Donnell & Tuomey Architects), Alan Ferguson (BRE),Andrew Stroud (Worshipful Company of Tylers andBricklayers), Michael Driver (former CEO of the BrickDevelopment Association), and Michael Hammett(brickwork consultant).• For more information on the winning projects andfinalists please visit www.brick.org.uk/brickawards.
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PROJECTS
PPhhoottooss Peter Cook.
Cardinal Pole Catholic School in Hackney,London, by Jestico & Whiles is plannedaround three ‘learning communities’ anda sixth form centre. Each community hasits own wing, housing teaching spaces,learning resource centres and social areas,while also doubling as a pastoral base.Linking the three-storey masonry blocks is acentral ‘street’ providing good levels of day-light and ventilation, as well as a safe and
Surface expression secure environment for pupils to socialise.Brick was chosen for the external envelopein response to the client’s desire to createa bold, robust building constructed fromnatural materials. Durability was alsoimportant, as some of the facades facedirectly onto the street.
Brick recesses, banding, and angled splaysare used throughout the scheme to addvisual interest and material richness. Thearchitect says that without this level ofdetail some of the two- and three-storeystreet facades would have been too blankand faceless. Internally, brick was specifiedfor the chapel floor in reference to historicmasonry churches and to complement theexternal brickwork.
PPhhoottooss Filip Dujardin.
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Civic servant
Lo-Reninge town hall by NoA Architects occu-pies a small market square in Lo, Belgium.Located on the northern edge of the site is asixteenth-century former nunnery that hasbeen refurbished andnow contains the councilchamber, offices and meeting rooms. A newwing, positioned at right angles to the existingbuilding, accommodates the main public serv-ices, including the administrative departments
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and town archive. The oblong forms makesreference to traditional coastal farmsteads thatcomprise an enfilade sequence of dwelling,barn and stable. A glazed corridor links the oldand new building, while also serving as a newentrance and forecourt.Conceived as a low-energy design, the new
wing is constructed entirely in timber and cladwith a ivory-coloured reclaimed brick. The
choice of brick is intended to complementboth the existing historic building and a tradi-tional step-gabled dwelling adjoining the frontelevation. It also responds sympathetically tothe wider urban context, which is charactersiedby a locally produced brick in a range of subtleyellow hues.The skintled brickwork is pointed with a
lime-based mortar to match the nunnery. Themortar is also applied as a thin diluted coatingover the face of the brickwork, resulting in asofter appearance that blurs the distinctionbetween individual bricks and brick courses.For aesthetic reasons, several of the windowopenings are enlarged through the use ofoblique brick reveals.
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RRiigghhtt Soffit detail. Key: 1 blockwork, 2 PIR insulation,3 facing brick, 4 cavity tray, 5 support cleat with continu-ous angle, 6 pistol brick, 7 soffit hanger ties, 8 hangingsoldier brick, 9 anodised aluminium header panel,10 aluminium reveal to window, 11 side-hung window.BBeellooww rriigghhtt First-floor soffit plan and corner facebrick coursing elevation. Key: 1 specials to corners ofsoldier course and soffit, 2 soldier course, 3 queencloser, 4 stretcher, 5 perpend.PPhhoottooss Alex Franklin.
Boxing clever
Designed to accommodate the disparateneeds of an elderly couple and their chil-dren’s young families, Brick House by JamesGorst Architects is located on the SuffolkCoast. The two brick volumes, one ground-ed and one ‘floating’, are intended as apure celebration of the handmade prod-uct – the bricks were crafted 50 miles inlandto the West.
On the first floor, a single, narrow windowpunctures the public brick facades to thestreet. At ground level, by contrast, a ribbonof factory formed anodised aluminum pan-els and glazing offers views straight throughthe house to the private courtyard and gar-dens beyond. When the blinds are lowered,views are denied to passers-by. The glazedlink then acts as a lantern, with the play of
domestic operation visible as shadows onthe facade. The architect says the cellularnature of both types of cladding is at oncealike and distinct. The anodised aluminumis ascetic, unchanging and metric. Thehand-made Suffolk red brick is tactile,sculptural and imperial. Both relate to thehuman proportion – the brick to the hand,the panel to the size of a door.
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Brick book mountain
MVRDV’s Book Mountain and LibraryQuarter comprises a library-based mixed-use development and a social housingscheme sited around the market square ofSpijkenisse in Holland. The concept was tolay a ‘blanket’ of brick over the site in orderto visually and materially knit the project tothe surrounding context.Conceived as an advert for reading – the
town has an illiteracy rate of ten per cent –the masonry and glass library also housescommunity facilities, commercial officesand retail spaces. The massing of these non-library elements forms a pyramidal base ofprojecting brick platforms onto which thebookshelves are fixed. The platforms areconnected via a brick-paved stair that formsa continuous 480-metre promenade aroundthe building. On the top floor is a small cafeproviding panoramic views over the town.A homogenous, sculpted aesthetic is
achieved by using same type and mix ofbrick for the floors, walls, ceilings and evendoors. The architect says that the form andmateriality of the library evokes a tradition-al Dutch farm – a reminder of the town’sagricultural past.Constructed from the same brick as the
library and employing a range of abstractedtraditional housing typologies, the residen-tial development comprises 42 dwellings.A tilted, folly-like house forms the centre-piece around which the scheme is planned.Outlines of buildings demolished duringthe 1960s acknowledge the changing histo-ry of the town and its market square.PPhhoottooss Jeroen Musch.
Over three decades, van Heyningen andHaward Architects has been drawn to brickfor reasons of continuity and sustainability,as well as its creative potential.
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PROFILEo
ChrisWilderspinjoined van Heyningen&Haward in 1997and became a parterin 2006. He has beenresponsible for manyof the practice’saward-winningbuildings, and leads itssustainability group..
Founded by Joanna van Heyningen and Birkin Hawardin London in the early 1980s, vanHeyningen&Hawardis now a partnership led by James McCosh, MerylTownley andChrisWilderspin. From its earliest days thepractice has been associated with brick buildings, manyaward winners. In keeping with its conscious efforts toavoid a ‘house style’ and to engender a ‘sense of place’,brick has come to be used for a variety of reasons specif-ic to each project, as Chris Wilderspin explains.
How has the use of brick developed in your work, andwhich projects have been important in this process?Brick buildings are part of the national psyche. Withone or two notable exceptions, such as the cities of Bathand Edinburgh, brick is what gives character to a lot ofBritish architecture. Even in Bath, the smart stonefronts are contrasted with brick backs. Brick has alwaysbeen an important ingredient in the work of the prac-tice, not purely as a contextual response, but also whenwe want to make something which is recognisably new.We try to use brick in a modern way.One of our earliest brick projects is the Rare Books
Library at Newnham College in Cambridge, built in1981. With its stripy blue and red brick and few win-dows, it is intended as a safe and beautiful strongbox forits extraordinary and precious contents. In the 1982BBC television series Building Sights, James Stirlinglikened the project to an eighteenth-century jewel box.The texture and colour of the brickwork gives the build-ing a strength and presence which belies its diminutivesize and the grandeur of the surrounding context.We often use brick in those projects that have to deal
with large numbers of people, such as schools and pub-lic buildings. An example is West Ham station on theJubilee Line extension, which has to cope with the wearand tear of thousands of people passing through everyday. By limiting the materials to fair-faced concrete,glass blocks, and brickwork, inside and out, we lookedto provide a robust, cost-effective and aestheticallypleasing solution.Many of the other stations on the newline used more expensive metal or stainless steelcladding to achieve much the same effect.Brick has also proven very useful in our music proj-
ects. The huge range of products available has allowedus to choose bricks that complement the acoustic char-acter of the spaces. We first used brick as an internalacoustic material at the Jacqueline du Pré MusicBuilding at St Hilda’s College in Oxford. Brick’s inher-ent absorbency can provide some of the
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AAbboovvee//lleefftt//ooppppoossiittee New North London Synagogue, North Finchley,London (2011).The £3.75m synagogue is conceived as a garden wall, behindwhich sit three prayer venues, a nursery and teenagers’ room, as well as socialand administrative spaces (phs: James Brittain).BBeellooww lleefftt The Rare Books Library (1983) at Newnham College, Cambridgehouses the college’s collection of rare books, manuscripts, pictures and arte-facts on 500 metres of shelf space (ph: Martin Charles).BBeellooww mmiiddddllee//rriigghhtt West Ham (1999) is a new above-ground station on theJubilee Line extension.The lofty ticket hall with its expressed brick structuredraws on Charles Holden’s 1930s underground stations (phs: Nick Kane).
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modulation that music and performance spaces need.By supplementing these with heavy drapes or movableabsorbent panels, it is possible to produce a variableacoustic. Even varying the depth of rake in the joint canbe used to fine tune the acoustics. More recently, atLatymer Music School, we added brick nibs on flankwalls to moderate the acoustic, a detail which wasrepeated in the fair-faced concrete ceiling.
Is context the main factor in determining your use ofbrick? What other key factors drive this decision?Brick is a beautiful, versatile, and sustainable materialthat is plentiful and comes in a seemingly infinite num-ber of colours, sizes, textures and prices – how couldany architect resist it? Given the British context wherebrick is dominant, it would be possible to justify almostevery building being made out of brick. However, weusually choose brick because of its ability to combinegravitas with humanity, and durability with beauty,texture and colour – some or all of which might beapplicable to a project.
Context is often a driver in our decision to opt forbrick, but often we also use the material as an emotion-al response. The virtue that made brick such a
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widespread material in building – the ability to pick itup with one hand while the other applies the mortar –gives brick its modular characteristics and a humanscale, which can be compelling and romantic. We lovethe slight irregularities and imperfections that areinherent in brickwork. These can be amplified, as inthe later churches of SigurdLewerentz, where the flushmortar is seemingly allowed to ‘escape’ from the jointsand cover part of the brick face. This adds character byexposing the craft of the bricklayer, and we find thisdemonstration of the human hand attractive anddeeply humane. This kind of subtle texture seemsentirely appropriate to the northern European cli-mate, where softer indirect sunlight emphasises textureand variation in facade materials. This subtlety, whichcan be created in the first few millimetres of the eleva-tion, is very enticing.
Alongside the romantic, brick has more practicalqualities which have made it a perfect choice for manyof our buildings. Whether used as shin pads to protectfine precast columns as at the Gateway to the WhiteCliffs inDover, or to line heavily used circulation spacesas in the foyer at the Edward Alleyn Building inDulwich, brick’s inherent ability to take the knocks ofeveryday life while still looking good has made it amuch-liked solution, and one that we feel is capable offuture iteration without repetition.
How important is bond, colour and texture?Has the language of brick construction developed inparticular projects, and how has this evolved?Our studio is littered with panels of sample brick. Forevery brick we choose to use on an individual project,we probably consider at least another twenty or thirty.Even when we’ve narrowed down the choice to a hand-ful, we often visit completed buildings by other archi-tects to see the brick in a larger area – we take specify-ing the right brick very seriously. Equally influential onthe finished appearance, the colour and depth of thejoint can make a huge difference to the tone and tex-ture. We often ask for multiple sample panels to com-pare the effect of colour and type of joint on the lookof a brick. Often we end up with a different joint treat-ment internally if we feel the need to lighten theappearance of a brick to suit the internal environment,or if we are designing for acoustics. Occasionally we willuse a completely different brick inside, so the processbegins again to discover the best combination of brick,mortar, and joint for the right appearance and quality.Usually, however, we use the same brick throughout tolimit the palette of materials, something we feel resultsin a stronger expression.
Early projects, such as Jacqueline du Pré and LucyCavendish College, Cambridge, have a relatively tradi-tional interpretation of brick construction, albeit hungoff steel or concrete frames. More recent schemes,such as the Edward Alleyn Building, have explored the
LLeefftt Studies by Birkin Haward for West Ham Jubilee line extension station.OOppppoossiittee bbeellooww Gateway to the White Cliffs (1999), Dover, is a NationalTrust facility in an area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (ph:Tim Soar).RRiigghhtt The Jacqueline du Pre Music Building, St Hilda’s College, Oxford(1995), provides one of the city’s principal venues for the performanceand recording of classical and modern music. Designed to exacting acousticstandards, the building features extensive use of brick both externally andinternally (phs: Charlotte Wood).
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concept of the brick box as a solid mass from whichopenings and indeed whole spaces are hollowed out.The Latymer Music School explored the idea of twobrick skins with windows pulled taught to the line of thebrickwork, acting as a mount between which is strung anorth elevation of glazing, and a south elevation of zincpanels. Windows that project beyond the brickwork areexpressed clearly as abstract boxes pushing out beyondthe brick.
Are there particular architects whose use of brick hasinspired or influenced the practice?Before setting up her own practice, Joanna vanHeyningen worked with Neylan & Ungless, who usedbrick in numerous housing projects, and these had aninfluence on the early work. The house Joanna builtwith Birkin Haward in north London in 1976 seems tobe influenced by this, although it also introduces high-tech materials that may reflect Birkin’s experienceworking with Norman Foster. Projects from this timealso suggest an interest in the brick projects of AldoRossi and Mario Botta, with regular, simple openings(as at the Laurier Road house and Benenden StudyCentre), or coloured brickwork (Rare Books Library).
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The relaxed asymmetric modernism of Alvar Aaltoalso shows through in several buildings, in particularthe tectonic use of a very limited range of materials inone building, similar to Säynätsalo Town Hall. AtLatymer Upper School’s Arts Centre and our mostrecent all-brick building, the New North LondonSynagogue, we express flat planes of brick internallyand externally to emphasise the nature of these build-ings, which need large, sometimes windowless primaryforms to satisfy their programme. Louis Kahn’s use ofbrick to create powerful forms is also an influence onour work, albeit often with rather more modest budg-ets and briefs.Looking to the future, despite the recent retirement
of the two founders, we are not planning to give up ona material that they used to great effect. But we haverecently begun to look in different directions. A recentcompetition entry for a new school building in northLondon used white bricks as a response to the originalgault bricks that make up much of the area. We arevery comfortable with brick, and see it as a twenty-firstcentury material, especially because, if used well, brickcan be both delightful and sustainable, which seems tobe a great starting point.
LLeefftt The Edward Alleyn Building at Alleyn's School, London (2009), includesa 350-seat theatre, teaching facilities and a studio theatre for use by theNational Youth Theatre. A double quad between the new and existingschool buildings creates a new heart for the school community, bothphysically and socially (phs: Nick Kane).BBeellooww//rriigghhtt The Performing Arts Centre (2008), the practice’s third majorproject for Latymer Upper School in west London, won Building of theYearin the 2008 Brick Awards.The main recital space seats 100 while separatestudios provide areas for dance, drama and music rehearsal. A fully-glazedfoyer opens to a newly landscaped heart of the school (phs: Nick Kane).
Alvar Aalto’s principal building inthe United States holds the key to hislater work, says Harry Charrington,whose book on the Finnish architect’satelier has recently won a RIBAPresident’s Award for research.20 • BB WINTER 2012
PRECEDENT
The Baker Housedormitory at MIT
Baker House, built at the Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology from 1946-49, was not only Finnish architectAlvar Aalto’s greatest achievement in the United States, butit also set out his post-war architectural agenda: a morpho-logical architecture that responded to the nuances of site,and that preserved and promoted a socially progressive lifeamong its inhabitants. It was also the last design he workedon with his wife, Aino Aalto, who died before it was complet-ed, and of whom he said, ‘only when we’re together can anunexaggerated attitude be found’.Members of Aalto’s atelier have recalled how Aalto’s
designs grew out from a single concept, and how the planfor Baker House remained constant from the outset; a ser-pentine bar of student rooms offering oblique views of theCharles River, with the public rooms of the dormitory build-ing nestling in its concavity, and a central entrance leading
to two great ‘Venetian’ staircases which maximise thechances of social encounters while minimising the need forcostly lift cores.Equally, the choice of brick was certain from the begin-
ning. Cambridge and Boston are red-brick milieus, but Aaltowas also captivated by the enduring masonry architecture ofthe Mediterranean and its battered, humanised patina. In1948 he wrote from Rome to Veli Paatela, the job architectfor Baker House, to pursue bricks to achieve these qualities.Paatela recalled turning away endless agents ‘crowding
the office with suitcases full of shiny, perfect bricks’, until heeventually found a small brickyard where they sun-dried andthen wood-fired the bricks. The consequent colour varia-tions were ‘yellowish, porphyry, all black, red, different reds;all kinds of nuances’, and when the bricklayers were going tothrow away bricks that had deformed or fused together,
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AAbboovvee The Baker House is the focus of theexhibition, ‘Architect Veli Paatela – Alvar Aalto’s right-hand man in Cambridge’, at the Studio Aalto inHelsinki (until 14 April). Paatela worked for Aaltofrom 1946-48, spending the entire time inCambridge, Massachusetts, overseeing the designand construction of the Baker House. Local architectPerry, Shaw & Hepburn was responsible for the con-struction, while Aalto himself only spent brief peri-ods on site. Paatela returned to Finland to work athis family’s office, but he and Aalto remained lifelongfriends, and he was a frequent visitor to the office.Archive material in the show examines the BakerHouse as well as Paatela’s role in Aalto’s office.Photos: Judith Turner/Alvar Aalto Museum (aboveleft),Teppo Jokinen/Alvar Aalto Museum (above).The Baker House also features in Aalto andAmerica, edited by Stanford Anderson, Gail Fenske,and David Fixler (Yale, 340pp, £45), which extendsfrom the Finland Pavilion at the NewYorkWorld'sFair in 1939 to Mount Angel Abbey Library in StBenedict, Oregon (1970).
Aalto stepped in and used them to further break up theriverside elevation.Aalto also proposed aluminium trellises to encourage
the growth of creepers and to soften the window openings,writing ‘the hovel will be too bare without it’, and he triedto convince MIT to add lichen to the wall. Neither was car-ried out. Nonetheless, the Baker House has endured forsixty-three years, gaining its own patina of use and weather-ing, and it still remains the most popular dormitory on theMIT campus.
Harry Charrington is an architect and teacher at the University of Bath.He completed a doctorate on Alvar Aalto at the LSE and is a trustee of the UKbranch of the International Committee for the Restoration of Aalto’s ViipuriLibrary. His oral history ‘Alvar Aalto: the Mark of the Hand, Conversations atthe Aalto Atelier’ (with Vezio Nava, Rakennustieto Oy, 2011) won the 2012RIBA President’s Award for Outstanding University-based Research.
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TECHNICALo
A masonry brise-soleil providesprivacy and environmentalprotection for a new wing at thePaasitorni hotel and conferencecentre in Helsinki by K2S Architects.
Designed by Karl Lindahl and constructedin 1908, the Paasitorni hotel and confer-ence centre originally provided educationand leisure facilities for Helsinki’s labourmovement. The latest addition to the gran-ite-clad building is a curving hotel wingby local practice K2S Architects. As theseven-storey structure turns to face a newly-formed courtyard, the masonry facade istransformed into a perforated brise-soleil.Constructed from a textured ivory whitebrick, the single-skin walls not only provideprotection from solar gain in the summer,they also mediate between the private hotelrooms and the semi-public courtyard below.Measuring 285x85x60mm, the bespoke
bricks are supported on L-shaped steelangles fixed back to the cantilevered con-crete slabs forming narrow balconies ateach floor level. Oval-shaped voids at theends of the bricks accept 10x75mm steel flatsections, which provide concealed lateralsupport for the wall. Further lateralrestraint is provided by 50x100mm RHSwindposts located at 3.6 metre centresalong the edge of each of slab and spanning
CCrreeddiittss Architect: K2S Architects; structural engineer:Insinööritoimisto Konstru; photos: Marko Huttunen.
BBeellooww Plan details of balcony/brise-soleil. Key: 1 siliconesealant, 2 50x50mm SHS, 3 rainwater pipe, 4 two layersof 5mm toughened opaque glass, 5 50x100mmRHS windpost, 6 steel flat section welded to windpost,7 15mm-diameter stainless steel balustrade, 8 tough-ened opaque glass fascia to windpost, 9 oval-shapedvoid to brick, 10 10x75mm steel flat section providingconcealed lateral bracing, 11 10mm steel flat sectionforming edge of brick opening, 12 285x85x65mmbespoke ivory white brick.OOppppoossiittee Detail section through balcony/brise-soleil.Key: 1 70x100mm stainless steel angle, 2 70x10mmstainless steel handrail, 3 10x100mm stainless steel flatsection, 4 steel strap, 5 85x85mm steel angle.
between the floor and soffit. The bricks arefixed back to the stainless steel posts atevery third course, again using flat metalsections. The posts also double as structuralsupport for steel balustrading that runs con-tinuously behind the brick screen at eachfloor level.A high degree of accuracy was required
during setting out of the secondary steelstructure and installation of the brickworkto ensure a smooth curve and a constant95mm gap between each module, irrespec-tive of the facade’s tightening radii.Openings in the brick screen are lined withwelded 10mm-thick stainless steel flat sec-tions providing structural bracing and acrisp aesthetic. The lower flat section alsomerges seamlessly with the stainless steelbalustrade handrail. The top of the brickscreen is terminated by a curving stainlesssteel fascia panel, which mirrors that usedon the projecting, fully-glazed ground floor.
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LET BRICK YOU
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