Cheltenham blooms.Conceived as a series of brightly coloured villas, this imaginative student housing, together with a new facilities building, joins together the disparate elements of an edge of town campus in a rich collage of forms. Approaching Cheltenham and Gloucester Cheltenham and Gloucester (C&G) is a commercial bank in the United Kingdom, a subsidiary of Lloyds TSB. The C&G specialises in savings products and mortgages. Previously C&G was a building society, known as the Cheltenham and Gloucester Building Society. College's Pittville Campus from the centre of town, past the lush green lawns and pastel-painted stuccoed villas of Joseph Pitt's Regency garden city,(1) the visitor tends to expect an anti-climax. Yet the vision of a run-down, high Modernist art school, built in the 1960s by the local County Architect's Department and barely maintained since, is soon dispersed by the cumulative effect of recent developments. In addition to the expansion under way at several other locations nearby, the College has also completed the second phase of Edward Cullinan Edward Cullinan, CBE (born 17th July 1931) is a British architect. Cullinan was educated at Cambridge University, the Architectural Association and UC Berkeley before working for Denys Lasdun where he designed the student residences for the University of East Anglia. Architects masterplan for the initially unpromising Pittville Campus site on the edge of town. The first phase, a media studies and student accommodation Student accommodation in the United Kingdom is a term used in debating the impact of student housing, particularly with the recent expansion of numbers in higher education. building completed in 1993 (AR April 1994), shows a clear intention to respect the pattern of perimeter blocks and courtyard circulation established by the original buildings. Elaborating on the notion of a city wall, appropriate to the site's peripheral location, the previous Cullinan project also exploited the mix of academic and residential uses to generate a rich collage of forms. The western portion of the site can now be seen as formally complete, with a tall cross-axial block terminating the southern end of the campus, responding to the mass of the existing Saarinen-like bookend to the north. In turning their attention to the eastern half of the site the architects have abandoned the perimeter strip typology typology /ty·pol·o·gy/ (ti-pol´ah-je) the study of types; the science of classifying, as bacteria according to type. typology the study of types; the science of classifying, as bacteria according to type. of the original masterplan in an effort to accommodate a greater density of student accommodation than initially allowed for. An early proposal, which combined corridor-access rooms with sculpture studios and workshops, has given way to a series of linked and detached residential villas containing clusters of student rooms around a staircase. This arrangement is closer to the Oxbridge model than the more typical horizontal layout of the previous Cullinan building. The only non-residential component to survive the change of brief is a two-storey dining hall and bar building placed on the main east-west axis of the the diameter of the sphere which is perpendicular to the plane of the circle. See also: Axis site behind the existing workshops. Until funding becomes available to relocate them, the workshops unfortunately obstruct what should be an important circulation route from the major west entrance towards the new social hub of the campus. The decision to put the dining hall on the first floor to take advantage of the views beyond the car park towards the Cotswold hills Cotswold Hills (kŏt`swōld), range, mainly in Gloucestershire, W England, extending c.50 mi (80 km) NE from Bath; Cleeve Cloud (c.1,080 ft/330 m) is the highest point. Its crest line forms the Thames-Severn watershed. to the east, results in an inward-looking space. However, the potentially forbidding elevations are suitably enlivened en·liv·en tr.v. en·liv·ened, en·liv·en·ing, en·liv·ens To make lively or spirited; animate. en·liv  en·er n. with a variety of circular openings, including an amusing series of porthole windows (with cleverly functioning shutters that double as tables), which allude to allude toverb refer to, suggest, mention, speak of, imply, intimate, hint at, remark on, insinuate, touch upon see see, elude the submarine-like interior of the sound-proofed student bar. Similarly, in the student villas, it is Cullinans' inventiveness and attention to detail that elevates an otherwise unremarkable programme into a delightful architectural experience. The groups of student rooms unfold like petals around the stem of the central top-lit spiral stairway, itself a dramatic transformation of everyday raw materials. A tower of precast concrete precast concrete Concrete cast into structural members under factory conditions and then brought to the building site. A 20th-century development, precasting increases the strength and finish durability of the member and decreases time and construction costs. man-hole rings supports steel checkerplate stair treads and provides a vigorous, earthy counterpoint to the delicacy of the pastel coloured outer walls. Careful recessing of the inward-opening windows behind the external face of the render creates the powerful impression of a protective sleeve slipped over an inner lattice of steel and glass. This inner element then bursts into bloom at upper levels, for the wide overhang of the profiled aluminium roof extends to protect the detailing of the glazed top storey below it. At the corners, however, the roof is curiously cut back, exposing the lower construction just where you would expect it to be covered,(2) but results in increased light levels to the rooms tucked in under the low eaves. Indeed, the rooms do feel spectacularly open to the light and the landscape beyond the site - the diagonal wall is a clever device for increasing the perception of spaciousness and with a choice of bed positions and the desk built into the corner bay-window the rooms are, not surprisingly, very popular with the students. The new phase has added a great deal to the sense of community and vitality on the campus. By squeezing in all 253 student places with a rare degree of wit and sensitivity, the buildings are more than a match for the elegance and charm of their colourful Regency neighbours. 1 David Verey and Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner, CBE, (January 30, 1902 – August 18, 1983) was a German-born British historian of art and, especially, architecture. He is best known for his 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, The Buildings of England , The Buildings of England: Gloucestershire - The Vale and the Forest of Dean (London: Penguin Books Penguin Books is a British publisher founded in 1935 by Allen Lane. Lane's idea was to provide quality writing cheaply, for the same price as a pack of cigarettes. He also wanted them to be sold not only in bookshops but in railway stations, general stores and corner shops. , 1970), pp122-125. 2 For comparison of this detail with Cullinans' previous work see: 'Bedfont Duality' in AR October 1992, pp31-35; 'A New School Outfit: Crookham Junior School' in The Architects Journal, 9 March 1988, pp44-49. Architect Edward Cullinan Architects Project team Ted Cullinan, Colin Rice, Carol Costello Carol Costello (born October 11, 1961) is a contributor to The Situation Room, providing updates from CNN's New York studios. She also reports on a variety of fitness issues during "The Bod Squad" reports shown throughout CNN programs. , Karen Hughes
Karen Parfitt Hughes (born December 27, 1956) is a Republican politician from the state of Texas. She currently serves as the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs in the U.S. , Tim Bradley, Michael McGrath Michael 'HOPPER' McGrath is a former Irish sportsperson who played hurling with Galway in the 1980s. Michael Mc Grath, was born on the 30/6/1963 who hails from the Sarsfields club in County Galway, was an outstanding score-getter during his inter-county career. , Steven Johnson, Alison Farwell, Ivy Jong Structural and services engineer Ove Arup & Partners Quantity surveyor Burnley Wilson Fish Landscape architects Chelthenham Landscape Design Planning consultants David Hicken Associates Acoustics Arup Acoustics Photographs Dennis Gilbert/VIEW |
|
||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion