Hargreaves’ mysterious oles, p80 Gallery works by Richard Murphy, p57 December 1993 Volume GXCIII No 1162 INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE ‘COMMENT 4 Internal affairs Cas ther be sch a thing as nese arehiectune? Pr Diy PRELIMS 11, News, exhibitions and letters Fas: Gctman architecture recomidereds Mostar bridge desronel ourRAGE 17 Schinkel shame Sac improvement tothe porch at the Altes Muscun in Bern Per Bad re DESIGN REVIEW 18 Evolution revolution 1co.1» Evolution, a meticulously engineered mola faritre system Cater Sar Thome 23 nner spaces Are the ways of making and thinking about interiors changing? The Bios INTERIORS, 24 Legal eagles 1:01» Innovative insertions in two London Iyer oles Carne Sve 34 Prowed shutters musKENBecx & MARSIALL Sublenuanees of cale and feling in London restaurant Pap Mun 36 Sensuous abstinence c.aLDiosiLvEsTuY Menswear shop in Graz, Austra, Loonan in ie smpicty Poy AC 39 Manhattan transfer rvs jnicixs ARCHITECTS Order and elegance in a New York department store Poy Mag HusToRY LANDSCAPE PRODUCTS SURVEY BooKs DELIGHT COVER 72 80 87 Soft shoo shuffle rains MADOC JOS Con Robust rebirth rRouctt1oN Meastas Dep fight indus building ito showroom an offices Cn en Cf ia moves transform od factory into elegant offices Ey Bas Spiral nebula now AKAD ASSOCIATES Geometric foyer inerveatons in ‘Tel Aviv Opera Howe Cate Seer ‘Volume control rxrr18 TAVLoR Géorgian house couverion maximises sensual pleasure in spatial gesture Por Day Perfect pitch wax: nkookts assactares Simple renovation of ates gves mage to masc studi IpeCog ‘Monkey business rawso wita\s New Primates Gallery at London Natural History Muscum Cara Sha Fruitmarket phoenix riciaxn acne ARctirHcTS Remodeling of Edinburgh's Fuimarket Gallery Mark Cin White spirit axe pavowse axcirrecrs Sensuous arn villa Cerne loser Lofty aspirations rick wrirR ARCHITECTS Spatial remeron ey in a London warehouse Cater Slaw Box of delights est1c0.« wits New house in eightoenth-century kitchen garden of Pt the estraton of pace in Met Lake postry Comparison of Broailes by Voysey and Blackwell by Bailie Scot in Lake District Won High Hargreaves weaves Ceorge Hargreaves d ogy anh man culture artand environment Ee Lair External products Review ofthe latest in clang curtain walling and roaing Pony Mie Reviews Architecture and ulin; Renasan re; Inia Jlicoe; New Teas; Du Image conscious ian Richie's exploration jas structure and light Pray MiG Flatin Covent Garden, London by Rick Math $y Dons Git aveCan therebe such a thing as interior architecture, or is the fashion industry? ane During most of this century, the design of interiors has been rather looked down on, Interior design has developed no indepen dent body of theory. And for the last 80 years or more, it has lacked a nucleus of convincing models, for it has usually been conducted either asa sort of offshoot of the fashion industry, or (particularly in offices) as.a branch of discredited Taylorist scien- tific management. ‘The Modern Movement itself was partly to blame. There could be no independent art ofthe interior in an architecture which celebrated the interpenetration of inner and exterior space. In its fiercest sachlich moments (especially in housing), the Movement was almost prepared to say that the function of architecture is no more than the provision of serviced shelter. The Movement’s concern with fidelity to struc- ture and construction precluded involve- ment with the development of decoration and even with colour. (And when "30s Modernists commented on interior colour, their remarks often seemed to have the slightly crazed fervour of converts to psc do scientific fads. Alberto Sartoris, for instance, suggested that ‘We know that there are colours which ... are acoustic, those which are so to a lesser degree and. those which do not react at all to the laws of acousties") None of this is intencled to deny that the twentieth century has produced some mar= vellous interiors. For instance, the dome tic and ecclesiastical work of Wright and. Le Corbusier, and the public works of Aalto and Kahn, all contain spaces that embody the spirit of Modernism and com- pare in quality and the capacity to move with anything made by previous genera- tions. Yet these interiors are part of Gesamtkunstcerke ~ essential elements of whole buildings. Rarely has their excellence been matched when new spaces have been inserted into buildings, new or old, which have not been made by the designer ofthe interior. This is a curious paradox, for never before has so much space been enclosed without any clear proposal for hhow its to be handled in detail. The spec- ulative office block is the most obvious ‘example of such disjunction between exte- the clasical Modern Movement idea of Axible space has in one way or another been appli to types a sina as muse- ums att shopping malls, Part of the problem is ofcourse the nature of the shel, For realestate reason new office buildings (particularly in the US) have unl recently been stereotyped invoa nandardived im oflor plates With mean ceiling heights arranged round er- vice cores. Wis exceedingly dificult gen- erate sense of place or individual territory in euch volumes, and it often seems thatthe only solutions to making decent places for office workers are to be found in radical rethinking ofthe offic as a whole, in which spatial organisation it highly ditferentited by the form of the building. Successful examples are to he found mainly in Germany and Scan navi and it must be admited that they have almost all hen made as special on off buildings for individual organisations the one major speculative example of the type, Erskine’s Ark in London (AR July 1999), is still unlet (though this may be as much to do with the bone-headed nature of most British management and the slump as with the practicability ofthe place) The dumb problem of the normal spec- ulative office throws into perspective the nature of interior space, Interiors are di ferent from exteriors nor only because they are enclosed, but because they are more intimate, special and more used. The hor- rid abstraction of speculative office space ‘can best be put in perspective by compar- ing it with is opposite: the highly dfferen- tiated space of the house. Ist here smoking and typing this on a desk surrounded by books; my study isan extension of the sit- ting room; outside is the hall full of teenagers rushing in and out. I can go upstairs to bed or down to the kitchen to ‘watch television with theless rackety mem- bers ofthe family. Each of the spaces has different ambience and can be described in a hierarchy ranging from the semi-public (hall) to entirely private (bedroom); or ‘another hierarchy from soft (sitting room) to hard (kitchen); or another from quiet (study) to rowdy (teenager's bedroom), There are many more hierarchies in this‘multi-dimensional lattice, and their conjunc tions not only make particular rooms and spaces but particular places within them, each of which requires different treatment in terms of materi- als colour and furniture Such a highly distinctive set of places isnot, of course, unique to a London terraced house. They are created in the best of even the most open planned dwellings (see, for instance, the analysis of Mies’ Tugendhat house in AR April 998) and in the most modest apartments (AR November pp24-28). Nor are they unique to domestic work Successful public interiors show understanding of the need for a hierarchy of treatment from general to private, and the need to focus appropriately the use of light, colour materials and craftsmanship. In generating this issue, we had a modest but brilliant example in mind, Adolf Loos’ Kirntner Bar was inserted into an existing building in 1908. It is only alittle room, but it was created with an exquisite understanding of the nature of particular interior space and the ways of han- dling it. The place was an innovation in Vien= nese society, an American bar, rather more racy than the predominantly male coffee-house or the formal world of the restaurant: a place for a solitary drink, or where you could take a lover or chum for a naughtily fashionable cocktail. It was public, yet intimate; convivial, yet individual The most brilliant move is the strip of mirrors that runs round the two sides and the back of the litle rectangle. These reflect the coffered marble ceiling into an infinite space, subtly extending he apparent volume in a way that is not imme- diately apparent, because the mirrored frieze is above eye level. The room itself is elegantly comfortable and defined by the dark mahogany panelling, the painting and the curtain over the door. The scale is made intimate by the black and white chequered floor and the spar! edges of brass and glass ofthe fittings. Individual preferences are allowed for in the rather formal ‘Thonet stools that face the bar and the soft black leather sofas that follow the walls. A huge amount of meaning, possibility and spatial won der has been packed into a tiny volume that is no more than three and a half metres wide high, and seven metres long. This is interior architecture made by 2 man who understood that interiors should fit life like a well-cut suit The people Loos looked to for inspiration were the tailors, the shoemakers, the luggage makers and saddllers .. their craft did not appear noble enough to those lacking in culture for it to be included in their schemes. How fortunate!" Now almost all those craftsmen have disappeared, and Loos’ use of them as exemplars seems extraordinarily dated But his basic thesis remains true: suc- cessful interiors are generated by practi cal and sensitive analysis of the nai ative of lif and its interpretation in appropri- ate use of light, colour, materials and space. The approach makes humanity coMMENT paramount, rather than flashy forms and images intended for colour supple ments. It is time for interior design to grow up, stop being a branch of con: sumerism or graphics and acquire a respectable body of theory and practice Adolf Loos showed the way. P.D,ag] | teINNER SPACES issue, we decided to apply two filters to the potentially vast volume of interiors we could have presented. First, we chose only those designed by architects, If there is such a thing as interior architecture, itis likely to be found in the work of people trained in the profession. Second, we limited the designers to those who in Britain. This may or may not reveal underlying common cultural sensibilities, but it certainly allows us to incorporate the work of a range of young practices, some of whom are shown in these pages for the first time. The results of this filtering process have some common characteristics: the normal architectural preoccupations with space and light; with the power of the section as, well as the plan; with the importance of introducing daylight to the interior; with the transformational power of arti and their sensual nature. Appl ‘There could be few works more dissimilar than Silvestrin’s cave in Graz (p36) and Jestico & Whiles’ transparent box within its brick walled garden (p68). Yet both have a subtle sensibility for materials and their appropriate use. Think for instance of the long pearwood counter in the Graz clothes shop, or the granite worktop in the London kitchen: each is appropriate for its purpose in a sense that is deeper than quantifiable function; the warm, polished and elegantly figured wood is a good ground on which to examine fine clothes; the cool, hard impervious smoothness of the granite is a proper place for the preparation of food. This sensibility is seen in even work done on the smallest budgets. Patel & Taylor's conversion (p50) was made ona (comparative) shoestring, yet though many of the moves are made cheaply in plasterboard, or simply by exposing the existing, the bits you touch with hands and feet - the desk edges, floors and stair treads ~ are made of comforting beech. Another unifying element is a lyrical approach to construction. Refinement of det and structure create a satisfying density of event in the system invented by Eco-iD (p18 and p24), in Munkenbeck & Marshall's shutters (p31), and in Alan Brookes’ bridge (p52). (Though the last at times evokes Pugin’s criticism of the modern Gothic room: ‘a man who remains for any length of time ... and escapes without being wounded by ‘some of its minutiae, may consider himself extremely fortunate’.) None of these interiors descends to the decorative trivialities of Post-Modern Classicism or neo-Surrealism, nor do any succumb to the tempting, arrogant but ultimately anti-human seductions of Decon. The work is not generally very dramatic, but gentle, subtle and sensuous at a level which is difficult to reproduce in a magazine, which must by its nature rely on one sense - sight - to convey a notion of places that can only be appreciated in reality by a combination of smell, feeling and hearing as well as vision. Yet, for all their quietness, the schemes shown here suggest that ways of making and thinking about interiors may be achievable which have the hness with which we face architecture as a whole. THE EDITORS. 23hTwo lawyers’ offices, Lincoln's Inn, London Architects Eco-iD Criticism Catherine Slessor Photographs: Chris Gascoigne the spatial qualities of historic chambers buildings through the application of an ingenious structural furniture system, ‘These two refurbished lawyers’ offices exploit Gothic Royal Cours of Justice and Lincoln's LEGAL EAGLES Lincoin's Inn, between G.E, Street's massive Inn Fields is one of three areas in central London historically devoted to the law, Originally dating from the fourteenth century, the numerous lawyers offices are scattered ‘around the Inn housed in buildings of all ages. These are loosely arranged around four connected spaces witha strong collegiate character not une Oxtord ot Cambridge Internally, however, the buildings tend tobe ‘ramped, antiquated and incapable of being ‘adapted to moder office usage. As a result, ‘many barristers (the lawyers who argue cases inthe higher English courts) have deserted their traditional quarters inthe historic In seek modem offices in surrounding Fleet Street and the City Those who remain chambers, usteredin vere working conditions have changed ttle since Dickens’ day. Typcaly, ‘one set of chambers contains around 30 barristers headed by @ Queen's Counsel (QC Individual barristers occupy small, cella rooms equipped witha sizeable collection of hty legal tomas, while articled clerks beavering away ina central office organise ‘each barister's workload and perform general ‘adminstrative duties. The innate conservatism ‘governing the treatmant oftheir histor buildings means that any intemal remodeling is usually confined o selecting appropriately expensive looking system furniture and a to.commission a relatively unknown wallcoverings. In such a architectural practice for an interioe rit could be regarded as an act of supceme folly or enlightenment. Fortunately ithas proved tobe the latter. STONE BUILDINGS ‘The chambers of Michael Beckman QC are housedin Stone Buildings, a distinguished ate eighteenth-century Pallaian bulaing st the north end of Lincoln's Inn. though space ‘was ats premium, the abnormal height of the ‘Ooms (around 13ft] meant that architects Eco- iD were able to inoduce mezzanine levels certain areas using their robustly adaptable structural furniture system, Evolution (18) The system was slotted into the cellular Georgian envelope to provide workstations, ‘meeting tables, storage unis, ighting ganvies‘sre aad wa eerste 16 Workstation bye Two lawyers’ offices, Lincoln's inn, London WILBERFORCE CHAMBERS ‘The second of these two schemes, at Lincoin’s In, isto some extenta refinemant of the principles established at Stone Buildings. The kinds of problems experienced were also similar, with restrictions on the degree to which the historic bulding fabric ‘could be modited or adapted in any internal refurbishment. Wilberforce Chambers ‘occupies part of New Square, a seventeenth Century quadrangle of houses atthe heat of Lincoln’ Inn. In this case the ceiling heights ‘would not accommodate mezzanine interventions so instead the architects concentrated on devising leganty detailed ‘workstations, storage and shelving systems The most cohesive part of the new scheme is the clerks’ room, wiih is dominated by an imposing, -shaped workstation, crowned by three tiers of cantilevered shelving. The ribbed beech and glass sholves are supported by 2 series of intricate bronze castings bolted to slender brass masts. The organic, lowerikxe supports were cast using the lost wax process and given a verdigris coat which was then cows waxed to achiave a smooth finish Tension filament wires strung from the tops ofthe masts prevent the shelves from deflecting under the immense loads they are obliged to catty.The immense, Dickensian ledgeria which all appointments are recorded is mounted on a counterweighted arm that can ‘be swivelled round toface each clerk. The imposing cantilever ibrary units ae larger variations on the same theme, The tensile wites strung through the shelves also double ‘as ad-hoc bookends. ‘While Stone Buildings was very much a prototypical installation, which has since evoWved as an off-the-peg system, the scheme fo: Wilberforce Chambers i instilled with amore refined, bespoke character. The client had seen Stone Buildings and wanted something similar, but diferent, While Eco: are corwinced that there is tnarket for Evolution asa proprietary system (p18), Judging from the razctions ofthe Lincoln’ inn legal community there would seem tobe equal potential fora succession of dazzling one-ots‘EW yd) > eteeeelcesled SHUTTERS | ee Dee aay eee aa reronrrnwrhr hr | SESE ES | {sere Grazis the headquarters of the wild Austrian organic architects. In complete contrast to their work, London based Claudio Silvestrin has made a shop that is Loosian in its ‘simplicity and sensuous The adjectives which come tomind The Johan shop for men’s clothing, when contemplating the ‘occupying the ground floor ofa architecture of Claudio SiNestrin— sixteenth century building, is elemental, pure, serene—have _insertedinto two long nartow and become through constant vaulted spaces stretching back Fepetitonin any article abouthim to from the glazed entrance. Where seem hackneyed. Sivestrin himself others might have been tempted to suggests monasti, which of