Will Alsop
William Allen Alsop was a British architect and Professor of Architecture at University for the Creative Arts's Canterbury School of Architecture.
He was responsible for several distinctive and controversial modernist buildings which are usually distinguished by their use of bright colours and unusual avant-garde forms. In 2000, Alsop won the Stirling Prize, the most prestigious architecture award in the United Kingdom, for the Peckham Library in London.
Biography
Alsop always wanted to be an architect, even before he really knew what architects did; when he was six years old, he designed a house for his mother to live in – its most striking specification was that it had to be built in New Zealand. When he was 16 his father, an accountant, died, and being bored with school, at the private Eaglehurst College he left to work for an architect, doing his A-levels at evening classes.He was greatly influenced by his drawing tutor, Henry Bird while at foundation course at Northampton Art School. He recalled how he was taught to draw by him.
He gave me a brick, told me to draw it and promptly left the room. I proceeded to draw it with all its shadows. On his return he went into a rage and chastised me for destroying the vision with shading, shouting: 'What is wrong with a simple line?' He insisted that I redo the drawing with line only so that I could begin to see the brick and its proportions. I drew that brick for two three hour sessions per week, line only, for three months. Eventually, he admitted that I had mastered the brick and I was allowed to progress onto the tin can.
Alsop then studied at the Architectural Association School of Architecture where at 23 he entered the competition to design the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and came second to the eventual winners, Richard Rogers & Renzo Piano. He worked briefly for Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew, a couple who had been instrumental in introducing modernism to Britain in the 1930s, then joined Cedric Price for four years.
After a short period with Roderick Ham, in 1981 Alsop set up a practice, Alsop & Lyall, with his classmate John Lyall in Hammersmith. Jan Störmer later joined the practice and a decade later, in 1991, the practice was renamed Alsop & Störmer after Lyall's departure.
Alsop's first major commission was a swimming pool for Sheringham in Norfolk in 1984, followed by a visitor centre for Cardiff Bay. Thereafter he worked on a number of projects in Germany, including the Hamburg Ferry Terminal. In 1992, Alsop came first, against competitor Norman Foster, in the competition to design the Hôtel du département des Bouches-du-Rhône in Marseille, France. The building, now considered a major work of late 20th century architecture and a Marseille landmark, nicknamed Le Grand Bleu, was designed by Alsop and Störmer, and developed its visual identity through the design process in collaboration with the architectural artist Brian Clarke, with the completed building externally clad in Yves Klein blue glass, with one elevation formed of a 1,200 m2 artwork by Clarke screenprinted in ceramic glaze onto the facade. Alsop and Störmer divided into separate practices in 2000, with Alsop renaming the practice Alsop Architects.
Alsop admitted to never being very good at handling finances, and his practice went through several difficult periods, including the cancellation in June 2004 of plans to build a "Fourth Grace" to be built on Liverpool's Pier Head waterfront. Since 2001–2002, three historical buildings at the Pier Head in Liverpool have been known as the "Three Graces": they are the Royal Liver Building by Walter Aubrey Thomas, the Cunard Building by Willinck & Thicknesse with Arthur J. Davis, and the Port of Liverpool Building by Briggs & Wolstenholme with Hobbs & Thornely – the so-called "Cloud Building" – officially because of rising costs and unrealistic design.
In early 2006, Alsop sold his practice to a design conglomerate called the SMC Group to concentrate on architecture.
After leaving ARCHIAL, he joined RMJM's London Headquarters as International Principal on 1 October 2009. The office's name was "Will Alsop at RMJM". Alsop's latest practice was called All Design and had practices in London and Chongqing. Alsop's London office was located in Battersea.
Alsop was a tutor of sculpture at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London for several years, and held many other academic posts, among others at the Vienna University of Technology, Universities of London and Hannover, and actively promoted the artistic contribution to built environments.
In 2013, Alsop became Professor of Architecture at the University for the Creative Arts's Canterbury School of Architecture.
Alsop was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, and was elected to the Royal Academy on 18 May 2000.
Architectural style
Alsop's architectural heroes were Le Corbusier, Sir John Soane, John Vanbrugh and Mies van der Rohe. His avant-garde, modernist buildings are usually distinguished by their vibrant use of bright colour and unusual forms. Before Alsop begins to work on a new project, he uses painting to clear his mind, think freely and create an uncontaminated design approach."One of the reasons for painting is that you are not really in control of what you are doing – and that interests me a lot. Instead of having a specific starting point, which perhaps, in architectural terms, would lead through to a series of logical thoughts working towards a designed building, you can start anywhere."
For him, the act of painting together with working closely with the client and the local community are necessary ingredients in urban design and architecture.
In 2004, Alsop published a book entitled Supercity which elicited much debate. It was the subject of a Channel 4 television documentary and an exhibition at the Urbis museum in Manchester. This book described his vision of a "Supercity" – a futuristic conurbation – stretching along the M62 corridor from Liverpool to Hull. It included a discussion of how the increasing interconnectivity of the cities along this corridor is changing the concepts of a "city", and how they can be developed to merge the idea of the rural and urban. It also included a number of architectural ideas of possible buildings and communities in this city. Although there was some political support for his ideas, with The Times claiming that former British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott was a supporter, the Supercity has its critics.
Alsop featured significantly in Iain Sinclair's book Ghost Milk, especially the chapter "In the belly of the architect". The book is a critique – written using the literary technique of psychogeography – of the capital used to drive through vanity planning projects such as the London Olympics, and Alsop's unbuilt planning projects in the north of England, such as Supercity, are seen as typical of these, where the architect fantasizes about how architectural design solves social and economic problems.
Alsop's architectural talents may be the subject of controversy built up an international reputation and a degree of celebrity and professional recognition, described by the Observer as "number three in the hierarchy of British architects after Lords Rogers and Foster".
Notwithstanding this, like fellow avantgardist Dame Zaha Hadid, he actualised relatively few buildings from his designs. Alsop estimated that only about 10% of his designs have been built, something he stated did not worry him because of the enjoyment he derived in designing buildings even without a particular commission or competition in mind. In a 2007 interview, Alsop stated "It's like tennis – you have to keep doing it all the time, whether you have a client or not. I believe that absolutely. You can speculate in your sketchbook – you're allowed to think about anything, with or without a client."
In April 2007, The Observer commented that Alsop's approach to architecture could broadly be defined by his statement: "I like people. I hope it shows."
Major architectural projects
| Image | Information | Awards and nominations |
Cardiff Bay Visitor Centre Cardiff, Wales Completed 1991, demolished 2010. |
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| Hamburg Ferry Terminal Hamburg-Altona, Germany Completed 1993 | ||
Hôtel du département des Bouches-du-Rhône Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône, France Completed 1994 |
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| North Greenwich tube station Greenwich, London, England Completed 1999 |
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| Peckham Library Peckham, London, England Completed 2000 |
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Düsseldorf, Germany Completed 2001 | ||
Urban Entertainment Center Mixed-use complex with a hotel, shops and a casino Almere, Netherlands Completed 2003 | ||
Sharp Centre for Design, Ontario College of Art & Design Toronto, Ontario, Canada Completed 2004 |
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| Fawood Children's Centre Harlesden, North London, England Completed in 2004 |
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| Ben Pimlott Building, Goldsmiths, University of London New Cross, London, England Completed 2005 | ||
Blizard Building, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry Whitechapel, London, England Completed March 2005 |
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| Alsop Toronto Sales Centre for Westside Lofts Toronto, Ontario, Canada Completed 2006 | ||
Palestra, 197 Blackfriars Road, Southwark, London, England Completed 2006 |
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| Quay Redevelopment project Clarke Quay, Singapore Completed 2006 | ||
The Public, West Bromwich West Bromwich, West Midlands, England Part completed 2008 |
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| Stratford Docklands Light Railway Station Stratford, London, England Commissioned in 2003, completed in 2007 | ||
Yonkers Power Plant project Glenwood Waterfront, Yonkers, New York, United States Completion expected in 2008 | ||
KingTowns King West Village, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Estimated completion date unknown | ||
New Islington Manchester, England Completed 2009 | ||
Westside Gallery Lofts 1151 Queen Street West – 8-storey condo lofts Toronto, Ontario, Canada Completed 2012 | ||
Raffles City Apartment Hotel Beijing, China Completed 2009 |
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Gao Yang International Cruise Terminal Shanghai, China Completed 2009/2010 | ||
| Testbed1 Cultural Centre Battersea, London Completed 2009 |