University of Leicester Engineering Building

Last updated
Engineering Building, University of Leicester
Leicester University Engineering Building.jpg
Engineering Building, October 2009
University of Leicester Engineering Building
Alternative namesUniversity of Leicester Engineering Building
General information
StatusCompleted
TypeTeaching, research
Architectural style Brutalism, Postmodernism
Location Leicester, United Kingdom
AddressUniversity Road, LE1 7RH
Coordinates 52°37′13.19″N1°7′25.18″W / 52.6203306°N 1.1236611°W / 52.6203306; -1.1236611 Coordinates: 52°37′13.19″N1°7′25.18″W / 52.6203306°N 1.1236611°W / 52.6203306; -1.1236611
Current tenants University of Leicester
Construction started1959
Completed1963
Design and construction
Architect(s)James Stirling, James Gowan
Structural engineerFrank Newby

The Engineering Building is part of the University of Leicester. It was designed by the architects James Stirling and James Gowan.

Contents

The Red Trilogy

The building is part of the Red Trilogy by James Stirling. Beginning in the late 1950s, the architect designed three university buildings featuring distinctly red materials: red bricks and red tiles. The Red Trilogy includes the Engineering Building, University of Leicester (1959–1963), the Faculty of History, University of Cambridge (1964–1967), and the Florey Building, The Queen's College, Oxford (1966–1971). James Stirling and James Gowan worked together on the design for the Engineering Building. The Trilogy's two later buildings were designed by Stirling, without Gowan.

Design

The Engineering Building is a large and complex structure. Stirling and Gowan were tasked to design spaces for offices, laboratories, auditorium, and workshops with heavy machinery. The design also includes a water tank on top. The workshops are located in the low-rise section of the building, in a hall with a rectangular floor plan. Connected to the workshop hall is the tower, which houses auditorium, offices, and laboratories. The water tank sits on top of the tower. The tower section is notable for its chamfered edges and its prismatic geometry. The auditorium is located at the base of the tower. The auditoriums seating arrangement is designed typically stadium-like with staggered rows of seats. The angled auditorium floor results in a pronounced wedge-shape on the building's exterior. [1] The tower's facades are clad in glass and red tiles, the workshop hall's facade is entirely made of frosted glass.

A unique feature of the workshop hall is its roof construction. The roof's geometry is rotated by 45 degrees in respect to the floor plan's orientation. [2] This results in a unique jagged roof line and a diamond-pattern-like perimeter. [3] The roof appears as a series of multiple translucent prisms. The translucent effect was achieved by lining the glass panes with fibre-glass. Other parts of the glass shell are completely opaque, in contrast. Here, the glass panes were coated with a thin layer of aluminium. [4]

Stirling and Gowan were commissioned in 1957. [5] The design is dated to 1959. Construction lasted from 1960 to 1963. The consulting structural engineer was Frank Newby. [5]

Recognition

The Red Trilogy in general, and the Engineering Building in particular, are recognized as turning points in the development of postwar modern architecture. James Stirling went beyond the paradigm of pure functionalism. The Engineering Building's color and geometry are more decorative than the typical 1950s and 1960s brutalist architecture. The three buildings of the Red Trilogy were designed consecutively. The Leicester Engineering Building first, the Cambridge History Faculty second, the Oxford Florey Building third. Their successive designs illustrate James Stirlings way towards postmodernist architecture. The designs are progresisvely more playful and decorative. The Engineering Building represents Stirling's first step from brutalism towards postmodernism. Therefore, the building is regarded as one of the origins of postmodern architecture. [6] At the same time, the Engineering Building als is praised as one of Britains high points of brutalist architecture. Elain Harwoods book Space, Hope, and Brutalism features a photo of the Engineering Building's workshop hall on its cover. The building is a protected heritage site with a Grade 2 listing. [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Renzo Piano</span> Italian architect (born 1937)

Renzo Piano is an Italian architect. His notable buildings include the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, The Shard in London (2012), the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City (2015), İstanbul Modern in Istanbul (2022) and Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center in Athens (2016). He won the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1998.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daylighting</span> Practice of placing openings and reflective surfaces so that sunlight can provide internal lighting

Daylighting is the practice of placing windows, skylights, other openings, and reflective surfaces so that sunlight can provide effective internal lighting. Particular attention is given to daylighting while designing a building when the aim is to maximize visual comfort or to reduce energy use. Energy savings can be achieved from the reduced use of artificial (electric) lighting or from passive solar heating. Artificial lighting energy use can be reduced by simply installing fewer electric lights where daylight is present or by automatically dimming/switching off electric lights in response to the presence of daylight – a process known as daylight harvesting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Stirling (architect)</span> British architect

Sir James Frazer Stirling was a British architect.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Denys Lasdun</span> English architect

Sir Denys Louis Lasdun, CH, CBE, RA was an eminent English architect, the son of Nathan Lasdun (1879–1920) and Julie. Probably his best known work is the Royal National Theatre, on London's South Bank of the Thames, which is a Grade II* listed building and one of the most notable examples of Brutalist design in the United Kingdom.

Eureka Tower is a 297.3 m (975 ft) skyscraper located in the Southbank precinct of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Construction began in August 2002 and the exterior was completed on 1 June 2006. The plaza was finished in June 2006 and the building was officially opened on 11 October 2006. The project was designed by Melbourne architectural firm Fender Katsalidis Architects and was built by Grocon. The developer of the tower was Eureka Tower Pty Ltd, a joint venture consisting of Daniel Grollo (Grocon), investor Tab Fried and one of the Tower's architects Nonda Katsalidis. It was the world's tallest residential tower when measured to its highest floor, until surpassed by Ocean Heights and the HHHR Tower in Dubai. From 2006 to 2019, it was the tallest building in Melbourne, until the topping out of Australia 108. It is currently the third tallest building in Australia, behind the Q1 in Queensland and Australia 108, as well as the second tallest to roof behind the latter skyscraper. As of 2016 it was the 15th tallest residential building in the world.

The year 1963 in architecture involved some significant architectural events and new buildings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">City of Arts and Sciences</span> Cultural and architectural complex in the city of Valencia, Spain

The City of Arts and Sciences is a cultural and architectural complex in the city of Valencia, Spain. It is the most important modern tourist destination in the city of Valencia and one of the 12 Treasures of Spain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Postmodern architecture</span> Architectural style that emerged in the 1960s

Postmodern architecture is a style or movement which emerged in the 1960s as a reaction against the austerity, formality, and lack of variety of modern architecture, particularly in the international style advocated by Philip Johnson and Henry-Russell Hitchcock. The movement was introduced by the architect and urban planner Denise Scott Brown and architectural theorist Robert Venturi in their book Learning from Las Vegas. The style flourished from the 1980s through the 1990s, particularly in the work of Scott Brown & Venturi, Philip Johnson, Charles Moore and Michael Graves. In the late 1990s, it divided into a multitude of new tendencies, including high-tech architecture, neo-futurism, new classical architecture and deconstructivism. However, some buildings built after this period are still considered post-modern.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew Melville Hall</span> Student residence in Fife, Scotland

Andrew Melville Hall is a student hall of residence of the University of St Andrews located in St Andrews, Fife, Scotland. It was built in 1967 in the brutalist style, and it accommodates approximately 275 students.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">One Kennedy Square</span> Office in Detroit, Michigan

One Kennedy Square is a 10-story building located at 777 Woodward Avenue in Downtown Detroit, Michigan, near Campus Martius Park. The building is bordered by Griswold Street, Michigan Avenue and Woodward Avenue, and stands on the site of the old Detroit City Hall. It is occupied by the Ernst & Young accounting firm.

Bowellism is a modern architectural style heavily associated with Richard Rogers. It is described as a transient architectural and flippant style that was influenced by Le Corbusier and Antoni Gaudi. The style consists of services for the building, such as ducts, sewage pipes, and lifts, being located on the exterior to maximise space in the interior.

Frank Newby was one of the leading structural engineers of the 20th century, working with such architects as Philip Powell and Hidalgo Moya, Eero Saarinen, Cedric Price,James Gowan (architect) James Stirling, and the practice of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM), and such engineers as Ove Arup and Felix Samuely.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richards Medical Research Laboratories</span> United States historic place

The Richards Medical Research Laboratories, located on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, were designed by architect Louis Kahn and are considered to have been a breakthrough in his career. The building is configured as a group of laboratory towers with a central service tower. Brick shafts on the periphery hold stairwells and air ducts, producing an effect reminiscent of the ancient Italian towers that Kahn had painted several years earlier.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Business Instructional Facility</span> Academics in Illinois , United States

The Gies College of Business Instructional Facility (BIF) is a $60 million, 160,000 sq ft (15,000 m2) state-of-the-art business facility designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects located on the Champaign campus at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (UIUC). The facility is home to numerous classrooms, career development and academic counseling centers, student program offices, a recruitment suite, a 300-seat auditorium, and a spacious study area for students. Rafael Pelli, a partner of Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects who was the project principal for the Business Instructional Facility, explained in an interview on October 17, 2008 that the purpose of this building is to serve as "a sense of place, a community, a center to the College of Business". The 'U'-shaped building consists of a large commons area, furnished mainly with wood, with a prominent glass curtain wall on the south side of BIF facing the courtyard formed by the 'U' shape. The building is the first business facility at a public university in the world to achieve a platinum certification through Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), a U.S. Green Building Council rating system used to measure the sustainability in construction, and is the first building on the UIUC campus to achieve a LEED certification. The noteworthy 'green' elements of the Business Instructional Facility include solar panels, a green roof, and an energy-efficient cooling and heating system. The combined 'green' initiatives are expected to produce savings of $300,000 per year in comparison with traditional classroom buildings on the UIUC campus.

James Gowan was a Scottish-born architect known for his post-modernist designs of the "engineering style" which influenced a generation of British architects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Langham House Close</span> Flats in London, England

Langham House Close on Ham Common in Ham in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames is a development of three Grade II* listed buildings designed in 1955 by the British architects James Gowan and James Stirling. The Le Corbusier-influenced buildings were the architects' first major project working together and cemented their reputation as leaders amongst the Brutalist movement. The development was constructed during 1957–58 for Manousso Group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Michigan Central Campus Historic District</span> United States historic place

The University of Michigan Central Campus Historic District is a historic district consisting of a group of major buildings on the campus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edificio del Seguro Médico, Havana</span> Commercial building in Havana, Cuba

The Edificio del Seguro Médico is a commercial building in El Vedado, Havana. Built between 1955 and 1958, it was designed as a mixed use building for apartments and offices for the headquarters of the National Medical Insurance Company by Antonio Quintana Simonetti.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Florey Building</span> Student accomodation in Oxford, England

The Florey Building is a modernist student accommodation building by James Stirling in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the third and last building of “The Red Trilogy”, all of which are now listed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Western Bank Campus</span>

The Western Bank Campus is the main campus of the University of Sheffield. It lies one mile to the west of Sheffield city centre and is bounded by Upper Hanover Street to the east, Glossop Road to the south, Clarkson Street to the west, and Bolsover Street to the north. The campus includes Firth Court, Alfred Denny Building, Western Bank library and Arts Tower, Geography and Planning building, Bartolomé House, Dainton and Richard Roberts Buildings, the Sheffield Students' Union building, the Octagon Centre, Graves Building, Hicks Building and the Information Commons. The nearest motorway is the A57.

References

  1. Team, ArchEyes (2020-01-20). "Engineering Building in Leicester / James Stirling & James Gowan". ArchEyes. Retrieved 2022-07-13. The engineers wanted a water tank for the ground floor hydraulics laboratory so, to create the required pressure, the tank was placed on top of the tower. Lecture rooms stick out at right angles, and the tower also houses laboratories and offices.
  2. "Engineering Building by James Stirling at GreatBuildings". GreatBuildings. Retrieved 2022-07-13.
  3. "Engineering building University of Leicester". www.arup.com. Retrieved 2022-07-13. The building was covered by a triangular trussed steel frame roof with distinctive diamond-shaped perimeter rooflights.
  4. Jacobus, John (1963-04-11). "Engineering Building at Leicester University by Stirling and Gowan". Architectural Review. Retrieved 2022-07-13. The real turnabout in Leicester Engineering is the architects’ spirited adoption of glass – glass as an opaque and translucent as well as a transparent medium. [...] Something similar happens with the glass that encloses and roofs the workshop areas. The north lights are indeed translucent, being of a ply-glass whose inner layer is fibre-glass. Much of the rest of this part of the building is dressed with opaque glass that has a coating of aluminium for its core. Except at night, when the real lights glow from the artificial illumination of the interior spaces, the distinction between real and blind glass cannot be made from the exterior.
  5. 1 2 3 "Our building | School of Engineering | University of Leicester". le.ac.uk. Retrieved 2022-07-13.
  6. "University of Leicester Engineering Building - Story of Leicester". www.storyofleicester.info. Retrieved 2022-07-13. Many people recognised the building as ground breaking and it is often said to be the first ‘Post-Modern’ building in Britain.

Further reading