Van Heyningen & Haward in London

Hans van der Heijden on new Dutch architecture that is ‘solid, urban and real’

SHoP Architects’ undulating brick facades have fun with New York’s zoning laws

Quinlan and Francis Terry in Chelsea

Fritz Höger’s German ExpressionismWINTER 2008

BRICK

BULLETIN

A wider contextOne of the intriguing things about theprojects grouped together here is thevariety of approaches to ‘context’. InSHoP’s mixed-use project in Manhattan,the latest digital technologies are usedto create a facade that is distinctivelycontemporary but acknowledges its celebrated neighbours. At WingenderHovenier’s Loodsen towers, meanwhile,brick evokes memories of buildings faraway in space and time from their harbour site, and at its Vijfhuizen development on newly reclaimed land,the solidity of brick is used to counterthe absence of context. ‘Context’ hereis integral to the material.

Katherina Lewis

To find out more about the bricks or pavers in featuredprojects, or to submit projects for possible publication,email brick@brick.org.uk or phone 020 7323 7030

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Contents4 NEWS

2008 Brick Awards winners6 PROJECTS

Van Heyningen & Haward inwest London; Geurst & Schulzein Delft; Quinlan & FrancisTerry in Chelsea; Bolles & Wilson in The Hague; Duggan Morris in Hillingdon;Ian Springford in Edinburgh

12 PROFILEDutch architecture is seeing a resurgence of interest in the ‘real, solid and urban’, says Hans van der Heijden

18 PRECEDENTOrnament is no crime: FritzHöger’s Brick Expressionism

22 TECHNICALSHoP Architects in Manhattan

Brick Bulletin Winter 2008Executive editor: Katherina Lewis tel: 020 7323 7030 email: brick@brick.org.ukBrick Development Association, The Building Centre, 26 Store Street, London, WC1E 7BT

The BDA represents the United Kingdom and Ireland’s clay brick and paver manufacturers and promotes excellence in the architectural, structural and landscapeapplications of brick and pavers. The BDA provides practical, technical and aestheticadvice and information through its website www.brick.org.uk, in its numerous publications and over the phone.

Published by the BDA ©2008. Editorial and design by Architecture Today plc.

Frontispiece Housing atHoofddorp in theNetherlands, designed bybiq. Photo: Stefan Müller.Cover Performing ArtsCentre at Latymer UpperSchool in west London, byvan Heyningen & Haward.Photo: Nicholas Kane.Back coverAnwohnerpark project inCologne, by the Office forSubversive Architecture.Photo: Christian Ahrens.

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BRICK BULLETIN WINTER 08

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NEWS

2008 Brick Awards winners

The Performing Arts Centre at LatymerUpper School in Hammersmith, westLondon, by van Heyningen & Haward wasnamed the supreme winner of the 2008Brick Awards, held at the MarriottGrosvenor Square Hotel in London on 5November (1, R Durtnell & Sons, Ibstock:Berkshire Orange Stock). The scheme,which also won the best commercial build-ing category, forms a new central square andis linked to the adjacent Latymer Arts Centrevia glazed bridges at first-floor level. The jurywas chaired by Ted Cullinan and includedPeter Bonfield, Neil Beningfield, ProfessorJohn Roberts and Michael Hammett. Itpraised the way the building answered theclient’s brief and made a positive contribution to its surroundings.

The worldwide brick award went toAnagram Architects for the SAHRDC officein New Delhi, India (2, SK Builders, FPS

Brick Class Designation 75: Burnt ClayBricks). A six-brick module was laid in staggered courses to create an undulatingwall surface incorporating twirling verticalstacks. The judges praised the project for its imagination, ingenuity and precision.

The innovative use of clay products awardwent to a hair salon in south Belfast byJamison Architects (3, MPS Construction,Ibstock: Birtley Olde English). The strikingfront elevation is formed from handmadered bricks laid at a 45 degree angle. Thejudges were impressed by the building’sappearance and the architect’s innovative yetcost-effective approach to using brick.

The award for best international projectwent to two houses in Killiney, CountyDublin, Ireland by ABK Architects (4, CedarBuilding Company, Ibstock: Chailey Stock/Hamsey Multi Stock Paver). Conceived astwo formal, cubic brick volumes, the five-bedroom houses are linked by a landscapeof brick terraces and retaining walls. The

judges particularly admired the scheme’srelationship to the site, and the skill of thecraftsmen who constructed it.

Marlborough Brickwork won the specialistbrickwork contractor award for St GilesSchool in Retford, Nottinghamshire (5, Hanson Building Products: AiredaleMulti/Nevada Buff), Sheffield UniversityStudent Village (Ibstock: BrunswickAutumn) and Morrisons superstore in York(Ibstock: Atlas Smooth Red/NorthdaleCedar Red). The judges praised the company’s excellent health and safetyrecord, its provision of training anddevelopment for all levels of staff, and its all-encompassing management system.

The volume housebuilding award went toDavid Wilson Homes for three Hampshiredevelopments: The Hermitage (Ibstock:Surrey Orange/Surrey Cream Multi), HeronsLanding (6, Ibstock: Cheddar Red/CheddarGolden/Audley Red Mixture Stock) andEton Court (Ibstock: Parham Red Stock/

Berkshire Orange Stock). The judges wereimpressed by the diversity of the projects,their contextual sensitivity and the consis-tently high standard of finishing.

MBLA’s Broad Road residential develop-ment in Sale, Manchester, won the best public housing development award (7, Richardson Projects, Wienerberger:Platinum Smooth White). The L-shapedscheme is clad in white brick, reflecting light into the common areas and providing a contemporary aesthetic.

The private housing development categorywas won by the mixed-use Barge Armregeneration scheme in Gloucester Docks by Edward Cullinan Architects (8, CowlinConstruction, Ibstock: Birtley Olde English).Planned around an internal courtyard andinspired by nearby historic warehouses, brickprovided a unifying theme that was centralto the overall success of the scheme.

The best public building award went to TheBluecoat in Liverpool by biq stadsontwerp

(9, Cara Brickwork, Hanson BuildingProducts: Queen’s Blend). Located in theheart of the city’s retail district, the schemeincludes performance and exhibition spaces,as well as artists’ studios. The architect specified a restrained yet expressive paletteof materials comprising richly colouredstack-bonded brickwork, copper roofing,polished concrete floors and door frames,oak panelled doors and bronze fittings.

Winner of the refurbishment category wasSt Pancras Central in London by the IngramConsultancy (10, Stonewest, Bulmer Brick &Tile: Grade 1 Red Rubber Brick). While theproject involved retaining and salvagingmuch of the original brickwork, over 80,000new handmade bricks were used to repairand modify the historic facades.

Robert Adam Architects’ New House atHayes in Newbury, Berkshire, won the crafts-manship award (11, RJ Smith, HG Matthews:Multi Bespoke Blend). Designed in thePalladian tradition, the immaculate red

brickwork incorporates elegant arches andpenny-jointed mortar.

Restored by The John Deal Practice, theLovelace Mausoleum in East Horsley, Surrey,was the recipient of a special award in thecraftsmanship category (12, Chris Anstey,handmades to match/Ibstock: Pavers). Thejudges described the scheme as a labour oflove resulting in a spirited restoration.

Lakeside Terrace designed by DavidMorley Architects for the Barbican Centre in London won the landscape category (13, Gabriel, Hanson Building Products:Barbican Brindle Tile). The judges wereimpressed by the scale of the project andits careful execution.

Last but not least, the sustainability awardwent to Fitzpatrick Contractors’ new headoffice in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, by Black Architecture (14, Newton Brickworks,Ibstock: Tudor Brown Blend). Developed inconjunction with the Carbon Trust, thescheme has a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating.

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A 23-storey residential tower block sits at thejunction between the provincial road toRijswijk and the entry to Delft’s Foreestbuurtneighbourhood, clearly marking the entry toboth city and district. The U-shaped lowersection, built around a courtyard garden,houses a range of care and support services,including a health centre, a community cen-tre and a youth centre. The garden forms acontinuation of a green zone in the neigh-bourhood and is open to local residents.

The complex comprises a two-storey lowersection housing the support facilities, and theresidential tower. The three dwellings on

Towering ambition

A brick tower by Geurst & Schultzis a new landmark for Delft.

Virtuoso performance

Supreme winner of the 2008Brick Awards is Latymer UpperSchool’s Performing Arts Centreby van Heyningen & Haward.

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The rational plan with long spans and noloadbearing internal partitions is intended toensure that the building is flexible and can beadapted in future. The desire to make a sus-tainable building prompted the selection ofdurable materials, such as brick and precastconcrete units fitted with aluminium windowframes. High levels of insulation, together

with conservatories and energy-efficient serv-ices also contribute to lowering the environ-mental impact. The interiors are finishedwith durable, damage-resistant materials withlow maintenance requirements, such as floortiles and wood-panelling to the walls.

PROJECTS

each floor are offset from each other, articu-lating the slender mass of the tower toemphasise its verticality. The facades featuresand-coloured brick and bronze-colouredaluminium window frames. The building islargely closed on the elevation facing the busyjunction and opens up on the south-west sidewhich has large windows and conservatories.

The Performing Arts Centre is one of a seriesof buildings by van Heyningen and Hawardfor Latymer Upper School in west Londonthat includes an arts centre and Wood Lanesports pavilion. The four-storey building isfreestanding but linked to the arts centre atsecond-floor level by two new glazed bridges.It sits on a long, thin site previously occupiedby a library and music room.

of the upper two levels of the foyer via thebridge at level two from the arts centre. Inthe recital room the back wall and backstagearea have been designed to accommodate abespoke chamber organ. The dance anddrama studio has a sprung floor, continuousmirror and dance barre, both of which canbe concealed behind floor-length drapes.

Chris Wilderspin of vHH writes:The brickwork was chosen to harmonise withthe original school building and our 1999Latymer Arts Centre, between which the newbuilding sits. The building is long and thinon plan, and the concept was for two strongbrick walls to the east and west, addressingthe earlier buildings, between which thenorth and south elevations, made of contrast-ing materials, were ‘held’. Unlike the artscentre, which has punched hole windows, thenew building has flush windows to expressthe brickwork as a taut skin. The brickworkwas taken into the foyer and auditorium inorder to blur inside and outside space, toprovide robust and long-lasting details, andto give these spaces a sense of materiality. Inconsultation with Arup, the brickwork in theauditorium was used to provide acousticmodulation by means of vertical brick ribs,which stop short of floor and soffit to expresstheir non-structural nature. Brick’s acousticabsorbency was also an advantage.

Credits Architect: Geurst & Schulze; client: CeresProjecten; photos: Christian Richters.

Credits Architect: van Heyningen and Haward; client:Latymer Upper School; structure: Price & Myers; serv-ices: Max Fordham; acoustics: Arup Acoustics; qs:Synergy (Cook & Butler); lighting: DHA Design; maincontractor: R Durtnell & Sons; photos: Nicholas Kane.

The north elevation is entirely glazed,with a dramatic quadruple-height foyerwhich opens onto a new square at the heartof the school. Doors run the entire width ofthe elevation to open up the ground floor tothe square. The zinc-clad south facade to therear accommodates ductwork in its depth,while the deep window openings provideshading. The recital room, with seating forup to 100, and a dance and drama studio –both of which are double-height spaces –occupy the ground floor, with music practicerooms and a music classroom on the secondfloor. The third floor accommodates sixth-form classrooms, seminar rooms and a staffoffice. Corridors have been avoided; accessto the recital room is provided from both theground and first floors and students have use

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Community spirit

Fine tuning

Made to measure:Bolles & Wilson in The Hague

Brick gives a sense of scale andpermanence to a residential care home in Edinburgh by Ian Springford Architects.

A special needs housing scheme is meticulously detailed in brickby Duggan Morris Architects.

A mixed-usedevelopmentwears its richlytextured brickfacade like atweed jacket.

Ian Springford Architects’ residential carehome for Port of Leith Housing Associationand Leonard Cheshire Disability is locatedwithin the grounds of an existing nursinghome on the edge of Duddingston Park inEdinburgh. The two-storey building housessix respite rooms with en-suite facilities andfour apartments for long-term residents, aswell as ancillary shared and staff facilities.The architectural intention was to provide aseries of calm and simple spaces, with asmuch daylighting and fresh air as possible.

The plan is arranged around a centralcorridor with stairs at either end. The pub-lic spaces, such as the living room, diningroom, kitchen and staff areas, are on thesouth side overlooking the park. The bed-rooms and apartments are on the north sideenclosed by a private garden. Brick was cho-sen as the main external material inresponse to the surrounding residential

Highgrove House in Hillingdon, west Londonis a £1.6m special needs housing developmentdesigned to re-house 12 existing tenants livingin out-dated accommodation. Duggan MorrisArchitects adopted the scheme at Stage D. Alegal commitment between the client and theLondon Borough of Hillingdon to deliver thescheme by an agreed date ruled out the possi-bility of a revised planning application.

Designed by Bolles & Wilson, SpuimarktBlock is a mixed-use development compris-ing shops, a fitness centre and multi-screencinema complex. At the heart of the build-ing is the Pathé foyer, a Piranesian spacewhere the visitors themselves become performers in an ‘entry pageant’ to the cinemas. The foyer also showcases some ofthe best views of the city, including theParliament and City Hall. The cinemas areorganised on three levels, with the foyeraccessed on two sides, from Spui and fromthe grand Grote Marktstraat stair.

Externally, the richly textured brickfacades give the development a sense ofunity and dignity. The tactility of the rotatedand projecting bricks is likened to a tweedjacket, whose handmade quality is bothabstract and traditional. Care has also beentaken to dovetail the building into the localcontext. The Grote Marktstraat facade stepsdown to the more intimate street-scale ofGedempte Gracht. The Pathé Bioscoopentrance reflects the height of traditionalhouses located opposite. The sinuous roofcomplements the city’s complex skyline.

context and as a means of endowing thebuilding with a sense of scale and perma-nence. The use of ‘heavy’ constructionmaterials, such as solid masonry walls andconcrete floors, was also favoured in orderto maximise thermal mass.

The bedrooms and private apartmentsincorporate french doors, allowing

residents to experience outside stimuli,such as views of the surrounding area, feel-ing the breeze and hearing activity or bird-song. The public spaces are identified bygenerous full-height windows. These are‘tied’ together externally by a continuoussteel lintel, which extends to form a canopyover the main entrance. The garden space

has been left to be planted and developedby Leonard Cheshire Disability and the residents as part of the therapy process.

Credits Architect: Ian Springford Architects; structuralengineer: Faber Maunsell; qs: MacDonald Alexander;CDM co-ordinator: Thomas & Adamson; contractor:Hart Builders; client: Port of Leith Housing Association;photos: Peter Guthrie.

Credits Duggan Morris Architects; structure: HadiAssociates; services: AJD Design; sustainability: ECDA;ecology: Arup; landscape: Watkins Dally; project manager: Appleyard & Trew; contractor: Durkan; client: Look Ahead Housing & Care. Credits Photos: Christian Richters

Instead, negotiations with LBH took place totest the extent of the variations which wouldbe permitted under the extant approval.

Among the changes made were theenlargement and rationalisation of the win-dows and the omission of a hipped roof tothe rear of the building to reduce its mass.Duggan Morris Architects was also responsi-ble for the quality of the detailing, includingrigorous brick setting out, in-board gutterdetails and seamlessly-clad bay windows. Carewas taken to ensure the brick facades, rooftiles and brick paviours were within the samecolour range.

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New order:Quinlan & FrancisTerry in Chelsea

A masonry infirmary has been completed on one of London’smost significant heritage sites.

Artistic endeavour:Hawkins Brown inNottingham

The new infirmary at the Royal HospitalChelsea replaces a 1960s concrete buildingwhich had reached the end of its life. Thebrief from the Royal Hospital was for a 125-bed structure that would have a life-span inexcess of 100 years and be appropriate to thehigh quality of the surrounding complex.The main body of the hospital was designedby Christopher Wren, with many eminentarchitects involved since, including JohnVanburgh, Robert Adam and John Soane.Quinlan & Francis Terry Architects wasappointed to design the building in light of its experience working in sensitive historiccontexts. The practice worked in conjunctionwith Steffian Bradley Architects, which specialises in care home design.

The design is intended to complement the work by Christopher Wren and JohnSoane but not to overshadow it. The detaildesign was worked up with the RoyalHospital during numerous meetings, butalso with the planning and conservationdepartment in the Royal Borough ofKensington & Chelsea. The infirmary isdesigned around a four-pilastered portico.Wren’s main block is centred on a Doric por-tico and so the new infirmary uses this motif,but substitutes the simpler Tuscan order to

Located in Nottingham’s Hyson Green area,the £3.1m New Art Exchange lays claim tobeing the UK’s first regional inner-city con-temporary visual arts centre led by African,African-Caribbean and South Asian artisticpractice. The four-storey scheme designedby Hawkins Brown houses a visual artsgallery, workshops, studios, rehearsal spacesand facilities for an artist in residence.

The architect’s intention was to create abuilding of solidity and gravitas; a strongfooting for the ethnically diverse communi-ties who over the years have settled in HysonGreen. The concrete-framed structure is dis-tinguished from the ubiquitous red claybuildings of the surrounding neighbour-hood by its black brick facades. A playfularrangement of frameless windows, rangingin size from 0.16 to 4.84 square metres,

express subservience to the main buildings.Buff coloured bricks were used instead of thered brick used by Wren, in order to tie inwith Soane’s work at the hospital.

The planners requested involvement inthe selection of all the external buildingmaterials. The favoured brick manufacturerwas asked to provide suitable samples of acream stock brick. From the examples putforward, four sample panels were built. Aftervarious meetings and further samples aLondon stock brick was selected andapproved. This was finished with a flushpenny-lined joint in siloed hydraulic limemortar. The colour of the mortar was pre-selected after various samples were consid-ered. The penny joint is a traditional

Credits Lead architect: Steffian Bradley Architects;exterior architect: Quinlan & Francis Terry Architects;structure: Halcrow Yolles; qs: Capita Symonds; brickwork:Rosedale Brickwork Construction; contractor: WatesConstruction; photos: Philippa Hinds.

Credits Architect, interior designer: Hawkins Brown;structure: Price & Myers; services: Furness Green;acoustics: Ion Acoustics; qs: Davis Langdon; CDM co-ordinator: Davis Langdon; project manager: Focus;access officer : Nottingham City Council building control department; client: New Art Exchange; photos: Tim Crocker.

joint, where a line is used to give a crisp edgeto the inconsistent rows created by the vary-ing sizes and shapes of the handmade bricks.

An inner-city visual arts centre is distinguished from its red clayneighbours by black brick facades.

offers incidental and unexpected views intoand out of the building.

Cost constraints determined that theexternal walls could not exceed £300 persquare metre. The facades are made of ‘over-scaled’ cavity wall construction comprising140mm blockwork, 150mm insulation setwithin a 200mm cavity, and 100mm facingbricks. This provides both high levels of insu-lation and the desired impression of mass anddepth. Window and door openings are treat-ed as an opportunity to express the thicknessof the walls. Some of the windows arerecessed by one-and-a-half bricks, with a bricksoffit reveal formed of 25mm brick slips castonto a bespoke-designed precast concrete lin-tel. Other windows are set flush to enhancethe appearance of depth to the recesses andto provide animation across the facades.

‘Superdutch’ architecture has always been more of anexport brand than an architectural categorisationthat makes sense. There is no architect who likes to beassociated with the term. It is probably one of thosewords that is best explained by what it is not:Superdutch is not a style, and certainly not a conven-tional style, it is not ordinary or common, it is –despite the name – not locally grounded or regional-ist and it is most definitely not in favour of tradition.Yet Superdutch is a word that sticks.

Now that the revival of Dutch experimentalism isitself passing into history, one can again reflect onother sources as an architect in the Netherlands. Theforerunner of Dutch modernism, HP Berlage, surelylooked eastwards and not westwards for his refer-ences. Berlage’s experiments were engaged with thedurable city that was conceived in brick and stone. Itis possible to think that an important part of hisrationalism is continued by continental architects andtheorists of the city like Aldo Rossi and Luigi Snozzi.

Not all Dutch architecture is about wildeclecticism and compulsive innovation saysHans van der Heijden, and recent yearshave seen a resurgence of interest inconstruction that is ‘real, solid and urban’.

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PROFILEo This article presents the work of three practices,Wingender Hovenier, Kühne & Co and biq stadson-twerp, the office in which I am a director, that share aninterest in volume housebuilding, in the design ofcities and in the solidity of built form. These practicesare part of a friendly network of architects, followingeach other’s work and keen to discuss architecturewith one another, but not desperate to form a groupor write manifestos. We share a fascination with the tra-dition of the Dutch city and a willingness to conformto the rules of local urban architecture, but are inter-ested in different contemporary architectures –although it is safe to say that their origins are likely tobe central European: Swiss, Austrian and Germanrather than Anglo-Saxon. Rather than erecting steelframes with plasterboard and lightweight cladding, weprefer to pour concrete and stack bricks.

This is obvious in the medium-rise projects of eachpractice. The facades of Wingender Hovenier’sLoodsen towers are made up of brick piers and

concrete rails, reflecting the loadbearing walls andfloor slabs behind. The articulation of this tectonicidea is much stronger than the manifestation of func-tion or form. Their appearance is rooted in Dutchconstruction practice, but it also connects to ware-houses in exotic places overseas. These blocks sit in aharbour district of Amsterdam. The anxiety of sailingthe seas is implicit. This is Dutch social housing thatdoes not say much more than: this is how we builddown here, but this is also what we remember of ourdreams and desires for foreign adventure. A similarsimultaneity of ideas is present in Joost Kühne’s DeSchans project in the centre of Rotterdam. The outerbrickwork leaf is treated as a shell. Window propor-tions refer to those of the adjoining houses in whichthe size of a window followed structural conditions.Some of the windows, however, are put at a slightangle. One might think that this expresses the non-structural quality of the brickwork shell, or be remind-ed of the traditional bay window in such areas, or one

Portraits Hans van derHeijden and RickWessels of biq (top);Joost Kühne of Kühne & Co (centre); JoostHovenier and Jan PeterWingender ofWingender Hovenier(bottom). Above left Loodsentower in Amsterdam’sharbour, by WingenderHovenier. Six towers inan ensemble are differ-entiated by position, vol-ume and the rhythm ofwindows but are relatedin their use of a hori-zontal concrete railingand eloquent brickwork.Photos: Stefan Müller.Above right Housingestate in Langerak,Utrecht, designed by biq(ph: David Grandorge).Left De Schans carefacility and apartmentsin the centre ofRotterdam, designed by Kühne & Co.

familiar. A variant of the ‘Noddy House’ as Britisharchitects might call them; the desire of your ownhome come true. Good or bad.

So, is this all there is for architects – merely torepeat established design concepts, adding small idiosyncratic twists? Do architects merely light thecandles on the cake? Yes and no. Yes, because of therecognition that dwelling is deeply rooted in our cul-ture. One can’t change dwelling that easily. You can’tchange the notion of a house simply. The typologicalrepertoire is not big. Neither are the options for ahouse facade, which are unlikely to vary much from adoor, a window next to it and a window over it. But no,we are not the prisoners of established models, in thesense that European cities are more than a collectionof icons. Cities are not only formed by objects, butalso by the spaces in between. Crucial to our urbanculture is that the private world is separated from, but

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The smaller-scale work of these practices is in thatsense slightly different. Joost Kühne likes to say hemakes iconic buildings. The homepage of his officeproudly shows a matrix of facade diagrams.Something similar can be said of a design byWingender Hovenier for a low-rise estate in the villageof Nieuwkoop in the western Netherlands. The villagehouse may be articulated in a rural way, as replicas ofcattle sheds or improvised farm houses, but here wefind simple pitched roofs and neutral facades. Anurban architecture of symmetry and geometry entersthe village. Biq’s starter homes in Hoofddorp, cheaprow houses for first-time buyers, follow a similarapproach. No money or energy is wasted on form,detail or innovative use of materials. All these designsare very, very house-like and this is how Kühne likesthe iconography of his work to be understood:dwellings that fit into an urban culture that feels

can take it for what it is and simply enjoy the architec-tural trompe l’oeil.

Biq’s low-cost housing estate in Langerak nearUtrecht makes an urban gesture in a city extensionarea that is still lacking vitality and architectural firm-ness. It is a large prismatic form, with rectangularshapes seemingly carved out. This is about composi-tion and proportion and little else. The shape rests ona dark plinth that forms the entrance porticos, thusdistancing itself from the surrounding public space,while simultaneously sitting directly on those streets.

These three projects have no issue with their stark,perhaps even monumental appearance. It is not theshape that lends these buildings their monumentality.Rather, the clear volumetric allows the substance ofthe construction to speak for itself, emphasising themateriality of the bricks and how these are stackedand arranged in the overall composition.

still associated with public space. People representthemselves to public space by painting their doors,putting flowers on window sills, embellishing frontgardens. The home is a private affair but privacy has apublic face. This is precisely where working with icon-ic houses becomes intriguing as a design task.

Biq’s project for eight upmarket townhouses and aworkspace at Vaartweg near Hilversum’s town centreshows at a very small scale how the dwellings and theshared yard in front of them become an ensemble.The yard is in the centre of a large block of housesand is accessed from Vaartweg. The houses have analmost square plan with entrances on the side. Aseries of semi-detached houses with an asymmetricpitched roof repeat themselves along the site. Thereis an obvious analogy with the stately domestic archi-tecture surrounding the estate. The house-like articu-lation of the dwellings is downplayed by a continuous

projecting gutter that runs around the yard, connect-ing all volumes on the site and framing the car park-ing that is provided between the houses. Both thefront and back facades have double doors, the frontdoors a fraction smaller than the back doors. Thisarrangement makes it possible to think of the frontyard and the back garden as outdoor living spaceswithout dismissing the status of the garden as a privatespace for withdrawal and the yard as a shared spacefor meeting.

Wingender Hovenier’s scheme for a small neigh-bourhood in Vijfhuizen plays at the scale of an entireblock with 98 houses. Vijfhuizen is a village on one ofthe youngest pieces of reclaimed land in the westernNetherlands. The physical context of the estate is lit-erally minimal and has yet to fully develop. Since littlein the way of useful architectural precedent was pres-ent, Wingender Hovenier had to work with general

Above Development of 144 starter homes at Hoofddorp by biq. The prefabricated roofs are finished with concrete tiles while the external wallsuse two types of facing brick. Photos: Stefan Müller.Below Eight dwellings by biq at Vaartweg, Hilversum, combine the typologyof the semi-detached house with a court-like layout inside the perimeterblock. Photo: Rob ’t Hart.Far right Scheme by Wingender Hovenier for 40 houses at Nieuwkoop.

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integral design that plays at the urban scale. Therefractory and conventional requirements posed byour domestic culture on the one hand and by thebuilding industry on the other are not denied. It isunderstood that any architectural representation isunfinished business in housing. Residents take posses-sion and express themselves, either via their doubledoors at Vaartweg, their gardens in Vijfhuizen or theiraluminium window frames in Bospolder. Such realismin architecture might be likened to performance in

Hans van der Heijden is a director of biq stadsontwerp, based inRotterdam. The practice’s extension to the Bluecoat in Liverpoolwon Public Building of the Year at the Brick Awards 2008.

the double meaning of the word. Performance relatesto the improvised theatrical act which is based on a given script, but also relates to delivery and result-orientation. Ambitions are clear. The work ofWingender Hovenier, Kühne & Co and biq is real,solid and urban. There are Dutch architects who havenot given up on durable volume housebuilding.

architectural notions. Its proposal can be taken as an idea for an architecture of the village. A variety of different houses types have been spread loosely overthe block. The Dutch custom is to make blocks withstrict differences between front and back. InVijfhuizen private gardens sit between stretched hous-es. These are cubic pieces of architecture with yellowwire-cut brickwork, steel lintels and timber windowframes in between. An explicit tectonic diagramallows a range of manipulations of typological and

Above Housing estate at Vijfhuizen in the western Netherlands, designedby Wingender Hovenier. The houses are positioned ‘width-wise’ along thestreets. Turning the plan of a ‘standard’ modern house through 90 degreesgives a wide house without much depth, but with maximum orientationtowards the garden. All the houses are between 10 and 17 metres wideand 5.4 metres from front to back. Because the upstairs space is high-ceilinged, the houses are extremely light inside. The plan for 98 housesbrings together many types of dwelling: detached and linked owner-occupied houses as well as but also apartments and communal housing. The position of the houses, the limited numbers in each streetand the house-garden relationship produces a relaxed atmosphere in this new development that still manages to relate to the existing village.Photos: Theo Baart.Opposite Housing scheme in the nineteenth century Bospolder district of Rotterdam, designed by Kühne & Co.

facade composition. One might think that the layoutof the block responds to the small grain inherent tothe notion of the village. The resulting visibility of thegardens from the street and the apparent typologicalvariation contributes to the village idea. Yet the archi-tectural object is clearly urban in nature. Its structur-al robustness adds to a more urban reading of theestate. With great precision this ambiguity is playedout in a scheme where buildings, gardens and streetsare approached as one integrated design problem.

In Joost Kühne’s scheme for the renewal of thenineteenth century Bospolder district of Rotterdam,the architectural context is heavily present. Kühnedesigned an ensemble consisting of a long row ofthree-storey townhouses and larger apartment build-ings at the street corners of two different perimeterblocks. The facades are brick, and window framescome in three different sorts. Most dominant is thevertical window, clearly derived from the historic sashwindows found all around, and forming dense graph-ic patterns in the facade. In a slightly subverted move,recent and ‘incorrect’ local precedents, such as thefolding garage door at street level and large goldanodized aluminium frames, contaminate the rigidityof the facades. The golden window frames have castiron railings with a deliberately decorative appear-ance. The representation of the town houses is strong-ly iconic. They look familiar, but are actually unortho-dox. Is this ironic? Is it nostalgic? Is it contemporary?Is it good or bad or indifferent? Kühne’s Bospolderarchitecture is probably all of these things. The proj-ect has not been widely published, but is appreciatedlocally. It is again conceived as an ensemble and not

so much as a collection of pure architectural objects.It works in spatial, typological and aesthetic terms. Ithelps to define the urban grid and the delineation ofpublic street spaces and private gardens.

The iconic house-like form (or Noddy House, ifone prefers to call it that) is present to some degreein the work of the three designers discussed here. Butthe icon serves as a starting point, it is not an aim initself. That is where the ways part with so much recentarchitecture. The icon is the point of departure for an

Justly celebrated for his masterwork, the Chilehaus inHamburg (1921-24), North German architect Fritz Högerwas responsible for a considerable number of buildings of alltypes, almost all of which were built in brick, writes IanLatham. For Höger, architecture was intimately associatedwith identity and tradition and, in North Germany, thatmeant brick. Nonetheless, Höger’s exploration of the mate-rial was unbounded by convention and his buildings exhibitremarkable invention and exuberance. He was adept at deal-ing with projects of all scales and, alongside traditional craftvalues, he absorbed the influence of contemporaries rang-ing from the Amsterdam School to the Italian Futurists.

Son of a carpenter and farmworker, Höger (1877-1949)rose to prominence with the development of the Kontorhausin Hamburg, where the thriving mercantile trade requiredadministrative office space. Because these buildings were

PRECEDENT ‘Dreaming, playing and embroidering’ – Fritz Höger’s brick expressionism

Three projects by the Germanarchitect Fritz Höger, all begun in1927, reveal exuberant inventionwithin starkly austere forms.

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Hannover Anzeiger, 1927-28The new headquarters building for the publisher of theHannoversche Anzeiger newspaper was initiated in1924 by the architect Emil Lorenz, but his lack of expe-rience with the building type led him to contact FritzHöger, whose Broschekhausnewspaper building he hadseen. The client August Madsack, who had already beenin discussion with the firm Zeiss to incorporate a plane-tarium in the project, appointed Höger to take over theprestigious commission in 1926, and work begun on sitethe following year. The editorial offices and printingmachinery occupied the lower levels of the building,with the upper floors let. The stepped nature of thecomposition, together with the planetarium cupola andarcaded base, lends a classical character to the building,though the detailing of the brickwork brings togetherboth Gothic and Egyptian sources. The deep invertedziggurat arcade openings serve to lighten the apparentweight of the building, opening the interior to the streetat ground level. ‘Keystone’ luminaires, which are threadedingeniously from the facade through to the inner lobby,invite the curiosity of passers-by. The planetarium waslater used as a cinema, while the parapet-level cafeclosed some years ago.

often financed speculatively and for rental, spatial flexibilitywas significant, and as early as 1910 Höger was designingframed buildings with tightly-planned service and circulationstacks and internal courts to enhance daylighting.

The use of brick was something of a moral crusade forHöger and his Hamburg contemporaries – in 1917 FritzSchumacher published ‘Das Wesen des neuzeitlichenBacksteinbaues’ (The Nature of Contemporary BrickConstruction) – and its associations with local craft traditionand honest toil proved appealing. The textures and particu-lar colour spectrum contributed to an austere monumentali-ty that they believed rhymed with the German character.Brick building came to be seen as the antithesis of white-plas-tered International Modernism, and Höger was instrumentalamong lobbyists for its adoption as the official style of theThird Reich which, in the event, favoured Greek classicism.

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Sprinkenhof building, Hamburg-Altstadt, 1927-43 The city’s financial ministry invited bids for this site in the summer of 1926 from architects and developers, and Höger teamed up with Hans andOskar Gerson, the brothers with whom he had collaborated previously on the Chilehaus. The brief was for a mixed-use building, combiningapartments, workshops and small shops, with the ability to convert the apartments to office space as and when the current housing shortagesubsided. The project was built over many years, latterly without the Gersons (Hans died in 1931, and Oskar was forbidden to work under theThird Reich on account of his Jewish faith). The concrete-framed structure was clad in a brick skin with a diagonal pattern with ceramic decora-tion – Höger said the idea of the ‘net’ pattern came to him in a dream in which the whole building shook and slowly sunk into the ground.Sculptural motifs based on the themes of shipping, craft, commerce and industry were made by the artist Ludwig Kunstmann.

Rüstringen Town Hall, Wilhelmshaven, 1927-29Now in Lower Saxony and administered by the North Sea port of Wilhelmshaven, Rüstringen had resolved tobuild a new town hall prior to the First World War. Various competitions were held, and celebrated architects con-sulted, including Hans Poelzig, before Höger was commissioned in 1927, after he had displayed his proposals in aslide show to the civic council. The proposal proved especially compelling because it incorporated a water toweras its central feature, a project that had been simultaneously under consideration by the council. The scheme isunremittingly and uncharacteristically symmetrical, suggesting the influence of the drawn projects of the ItalianFuturists as much as the Dutch expressionism of Michel de Klerk. Höger devoted considerable time to the detail-ing of the brick facades in which concave window bays are articulated by strident full-height vertical pilasters – hereferred to the effect as ‘Burg am Meer’, a mountain on the sea. Höger’s proposal for the town hall square, centredon a large water basin, remained unrealised. The flanking brickwork lions were the work of sculptor Heinz Wagner.

The evolution of building types that accompanied eco-nomic expansion – from apartment blocks to offices – intolarge stuctures with repetitive internal floors, meant thatarchitects had to contend with elevations of substantial pro-portions and, rendered in brickwork, these offered theopportunity for decorative embellishment. Projecting andsculpted surfaces offered changing perspectives to passers-bywhich would provide interest both from a distance and closein. Höger calculated that there were at least fifty differentlight values, including shadows and reflections, appearingsimultaneously on the facades of the Chilehaus at any timeof the day. For him, the enjoyment of brick construction wasin ‘dreaming, playing and embroidering’.

Credits Photos: © www.fritz-höger.de/M Kreyßig.

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TECHNICALo

Pushing the envelopeSHoP Architects brings brickinto the parametric age.

290 Mulberry is defined by its contextthrough a direct response to local zoning andbuilding code regulations, writes SHoPArchitects. Located in the Nolita area ofManhattan, the building is bound on thenorth by Houston Street and on the west bythe historic Puck Building on Mulberry Street.A zoning district requirement specifying amasonry enclosure for the two street walls cre-ated an opportunity to respond directly to thePuck Building, one of New York’s most recog-

allowed us to project up to ten per cent of ourenclosure over the property line at regularintervals. Maximising the amount of projectedarea, while minimizing the overall depth ofthe enclosure, became key criteria for ourdesign. When coupled with material proper-ties and fabrication constraints, these criteria

began to define an approach that was a con-temporary reinterpretation of brick detailing.By customising a standard precast brick panelsystem, we were able to achieve maximumeffect at minimum cost.

Fabrication and buildability concernspushed us into working concurrently at two

different scales. Individual bricks could notprotrude past any of their neighbours by morethan 20mm. Equally important was makingsure that the overall coursing of the panelsworked together with the column spacing,floor-to-floor heights, and window openings.Through the use of different models, we cre-ated a bottom-up process that concerned itselfwith brick placement, and a top-down processfocused on panel design.

The software programme Digital Project,which was being used to define the assembliesof panels, was not ideal to enable an iterativedesign process from the bottom up. Theincredible specificity of the software pushed usto try a different approach. We found the solu-tion in the ‘proof of concept’ approach ofGenerative Components. We designed panelsin Digital Project to receive information aboutthe bricks from Generative Components. Ourability to set up simple rules quickly, test them,and change them immediately lent itself tothe task at hand, providing us with a platformthat was both clear and precise, yet openenough to support a design process that was inconstant flux.

At the same time, this project was chosen tobecome the first to test and implement ourBIM platform, Revit. The building documentswere being produced in Revit with data fromthe panel geometry coming from DigitalProject and Generative Components. Thoughwe considered the implementation of a singleplatform, the realities of the design processand the necessities of the project demandedthat we use the best tool for a particular prob-lem. This method proved to be much moreflexible than using a single platform, eventhough it was not automated. This separationplayed a key role in our ability to check forerrors, as we used every model as an opportu-nity to double check data and geometry.

The key to the fabrication of the panels isin the form liner that is used to hold the bricksin place within the form while being cast. Thisliner, a flexible plastic, is produced from anoriginal positive that is milled from files pro-duced by SHoP and a fabricator. The researchand development that went into the accuratetesting of the process was mostly focused onthis particular part. The brick placement, itsrelationship to its neighbours, and the form

given to the mortar joints are all controlledthrough this component. Consequently, theaccurate fabrication of the liner became critical. For this reason, and because of thecosts of the original milled element, everypanel in the enclosure system was designed tobe cast from a single master mould.

nizable masonry buildings. We then focusedon the reinterpretation of local regulationswith a contemporary response to masonryconstruction and detailing that doesn’tattempt to imitate the past.

The building, which was on site for almosttwo years, completing in January 2009, is 13storeys high. Commercial space is located atthe ground floor and basement. There arenine residences, with the typical floorplatereaching 185 square metres of usable space.The small size of the floorplate and the valueof real estate in the area made optimizing thedepth of the exterior enclosure critical inreaching a balance between value added andsellable space.

A literal interpretation of the local codewritten to cover classical ornamentation

Top left The exposed projection of any brick was limit-ed to 20mm. Flemish bond was used to maximize thenumber of steps per course and thereby increase thedepth of the ripple effect within a given frequency(which was driven by length of facade and number andplacement of windows on each floor).Above centre The building is a modernist massingdraped with a ‘contextual cloak’ of brick.Left CNC milled forms and liner.Far left Casting process. The brick panel is producedby setting the bricks face down in the rubber liners created from the master moulds. Reinforcement andembeds are then placed along the panel and concretebackup poured over the mould. To increase the efficien-cy of the panel production, multiple negatives can becreated from one master mould, allowing for identicalpanels to be produced concurrently.Right Digital development of brick panels.Credits Architect: SHoP Architects; project team:Christopher Sharples, Coren D Sharples, WilliamSharples, Kim Holden, Gregg Pasquarelli, FedericoNegro, Mark Green, Tyler Goss, Steven Sanderson, NashHurley, Takeshi Tornier ; structural engineer: RobertSilman Associates; curtain wall: Frank Seta & Associates.

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