1. Leader of the great transition from the Modern Movement to
the architecture of the New—
an architecture that once more has recognized historical
roots, once more has close
connections with the buildings surrounding it, once more can
be called a new tradition.
2. Sir James Frazer Stirling (1926-1992)
• Born in Glasgow, Scotland
• Educated from Liverpool University
• 1956-1992, architectural practice (with James Gowan and
later with Michael Wilford)
• Works mainly in England, US and Germany
• His classroom projects mainly based on Classicism of Ecole
des Beaux Arts
• But he himself was concentrated on International style
• 1970s Buildings in US show contextualism
• His German projects, including Staatsgalerie are
postmodern
• Pritzker Prize in 1981
3. Career and Design Philosophies
• Started with International style (1950s)-small scale houses and
housing complexes all built with traditional bricks and
traditional English forms of warehouses, factories, barns etc.
• Modern-functional, austere(no ornamentation) and with
volumes defined by clean spaces and lines.
• But these were very humane in scale and style.
• Communal vitality and integration in terms of space and
circulation.
• “Architecture is not a question of style or appearance, it is how
you organize spaces and movement for a place and activity”
• He was one of the earliest architects to use technology and new
materials in architecture, but he always believed that the
humanistic approach has to be given more importance.
4. • The use of color was a characteristic of Stirling, who saw
architecture as an expression of art, not merely of social
planning and engineering.
• Stirling signature was mullioned glass, colored building materials
(including green window frames, purple and turquoise
moldings, and pink railings against yellow stucco and Portland
stone), and simple geometric forms and apparently random
fenestration punched and cut into the building.
• During the 1970s, the architectural signature of Stirling began to
change as the scale of his projects moved from small and not
very profitable to very large, as Stirling's architecture became
more overtly neoclassical, though it remained deeply imbued
with his powerful revised modernism. This produced a wave of
dramatically spare, large-scale urban projects.
• Staatsgalerie’s powerful basic concept has a large number of
architectural amusements and decorative allusions, which led
many to mistakenly see it as an example of postmodernism.
5. • Worked with Lyons, Israel & Ellis in London for several years
before he formed a partnership with James Gowan.
• Influenced by the later designs of Le Corbusier and the theories
of the Smithsons, Stirling and Gowan produced several
influential buildings which started a trend toward brick and
exposed concrete.
• Early designs, especially for Cambridge and Oxford, often
emphasized concept over aesthetic and utilitarian needs.
• Later works appeared more formal due to their influence from
Post-Modern classicism.
• Criticized for his ability to continually alter his fundamental
architectural principles.
• In 1971, Stirling began to work in association with Michael
Wilford.
• From this point on, the scale and number of his projects
broadened to include museums, galleries, libraries and theaters.
6. In an article written in 1979 for Contemporary
Architects, Stirling said, "I believe that the shapes of a
building should indicate—perhaps display—the usage
and way of life of its occupants, and it is therefore
likely to be rich and varied in appearance, and its
expression is unlikely to be simple...in a building we
did at Oxford some years ago, it was intended that you
could recognize the historic elements of
courtyard, entrance gate towers, cloisters; also a
central object replacing the traditional fountain or
statue of the college founder. In this way we hoped
that students and public would not be disassociated
from their cultural past. The particular way in which
functional-symbolic elements are put together may be
the "art" in the architecture."
7. ..."If the expression of functional-symbolic forms and
familiar elements is foremost, the expression of structure
will be secondary, and if structure shows, it is not in my
opinion, the engineering which counts, but the way in
which the building is put together that is important."
8. Contextualism
• Contextualism is a theory of design wherein modern building types are
harmonized with urban forms usual to a traditional city.
• By the 1970s Stirling's work took another turn: his buildings began to show
a greater interest in their context, in symmetry, and in historical allusion.
• The two examples of Stirling's completed commissions in America
appeared during this period.
• The first, an extension of the School of Architecture at Rice University, was
commissioned in 1979 and completed in 1981; the second, the Sackler
Museum at Harvard University, was also commissioned in 1979 and
completed in 1985.
• The Rice building, "a lesson in restraint," was the ultimate in contextual
architecture. Both the materials and the design forms were the same as
the original buildings, but Stirling used and interpreted them in witty and
off-beat ways (for example, a two story arch on the main facade included a
round window near the top set decidedly off-center) to give life and light
to this addition.
• The Sackler Museum, on the other hand, was a free standing
building, located on a small lot across from the Fogg Museum, with which
it was intended to be connected by an enclosed catwalk over an entrance
that some said recalls the ancient Lion Gate at Mycenae and others
insisted was Superman's Fortress of Solitude. The exterior of the building
was striped orange and grey brick, and the interior continued this color
11. ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT, UNIVERSITY OF
LEICESTER
Architect
: James Stirling
Location
: Leicester University, Leicester, England
Construction : 1959 - 1963
period
Bldg. type : Academic
Construction : Trusses
system
Climate
: Temperate
Style
: Modern
12. • This project was done with James Gowan.
• Has large areas of glazing contrasted with heavy
masonry forms.
• The auditoriums are cantilevered structures. Although
all of the materials look made of stock parts, the
aesthetic power is striking.
• The balance of parts creates a memorable image.
• The buildings cannot be understood from any one
viewpoint, and can by best understood on the basis of
an isometric drawing.
• The Engineering Building was a strong contrast to earlier
British post World War II work, and was the origin of
James Stirling's international reputation.
16. HISTORY BUILDING, CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY
Architect
: James Stirling
Location
: Cambridge University, England
Construction : 1964 - 1967
period
Bldg. type : Academic library and offices
Construction : Glass in steel frames, concrete with brick
system
cladding
Climate
: Temperate
Style
: Modern
17. • Stirling's most controversial work consists of a great
double-glazed sloping roof over the reading room
contrasted with the multistoried structure containing
enclosed spaces, which in turn are stepped to
accommodate larger spaces on the lower floors.
• The stair tower is articulated as a separate element.
• The powerful image caused an ambivalent response
from critics and the public.
• The building design was violently attacked in the British
press, although defended by the history faculty.
• In 1985 consideration was given as to whether the
building should be destroyed.
• The building has suffered from lack of maintenance, but
has since been repaired.
21. ART GALLERY
ADDITION, STAATSGALERIE, STUTTGART
Architect
: James Stirling
Location
: Stuttgart, Germany
Construction : 1977 - 1983
period
Bldg. type : Art Museum
Construction : Stone Cladding
system
Climate
: Temperate
Style
: Post-Modern
22. • This building was an addition to the existing Staatsgalerie.
• It consisted of a new gallery extension, chamber theater and music school.
• A feature of the site was a pedestrian walk diagonally across the property
to be incorporated in the plan without jeopardizing building security.
• The design was not well-received in the German press.
• Was disturbing because it was not a classically modernist design.
• As it developed, it was recognized that James Stirling had brought off a
project which reinterpreted the past in a brilliant new way.
• The complexity of the project, and its references to existing buildings both
old and new reward close study.
• For instance, not far away from the site is the Weissenhofsiedlung, with
buildings by Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier, and J. J. P. Oud.
• A hint of this may be found in one elevation of the building, at the rear of
the chamber theater.
• The more obvious source is the reinterpretation of the classical museum
such as Shinkel's Altes Museum in Berlin (1824), but in the Stuttgart
building, the central domed rotunda is replaced with the open air circular
court, a true public space.
