In 1953, two young architects, Peter Yates and Gordon Ryder, bumped into each other at an underground station in London. The pair had worked for three years with Berthold Lubetkin on his plans to create a modernistic utopia of the new town of Peterlee on the Durham coalfield.
Although Lubetkin’s ambitious plans for Peterlee were never realised, the experience of working with one of the greats of modern architecture had a lasting effect on the work of both men.
In his early 20s, Yates had also collaborated with Le Corbusier, who he had met in Paris in 1944, and with whom he worked on the plans for the UN building in New York. Le Corbusier said of Yates: “This boy can see things.”
The pair were both keen to return to the north of England, so set up their architecture practice in Newcastle. Initially known as Ryder Yates, the company is now called Ryder Architecture. It is still based in Newcastle, though also has offices in Glasgow, Liverpool and London.
In the 1960s and 70s, it was in Killingworth, on the outskirts of Newcastle, that Ryder Yates put up several important modernist buildings that show their debt to Lubetkin and Le Corbusier. The state of the buildings today is a microcosm of the state of modernist architecture in Britain generally – developers are busy destroying some of them, while one has been listed.
Wandering around Killingworth, the noise from the wrecking crew can be heard as an early Ryder Yates building is pulled down. Fortunately, the British Gas Engineering Research Station still stands proudly over the surrounding suburban blight. Designed in the mid-60s, the building is one of a tiny number of post war structures to be listed as Grade II* – under 10% of all listed buildings are deemed this important.
The main block, with its faintly asymmetrical facade, is entered via a bridge surmounted by an elegant high narrow arch inspired by the Propylaea entrance to the Acropolis. Tall, white cylindrical funnels and vents sprout from the roof. The building was added to several times, doubling in size. To the left is the black fronted school of engineering – the black in the aggregate coming from ground Guinness bottles.
Nearby, the arguably equally significant Norgas House, with its Minotaur-like horns reflected in Killingworth Lake, fell into disrepair and is now being demolished and replaced by over 100 houses. English Heritage refused an application to have it listed.
Stephenson House, three stories of restrained white concrete with recessed windows, is also due for demolition.
Ryder Architecture’s current and recent work includes the modernisation of Manchester’s beautiful domed 1930s library, adding a new vertical ‘circulation core’ and removing the book stacks below the main hall to create a new basement reception area.
They also worked on the new city library in Newcastle, on the restoration of Glasgow’s central station, on a new police station for Avon and Somerset constabulary and on the Gartcosh Scottish crime campus, among many others in the UK and abroad.
An exhibition on Ryder Architecture’s 60 years can be seen at the Building Centre, London, until 27 June. It will travel to Liverpool’s Mann Island in October and the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead in November.
A seminar, Something Concrete and Modern, at the Baltic on Wednesday 19 June looks at postwar modernist architecture in the North East with panelists including Ryder’s senior partner (and Baltic chairman) Peter Buchan, and architectural historian Rutter Carroll.
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