The Barbican is one of London's landmarks and Britain's largest listed building, yet its architects, Chamberlin, Powell and Bon (CPB), are little known today. Their leader, Peter (Joe) Chamberlin, died young and little of their archive survives. But detective work has revealed a complex story about three determined characters and a surprising variety of fascinating architecture. Chamberlin worked on the Festival of Britain, but the practice was formed only in 1952 when Geoffry Powell won a housing competition in London. The resulting Golden Lane Estate is as light and brightly-coloured as the adjoining Barbican that followed is monumental. In between the firm produced a range of buildings that pushed concrete technology to its limits, including houses and schools, Murray Edwards College (New Hall) in Cambridge, and major extensions to Leeds University. These projects are beginning to be recognised as among the best buildings of the 1960s; this book explains how they happened. The author, Elain Harwood, is a historian with English Heritage specialising in post-war architecture, and has researched the work of Chamberlin, Powell and Bon for many years, initially to secure the listing of the best examples. The book is illustrated with images fromCPB s rediscovered archive and specially commissioned colour photography by James O. Davies, and is an essential read for architects, students, architectural historians and anyone who is interested in learning more about a key practice in British post-war architecture.
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About the Author
Elain Harwood is Senior Investigator with English Heritage and trustee of C20 Society. She holds a PhD on the building of London's South Bank. Elain worked for 11 years listing post-war buildings for English Heritage, and is now part of itsresearchteam of architectural historians.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
CPB are one of the giants of Post-War Architecture and have deservedly been added to the ever expanding series of 20th Century monographs of British Architects. Despite the scale of the practice output with projects such as Leeds University and the Barbican in London they remain relatively unknown and this new book provides a thoughtful and easily digested insight into the office output.
The built work began life with a slender and light to the touch aesthetic typical of the 1950's and Festival of Britain period as seen in the Golden Lane scheme and matured into a hard edged rugged architecture seen in the Barbican and Leeds University. Despite the difference in aesthetics the constant thread throughout all of their work was their concern with place making and urban intervention brilliantly executed in the Barbican development and sadly unfulfilled in projects such as Leicester Civic Centre.
The book is packed with archive material that was thought lost and the author has done well to search out these architectural gems. Another worthy entry to the series and I look forward to my next purchase!
The built work began life with a slender and light to the touch aesthetic typical of the 1950's and Festival of Britain period as seen in the Golden Lane scheme and matured into a hard edged rugged architecture seen in the Barbican and Leeds University. Despite the difference in aesthetics the constant thread throughout all of their work was their concern with place making and urban intervention brilliantly executed in the Barbican development and sadly unfulfilled in projects such as Leicester Civic Centre.
The book is packed with archive material that was thought lost and the author has done well to search out these architectural gems. Another worthy entry to the series and I look forward to my next purchase!
By Bullingdon
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Chamberlin, Powell and Bon are known chiefly as the architects of the Barbican and nearby Golden Lane. This book is useful for including all their other projects and the many designs they submitted unsuccessfully to competitions. The biographical chapter is particularly interesting and sheds new light on the strengths of the three members of the team and the way they worked together. The book is well illustrated, including early student work and pictures of buildings since demolished as well as stunning recent photgraphy. I was disappointed to find quite a few errors in the areas I am familiar with and hope these can be corrected in a 2nd edition.
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