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Sir Basil Spence
Event ID 883993
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Sir Basil Spence
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/883993
Building Notes
In 1945, Basil Spence and Partners received their first commission, to produce a master plan for the Summerfield housing scheme in Dunbar. It was one of the first Scottish schemes to be built as part of the post-war drive to deliver a national programme of mass housing. It was designed for a greenfield site, part of which was subsequently found to be unsuitable for building; further difficulties were incurred with the supply of labour and materials. This led to the scheme undergoing several alterations and delays. The development took almost 20 years to complete by which time the number of homes provided had risen to 300, 88 of which were designed by Basil Spence and Partners and built of traditional construction. The remainder were prefabricated houses of the Miller and Crudens types. The housing groups were organised in a way that was meant to encourage the development of neighbourhoods by separating them with green landscaped areas in a broadly geometric arrangement.
The Spence houses are mostly two storeys high, containing either three or four apartments, arranged in linear blocks of various lengths. Their construction is of brick, externally rendered, and with pitched timber roofs covered with concrete tiles or slates. The practice made use of modern construction materials in the concrete porch canopies supported by steel columns, and in the metal-framed windows with concrete surrounds. Four properties in the earliest blocks have porthole windows in their north elevations, a feature which was not included in the other terraces. All the houses that were designed by Spence's practice were built in the first and second phases of the development, which concluded in 1954.
Spence's successful work on this project enabled him to win further housing commissions including his first English project at Sunbury on Thames.
Archive Details and Summary
The Sir Basil Spence Archive holds one drawing for this project, an early mounted aerial perspective dated 31 January 1946, showing blocks of three storey flats, which were planned for the estate, but not incorporated in the final scheme. There is no photographic or manuscript material.
The Spence, Glover and Ferguson Collection, also held by RCAHMS, holds 106 drawings for the estate which include site plans and early perspectives as well as plans, sections, elevations and details of the different house types. There are also 21 photographs including views of proposal models and a view of the groundbreaking ceremony.
This text was written as one of the outputs of the Sir Basil Spence Archive Project, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, 2005-08.
