Author
Ellis Woodman
July 2008
Paperback
176 pages
200 b/w and colour ills
22.0 x 22.0 cm
8.5 x 8.5 in
ISBN13: 978 1 906155 28 5
Praise for James Gowan
Ellis Woodman's book on the architect James Gowan, Modernity and Reinvention, has been reviewed in Architecture Today. Here is a quote from the review:
"A must for those interested in the work of the architect... The overwhelming impression is the absolute independence of Gowan's architectural thinking, something that has made him a paradoxical outsider among his esteemed, less controversial peers."
Michael Gold, Architecture Today
James Gowan extract in BD
An exclusive extract from our forthcoming title The Architecture of James Gowan: Modernity and Reinvention has been featured in the latest issue of Building Design. Here is a snippet from the interview between the book's author Ellis Woodman and James about the University of Leicester Engineering Department, the crowning work of Gowan's partnership with James Stirling:
"Do you think your contribution and Stirling's are readily distinguishable in the completed building?
Broadly speaking, I think the principle of the two styles — gothic and classical — that one learnt in the original beaux-arts teaching still holds good. Stirling is a classicist, and I am a goth. You have only one of two choices, you are either classical or gothic. There are no others, although there are hybrids.
The great in-between is the picturesque.
Things are much simpler than architects make them out to be. Modern architecture starts in about 1850. The change that takes place is that the superficialities of the two styles are taken away, and the medieval nature of the building remains. However, this doesn’t mean that the characteristics of the styles are no longer operational.
The Ruskin definition of gothic is, I think, the one that counts. The definition he gives doesn’t mention ornament at all, it mentions variety and change and adaptability. He claims the gothic is more functional. And not a word about pointed arches. He is describing the qualities of the architecture. By the same token, you can describe classical architecture without columns. If a building is composed, centrally based, static, and has weight, then it has classical qualities.
Judged in those terms, I would say a building like Leicester would be gothic.
It is a loose assembly of different parts.
You can say Leicester is all sorts of things, but if you’re going to put your finger on it, yes, it is gothic. It has been put together as a piece of parts. It is assembled totally ad quadratum: the plan is laid out on a 10ft by 10ft square unit, and the floor to floor is 10ft too.
As I say, Stirling at heart is a classicist. There is nothing wrong with that, but he didn’t put the building together. He didn’t think of it in the first place. He came back from America when the initiation had been done.
He was tremendously skilled at advancing the building. His contribution is quite recognisable: the building is moderated. It is my gothicism with Stirling hitting it with as much classicism as he can — disregarding my ten footers with a degree of pleasure wherever he could."
Read the full extract here.
