Fig.

1 Royal national Theatre, London

Modernism
Discuss how Denys Lasdun engaged with
history and precedent in architecture, while
his work remained decidedly modern, with
reference to specific buildings.

Fatima Salman, K1117140

History Essay
AR6101 Reading Architecture
18 January 2016
In the context of architectural history, according to the historian Sigfried Giedion,
Denys Lasdun has taken on the role of “extending the basic propositions [of
architectural design] while also ejecting them with new meanings”. 1 His historic
influence is not exclusive to the modernist movement, but has a deeper root in
architectural history including his fascination with Greek planning, Baroque
composition and the poetics of the late renaissance. At the core of his designs,
Lasdun strives to combine modern innovation with historic continuity 2 by
incorporating the needs of the present, with the tradition of the past and the
sentiment of the context.

A building must express the state of its society; it is the architect’s social responsibility
to represent the characteristics of his era in conjunction with their cultural, social,
political and historical contexts. This notion was dismissed by the arrival of the
modernist movement in the early 20th century with its “international style”, after which
followed a desperate need for the redirection of modernism to allow the continuity of
the historic urban grain of western cities, in which Lasdun became a pioneer. With
regards to this polemic, Lasdun explains,

The city was being gradually destroyed – its historical continuity was being lost, party because
of the needs and the complexity of modern life, because of the increasing number of people
and traffic, but also because of growing insensitivity to its requirements and the true scale of its
activities. Cities were losing all those qualities, which had previously been achieved by the slow
organic growth, which characterizes the living city. 3

While his modernist roots budded from the works of 20s and 30s modernist masters,
Lasdun rejected the universal style due to its lack of a sense of place; recognizing the
importance of the continuity of historic value in the survival and revival of European
cities post WWII.4

Lasdun began to establish his architectural vocabulary in the 50s. He was interested in
the utopian challenges brought by the promise of social enlightenment after the
depression years, and began to define his legacy in “modifying the inheritance of
modernism to deal with the problems of urban reconstruction.” 5 In doing this, he
recognized the importance of studying the urban grain of cities in both their
geological and historical contexts to create buildings that reflected, as well as
enriched the traditions of their settings. In the United Kingdom, it was the support of
the British Welfare state for cultural and social buildings that initiated Lasdun’s
creation of his iconic communal institutes.

1 William Curtis, Denys Lasdun: Architecture, City and Landscape, Phadion Press, 1999, p.192
2 Curtis, Denys Lasdun, p.17
3 Denys Lasdun, Architecture in Age of Scepticism: A Practitioner’s Anthropology, Oxford University Press, 1985, p. 135

4 Lasdun, Architecture in Age of Scepticism, p. 135

5 Curtis, Denys Lasdun, p.199

1
Despite Lasdun’s aims to re-direct modernism and move it forward, his work is
definitely not without precedent, and in fact it is the continuity of architectural historic
significance that sets his buildings apart from the modernist movement. No design
idea is born from nothing, and in the case of architecture, significance is given to a
building when it is able to form links with its physical and historical context. Lasdun’s
historic influence range from the ancient Greeks to Le Corbusier whereby he selects
relevant elements of inspiration from each era.

At first glance, Lasdun’s buildings may seem strikingly brutalist, however he has always
been critical of brutalism due to its lack of sense of origin/ tradition 6 and instead
identifies more with the principles of classicism. Classicism is a set of rules and orders; it
is not specific to time, but rather to location and the human figure. Being classical
and modern is not contradictory7 as classicism in architecture is a ‘constant’.8

In his designs, Lasdun interoperates classicism beyond the superficial stylistic

references and rather uses its orders and principles to embed the building within its
urban landscape and give it a sense of place. He explains the importance of a sense
of place through his description of the Greek Theatre at Epidauros where the setting
was just as important as the building itself. He describes how the ascending levels of
the theatre open up to embrace the landscape; stepping up in relation to the hills
and curving with the arch of the sky, all tied together with classical geometric
principles.9 For Lasdun, classical precedent is not a stylistic imitation but rather “to do
with measure and repose, the control of sequence, the modulation of space and the
rhythm of mouldings; with the intimate connection between the human figure and
the overall form of a building.”10

The importance of the physical landscape in providing a historic context to a building

is demonstrated clearly by Lasdun’s design of the University of East Anglia. Here
Lasdun takes on the responsibility of choreographing the urbanization of a virgin site.
Taking precedent from the relationship of the Greek Theatre to its physical context,
Lasdun surveys the site of the university aiming to experience it in the same way
ancient architects would have done so. Rather than treat the area as a ‘blank
canvas’, Lasdun finds opportunities in the topographic expression of the site where he
weaves in architectural elements between the geological contours in perfect rhythm
and harmony with the hills and the wider landscape. The rhythm of the adjoining
castellated building blocks, as opposed to a cluster of scattered structures mimics the
landscape as well as creates a rhythmic journey for human experience of both the

6 Curtis, Denys Lasdun, p.199

7 Jonathan Hill, ‘The Return of the Ruin: Modernism, History and the material Imagination’, The Material Imagination: Reveries on
Architecture and Matter, Ashagte Publishing Limited, 2015, p. 188
8 Lasdun, Architecture in Age of Scepticism, p.134

9 Lasdun, Architecture in Age of Scepticism, p.137

10 Curtis, Denys Lasdun, p.16

2
building and the landscape as singular united entity. The earthiness of the grey
concrete further enhances the relationship of the building with the site in the way that
the buildings appear to grow from the ground, and overtime, elements from the
ground (such as moss and algae) begin to grow on the building, creating a beautiful
harmonic embrace of man made and natural elements. Jonathan Hill describes this
as a “monumental ruin”, explaining that a building with a strong metaphoric potential
such as this has significance to both the future and the past in both its development
as well as its decay. The monumentality of this project and its poetic connotations
can be observed in Fig. 2 where the composition of the photograph emphasizes the
landscape qualities of the buildings through the association with the romantic 17th
century landscape paintings such as Claude Lorrain’s work Fig. 3 which also centers
on a monumental building blending in with the landscape and framed by trees, earth
and sky. 11 Here, the architecture of the urban landscape “ evokes an ‘ancient
sense’, a primitivist yearning for the supposed roots of architecture in nature.”12

The materiality and positioning of the buildings of the university in the context were all
part of Lasdun’s notion of creating a heritage/ legacy within the area and
establishing a sense of place. The fact that the building was designed to embrace
and be embraced by its physical surroundings ensured its longevity and relevancy in
the present as well as the past and the future. Lasdun thinks of buildings as organisms
rather than machines13 in the way that they are to be designed to adapt to the ever-
changing physical settings and needs of the futuristic man. This is in fact a classical
notion; the notion of anticipated continuity where building for the present, past or
future alone is insufficient with due respect to human/ architectural development.
The idea of the ‘blank canvas’ of the modern movement is reinterpreted here; rather
than creating a universal structure (which agreeably might have economic benefits
in eras of uncertainty and instability), the blank walls of Lasdun’s buildings are
designed to fuse with the urban landscape in their materiality, proportions, rhythm
and composition, creating relevant spaces for human experience with strong
contextual significance.

11 Hill, ‘The Return of the Ruin’, p.186

12 Curtis, Denys Lasdun, p.12
13 Curtis, Denys Lasdun, p.16

3
Fig. 2 Denys Lasdun, UEA, 1968, View from the River Yare

Fig. 3 Claude Lorrain, 1667, Coast View with Embarkation of Carlo and Ubaldo

4
A feature of particular importance in Lasdun’s designs, specifically in relation to the
notion of urban landscapes, is the “continuous terraces and interlocking spaces”14, or
‘strata’ as he likes to call them. These elements are an architectural embodiment/
translation of geological forms, like caves and platforms creating different special
experiences and allowing for various events and human interactions; where the
receding balconies carve out communal space and the protruding platforms create
stages for the world beyond the physical extents of the building.15 These volumes blur
the boundaries between the interior and exterior experience of the buildings; this is
evident in many of Lasdun’s buildings, most notable of which is The National Theatre
that is describes as:

An architecture without facades, but with layers of building like geological strata connected in
such a way that they flow into the surrounding riverscape and the city. The building is thus an
extension of the theatre into the everyday world from which is springs.

The section of The National Theatre in Fig. 4 illustrates the sophisticated connection
between the internal and external contexts of the building where the enclosed
interior theatre appears to gradually radiate out and evolve into terraces that form
an external theatre at a scale that relates to the proportion of the city and urban
grain. The comparison of this with the section of the Theatre at Epidaurus in Fig. 5,
illustrates how Lasdun transforms the idea of an external theatre into a modern
context for modern requirements.

Fig. 4 Section through the Olivier Theatre, London

Fig. 5 Section Through Epidaurus Theatre, Greece

14 Curtis, Denys Lasdun, p.10

15 Curtis, Denys Lasdun, p.11

5
Lasdun aims to embody the streets, contours and public squares of the city’s urban
grain with the careful proportioning and orientation of these strata. He implies that a
building is to stand as a microcosm of the city. 16 In embodying a dynamic city,
Lasdun uses the tension and dynamic representation of the Baroque movement to
create a sense of motion and drama within his buildings. The exaggerated protruding
and receding solid masses in contrast with narrow glazed openings create a very
dramatic and almost theatrical lighting environment. With reference to the ‘blank
canvas’ interpretation mentioned earlier, in the case of The National Theatre, Lasdun
allows the sun and the clouds to project themselves and influence the expression of
the building; changing with the times of day and seasons of the year. The cast wood
grain on the concrete allows the colours of the city to reflect onto the building to
embrace its volume and masses. In addition to the terraces, Lasdun also conveys a
particular interest in the dramatic gestures created by English Baroque towers,
specifically with reference to the heritage of the English forts/ cathedrals observed in
the works of Lutyens and Makintosh.17 The assembly of these masses and forms also
take precedent from modern movements such as cubism, which was particularly
used, by Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright in their floating horizontal platforms and
hierarchy of overlapping volumes of varying scales. 18 Lasdun transformed the
concrete cantilever into an element of ‘urban landscape’.19

Fig. 6 National Theatre, Denys Lasdun Fig. 7 Castle Drogo, Edward Lutyens

16 Lasdun, Architecture in Age of Scepticism, p.139

17 Curtis, Denys Lasdun, p.202
18 Curtis, Denys Lasdun, p.199
19 William Curtis, Modern Architecture since 1900, Phadion Press, 1996, p.545

6
Fig. 8 National Theatre, dramatic shadowplay (exterior)

Fig. 9 Natinoal Theatre, dramatic shadowplay (interior)

7
Lasdun’s creation of the ‘strata’ is not to be read in isolation but as part of the
experience of the city. The sequence of the journey through these volumes is just as
important as their masses and forms in representing the fabric of the city; Lasdun
suggests that a building needs to be explored through the journey of a pedestrian
exploring a city, moving through passages, private rooms and open space.20 Through
this one can establish a sense of place. Lasdun claims that architecture is expressed
primarily though the medium of space, which itself can only be observed through the
conjunction of the biological senses.21 This is one of the key concepts of Lasdun’s
Royal College of Physicians where he orchestrates a journey that engages the human
experience through the movement into the different spaces of the building. This is
carefully curated by a combination of light and shadow play, tactile qualities,
acoustic presence, sharp angles and dominant axis of forms which all enter the
building from the exterior, matching and rhyming with the classical context of Nash’s
terraces, as a continuation rather than an addition.

The college is a microcosm of its environment, where “the various layers of the
building were made to respond to institutional history and the classical context.”22 In a
tectonic sense, the integrity of the construction of the Nash terraces at Regents Park is
echoed in the detailing of the sharp clean surface finishes of the college while also
responding to the linear forms, colours and textures of the houses in the choice of the
proportions of openings and the engineering brick used in the institution. 23 In doing
this, Lasdun recognizes the importance of creating buildings that relate to each other
due to their closeness in space, however decidedly they must express a distance in
age; taking a substructure from the past and translating it into a modern language.24

Fig. 10 The Royal College of Physicians in context

20 Curtis, Denys Lasdun, p.220

21 Lasdun, Architecture in Age of Scepticism, p.141
22 Curtis, Denys Lasdun, p.64
23 Curtis, Denys Lasdun, p.64
24 Lasdun, Architecture in Age of Scepticism, p.139

8
The main substructure that Lasdun has adapted here is the circulation patterns of the
immediate context. This building is about movement; in the silhouette of its plan (Fig.
11) we can observe a sense of dynamism and tension adapted from baroque
organization in the way that it protrudes and recedes forming a courtyard with Nash’s
classical adjacent structures. Furthermore, the plan also suggests classical order
through the organization of the cross axis from the entrance of the building to the
main staircase and symmetry of the main facade with piers on the centerline is
reminiscent of the arrangement of classical orders. The proportions of the classical
orders are also evident in the proportions of the horizontal forms experienced in the
façade (Fig. 10), which, in their geometry, represent the cornice, entablature and
frieze and triglyph of the Doric order engaging with Nash’s terraces.25

Fig. 11 Denys Lasdun, The Royal College of Physicians, Site Plan

25 Curtis, Denys Lasdun, p.75

9
The combination of the square spiral internal staircase with the protruding external
terraces create a truly whimsical journey as you ascend the building; spiraling up and
widening to embrace the city providing uninterrupted views somewhat echoing the
Greek classical theatre, the Le Corbusier Villas’ architectural promenade and the
movement through Baroque country houses such as the King’s Weston.26 This physical
experience of the building is symbiotic to that of a pedestrian’s journey around the
city; the interlocking of internal and external spaces, tightening and widening of
passages, and the expansion towards the landscape.27 Lasdun takes precedent of
the organization of the sequences of these spaces from both classical and modern
movements such as Hawksmoor’s Christ Church (Fig. 13) with its centralized axis
through freestanding columns that create a dramatic entrance sequence, and Le
Corbusier’s Pavilion Suisse (Fig. 12) that allows for different special events through a
cubist sense of space.28

Fig. 12 Le Corbusier, Pavillion Suisse, Ground & Typical Floor plans Fig. 13 Hawksmoor’s, Christ Church

26 Curtis, Denys Lasdun, pp. 71-72

27 Curtis, Denys Lasdun, p.197
28 Curtis, Denys Lasdun, p.77

10
Lasdun’s architectural legacy lies in the creation of buildings that promote human
relationships and extend the characteristics of landscape and the city, by forming a
microcosm of the context within the structure.29 He organizes spaces and structures to
create a sense of place and continuity of heritage, while ensuring his buildings
embody the spirit of their time. Lasdun’s concern with classicism lies in his respect for
assembly and organization of the orders; the geometric discipline, special harmony,
response to the landscape and the human figure’s experience of spatial values. In
using these classical values, Lasdun has sought to translate and adapt the orders to a
modern language rather than merely reference stylistic features. To do that would be
breaking the rules of classicism, as classicism is an adaptive set of orders rather than a
visual style. Lasdun sets out to re-orientate the modern movement by enriching it with
context and tradition, going beyond functionalism and universality.

29 Curtis, Denys Lasdun, p.196

11
Bibliography

AA School of Architecture, 1989-04-15 Lasdun, Denys, 2015, Accessed 13 Jan 2016.

Curtis, William, Modern Architecture Since 1900, Phadion Press, 1996.

Curtis, William, Denys Lasdun: Architecture, City, and Landscape, Phadion Press, 1999.

Hill, Jonathan, 'The return of the Ruin: Modernism, Hisotry and the material
Imagination', in The Material Imagination: Reveries on Architecture and Matter, M.
Mindrup, Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2015.

Historic England, Brutal and Beautiful: The Royal College of Physicians, 2015, Accessed
13 Jan 2016.

Lasdun, Denys, Architecture in Age of Scepticism: A Practitioner's Anthropology,

Oxford University Press, 1985, pp.134-159.

The Royal College of Physicians, The Anatomy Of A Building: Denys Lasdun And The
Royal College Of Physicians, 2016, Accessed 13 Jan 2016.

12
Table of Figures
Fig. 1 Royal national Theatre, London ................................................................................... i
Fig. 2 Denys Lasdun, UEA, 1968, View from the River Yare ................................................. 4
Fig. 3 Claude Lorrain, 1667, Coast View with Embarkation of Carlo and Ubaldo ........... 4
Fig. 4 Section through the Olivier Theatre, London ............................................................. 5
Fig. 5 Section Through Epidaurus Theatre, Greece ............................................................. 5
Fig. 6 National Theatre, Denys Lasdun …………………………………………………………..6
Fig. 7 Castle Drogo, Edward Lutyens..................................................................................... 6
Fig. 8 National Theatre, dramatic shadowplay (exterior) ................................................... 7
Fig. 9 Natinoal Theatre, dramatic shadowplay (interior) .................................................... 7
Fig. 10 The Royal College of Physicians in context .............................................................. 8
Fig. 11 Denys Lasdun, The Royal College of Physicians, Site Plan ...................................... 9
Fig. 12 Le Corbusier, Pavillion Suisse, Ground & Typical Floor plans ………………….…..10
Fig. 13 Hawksmoor’s, Christ Church .................................................................................... 10

13