WACHAMO UNIVERISITY

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE

ASSIGNMENT OF ARCHITECTURAL THEORY I

BY ADINEW LERAGO ID 051/08

TO ABENEZER G.

S.DATE 2/15/2019
RICHARD ROGERS
 Introduction
The British architect Richard Rogers was declared
modernist, who represented high tech architecture with
his concern for advanced technology.
He believes that architecture is response to the
environment and circumstance which give birth to
it, and that includes the planning system, the
attitude of groups.
He is leader of the architectural movement known
as High Tech.
He was best known for his joint design of the
Centre Pompidou in Paris with Renzo Piano and for
the Lloyd's of London Building in London.
 Architects Biography
 Richard George Rogers was born in Florence, Italy, on July 23,
1933, to British parents.
 He served in the British Army (1951-1953) prior to attending
the Architectural Association School (1953-1959) in London.
 He received the Diploma of Architecture in 1959 and in 1960
married the architect Su Brumwell. The following year he
studied at the Yale University School of Architecture in New
Haven, Connecticut on a Fulbright scholarship, and received
the Master of Architecture degree in 1962.
 By this time he encountered the work of Louis Kahn and Frank
Lloyd Wright in the USA and worked with Foster on a mega
structure project. Returning from America, Rogers formed a
partnership with Norman and Wendy Foster and Su Rogers
(1963-1968) in London called Team 4.In 1967 he represents
British architects at the Paris Biennial. After two years Riba
Award for Work of Outstanding Quality for Creek Vean House.
 In 1970 he started working with Renzo Piano. In 1977
separated from Piano, Rogers moved his studio back to
London. In 1978 won the competition for the London Lloyd’s
Building. In 1994 he was Vice President of the Art Council of
England.
 Some of His projects;
 1968/69 - Rogers' House, Wimbledon
 1968/71 - Zip-Up House
 1971/77 - Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, with Renzo Piano
 1976/83 - Patscentre Research Laboratory, Melbourn, UK, with Piano
 1978-/86 - Lloyd's of London, with R.R. Partnership
 1979/81 - Fleetguard, Quimper, France, R.R. Partnership
 1979/83 - Renovation of Coin Street, London, R.R. Partnership
 1982 - Inmos Microchip Factory, Newport, UK, R.R. Partnership
 1982/85 - PA Technology Laboratory, Princeton, New Jersey
 1982 - Expansion of the National Gallery, London
 1982 - Recovery of the banks of the River Arno, Florence, R.R.
Partnership with Claudio Cantella
 \1984/86 - Royal Docks Strategic Plan, London Dockslands
 1984/87 - Thames Reach Housing, London
 1985/88 - Billingsgate Securities Market, City of London
 1987/88 - Pump House, London
 1987/89 - Blackwall Yard, London (stage one)
 1987 - Project for Paternoster Square
 1987 - Autocity, Massy, France
 1987/92 - Reuters Data Centre, London
 1987/93 - Kabuki-Cho Tower, Tokyo
 1989/92 - Marseilles International Airport
 1989/95 - European Human Rights Court, Strasburg, France
 1989/2016 - Terminal 5, Heathrow Airport, United Kingdom
 1990 - Tokyo Forum, Tokyo
Long Life, Loose Fit, Low Energy Architecture of Rogers
Was Rogers radical architectural for more than thirty years
It says a building that is easy to modify has a longer useful life and uses
its resources more efficiently.
It is about designing building for flexible which enlarges the sustainable
life of society.
It is designing greater flexibility into our modern buildings inevitably
moves architecture away from fixed and perfect forms.
It renders architecture of Rogers by fluidity, flexibility and fragmentation

Towards the sustainable city

In the early 1980s the Rogers practice has become interestingly involved
in the large scale urban and regional master plans.
The city is a global phenomenon dependent for its survival on a complex
web of spatial, social, ecological, and economic factors
Is a visions that reject the fashionable and localized historicist
reinterpretation of the traditional city.
Is known by the continuity and integration of the urban fabric.
is characterized by the compact, polycentric, sustainable city.
The compact city, allows uses to overlap, keeping the city alive twenty
four hours a day.
“The more concentrated an urban, system, the more efficient its public
transport and services less energy is consumed on expensive commuting.
Movement is by food, cycle, or localized public transport networks
for Rogers "sustainability means healthier , livelier more open- minded
cities and above all, it means life for future generation "

The role of sustainable design

A growing concern for us is all the way in which we interact with our
environment.
Sustainable design is a process that delivers the best (social,
environmental and economic) performance or result for the least (social,
environmental and economic) cost.
Sustainable design accommodates and integrates current and future
human needs without compromising the environment.
It must include the redesign of products, processes, services or systems
so as to tackle imbalances or trade-offs between the demands of society,
the environment and the economy.
In terms of buildings sustainable design implies resource efficiency -
minimum energy, flexibility and long life.
There will be increasing challenges to designing a sustainable built
environment.
Architectural progress is not about re-styling.
The main issue is how technology is used in conjunction with good
design, who controls it, and to what end.

High-Tech Architecture
Born as a revamped representative of Modernist functionality.
High Tech architecture was developed by a group of British architects in
the 1970s who expressed an interest in Richard Buckminster Fuller’s
Dymaxion principles, which signified “dynamism plus efficiency.”
The High Tech design style is based on uncomplicated plans that strictly
combine the use of factory-produced materials and a tendency to expose
a building’s structural systems.
It (high tech design) involves using the materials, such as space frames,
metal cladding and composite fabrics and materials.
High tech buildings often have extensive glazing to show to the outside
world . Generally their overall appearance is light, typically with a
combination of dramatic curves and straight lines.
The study of the architecture of "High tech" emphasizes creation,
appreciation, and use of technology in building systems of
Skyscraper
Exoskeleton
Articulated form
High tech details
Prefabrication
High Tech architecture gives little consideration to the symbolic form of
the building, relying instead on technological sophistication to ground its
aesthetic.

Influence
The founders of high tech were inspired by Richard Buckminster Fuller’s
Dymaxion principles, which signified “dynamism plus efficiency.”

Criticism on high tech style

High Tech architecture has come under considerable criticism for its
inclination towards technological aesthetic
Complete disregard for the cultural history of a place, the possibility of
applying advanced architectural engineering to urban problems remains
one bound to further exploration.

Summing-up the idea of high tech,

The principle of High Tech architecture relies on nothing more than a
combination of machined parts that are maximally flexible and, ideally,
interchangeable. This is not to say that the buildings are full-scale
versions; rather, they are an attempt to fully integrate the functions of a
building from the mechanical ducts to the structural systems in a
composite whole.

Some of Rogers projects,

Millennium Dome London
Facts about the world's biggest dome!
The Greenwich Dome is twice the size of the one in Atlanta Georgia.
It is the largest fabric structure in the world containing one million square
feet of fabric.
The Dome will contain the biggest amount of visitor attractions under one
roof in the world!
There are 44 miles of steel forming the 'cobweb' that supports the roof.
Each 'Zone' within the dome is about one acre in size.
The Dome is supported by 43 miles of high-strength cable, which holds up
10,000 square metres of fabric.
The translucent roof is 50 meters high at the centre and strong enough to
support the weight
 Battersa Flour Mills Housing, London
The design responds to its special location with a slopping building that
exploits views over the river (Thames)
The building forms 30-degree gradient, stepping down from seventeen
stories at its highest point.
The alignment of the building forms a triangular south facing open space
with gardens and playing fields defined by a covered pedestrian route
running parallel to the main building.
At ground level the building contributes a sense of order to the
surrounding landscape.
The design maximizes the potential of the river (one of Rogers’ regular
urban interest)
 GLASGOW Bridge
The design facilities for increased river usage.
The continuous curve and gradual ramp of the crescent bridge allows
common access for all users and
the alignment of the elliptical deck on the axis of the upstream section of
the river creates varied and unusual views whilst allowing headroom
below the bridge for river traffic.
The bridge uses the principle of a cable stayed compression arch and a
suspended deck to create a dynamic and
The bridge provides a clearance of 6m in the middle of the river at high
tide.
Structurally, the bridge uses
the principle of a cable-stayed compression arch with suspended deck –
the result is a dynamic and memorable icon for the city.
 Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris 1971-77
The center Pompidou is one of the most public and controversial icons of
contemporary architecture of the late 20th century.
The Pompidou is a large, simple soft building.
Its construction system is high tech steel and glass.
Its structure is exposed to the outside world and the installations of the
building are also exposed.
The intention by the architects was to place service elements, such as
water, electricity, outside of the building and consequently turn the
building “inside out”.
The building structure is very special and odd.
The glass skill runs clear and uncompromised behind the columns.
There are no expansion joints, and the whole building has been designed
as a single structure entity.
Critics on Pompidou
The critics have described the design of Pompidou museum as an “oil
refinery in the centre of the city”.
Allan Collquhoun criticized the building and its program for the “attempt
to combine modernity and traditional institutionalism populism and
gigantism,” noting that the “uncompromising audacity of the solution was
achieved at the expense of making the building into a vast self sufficient
block inserted rather crudely into the city fabric.” 1
“The building as a care of under provision of flexibility.”

The Designers Words

"Technology cannot be an end in itself but must aim at solving

long term social and ecological problems.“ "It is my belief that
exciting things happen when a variety of overlapping activities
designed for all people—the old and the young, the blue and white
collar, the local inhabitant and the visitor, different activities for
different occasions—meet in a flexible environment, opening up
the possibility of interaction outside the confines of institutional
limits. When this takes place, deprived areas welcome dynamic
places for those who live, work and visit; places where all can
participate, rather than less or more beautiful ghettos.“ “When
technology is used to secure the fundamentally food, health care,
education, and freedom __ the modern age attains its full
potential”
European Court of Human Rights, Strasbourg,
France, 1989-95
It is a building in a park located along the river
The building has, in effect, a head, a neck, and a tail.
The head is fully exposed, with large drums containing the main
courts and the public hall.
The neck contains meeting chambers with an extruded cylindrical
volume.