'Hugh Culum and Richard Nightingale's recent selection
by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office as architects
for the new British High Commission in Nairobi
is a breakthrough for the seven-year-old practice.
'When they featured in the RIBA's "40 Under
Forty" exhibition four years ago, small-scale
domestic projects formed the mainstay of their
work, together with competition entries such as
Hong Kong Peak. But over the last year or so they
have found themselves increasingly involved in
larger, more public schemes, of which the Foreign
Office commission is the latest and most prestigious,
even if remote, in geographical terms, from the
epicentre of architectural activity.
'Last summer the partners' work was included
in an exhibition at Cambridge's Fitzwilliam Museum
in tribute to Colin St. John Wilson, on his departure
as head of the architecture faculty there. they
were one of six practices chosen to represent the
contribution made by ex-students to the architectural
world beyond Cambridge. The others were Christopher
Alexander, Richard MacCormac and Spencer De Grey,
of an older generation, and Alice Brown (now working
with van Heyningen & Haward) and Eric Parry,
among more recent graduates.
'Both Cullum and Nightingale spent time in
Colin St. John Wilson's office in London,
which is kept busy in the main by the vast
British Library
project, before launching out on their own,
though Nightingale continued working at
Wilson's for some
time after setting up the practice.
'Now that they are based at an office in
Judd Street, one is tempted to suggest they have
hardly escaped the shadow of that giant structure
fast-rising on the Euston Road, at the end of the
street. But they put any speculation on that head
to rest with mild assurance. they feel no sense
of domination by the author of that building, their
one-time teacher, nor by the architectural philosophy
which has, to some extent, become identified with
the Cambridge school under Wilson.
'If these influences have come through, they
maintain, it is mostly in the method of working:
a process of taking infinite pains over details
- even when dealing with a project on the scale
of the British Library. "Taking care, worrying"'
as they put it. Nothing slick about it. Careful
choice and subtle handling of materials, high quality
craftsmanship, sophisticated construction details,
and refined spatial disposition and play of light
could be defined as hallmarks of the approach.
But there are other influences besides the Cambridge
background.
'Cullum is developing a thesis on the Piedmontese
baroque, under the auspices of Cambridge, which
speaks of interests and inclinations beyond mere
brick and block. Both architects have had considerable
experience of working in cultutral contexts quite
divorced from the European preoccupation with academic
and aesthetic issues - Cullum in Canada, Nightingale
in East Africa, North America and Hong Kong - which
perhaps accounts for a particular receptivity to
the potential of the site and available materials,
the basis of vernacular architecture.
'This experience may have been a contributory
factor in their selection for the Nairobi commission.
The practice had thrown together a small polo clubhouse,
constructed in timber, when they were asked to
work on a scheme for five large family houses for
an inexperienced Indian developer. Interpretation
of the unusually open brief was left very much
in the hands of the architects, who found themselves
almost at a loss with such generous spatial specifications
to deal with. "It was an opportunity to indulge
our fantasies," they comment, but at the same
time they have had to take precise account of local
climatic and site conditions. Each house is different,
playing around a different theme, but all are closely
related to the landscape. Hollow clay-pot screens
are used for shading the interior from the bright
sun, while the roofs are depressed, creating an
unusual section, for sunbathing. The main structures
are of stone, the local material.
'These are Western buildings for people with
a Western way of life", but nevertheless,
by virtue of their location, they demand a quite
different approach from anything an architect might
be asked to do in Britain. Cullum & Nightingale's
work in London up till now has been about dealing
with the constraints imposed by site, regulations
and budget. They enjoy working in an urban environment,
and although working abroad has had its advantages,
there is always "the lack of an immediately
intelligible cultural context" to deal with.
'Over the last few years the partners have
been involved with a number of domestic projects
for London clients. Clifton Hill is a house in
St. John's Wood where they were asked to create
a gallery in the roof space. English Heritage kept
an eye on proceedings, anxious that there should
be no harm done to the "gothicky" character
of the villa and its neighbours: needlessly so,
perhaps, for the new architecture actually takes
its cue from the existing forms and ornament, with
panelling in "heraldic colours", a canopy
like a jousting tent over the exposed terrace,
and a pair of the new roundel windows in the roof
where visible to the road (these actually in deference
to EH).
'At the same time, the architects succeeded
in removing and remodelling the roof across the
central axis, to provide a long light above, in
addition to new windows at each end of the cross
axis. The result is a spacious and well-lit roof-space
suitable for gallery use, in what were once pokey
servants' quarters.
'Bark Place, Bayswater, was a project for
the construction of a garden room which involved
installing a new staircase, internal balcony and
kitchen. A high level of craftsmanship was required
to deal with the precise detailing and splicing
of different materials, and the structure of the
staircase itself with treads suspended from a bow
hand-rail, a small engineering feat. The effect
of the completed project, with its exposed brick
walls and glazed elevation, with additional lantern
above, and views of sky and trees, is a blurring
of inside and outside, of ideas of shelter and
exposure, which creates a very special and unusual
space.
'The preoccupation with space and light is
well illustrated by the project for Richard Nightingale's
own house in Hampstead. Constructed on a narrow
infill site between large Victorian mansions, it
has a diminutive look about it - in the way of
any outhouse or conservatory - which belies the
spaciousness of the interior. The space is free-flowing
up and downstairs, but "dedicated", as
the architects put it, in that each area has aprecise
function attached to it, without actually being
a "room". At the back, overlooking the
garden, a complicated bay window, constructed by
Cullum himself, allows maximum light into the interior,
by means of undulating panes, and a skylight, raised
on chrome steel brackets, permeates the house with
light.
'Two recent commissions mark the beginning
of a move into more public work, which the Nairobi
project should consolidate. One is a new foyer
for North Westminster School, involving the upgrading
of the entrance to the 1959 "UnitZ¯-style" block
on piloti by the flyover to London's Westway.
'The headmaster believes not only that nothing
should be viewed as too good for students, but
that the refurbishment is important for the school's
public image. The architects envisage a richly
textured space, with a curved timber desk "like
a ship's prow", and a slightly canted wall
across the main entrance, containing a "mishmash
matrix" of display cases. Tucked among the
piloti to the right of the main entrance, the reception
area will have a quality of construction and lighting
intended to create a marked contrast with the institutional
nature of the building.
'A commission to build a new workshop with
performance capacities, storage space, and upgrading
of the theatre, for the Central School of Speech
and Drama in Swiss Cottage, again involved the
constraints of an existing building, an awkward
site, and, in this case, particularly specific
operational requirements.
'The technical issues involved in the refurbishment
of the theatre, and the construction of a fly-tower,
were quite new to the practice. In terms of spatial
organisation they are aiming, as usual, to maximise
the potential of the interior, with the option
of connecting the new space with the theatre through
central doors, and a gallery at mezzanine level,
with a rehearsal room above.
'The architects face an unaccustomed requirement
for minimum natural light, although the clients
want to preserve some sense of the outside from
within. They will be experimenting with different
forms of artificial lighting appropriate for work
and performance use. Finally, they hope to give
this wing of the building a proper façade,
with an entrance suitable for public use.
'So far, most of the practice's London work
has been involved with alteration and refurbishment
of buildings, requiring a flair for imaginative
adjustment, careful insertion, and a readiness
to work from the details up and outward, rather
than losing the details to the general concept.
'The Foreign Office commission will pose
new challenges - "it must work well at the
strategic level, not rely on gimmicks", satisfying
a highly complex brief. Somehow the many different
departments must be unified to give a sense of
one building, yet each element should have its
own identity.
'Cullum & Nightingale seem slightly apprehensive
at the task before them - "how to maintain
attention to detail?" on such a large scale
- but they, if anyone, seem unlikely to get swept
off their feet by the challenge to create a showcase
for British architecture.'
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