James stirling architect biography sample

James stirling architect biography sample: Sir James Frazer Stirling (–),

Stirling studied architecture from until at the University of Liverpoolwhere Colin Rowe was a tutor. He worked in a number of firms in London before establishing his own practice. Lyons, Israel, Ellis was considered one of the most influential post war practices at that time, focusing on buildings for the Welfare State with architects such as Alan Colquhoun and John Miller, Neave Brown, Sue Martin, Richard MacCormac all of whom went on to architectural prominence.

Stirling worked on a number of school buildings including Peckham Girl's Comprehensive School. When he and James Gowan started their own practice Lyons Israel Ellis gave them part of their Preston housing project, helping to establish their reputation for innovative design. In he and James Gowan left their positions as assistants with the firm of Lyons, Israel, and Ellis to set up a practice as Stirling and Gowan.

Their first built project — a small development of private apartments Langham House Close —58 — was regarded as a landmark in the development of 'brutalist' residential architecture, although this was a description both architects rejected. The project brought Stirling to a global audience. InStirling and Gowan separated; Stirling then set up on his own, taking with him the office assistant Michael Wilford who later became a partner.

He also completed a training centre for Olivetti in Haslemere, Surrey and housing for the University of St Andrews both of which made prominent use of pre-fabricated elements, GRP for Olivetti and pre-cast concrete panels at St Andrews. During the s, Stirling's architectural language began to change as the scale of his projects moved from small and not very profitable to very large.

His architecture became more overtly neoclassicalthough it remained deeply imbued with modernism. Winning the design competition for the Neue Staatsgalerieit came to be seen as an example of postmodernisma label which stuck but which he himself rejected, and was considered by many to be his most important work. As part of the worldwide expansion of Stirling and Wilford's practice beginning in the s, the firm completed four significant buildings in the U.

InStirling was awarded the Pritzker Prize. The last building he completed during his life was the Venice Biennale Bookshopwith Thomas Muirhead.

James stirling architect biography sample: Stirling, Sir James Frazer (–), architect,

In a commission to design a small housing development at West Ham in outer London encouraged Stirling to set up in private practice with James Gowan. Outstanding designs for the new Churchill and Selwyn Colleges, both in Cambridge, were unexecuted, but in the powerful backing of Sir Leslie Martin gained the partnership a firm commission to design the Engineering Building at Leicester University.

The boldly cantilevered lecture theatres, the skin of red engineering bricks and patent glazing, the factory roofs of the workshop block, suggested a commitment to technology and contrasts and is complemented by the graceful tower on slender stilts. The engineering building led to four related commissions, though without the contribution of Gowan, for the partnership split up in the History Faculty Building at Cambridge —7the Andrew Melville Hall of Residence at St Andrew's —8the Florey Building for Queen's College, Oxford —71and the Olivetti Training Centre at Haslemere — The Cambridge and Oxford buildings used the Leicester language of red tiles or bricks, the Andrew Melville Hall was made up of pre-cast concrete pods, and the Olivetti building of smoothly rounded PVC units.

All four showed the same gift for striking composition and contrasts of material, a repetition of faceted or flowing forms and a penchant for lavish glazing and bright - even outlandish - colours. These commissions catapulted Stirling onto the international architectural stage. However, his reputation was not without downsides with his heavily glazed buildings, using new materials or at least new combinations of materials were often built on inadequate budgets by contractors, and sometimes under clients who were not in sympathy with him.

These difficult fallow years were supplemented by part-time teaching at the school of architecture, Yale University, where Stirling became legendary for brilliant teaching combined with often outrageous behaviour. Indeed his architecture, commonly described as "nonconformist," consistently caused annoyance in conventional circles. According to Rowan MooreStirling also "designed some of the most notoriously malfunctioning buildings of modern times.

Within its design was held an architectural style imbued with a radically revised type of Modernism. His Neue Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart quickly became, according to Moore, "one of the biggest tourist attractions in the country," making it "a prototype of the Guggenheim in Bilbao. During this time he also received a number of significant commissions, from the Clore Gallery to London's Tate Britain and the design for the new Tate Galleries in his hometown of Liverpool.

James stirling architect biography sample: Sir James Frazer Stirling RA

Stirling worked in partnership with James Gowan from tothen with Michael Wilford from until His year of birth is widely quoted as [1] but his longstanding friend Sir Sandy Wilson later stated it was He was parachuted behind German enemy lines before D-Day and wounded twice, before returning to Britain. Stirling studied architecture from until at the University of Liverpool, where Colin Rowe was a tutor.

He worked in a number of firms in London before establishing his own practice. Lyons, Israel, Ellis was considered one of the most influential post war practices at that time, focusing on buildings for the Welfare State with architects such as Alan Colquhoun and John Miller, Neave Brown, Sue Martin, Richard MacCormac all of whom went on to architectural prominence.