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Sir Basil Spence
Event ID 567375
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Sir Basil Spence
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/567375
Building Notes
In 1959 Basil Spence & Partners was commissioned by Lord Fulton to build a new university on a 94 hectare site, in a tree-studded valley, six kilometres from the centre of Brighton. The brief called for a university to be built over a period of 15 years with the provision for future expansion. Work began in December 1960 and, between 1959 and 1971 Basil Spence & Partners, Sir Basil Spence, OM RA and Sir Basil Spence, Bonnington & Collins designed 17 buildings on the site. With the exception of the Meeting House and Gardner Arts Centre, all the buildings are brick faced, with precast concrete vaults and exposed rough boarded concrete beams. At Spence's request Sylvia Crowe landscaped the site.
Archive Details
Material in the Sir Basil Spence Archive relates to 11 of the practice's buildings where Spence has been most involved. These are Falmer House; Physics, Maths, Engineering, Chemistry and Arts buildings; library; Gardner Arts Centre; Vice Chancellor's house; and Meeting House.
The Archive shows that the University was the first of seven new or 'utopian' universities built in England after the Second World War. It was originally planned to accommodate 3,000 students by 1968, some 17,000 less than the 20,000-student population in 2005.
The manuscript material includes a large amount of correspondence. It illustrates three key elements that informed Spence's masterplan, the first of which was the site: Spence did not want the architecture to dominate the site's natural beauty and so designed a scheme of low buildings that allowed the banks of trees to form the skyline. Secondly, he felt the scheme should reflect the character of Sussex and chose brick because it was the dominant material used locally. Thirdly, Spence was deeply concerned that students and staff should feel happy during the long construction period. In order to achieve this he created 'pockets of completeness' by finishing each building phase before starting another. Once completed each phase was connected by a series of interlocking courtyards that Spence felt added a sense of enclosure from the surrounding building work.
Archive Summary
The Sir Basil Spence Archive has 90 manuscript folders and 569 drawings relating to the University of Sussex, including designs for the Vice Chancellor's House that was ultimately not built. The 378 photographs in the Archive include a large number of contemporary images by Henk Snoek, the photographer who recorded many of Spence's projects.
This text was written as one of the outputs of the Sir Basil Spence Archive Project, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, 2005-08.
