British Architecture Research Articles

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ARCHITECTURAL TERMS IN ENGLISH AND UZBEK LANGUAGES

This article describes Uzbek and English architecture and construction terminology. Also, in this article we analyze the etymology of some old terms of Uzbek and English languages with their translation in Russian, which were created by grammatically and syntactically meaning of two or more words with independent meanings.

The comparison between architecture students’ peer learning in informal situations within physical and virtual environments during the COVID-19 pandemic

This paper aims to evaluate British architecture students’ peer learning experiences in informal situations, that is, outside formal timetables. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the study made a comparison between those students’ learning experiences within physical and virtual environments, to find out if there are changes, difficulties and novelties when those students were introduced to unfamiliar learning contexts. Using the theoretical lens of the community of practice, the author conducted interviews and questionnaires to collect students’ learning experiences and stories when they were engaged in those two environments, respectively. It was found that the physical design studio environment and mutual engagements within it are essential to those students’ individual learning. Therefore, even if those students learned within the virtual environment, they still tried their best to simulate a design studio atmosphere to learn as the form of a community. Another obvious issue is that students normally lack peer-to-peer support, such as architectural knowledge, IT skills and mental health, when they are engaged in virtual environments. Comparatively, those supports are easily obtained via peer learning within physical environments, especially design studios. Based on the finding, future work should determine what architectural knowledge, skills, values and attitudes students developed from the community of practice.

Bringing Classical architecture to Tudor England in the 1540s: William Sharington’s Lacock Abbey and the role of his master mason, John Chapman

Summary Studies of the evolution of English architecture during the Tudor period rarely mention Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire. Even when noticed, the commentary tends to be brief and poorly informed. Much of this Tudor country house survives intact, albeit masked by later alterations making way for changing uses. This essay unravels the history and development of the Tudor house to reveal a surprisingly important structure that deserves a better understanding. Additionally, and for the first time, the career and work of John Chapman, a little-known master-mason, is explored through the buildings believed to have been created by him and his team.

Innovation and Revivalism: Powell & Sons’ Opus Sectile Mosaic

Abstract The late-nineteenth century saw a flourishing of mosaic in British architecture. Both traditional and innovative methods of mosaic-making were deployed in a wide variety of contexts from the 1850s onwards: in domestic, public, sacred, and secular buildings; for interior and exterior decoration; at large and small scales. Widespread experimentation with new materials, facilitated by the affordability of energy-intensive manufacturing processes, was complemented by a growing body of scholarship on the history of mosaics. Opus sectile was a novel type of opaque glass for mosaic-making that was developed by glassmakers James Powell & Sons in the mid-1860s. This new material quickly gained in popularity and was used in a variety of architectural projects throughout the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries (for a list see Dennis Hadley, Powell’s Opus Sectile Locations [Coventry: Tiles & Architectural Ceramics Society, 2018]). Through a discussion of the development of opus sectile and its use in the 1860s, 1870s, and 1880s, the article explores its place in a landscape of both technological innovation and stylistic revivalism.

Nationalizing the International Style

Abstract In Nationalizing the International Style: The Formation of British Identity in the Architectural Criticism of P. Morton Shand, Alborz Dianat considers the critical role played by architectural journalist P. Morton Shand (1888–1960) in the debate that took place in the interwar period as British architecture grappled with the seemingly irreconcilable ideas of nationality and modernity. Drawing on an archive of correspondence only recently made public, Dianat shows how Shand assumed a position of leadership in efforts to nationalize architectural modernism in Britain. Shand’s journalistic output contributed to a broader movement calling for a return to Georgian precedents alongside international models, and British architects heeded that call. Shand promoted a new identity for British architecture internationally through his formal and informal networks, and Britain’s leading role in architectural discourse into and beyond World War II was bolstered by his work.

Italian Architectural Ratios in the British Rotunda Typology

Stemming from centrally planned church architecture, the domestic rotunda type counts as one of the most renowned examples of Renaissance architectural conception. Often considered a physical and earthly manifestation of the divine, architects ordained rotunda symbolism through architectural ratio and proportion. While mostly linked to Italian examples, the rotunda typology also affected British architecture, as derived from the models of Serlio and Palladio. By combining 3D scanning and CAD analyses with historical methods, we scrutinise how commonplace architectural ratios shaped British rotunda plans in the cases of Hopetoun House and Chiswick House. At the same time, the architectural ratio proved a flexible tool to imitate and emulate Italian architectural models in its British context, making evident the richness and versatility of architectural models that British architects collated.

English architecture in 1963: a newly rediscovered view from Germany

This article provides an English translation of an unpublished German typescript found in the archive of the architect Julius Posener in the Akademie der Kunst, Berlin. Posener, a professor of architectural history at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste (HBK), travelled with a colleague and fifteen students to England for a fortnight in March 1963. They met several prominent architects, saw a wide selection of their current and recently completed works, and attended events at the Architectural Association school. The typescript is an account of the trip that he wrote up from notes in his diary on 29 March, two days after their return. Posener, who had previously spent almost a decade teaching architecture in London, proves to have been a sympathetic observer of the scene, eager to compare and contrast what he saw in England with contemporary work in Germany; his account evokes subtle disagreements between himself and his colleague on conceptual and historical points, and gives us an insight into the day-to-day workings of Denys Lasdun’s office, the Architectural Association, the London County Council, and the Building Research Station in Garston.

Northbrook Clock Tower and Ripon Hall: History and Architecture of Ghanta-Ghar Multan, Pakistan

Ghanta-Ghar has been considered a marked distinction of British Architecture indicating a symbolic centrality of imperial administration and reflecting the cultural, religious and political acumen of the imperial mind in the town planning of an administrative center. This symbolic erection has been used as means of expressing wealth, power, manifestation of authority and influence of empire. Multan as an important and central point of Southern Punjab came under the British empire in the mid of 19th century. The British erected urban and religious establishments to exhibit their power, authority, wealth and control. Multan has been a rich region with a strong legacy of architectural heritage from the oldest hindu times to the time of British’s Muslim predecessors. However, British contributed significantly to that heritage. Northbrook Tower and Ripon Hall (Ghanta-Ghar Multan) is one of the major Imperial administrative establishments in Multan constructed with a blend of the English and Indian (synthesis of Indian and Mughal) architecture between 1884 to 1888 CE. According to Francoise Dasques, the clock tower was built using Anglo Indian, Indo Saracenic and Greeko-Roman patterns. The purpose of this paper is analyze the structure, style and approach of the Ghanta-Ghar establishgment, along with exploring the tradition of clock towers in India by the British and amalgamation of native & European built environment. Hence the paper highlights the elements and features used in architectural scheme of the building and explains the nature of its structure with a contribution-assessment of use and compatibility of native/indigenous and foreign techniques and materials The paper explains the advent of British in Multan and its construction in the area very briefly while it explains the history, construction of Northbrook Clock tower and Ripon Hall, its construction style, structural pattern, and decorative material in detail. The study analyses the elements of the building separately comparing with other colonial and Mughal structures. Drawings, photos of the building and terminologies has been used in the paper to make the study easier and understandable.

INFLUENCE OF THE GREAT FIRE OF LONDON IN 1666 ON SPECIFICS OF CREATING BAROQUE STYLE OF CHURCHES IN ENGLAND

At the same time, when Baroque became the dominant style in Italy, in English architecture in the 17th century architects continued using the Classical forms. After that, in the architecture of England appeared a style called Palladian architecture and Jacobean architecture. Style of Baroque became prevalent just at the end of this century. After the Great Fire of London on 5 September 1666 most of the city's buildings were destroyed, all these constructions had to be restored or built new ones. The 17th and 18th centuries were a painful period, not only for the history of Britain but also affected religion. London was full of immigrants from the Continent who brought a part of their culture and religion to English culture. So, during that period, there was a problem of the persistence of the leading position of the Anglican Church of England. Through the hard work of the British architects who have fully dedicated themselves to the work, positions were strengthened. 310 years passed since the intensified struggle against the Anglican Church of England and Catholicism with another popular at that time sects. It started with creating the Act establishing the Commission for Building Fifty New Churches in the Cities of London and Westminster and or the Suburbs thereof. The fact that the Act was passed because of overcrowded with worshipers in the non-conformist chapels around London. In the end, it did not achieve its goal, just twelve churches were built under the tutelage of the Commissioners. A number of these churches became known as the Queen Anne Churches. However, these churches became the main building of Baroque Style in London.

The Mavisbank Estate - the monument to the Scottish Enlightenment

The subject of the study is the changes that occurred in the architecture of Scottish country houses of the XVIII century under the influence of new worldview attitudes of the era of the Scottish Enlightenment. The object of the study is the Mavisbank estate in the county of Mildotian, owned by one of the leading figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, Sir Clark Penicuik. Mavisbank is considered as a significant monument of the era of the Scottish Enlightenment, because it shows how the changes taking place in society were expressed in the search for those architectural forms that would reflect the spirit of the new time – the time of reason and its accompanying rationality. When working on the article, the author used the methods of formal stylistic and comparative analysis, which made it possible to determine the architectural style of Mevisbank. The novelty of the research conducted by the author lies in the fact that at present time there are practically no fundamental works in Russian art criticism devoted to the study of the evolution of Scottish architecture of the era of the Scottish Enlightenment. The main conclusion of this study is that in the XVIII century, thanks to the activities of local educators, for the first time in Scottish architecture, there are primary architectural solutions that are ahead of similar trends in English architecture. Thus, the appearance of innovative architectural solutions on Scottish soil suggests that the Scottish architecture of the XVIII century ceases to be regarded as a purely provincial phenomenon based on English and continental models.

Toward an Architecture of Air and Steam: Climate, Bathing, and Public Health in Victorian Britain

This essay highlights how nineteenth-century epidemic diseases catalyzed environmental thinking in architecture by examining air and vapor bathing technologies and their role in transmitting environmental medical principles into British building culture. Vapor baths were popular medical devices used to fortify a patient’s health by passing hot or cold air charged with steam over the skin, a vital membrane through which impurities were thought to be excreted from the body. This essay discusses vapor bathing’s role in establishing environmental mediation as an underlying principle of modern British architecture. It shows how bathing practices were adapted to deliver localized forms of atmospheric medicine inside buildings, making architectural interiors a key site for the formulation of Victorian ideas of public health. Bathing offers evidence of how the climate-controlled interior emerged out of a confluence of medical ecology, moral demography, and technical innovation.

Reassessing Joseph Bonomi the Elder: The Hawksmoor Prize Essay 2021

ABSTRACTIn the early nineteenth century, Joseph Bonomi the Elder (1739–1808) was one of the best-known architects in Britain — so much so that he figured in Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility (1811) — but his reputation subsequently declined and diminished to the extent that, in the current literature on British architecture of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, he is little more than a footnote. In a circular process, this excision directly contributed to the demolition of some of his most important work — above all, Rosneath House in Dunbartonshire — on the grounds that it was designed by an architect of little importance, which in turn makes it all the harder to recapture and appraise his architecture. The article explores both the reasons for the excision and the nature of Bonomi’s work. Drawing on the limited available evidence as well as hitherto unused construction drawings of Rosneath, the article repositions Bonomi as an Italian architect working in London — first for the Adam brothers and then on his own account — and examines the qualities of his designs and the factors that led to him being excluded from the inner circle of the artistic establishment, most notably the Royal Academy. In doing so, it sheds new light both on developments in neoclassicism in the period, specifically the ‘stripped down’ style that Bonomi espoused, and on the xenophobic and anti-Catholic currents in London at the time, which appear to have continued to influence his posthumous reputation.

Британское присутствие в Индийском океане: перспективы расширения

The article explores the possibility of strengthening and expanding the British political and military presence in the Indian Ocean, its probable goals, objectives, methods and means there. The main purpose of the study is to consider the possibility activating the British military policy in this area, to assess the importance of the Indian Ocean region for London, the prospect of direct expansion of the military presence, the role of British private military companies and alternative methods of influence. The paper analyzes current trends and problems in the foreign and security policy of the United Kingdom. The relevance of the study is due to the change in the British architecture of foreign policy and the perception of its place in international relations. Using system and comparative analysis methods of research, the author concludes the growing probability of expanding the British military presence in the Indian Ocean in the medium and long term. Modern British navy firearms status can allow to increase the intensity of the British military presence in the Indian Ocean. Also, this circumstance may activate Great Britain’s foreign policy in the Indo-Pacific region. It should be noted that the strengthening of the British fleet can be called a marker of the desire of the United Kingdom to become a global player in the international arena. To achieve this goal, almost all possible means of strengthening the capabilities of the UK’s hard power are used: the navy, private military companies, as well as new military alliances such as AUKUS. The work on intensifying the influence in the Indo-Pacific region is a part of the British foreign policy on global strengthening, and should be considered in the context of other regions: Ukraine, Turkey and Northern Europe. Nevertheless, at the moment, the results of such activities cannot be called completely predictable.

Beyond Bauhaus: Modernism in Britain, 1933–1966

Beyond Bauhaus: Modernism in Britain, 1933–1966

The genesis and evolution of Anglican ecclesiastical architecture in British Yorubaland: postcolonial reflections

The analysis of Anglican religious spaces created in British West Africa has been neglected in architectural historiography. This article advances knowledge by investigating ecclesiastical architecture in British colonial Yorubaland (South-West Nigeria). A case study method, combining physical documentation of the existing church sites and a review of church compendiums and other documentation, has been employed to explore and explain in detail the history and formation of Anglican religious spaces. Our research produced new knowledge about the genesis and evolution of the typology, morphology, and visual representations of Anglican religious buildings, as well as the motivations and ideals of the people who commissioned, designed, and constructed them. This architectural journey approximately begins in the 1840s with the arrival of missionaries who initiated the construction of churches using the region’s traditional ephemeral mud-and-thatch structures. However, the British clergy on the ground assumed the role of ‘civilising’ the African communities, using the architecture of ecclesiastical space to shape the communal perceptions of architectural propriety. By the 1880s, they introduced brick-walled and iron-roofed hall-type churches. By the first half of the twentieth century, Anglican ecclesiastical architecture in Yorubaland was dominated by the Gothic Revival style in basilica typology, inspired mainly by Early English Gothic architecture. The article reveals how the architectural and technological transfers from the West continued synchronously with evangelism to create the prescribed image of the Anglican church in Yorubaland. This played a significant role in consolidating British imperial power, as happened elsewhere in the British Empire.

A Haveli at the Agra Riverfront: Link to a Lost Heritage

Agra was the capital of the Mughal Empire at its zenith, and the splendour of the city during this period can only be imagined. There is an abundance of royal buildings which are protected by the Government of India. There were other significant buildings too, housing the high nobility, away from both the royal quarters as well as the ordinary peoples’ houses. These have largely vanished, being large enough to attract builders as well as developers. The article describes and establishes the significance of one such rare traditional townhouse or mansion called ‘haveli’ located on the river Yamuna, Agra, in relation to a larger historical and cultural landscape. It also discusses the possibilities of conservation and management for protecting and enhancing the significance of the premises and planning for its sustainable development in future. The current edifice appears to be a coalescence of British and Mughal architecture with some local features. The building stands where similar-sized havelis stood during the Mughal period, housing high nobility. The architects of these buildings efficiently used the features of the river. With most such havelis having disappeared from the riverfront, this large residence-like edifice provides an interesting glimpse of the lost heritage. Fragments of information obtained from old maps and paintings, site surveys and some few research works have been joined together to reconstruct the origin and transformation vis-a-vis the present condition.

“Traces of the exotic” in Vernon Lee’s “Oke of Okehurst; Or, The Phantom Lover”

ABSTRACT Okehurst – the stately home in Vernon Lee’s “Oke of Okehurst; Or, The Phantom Lover” – is the epitome of English architecture, dating back to “Norman or Saxon” times. Yet inside, the house is populated with far-flung objects and traces of the exotic: Persian rugs, majolica ornaments, and “rose-leaves and spices put into china bowls.” The house and its contents are intoxicating, and nothing is more exotic, perfumed, or exquisite than Alice, who with her husband (and cousin) William Oke are the last members of the family’s line. Okehurst also reverberates with the presences of its previous inhabitants which drive the current Okes to repeat the family’s history of madness and murder. The haunting of Okehurst is particularly interesting when considered alongside material from Lee’s archive. This paper will consider the traces of Lee’s own complex ancestry and the problems of empire and matrilineal ancestral wealth and inheritance, whilst utilising correspondence from Lee to her mother, and her partner, Mary Robinson to suggest the possible inspiration for Cotes Common and Okehurst Manor. Throughout this consideration of haunted spaces – both inside and outside – this paper will also make reference to the 1886 manuscript of “Oke of Okehurst,” which has never previously been studied.

Surface Value: Ways of Seeing Decoration in Architecture

The long 18th century was a period of intense investment in elite architecture in Britain which sustained an extensive craft culture in carving, modelling, and joinery. Yet decoration is largely marginalised or ignored by architectural historians. This antipathy to the enrichment of buildings is not particular to Britain and reflects a wider discourse on the architecture of many periods and places. By situating past and present attitudes to 18th-century decoration in Britain within a wider historiography, this paper reveals the prejudices which still attend the discussion of ornament and craft production in architecture. Conversely, it explores revisionist perspectives on craft and decoration and considers how they can inform architectural history and contribute to a more holistic understanding of building production. Despite a recent, widespread revival of interest in ornament, however, scholarship continues to privilege conceptual issues over the material practices of decoration. Disciplinary boundaries have militated against an integrated approach to architecture and decoration and historians of sculpture and architecture have overlooked significant common ground. Lacunae in the historiography of decoration in 18th-century British architecture call for approaches which integrate the analytical and methodological tools of architectural and sculpture history.

The Fourth Duke of Portland’s Pantaloon (1831–1852): Private yacht, experimental ‘brig sloop of war’ and slave-ship hunter

The launch of the 323-ton private brig rigged yacht Pantaloon at Troon in 1831 for the Duke of Portland, marks the opening of the final and contentious ‘Symonds’ era in British wooden hull naval architecture. Designed for the duke by Captain William Symonds RN it was immediately acquired by the Royal Navy as a fast armed ocean-going dispatch boat. After Symond’s controversial appointment as Surveyor of the Navy the following year, it was regularly pitted in sea rating trials against old and new designs, culminating in its inclusion in the gruelling 1844-46 Experimental Squadron trials. Either side of this engagement it served in the dangerous Preventative Service cruising the West Coast of Africa to intercept fast slavers trading to Cuba and Brazil. After serving with Pantaloon was decommissioned in 1852.

‘What are people for?’: Ecologists and the Articulation of the Built Environment

This article revisits previously overlooked exchanges between pre-eminent figures in British architecture and ecology, William Holford, Julian Huxley, and Max Nicholson, which were incorporated in one of the earliest uses of the term ‘built environment’ in 1964. By examining how an energy-entropy interpretation of the ecosystem had shaped their views on the natural, human-made, and psychosocial milieu, I will consider the way cybernetics conditioned the articulation of the built environment. Contextualising their exchanges in the socio-cultural climate of the early 1960s, I trace an almost concurrent environmental turn made by architecture and ecology. Moreover, the exchange between architecture and ecology has engendered an environmental conception that prioritised the transformative and reciprocal relationship between humans and what surrounds them. In this effort, I pay particular attention to a co-evolutionary view of the technosphere, biosphere, and political sphere formulated by Nicholson. I also discuss the infiltration of eugenic and technocratic views in this reconceptualisation of the environment. Despite the peculiarities of these theories, their conceptualisation of the environment had pointed towards an important question in employing the ecosystemic metaphor: what are people for?