Reinforced concrete structuresexpressed on the exterior, especially following
the advent of the fashion for 'Brutalism'. Much
of this architecture was of indifferent quality,
however, and as a consequence, the term
'concrete jungle' was added to the language of
architectural criticism, albeit not by
mainstream architectural critics who were, and
remain, largely apologists for this type of archi-
tecture. Even in the best examples, the full
potential of reinforced concrete as a material
which allows the creation of almost every type
of form was not realised. The preferred shapes
were almost invariably rectilinear.
The language of reinforced concrete architec-
ture continued to develop, however. The
distinctive buildings designed by lames Stirling
in the late 1950s and 1960s, for example the
Leicester Engineering Faculty Building
(1959-63) (Fig. 4.14), The History Faculty
Building at Cambridge University (1964-67)
and the Florey Building at Oxford University
(1966-71) (Figs 4.15 and 4.16), all in the UK,
represent a more adventurous exploration of
the expressive potential of reinforced concrete
for multi-storey institutional buildings than
was seen in the period of early Modernism.
The form of the Florey Building (Figs 4.15 and
4.16) is distinctive in both plan and elevation.
The structure is a reinforced concrete frame-
work and consists of a series of identically
shaped main frames each with canted columns
and horizontal beams carrying the one-way-
spanning floor decks. Several design features,
namely the crescent-shaped plan composed of
a series of rectangles and triangles whose
boundaries are defined by the main frames (Fig.
2.9), the distinctive cross-section and the
ingeniously moulded stairs which penetrate the
sloping exterior skin of the building (Fig. 4.16),
create many junctions between the elements
which would have been very difficult to fashion
in any material other than in situ reinforced
concrete. The structural continuity which the
material allows was also an essential require-
ment for the complex geometry of this building.
The structural system is working here well
within its capabilities and the fact that it has
been left exposed to form a prominent part of
the architectural language, places the building
Fig. 4.14 Engineering Building, Leicester University,
England, 1965-67. James Stirling, architect, F. J. Samuely &
Partners, structural engineers. This building has a
reinforced concrete framework structure and demonstrates
two of the principal advantages of the material. Its high
durability has allowed the structure to be exposed on both
the exterior and interior, and thus to contribute to the
architectural language being used, and its mouldability
has been employed to produce a relatively complex build-
ing form (Photo: P. Macdonald).firmly within the rationalist tradition of Gropius
and early Le Corbusier.
A more recent building in which the struc-
tural properties of reinforced concrete have
been fully exploited is the Willis, Faber and
Dumas Building at Ipswich by Foster Ill