The weekend of the 21st -22nd September played host to this years 'Open City/Open House Event',celebrating the architecture,the people and the places of London.
An event designed to engage observant and inquisitive Londoners or visitors in their surroundings, enabling one to explore buildings internally and public spaces freely to gain deeper in sight to what it is you pass on their daily journeys. The key to this event is that is absolutely free with access to places you wouldn't normally be able to roam without some form of pass!
This Year over 800 buildings were showcased around London, this included Architect guided tours,public realm walks and even boat tours; all in 48 Hours. It could be regarded as one of the greatest Architectural events of the year.
Follow: @openhouselondon #Openhouselondon
In response to the event, I ceased the opportunity to visit a couple of places that the event had on offer.
' The Rudolph Steiner House & Theatre'
located at 35 Park Road, Camden, London NW1 6XT.
The Rudolph Steiner House ( Grade II Listed) was built between 1926 - 1937 by Montague Wheeler. Mr Wheeler a partner in practice at 'Hoare and Wheeler' was also a member of the Anthroposophical Society. The Rudolph Steiner House was designed as homage to the society.
The design was inspired by the work of Rudolph Steiner himself, relative to the first Goetheanum building in Dornach,Switzland (19140. It was primarily built with timber however due to a 1922 Christmas fire it was destroyed,resulting in a rebuild from concrete with a new 'exprossionist' dimension to form.
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| Terrazzo - Steiner related form gesture |
The 'Expressionist' form is based on the marble mixed with cement 'Terrazzo' located outside the theatre.This feature of the building played a key design principle,every form is naturally related to every other form creating a form gesture that represents the organic. This is demonstrated via door openings, window openings and the elaborate yet beautiful staircase.
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| Theatre (1962) - Note Window openings,stage depth and wall colour |
The building however was built in stages, beginning with the theatre. The theatre is designed for the use of the ' Arrhythmic Movement', who were a spoken word poetry movement that used gestures in relation to sound which resulted in travelling to depth of the stage via large forms of movement.
In relation to this whole ideology of expression, the theatre walls also became an art in itself painted using the 'Lazure' technique, which uses water based plant colour pigment. The colour is applied to a textured surface in the style of water colours with regards to building up layers in order to gain depth of colour. The work was done repeatedly overnight on site by Gary Chippendale and Assistant. The same methodology is subtly implemented on the staircase retaining the organic nature.
The first floor was also built at the same time as the theatre ,other rooms were added later as well as the book shop.
Please spend time to appreciate the infamous focal point of the house, the staircase!
In 2008-2009, the building was refurbished by Nic Pople & Helen Springthorpe with David Tasker ( Gifford Ltd) structural engineer. The refurbishment was in order to meet current legislation and included rewiring, disability facilities, fire alarm system and a new cafe area.
The cafe area is composed of a wooden canopy like structure surrounded by bricks and concrete, with a form maintaining the original Goetheanum style. The pillared central structure uses seven planetary woods (Ash/Sun, Oak/Mars,Sycamore/maple/Jupiter, Hornbeam/Saturn, Cherry/Moon, Elm/Mercury, birch/Venus). Use of such material is said to create a mood of light in a space that was occupied by a fire escape.
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| Cafe Area Mezzanine |
The central pillars were made in lincolnshire out of seven different pieces then constructed on site, it also mimics a tree reinstating the organic nature.The space is quiet small but occupies three different levels. Ground playing home to the kitchen area, the mezzanine as shown on the top image and then a second level where there is extend seating.
In addition to the redevelopments offices were moved from the third floor to the first floor, retuning both levels to the original configuration.
Personal Thought...
As a student of Architecture, it was interesting to see how a building can be conserved and redeveloped. The aspect that particularly caught my interested was definitely the staircase as it was simplistic and the ideology of basing the forms used in the building, from the Terrazzo. This is something I have heard over and over again but fully understanding the result without studying it, was near impossible. It was spectacular to see a building that spoke in its entity, one language, from its form to its materials to its functionality, it is expressive and organic.
I did enjoy!
See the Video Tour...Rudolf Steiner House - Staircase Video
© 2013 Kerri Rochelle Simpson copyright
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