Studio Presentation – Clinker

13.07.22 Events

One of our Senior Architects, Thomas Deckker, treated the studio to an excellent evening presentation on clinker.

 

Since the industrial revolution our building practices have been determined not only by the technology of iron and steel but by the visionary architects exploiting new materials and forms. The first iron framed buildings were mills in the Derwent Valley, now listed as UNESCO World Heritage sites as pioneer factories.

Jedediah Strutt: North Mill, Belper, Derbyshire 1819. Construction drawing of iron-framed mill construction from 1819 Rees' Cyclopedia 1819.

The spatial and constructional possibilities were developed by architects such as Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Henri Labrouste and Jean-Nicolas-Louis Durand. These forms of construction, hybrids of iron and masonry, were superseded by the widespread use of high quality steel and reinforced concrete after the Second Word War.

Giuseppe Mengoni: Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, Milan 1865 -77. The most famous iron-framed glazed public space. © Thomas Deckker 1984

We are always delighted to uncover clinker on our re-use projects, the most recent of which is 10 Greycoat Place which you can read more about here.