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Rock '11' Roll Architecture
By KENNETH J. ROBINSON NEAT - year, for the first time ever. Britain is to have an official exhibit at the Milan Triennale. If this news doesn't make you toss your hat in the air. you are either completely out of touch or sick to death of the whole thing. Every time rliS international display of design and architec- iire is nearly upon us, artists and designers return
their triennial grumble about the Govern- nt's failure to spend money on prestige hibitions abroad. This time the grumble was eked by a proposal put to the Board of Trade
the Council of Industrial Design. It was a 'nand proposal, but the Board of Trade said it was 4)le to grant money only for exhibits at trade flirS. So once again it scented. we should be the ')ly major country not represented.
fhen the Ministry of Education made. its even-and-three-quarter-hour decision to do 'the
itself. Why Education? Because, by a bit of t.:k. the 1960 Trierinale theme is 'The 'House 'td the School.' The Ministry of Education I•nlike the Housing .Ministry) has done a• Splen- Li job in' the last few years by making good 42- of architects and designers, and it has some- ling to say that is worth saying loudly to other "entries. The story will be told in a building Fat is a story in itself-:---a 'rock 'n' roll' school I infants. The school got its nickname from S; method of' construction—a method devised in Ottinghamshire to cope with land subsidence the Midland mining areas. Instead of the usual ndations there is a slab supporting a frame that
adjust itself to movements without cracking structure.
'Rock 'n' roll' is so much cheaper than other its of anti-subsidence building that £140,000 1s saved in the 1958-59 schools programme by group of nine local authorities which used ;t he reason why the method is cheaper is that 0 group pools its money and is thus able hl ee large orders for prefabricated parts and buY them at reduced rates. The group, known CLASP (the Consortium of Local Authorities' vial Programme), also pools the knowledge Bets from research. Its policy is controlled by authorities' chief architects, who meet four Illes a year, and the work of all architectural )4rtrrlents is co-ordinated by a working party 'Itch meets every month and is responsible-- among . other things--for seeing that building always begins on time, so that money isn't wasted.
The CLASP story is a story of architects who are imaginative enough to exploit a system of building—prefabrication—which many people in the profession consider a threat to their liveli- hood. It is true that building components could be factory-made and then assembled by the builder. But if architects are supervising, as they are in . the Midlands scheme, they can control the cost and appearance of the components as well as their use in construction.
It is good news that we are publicising the CLASP scheme abroad; it would. be better still if we could extend its use at home. I should like to see it used for local authority -housing. A private firm. Span Developments Ltd., have already shown, in London, Cambridge and Hove, that prefabricated units can not only keep hous- ing prices down, but can also give the same sort of unity and proportion to buildings that is so satisfying in a Georgian terrace. I'm delighted to see that a Span, house at Blackheath has been chosen for a ceremony, on Monday next, to mark the building of one million houses by private enterprise since 1945. But I almost wish the ceremony could have taken place in a Tudor semi-det., so that the • Minister of Housing. Henry Brooke---who is to say a few .uplifting words—would have been reminded of the ab- surdity of allowing spec-builders to design without architects' help. I hope someone will tell him that the excellent house he is opening would not have been built if Span and their architect, Eric Lyons. hadn't constantly fought against the ridiculous ;esthetic controls sanctioned by ills Ministry.
And I hope he will find time to hear Eric Lyons's funny story about a building site only a few hundred yards away. On this site, which was acquired by Span for development, a neo- Georgian row was demolished after bombing. It had no architectural or historic value, and yet the planning authorities are insisting that
facade to Blackheath should be rebuilt as pre- viously existing.' They don't care what happens behind this facade. Because there was once a mediocre row of houses on the site, the row must remain mediocre in appearance, however imagina- tive it might be in plan form.
Mr. Brooke really must do something to stn, the frustration of good architects by petty bureau-
crats. But I'm afraid he gets along very nicely on amiable warnings and promises. It was over a year ago that he told the County Councils Association they ought to have more respect for architects. Fine words, but no one was listening. And next Monday, at Blackheath, he will extol —if I know his script-writer--the virtues of architect-designed spec houses. But will he decide, as he sips and chews his buffet tea, that now is the time to introduce legislation com- pelling builders to use architects? Will he decide. that he must free architects like Eric Lyons from ' the embarrassment of going, cap in hand, to some ignorant municipal pipsqueak every time they've produced lively, imaginative schemes? -The ques- tions are, I'm sorry to say, purely rhetorical.
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