Hunter Building, Lauriston Place, Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Edinburgh

Description

The Hunter Building was designed by Anthony Wheeler in 1971 and the building officially opened in 1977. It has an L-shaped plan composed of a four-storey block (aligned east-west) and a four storey and basement block (aligned north-south). It encloses the south and east side of the landscaped courtyard of the college's campus, creating a quadrangle with the other college buildings on the site. The north side of the building is attached to the former architecture building (not listed).

The Hunter Building has a reinforced concrete frame construction and the exterior walls are clad in smooth ashlar, red Locharbriggs sandstone. The sandstone cladding is a dominant design feature of the Lauriston Place elevation, where it is punctured by small window openings at each floor. The window openings at the ground and fourth floors are arranged in pairs and there are continuous clerestory windows at the second and third floors that wrap around to the west elevation. The fourth floor is slightly advanced and the concrete floorplate can be seen. Off centre, to the right is a recessed entrance bay that is accessed by a straight flight of steps. This entrance has a flat canopy over the doors. To the far left is another recessed entrance bay with a flat-arched pend opening giving access to the central courtyard. To the right of this pend the sandstone cladding is inscribed 'EDINBURGH COLLEGE OF ART HUNTER BUILDING'.

The Keir Street elevation has continuous horizontal strip windows at the second, third and fourth floors. The third floor has floor to ceiling glazing in the bays to the left. The ground floor has small, narrow windows and a continuous clerestorey, above which is a chamfered band course. To the left is a recessed section from the ground to the third floor with full height glazing. To the right, steps lead to a basement area which is enclosed by a wall.

The courtyard elevations have continuous horizontal strip windows at all floors, except the basement which has the narrow and continuous clerestorey windows. The ground floor and basement are slightly advanced and the ground floor windows in the west elevation are floor to ceiling (indicating the café). To the left of the north elevation is a recessed section from the ground to the third floor with full height glazing.

The interior (seen in 2019) is predominantly studio and workshops accessed from a central corridor. The spaces are variously open plan or subdivided as was intended when first designed. Standard fixtures and fittings from the date of construction are retained throughout. There is a coffered 'waffle' ceiling throughout the building, but in some rooms it is obscured by a suspended ceiling. The original stairs are also retained but have been altered with later screens covering the balustrade. The large canteen area was comprehensively refurbished in 2015.

Historical development

The building was designed from 1971 by Sir Anthony Wheeler, a partner of the architectural practice of Wheeler and Sproson. It was constructed between 1972 and 1976, and officially opened on 20 June 1977 by Lord Alfred Robens, former chair of the National Coal Board. It was built on the site of tenements (shown on early 20th century Ordnance Survey maps) and the footprint of the Hunter Building largely follows the streetline of the previous buildings.

Edinburgh College of Art dates back to 1760, moving to its present site in 1907 when the main building was constructed (see separate listing, LB27974). By the mid-1950s the main building had become crowded and a new School of Architecture was added to the campus in 1960. Whilst the main building continued to serve the art school, specialist facilities for artists other than painting were lacking, and further improvements were needed for communal services such as the library and dining room.

Peter Womersley produced designs for the Hunter Building in 1968-9. Womersley's scheme would have occupied most of the plot, as he proposed an ambitious network of sprawling concrete blocks with linking bridges and projections. However, the decisive factor in the college committee's rejection of Womersley's concept was thermal control. The scheme had large south-facing windows and this threatened to cause extreme overheating within the building requiring costly air-conditioning.

Wheeler and Sproson replaced Womersley in 1971, and Wheeler's design, particularly the south elevation addresses these concerns, by proposing a huge expanse of wall punctured by small windows.

The building has been altered slightly over the last ten years. The detailing of the window cills have been modified to fix a water ingress problem that caused the stonework to spall. The interior has been refurbished, most noticeably in the café and entrance hall, and the original library space on the ground floor has been relocated to another building.

Statement of Interest

The Hunter Building meets the criteria of special architectural or historic interest for the following reasons:

The exterior is an outstanding composition of modern geometric forms inspired by traditional Scottish architecture and built in high-quality materials.

It is among the largest, most complex and architecturally significant project by Anthony Wheeler of Wheeler and Sproson, an award-winning architectural practice, that played a significant role in the post-war development of Scotland

The original design of the Hunter Building remains largely intact to a remarkable extent, both in general plan form and to the exterior elevations.

Designed to form two sides of a quadrangle, its courtyard setting survives today. The building groups well with of the other buildings and structures on this multi-period university campus, especially in its use of red sandstone and its plan form.

A major public sector commission of the period, it is one of a small number of art school buildings designed and built between 1960-1980.

It continues the post-war tertiary education buildings programme into the 1970s and is a significant part of Edinburgh's post-war urban planning scheme.

Design

The Hunter Building is a striking architectural addition to the Lauriston Place campus, as well as the wider Lauriston Place streetscape. The exterior is an outstanding composition of modern geometrical forms built in high-quality materials, using expanses of red ashlar cladding punctured by openings to emphasise horizontality.

It is among the largest, most complex and architecturally significant project by Wheeler and Sproson, an award-winning architectural practice, that played a significant role in the post-war development of Scotland. The building was described by its designer, Sir Anthony Wheeler as 'one of our best buildings'.

The Lauriston Place elevation is the principal public facing part of the building. The defensive appearance of the building here is a purposeful design statement which not only reflected its historic location but was used as a practical solution devised to reduce the solar gain in the studios so they are not flooded with light. This design also ensured that the ground floor lecture theatre was blocked from light ingress and limited the traffic noise from a very busy road in Edinburgh's city centre.

The north, west and east elevations have a larger amount of glazing, particularly the north and west which look onto the inner courtyard. As well as creating an open and inviting appearance, it is a practical design decision to provide appropriate natural light into the studios. The floor to ceiling glazing shows the differing functions of the building, such as the stairs/circulation spaces, the café and some studios including the glass studio on the top floor to backlight the glassworks.

The exterior has been slightly altered by the recent change to the window detailing, to remedy a water ingress problem that was causing spalling stonework. This has not been a significant change to the design of the building and is not considered to have adversely affected the special interest of the exterior.

Wheeler and Sproson rose to prominence in the 1950s and 1960s, owing to their celebrated contextual approach to the redevelopment of dense historic urban sites. The practice was established by Harry Anthony Wheeler (1919-2013) in 1952 and he took Frank Sproson (born 1919) into the partnership two years later. The bulk of the practice's early work was urban-regeneration schemes in small burghs in Fife (where the practice was first based), where they worked on small-scale local authority housing developments in difficult infill locations, notably in Burntisland (1955-75) and Dysart (1958-1977).

At present three of the practice's projects are listed. Sailor's Walk (LB36358) and Pathhead Medical Centre (LB36399) are both in Kirkcaldy and involve the conservation and conversion of historic buildings, with Sailor's Walk becoming their offices. St Columba's Parish in Glenrothes dates from 1960 and is currently the only completely new design by Wheeler that is listed (LB49999, listed at category A).

Buildings for higher education institutions were a small element of their work, but one which spanned the whole of the practice's life. They include the University of Edinburgh's Pleasance sports facilities (1978-9), a hall of residence and student union for Heriot-Watt's Riccarton campus (1970s and 1980s) and the University of St. Andrews students' union (1969-72).

The design and materials of Scottish architecture from the 16th to 19th centuries were inspirational to Wheeler and combining this with Modern design was his signature style inspired by Scotland's vernacular and traditional architectural forms. The Hunter Building was the practice's first major project in Edinburgh, signalling their arrival in the city as during the construction period they relocated their main offices to Edinburgh. Wheeler took inspiration from the iconic form of Edinburgh Castle that directly overlooks the art college. At the Hunter Building the narrow-slit windows are reminiscent of gun loops and the advanced top storey of a castle's machicolation. He had shown similar direct inspiration of castellated architecture in his Dysart housing projects, where he had been inspired by the nearby St Serfs Tower.

The horizontality of the building created by its form, mass and linear windows together with the regular arrangement and grouping of the windows (in pairs or threes) reflect the underlying classical composition of the main building. Entrances are emphasised on the exterior by three-storey recesses with an expanse of glazing (rather than porticos of the main building).

Wheeler and Sproson liked to use a restricted and muted colour and material palette in their buildings, favouring charcoal, dark red, browns and creams. The Hunter Building is no exception using only two colours, black window frames blending well with the red sandstone. Sandstone also provided an opportunity for inscriptions, whether that be a datestone on a lintel, or in this case in a more strikingly contemporary manner, through a large inscription engraved on the southern elevation.

The Hunter Building reflects the late Modernist trend in architecture of the 1970s. By the 1960s architecture was moving away from the pared back highly functional designs of the early modernist period with the reintroduction of traditional architectural motifs. Whilst large-scale and monumental public buildings in the 1970s were relatively rare (see Age and Rarity section), the Hunter Building is characteristic of the more expressive and sculptural architectural trend combining modern geometric forms with traditional building motifs. Its exteriors are articulated by expanses of plain walling contrasting with recessed glazed voids and it has open plan interiors. The trend towards expressionistic formalism of the Hunter Building, which uses the dramatic juxtaposition of solids and voids can also be seen in other notable buildings from this period such as at William Whitfield's University of Glasgow Library, Gillespie Kidd and Coia's St Bride's R C Church, East Kilbride, at some of Peter Womersley's public commissions of the 1960s, and at Rowand Anderson Kinninmonth and Paul's work of this period, in particular the Scottish Provident Building (demolished) in St Andrews Square Edinburgh of 1969.

The Hunter Building was designed as an extension to the main college building, to accommodate a lecture theatre, workshops and studios (of varying sizes) including weaving and tapestry galleries, a fashion department, a jewellery department and a glass department. There are no formal public spaces as this was still accommodated in the main building, and as such the interiors are typically plain and functional.

Original fixtures and fittings which survive throughout the building are of a standard design for the period. There has been some later alterations and subdivision.

The recreational and communal spaces have seen the greatest level of change. The library (originally on the ground floor and north-facing) has been moved to a different building, the entrance foyer has been refurbished and the large canteen area was comprehensively refurbished in 2015. These changes are not considered to adversely affect the special interest of the building.

The open plan structure of the building comprising concrete floor plates supported on pillars, meant that the internal walls were not structural and could be moved to enlarge or decrease the size of the studios and workshops. This is a standard plan form for a building of this period. (The north-facing studios on the second floor have been recently changed to offices, 2020.) Changes to the studios by the moving of walls are an inherent part of the flexible design and most of the studios have similar surface treatments. The original arrangement of rooms, with open plan studios and workshops accessed from a central corridor still survives.

The footprint of the building in the form of an L-plan is particularly successful in the way it defines the campus courtyard or courtyard (see Setting).

Overall, the original design of the Hunter Building remains largely intact, both in general plan form, exterior elevations and a large proportion of the interior fixtures and fittings.

Setting

The Hunter Building is part of multi-period university campus, showing the development and expansion of Edinburgh College of Art in the post-war period. It was designed to form two sides of a quadrangle and this courtyard setting survives today. A quadrangle is a characteristic feature of the practice's projects as almost all of their earlier housing developments had some form of town square or irregular quadrangle. Wheeler is likely to have been inspired by the quadrangles of Oxford's colleges, when he worked in the city, as Assistant City Architect, after completing his architectural training.

The red ashlar sandstone copies the red sandstone of the main college building creating a visually unified group of college buildings. This was a purposeful design decision of Wheeler's who championed the use of red sandstone whereas the College initially proposed the use of brick on grounds of cost. The red sandstone also matches the adjacent former fire stations, which is now part of the campus.

The south elevation of the Hunter Building is part of the streetscape of Lauriston Place, which is a multi-period mix of different building types, especially on its south side. The north side of the road is largely characterised by 18th and 19th century tenements with some later infills and the outstanding George Heriot's School at the west end. The height of the Hunter Building is similar to its neighbouring tenements and the fire station.

The L-plan footprint of the building closely follows the building line of the 18th century tenements that previously occupied the site. Wheeler retained the existing street network and green spaces, preserving as many original trees as possible rather than building over them, as proposed in Womersley's plan for the site.

Historic interest

Age and rarity

The 1970s was a challenging period economically for building developments in Scotland because the extremely high rate of inflation resulted in a sharp cutback in larger-scale commissions. In this context, the Hunter Building is a relatively rare as a large-scale, monumental commission for a public building during this period.

This commission for the Edinburgh College of Art continued to cater for the ever-increasing numbers of students accessing higher education in Scotland and the expanding provision required (see Social historical interest section). The Hunter Building is a major example of higher education building of the post-war period and is of significant quality in both design and materials.

The state of the art provision of art education was established in architectural form by institutions such as the Royal Scottish Academy and the Glasgow School Art. It was traditionally represented by a signature building by a well-known architect at all the established art schools in Scotland: Dundee, Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh. It is therefore one of only a small number of buildings built for this purpose in Scotland.

The Hunter Building is one of a small number of art school buildings designed and built between 1960-1980. Comparable examples of similar noteworthy design include Gray's School of Art in Aberdeen of 1962-68, Glasgow School of Art's Newbury Tower of 1970 and the Matthew Building in Dundee of 1969-74 (listed at category B, see LB52312).

Social historical interest

The Hunter Building continues the post-war tertiary education buildings programme into the 1970s. In the 1950s there were significant university building programmes underway at Dundee and Edinburgh, and the Robbins Report, published in 1963 provided a further impetus for change. The report recommended the expansion of the universities as a priority as well as new universities. The campuses of the newly established universities of Stirling and Strathclyde are characterised by their post-war architecture.

Its design also responds to an unrealised but radical post-war urban planning scheme for Edinburgh. A 1949 Civic Survey and Plan, co-authored by Patrick Abercrombie and Derek Plumstead, proposed an inner ring road around the city centre, from Stockbridge to the Cowgate. This road was approved by the Town Council in 1963 and one of its feeder slip roads would have passed along the line of Lauriston Place. Although the plan was scrapped in the 1970s, Wheeler's south elevation of the Hunter Building responds to the proposed increased traffic along this road, with minimal openings to reduce the traffic noise and pollution and the main ground floor raised above the street level.

External Links

Historic Environment Scotland Listing

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