Current Architects I Like: Quinlan and Francis Terry

Time for the next entry in the “Current Architects I Like” series, detailing the works of current, practicing architects whose work I like. Most of you have gathered by now that I’m very much a traditionalist, not a modernist, and hopefully this series will give you some idea of what I look for in a great building.

After covering some familiar ground with the previous entry on David Scwharz, it’s time to head off into the depths of the modern-day traditional architectural world. Today’s subject comes to us from this address:

Old Exchange, High St., Dedham, Colchester, Essex. C07 6HA, UK

Say hello, dear readers, to the firm of Quinlan & Francis Terry Architects.

Brentwood Cathedral, Essex – 1991

Quinlan & Francis Terry Architects is headed by the father-son team of, you guessed it, Quinlan Terry and Francis Terry. The firm specializes in high quality traditional building of a classical design.

Quinlan Terry was born in 1937, and was educated at Bryanston School and the Architectural Association. He was a Rome Scholar in 1968/69 and from 1996/98 was a member of the Royal Fine Art Commission. He holds the European Prize for the Reconstruction of the City of Archives d’Architecture Moderne. His library at Downing College won the Building of the Year Award 1994. He received the Arthur Ross Award in 2002 for architecture from Classical America. He won the Best Modern Classical House 2003, awarded by the Georgian Group and in 2005 he won the Richard H. Driehaus Prize for Classical Architecture.

Francis Terry was born in 1969, and was educated at Stowe School and Cambridge University. He worked in Washington for Allan Greenburg Architects in 1992 and joined the practice in 1994. He has served on the casework panel of the Georgian Group. (2005-2007) He regularly exhibits architectural drawings at the Royal Academy and was the winner of the Worshipful Company of Architects Prize for Architectural Drawing in 2002. He has been involved with the following projects:- House in Kensington, Highland Park House, Dallas; Merchant Square, Colonial Williamsburg; Corinthian, Gothick and Regency Villas, Regents Park; and Ferne Park, Dorset.

Quinlan & Francis Terry’s work is absolutely remarkable – not only traditional in style, but often in construction as well. The firm routinely builds using load-bearing masonry construction, everything from homes to multistory mixed-use buildings. They prefer working with traditional materials, as well – like limestone, marble, lime concrete, clay bricks and tiles, slates, and sandstone.

The firm has been at the forefront of promoting modern traditional architecture and construction, and has attempted to clear up modernist-spread myths about classical architecture. For example, consider these quotes from an essay on the matter by Quinlan Terry:

A popular misconception is that classical architecture is pastiche; it is often said that it is a simple matter of cribbing from the pattern books. I notice that many art historians are full of this and – like all people who are protected from reality – they will never learn until they start to practise. I believe there is something in the Gospels: ‘If you know these things, happy are ye if ye do them’. It is only in the doing that we learn.

Quite apart from the democracy question, every large municipal building has to serve different groups of people, and it is helpful if the main public entrance is easily distinguished from the office staff entrance or the door to the refuse collection. Even in the sitting room of a small house the door to the hall or kitchen should be more important than the door to a cupboard. The old rules relating to relative importance (the hierarchy) of doors and their architraves still apply and fulfil an important function. If they are well understood they help the client use the building and if they are ignored as in most modern buildings, you have to resort to signs and symbols to guide the public in the right direction.

We have been thinking of the play of light, the light of the sun, on the simplest geometrical solids. It gives pleasure to the eye and makes us feel good – simple pleasures caused by natural things and in no way dependent on artificial light and the consumption of energy or the world’s resources. Classical architecture comes from a natural world which valued light and air more highly than we do today because there was then no artificial light or ventilation to help one out of difficulties.

Quinlan has also been spreading the word about traditional architecture as the surest solution to green building. From another of his essays:

Second, we ought to consider the expense, in environmental terms, in the manufacture of the materials we specify. Here again, stone, brick, lime mortar, slate and timber all get an A rating whereas steel, reinforced concrete, large areas of glass, aluminium, and pvc get a B or a C rating. Stone is already in the ground and simply needs to be cut out and transported to site, whereas the energy consumed in producing modern materials is phenomenal.

And double glazing – contrary to what is said, is doubly harmful for two reasons: First, it encourages architects to build entire walls of glass when they should build solid walls with smaller windows; and second, the seals on double glazing units are guaranteed for only 5 years! So the environmental cost of frequent re-glazing is unsustainable. Even some Modernist architects acknowledge that an insulated brick wall with punched windows would beat a glass wall hands down in the energy saving stakes.

Third, thermal mass. Traditional buildings are solid and heavy in weight; whereas modern buildings are light and brittle. Many of us have noticed that when we go into a large traditional church in Italy in the middle of the summer, the building is pleasantly cool; this is because its thermal mass evens out the seasonal and daily variations, whereas thin lightweight walls do not have the thermal mass to achieve this.

As you all know, air conditioning is the major consumer of energy in hot climates. I have recently built a house in Texas with thick walls and high ceilings and it has already been noticed that the air conditioning requirement is very considerably lower than with modern stick construction of thin walls with no thermal mass.

There is an alternative, which has worked and proved itself over 4000 years – it is called Traditional Building Construction: solid masonry, modest height, pitched slate and tile roofs, smaller windows. It is beautiful and sustainable, it is the architectural expression of every civilised age.

We are not designing cars or aeroplanes or armaments which have to be replaced every 20 years to keep up with our competitors. We are designing permanent homely places where people want to dwell in our towns and countryside.

Is it not about time we began to think the unthinkable, to reject the whole Modernistic system of building and begin to realise that the only way forward is to look back and rediscover what our forefathers handed down to us. Only then will we have any chance of producing an environment which will be sustainable and worth passing on to our grandchildren.

As before, I’d like to showcase some examples of the firm’s work – particularly important in this case, since you (unfortunately) won’t find any of Quinlan & Terry Francis’ lovely buildings in Fort Worth.

Gothick Villa, Regents Park – 1991

The plan is based on the design by Andrea Palladio for the Villa Saraceno. It was felt that the design should develop in a more Gothick direction to reflect John Nash’s preoccupation with Gothick style. The final design provides a pedimented and castellated front with Gothick Orders reminiscent of Gibb’s Temple of Liberty at Stowe, employing Batty Langley’s Gothick Orders.

The inspiration for much of the detailed work was provided by Nash’s Longner Hall and Combermere Abbey, Shropshire, which was one of the foremost Gothick buildings in the Strawberry Hill style, and by a number of local medieval East Anglian Churches, particularly Dedham and Higham. The balustrade to the terrace is influenced by the Palazzo Contarini-Fasan in Venice, and indeed the Venetian precedent of a Classical plan with Gothic treatment has been the main theme of the whole design.

The accommodation on the ground floor is similar to that of the Ionic and Veneto Villas but with a larger loggia overlooking the canal.

—On Gothick Villa

Ionic Villa, Regents Park – 1990

The Ionic Villa is the first of six villas built for the Crown Estate Commissioners on the north-west corner of Regents Park, London, continuing the picturesque tradition established by John Nash in the early part of the 19th century.

The Ionic Villa is at the broadest end of the site and so has more depth before meeting the slope down to the Regents Canal. The plan therefore has a narrow front with a depth unlike that of the succeeding villas. It is based on a design by Andrea Palladio for Signor Girolamo Ragona at Le Ghissole, published in the Quattro Libri. This Palladian plan has a familiar early-Georgian external treatment. The building is constructed in loadbearing brickwork, with natural and reconstructed stone dressings, and faced in stucco. The details emphasise the finer points of the Ionic Order.

—On Ionic Villa

Dufours Place, Westminster – 1984

This building contains extensive office space and 25 flats. It is constructed in loadbearing brickwork and demonstrates the maximum height that normal traditional construction can reasonably achieve. This form of construction, and the height of six/seven storeys, was adopted throughout Europe in capital cities before the days of electric lifts and steel. This building follows an earlier design at Gray’s Inn by Erith and Terry, built in 1971, for a four-storey office building with sash windows. The central door surround is influenced by late Roman trompe l’oeil perspective with motifs culled from Studio d’Architettura by Rossi.

—On Dufours Place

Richmond Riverside Development, Surrey – 1987

Richmond Riverside Development, Surrey – 1987

This large comprehensive development provides offices, flats, shops, two restaurants, community facilities, two underground car parks, and riverside gardens. Two listed buildings along the riverside have been retained and re-fronted, but the rest of the development is new. It exhibits some of the rich variations of English 18th-century architecture, using red and yellow bricks, pantiles, plain tiles, slate and lead, sash and casement windows, and all the five Orders. All the office buildings are designed in accordance with the Georgian requirement of there being 20 feet from the window to the spine wall, so that it can function satisfactorily without air-conditioning or excessive artificial light.

—On the Richmond Riverside Development

Richmond House, Cambridge – 1989

This is a modest-sized brick office building, seven windows wide, with shops on the ground floor. The sash windows reduce in height and width progressively over the three storeys. The Doric Order positioned on the entrance to the offices is extended and adapted in timber for the shops.

—On Richmond House

Infill in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia – 2003

Infill in Colonial Williamsburg, Virigina – 2003

Infill in Colonial Williamsburg, Virgina – 2003

Each of the four buildings emphasise a different variation of the Williamsburg vernacular. Thus, the South Building is a pure rendering of Palladian proportions in St Bees sandstone. The Middle Building is a modest example of traditional weatherboarding. The North Building is an essay in rubbed and gauged brickwork inspired by 17th century East Anglian provincial buildings which would have been familiar to the early settlers who built Williamsburg.

—On Infill in Colonial Williamsburg

Baker Street infill, London – 2002

Baker Street infill, London – 2002

Baker Street infill, London – 2002

Thus the external walls are all solid brickwork with sash windows set in deep reveals. The entrance building is in Portland stone exhibiting a Giant Ionic Order with attic storey above and rusticated and vermiculated ground floor. The corner building is stained and tuck pointed with a stone balustrade, cantilevered first floor balcony and hand carved plaques between the first and second floors. The shop fronts all employ the Palladian Doric Order. The buildings along Kendall Place exhibit Victorian and Early Georgian characteristics. The construction system is innovative, in that the interior and roof were erected first in steel allowing the loadbearing external walls to be erected outside the critical path. In this way the delays associated with traditional construction were successfully overcome.

—On Baker Street infill

Brentwood Cathedral, Essex – 1991

Architecturally, the inspiration is early Italian Renaissance crossed with the English Baroque of Christopher Wren. The Doric Order is Bramantesque Palladian; the arcade is obviously influenced by Brunelleschi and the cupola is inspired by Bernini’s Church in Ariccia. However, the windows have characteristically English lead cames fixed to bronze saddle bars with small panes; the clerestory is faced in Smeed Dean stock brickwork, the roof is Welsh slate. The juxtaposition of classic and Gothic elements in the west elevation, and the view if Gothic arches seen through a classical arcade are inevitable in any building which has a long history.

All five Orders have been employed in the design; Tuscan for the arcade, Doric for the main giant Order, Ionic for the east and west Serlian windows, Composite and Corinthian for the organ and cathedra.

—On Brentwood Cathedral

Maitland Robinson Library at Downing College, Cambridge – 1992

For that reason the Portico of Augustus forms the main entrance and south portico of the building; the Choragic monument of Thrasyllus forms the East Portico; and the Tower of the Winds forms the octagonal cupola, which has a Greek Corinthian capital at the apex with a weathervane. The Greek names for the eight winds are inscribed on each of the eight faces of the octagon.

The whole building is made in natural Ketton stone in loadbearing construction. Each of the metopae has been carved to symbolise tripos subjects that are taught in the college.

—On Robinson Library

Howard Building at Downing College, Cambridge – 1989

This building provides a lecture theatre for 200 people and stage on the first floor with reception rooms on the ground floor. It is used for musical and dramatic performances by the university. The building is constructed in solid masonry using Portland stone for all the architectural elements including the pedestal, columns, entablature, door surrounds and finials. The walling is made in Ketton stone. There is therefore a polychrome effect similar to the Thenford summerhouse, which was part of the influence in the design. The mathematical proportion is controlled by the bottom diameter of the columns and the spacing and the modillions. The intercolumniation is three at the ends, four at the sides and five in the centre; with the columns ten diameters, entablature two diameters and the modillion spacing half a diameter. The central doorcase was influenced by Longhena’s door case in S Giorgio, Venice and combined with a Baroque doorcase measured in Zaragossa, Spain. It was felt that the severe Greek classicism of Wilkins called for a more lubricious Roman Baroque building dedicated to the theatre and the performing arts.

—On Howard Building

For more information on the firm, and to view more of their projects, visit their web site: qftarchitects.com.