Gough Building, Bryanston School, Bryanston, Dorset

Summary

The Gough Building, originally the Craft, Design and Technology Building, for Bryanston School, built 1986 - 1988 by CZWG.

Description

The Gough Building, originally the Craft, Design and Technology Building, for Bryanston School, built 1986 - 1988 by CZWG.

MATERIALS: two storeys of load-bearing red brick cavity walls with white cast stone dressings.

PLAN: rectangular plan with central entrance giving access to spiral staircase and open plan ground floor workshop area. Cellular teaching, storage and ancillary rooms to the rear with new rear access to Bramall Hall beyond. First floor classrooms accessed from a central corridor, terminating in lobbies.

EXTERIOR: two storeys of red brick in Flemish garden wall bond with white cast stone dressings. The front elevation has a central concave entrance bay (designed around a mature tree which failed to survive the construction process) flanked by six wide bays. Each bay is separated by a giant order of columns modelled on screws and made of white cast stone (CZWG reused the column moulds for their own Clerkenwell offices, where they are painted gold). The heads of the screws form sills to first-floor oeil de boeuf windows which have projecting frames and 'mortar board' hood moulds. Between the columns are full-width, multi-pane windows, some with central French doors. The central entrance door has a tall window above lighting the staircase within, and is flanked by two windows on each side which decrease in size to echo the curving form of the wall above.

The side elevations are of seven bays and have curved profiles which express the double barrel vaulted roof structure, and central pointed sections denoting the valley between the two main roof sections. The red brick and cast stone dressing echo the prominent quoins of the Norman Shaw building, and the profiles of the first floor windows also echo the roofline. As originally designed the rear was a loading bay/service area, sheltered from view by curving screen walls. The central projecting bow has been altered to provide a central door giving access through the building. The screen wall to the north steps down while that to the south is ramped.

INTERIOR: the main entrance on the east elevation opens into a small entrance foyer with spiral stair giving access to the first floor. The metal stair has curved chrome handrails; the outer rail undulates at the half landing. The stair carries on beyond the first floor for a further six steps before stopping, where it is blocked by a cantilevered block wall.

The ground floor is largely an open plan workroom, with smaller rooms and ancillary spaces to the rear, with a central rear corridor. On the first floor there is a central corridor with exposed roof structure of zig-zag metal beams, with light fittings forming opposing zig-zags. The walls of the corridor are blockwork with plaster above, with slender panels marking points where there are structural beams above; the skirting boards ramp down to either side of these panels. At each end the corridor opens into small lobby areas. Some of the first floor classrooms are open to the barrel vaulted roof structure.

History

Post-Modernism, a movement and a style prevalent in architecture between about 1975 and 1990, is defined in terms of its relationship with modern architecture. Post-Modernist architecture is characterised by its plurality, engagement with urban context and setting, reference to older architectural traditions and use of metaphor and symbolism. As a formal language it has affinities with mannerism (unexpected exaggeration, distortions of classical scale and proportion) and the spatial sophistication of Baroque architecture. Post-Modernism accepts the technology of industrialised society but expressed it in more diverse ways than the machine imagery of the contemporary High-Tech style.

The origins of the style are found in the United States, notably in the work of Robert Venturi and Charles Moore which combined aspects of their country's traditions (ranging from the C19 Shingle Style to Las Vegas) with the knowing irony of pop art. A parallel European stream combined an abstracted classicism or a revival of 1930s rationalism with renewed interest in the continental city and its building types. In England, the American and European idioms coverged in the late 1970s, to produce works by architects of international significance, including James Stirling, and distinctive voices unique to Britain such as John Outram. The 1980s revival of the British economy was manifested in major urban projects by Terry Farrell and others in London, while practices such as CZWG devised striking imagery for commercial and residential developments in Docklands and elsewhere.

Bryanston School is a co-educational independent school, founded in 1928 by JG Jeffreys. It occupies the grounds of a country house in the 'Wrenaissance' style, of 1889 - 1894 by R Norman Shaw for Viscount Portman, which was listed at Grade I in 1985. The post-war expansion of the school proceeded without a consistent master-plan and took the form of piecemeal additions in a variety of architectural idioms. In the mid-1980s the school held a limited competition for a Craft, Design and Technology block. Skills such as woodwork, metalwork and technical drawing were increasingly being combined as Craft, Design and Technology (CDT), influenced by the government's move to a National Curriculum. Four architects were interviewed for the project but only Piers Gough of CZWG suggested that the school consider an entirely different site, aligned with the east wing of Shaw's house and forming the centrepiece of a new, eastern courtyard. His practice won the commission. The building was opened in October 1988 by Sir Hugh Casson (Roger Zogolovitch's father-in-law).

CZWG returned to Bryanston in 1995 to design a pair of boarding houses (Dorset House and Cranborne House) in a single butterfly-plan block. The eastern courtyard created by CZWG's building (now renamed the Gough Building) was continued in 2007 by the addition of Hopkins Architects' Sanger Centre. Hopkins' Bramall Hall (2014) stands to the rear of the Gough Building, with a reconfiguration of the latter's rear elevation.

Campbell Zogolovitch Wilkinson and Gough (CZWG) was formed in London in 1975. The practice's eclectic, Post-Modern style is underpinned by a consistent design approach, including the use of bold, geometric gestures, engagement with urban context and resourceful use of building materials and technologies. The four founder partners, Nicholas Campbell, Roger Zogolovitch, Rex Wilkinson and Piers Gough had studied together at the Architectural Association in London between 1965 and 1971. The practice's early workload was based on the conversion of older buildings such as Phillips West 2 (1975 - 1976) and several pioneering examples of 'loft living': the conversion of industrial buildings to live/work units for artists, designers and other. The 1980s regeneration of Docklands brought housing commissions such as China Wharf (1986 - 1987) and the Circle (1987 - 1989), while the practice's workload has since diversified to include institutional and commercial commissions.

The interior of the Gough Building has been altered, primarily at ground floor level, to allow for open-plan workrooms and teaching.

Reasons for Listing

The Gough Building at Bryanston School, of 1986 - 1988 by CZWG, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* it is a sensitive yet witty contextual response to Norman Shaw's Grade I listed Bryanston School, and is indicative of an English contribution to Post-Modern architecture;
* it is a key project by CZWG, a celebrated British Post-Modernist practice;
* the building survives well.

Group value:

* with the Grade I listed Bryanston School.

External Links

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