Of quadrangles, cloisters and corbels

The principle entrance of the brand new constructing, designed by Guthrie Brothers, was given a porch screened by three Gothic arches, a direct citation from W. B Armson’s authentic Boys’ Excessive College. Such was the priority for the perpetuation of faculty traditions, nonetheless, that the granite columns supporting the central arch have been faraway from the Armson constructing and integrated into the porch of the brand new faculty on Straven Street. Sceptics could regard this as myth-making, however Armson’s drawings and early pictures present the columns with their distinctive ornamental bands whereas, as we speak, the doorway of what’s now often called ‘Previous Boys’ Excessive’ on the Arts Centre of Christchurch possesses a pair of plain columns.

Maurice Guthrie, who joined his elder brother John as a associate in 1919, was an previous boy of the varsity and had skilled within the workplace of Collins and Harman, the follow Armson based in Christchurch in 1870. The incorporation of those columns into the brand new constructing would thus have had private significance as effectively. An underlying consciousness of historical past and custom is, in actual fact, a pervading attribute of Boys’ Excessive’s Fundamental Block.

It’s hardly shocking, due to this fact, that when, within the Eighties, it was proposed to demolish the Straven Street constructing as a result of it was designated an earthquake danger, the varsity’s previous boys rallied in its assist. Seismic strengthening carried out by the Ministry of Works saved the constructing from demolition and ensured its survival through the 2010 and 2011 Canterbury earthquakes. So efficient was this strengthening that it continued to be in use till the graduation of Athfield Architects’ present strengthening, conservation and refurbishment programme.

As accomplished in 1926, Christchurch Boys’ Excessive consisted of the primary vary of a bigger design that envisaged flanking wings linked by cloisters. A corridor, positioned on the axis of the primary entrance, divided the house shaped by the cloisters into two quadrangles. But, as is so usually the case in New Zealand structure, future improvement occurred in piecemeal style. The south-eastern nook block of the unique plan was added in 1927, however this was not linked to the primary constructing till 1955, when a flat-roofed hyperlink constructing was inserted, though its elevations continued the brick-and-stone vocabulary of the sooner sections. The double-level open cloisters proved impractical and have been enclosed through the Nineteen Thirties. Aside from this and the Eighties strengthening work, the constructing had modified little since its opening, though incremental alterations to satisfy altering wants had compromised the readability of the Guthries’ authentic design and deferred upkeep, particularly because the earthquakes, had created a legacy of leaks and deteriorating masonry.

Seen throughout expansive enjoying fields and framed by mature timber, the façade of Christchurch Boys’ Excessive College is a formidable sight, anchored on the centre by the doorway block surmounted by its clock tower and flanked by double-height oriel home windows. To both facet are symmetrical, double-storey ranges of lecture rooms, divided into bays by paired buttresses and terminating at both finish in projecting nook pavilions. Such rigorous symmetry would have been anathema to Victorian Gothic Revivalists however, by the Twenties, particularly in america, the Collegiate Gothic fashion had been merged with Beaux-Arts rules, mixing rational planning with conventional stylistic references. At Boys’ Excessive, the choice to rearrange lecture rooms in a linear style ensured good air flow and was a direct response to the general public well being crises of the interval. The availability of in depth north-facing home windows meant that lecture rooms have been effectively lit however recognition of the well being advantages of daylight, a characteristic extra normally related to early Modernism, virtually actually influenced this resolution. Aside from the direct citation of the primary entrance, the Guthries’ dealing with of Gothic particulars can also be of its time, particularly noticeable within the geometric abstraction of the buttresses with their surprisingly sunken pinnacles.

Though probably the most publicly seen constructing on the positioning, the Fundamental Block was, by 2017, solely considered one of a a lot bigger assortment of faculty buildings and a part of the architects’ problem was to combine it into this bigger context whereas retaining its necessary symbolic identification. Their activity was additional sophisticated by the truth that they have been coping with a constructing that was virtually a century previous, affected by earthquake harm and many years of deferred upkeep. A further constraint was the Fundamental Block’s Heritage New Zealand Class 1 itemizing and Group 1 itemizing within the Christchurch Metropolis Council’s District Plan Schedule of Historic Heritage.

Maybe probably the most outstanding characteristic of Athfield Architects’ interventions at Boys’ Excessive is how little they present. At first look, the outside appears unchanged, till you discover the renewed slate roof, the cleaned and repaired stonework and rose washers on the gable ends, the place seismic strengthening has been inserted into the roof house. The one addition has been on the south-eastern nook, the place the 1927 block has been prolonged to the west to create a classroom devoted to the instructing of Te Reo on the bottom ground, with doorways opening on to the newly landscaped riverside, and a brand new artwork studio on the higher ground, with massive, south-facing home windows and a excessive ceiling rising into the gabled roof. The addition’s standing seam metal cladding hyperlinks it to the adjoining Caddick Block, accomplished to Athfields’ design in 2021, however its type is dictated by the ridge peak and massing of the prevailing construction. The ceremonial riverside entrance to the Te Reo house is signalled by carved picket panels framing the doorways and patterns on the encompassing glass representing maihi, designed by Ariki Artistic and rendered in reduce vinyl frosting. Whereas clearly new, this addition blends with the previous and recognises the transition to the up to date architectural vocabulary of the neighbouring block.

On the inside, comparable restraint is in all places in proof. The principle entrance foyer has hardly modified besides that the picket panelling has a freshly burnished look and the entries to the primary reception on the left and the workplace of the senior management staff to the proper have been subtly widened and made clear. The college’s administrative hub now clusters round the primary entrance however, past this, the school rooms largely comply with their authentic configuration. Providers in each the cloisters and the school rooms have disappeared behind lowered ceilings, whereas acoustic panels and carpets take in sound and create an environment of ordered calm, even when thronged with boys through the changeover between courses. The readability of planning initially envisaged by the Guthries, and now realised by means of Athfield Architects’ interventions, reveal that the more-than-one-thousand-year-old system of cloister and quadrangle nonetheless has relevance in Twenty first-century New Zealand.

If the unique stairs at both finish of the Fundamental Block appear barely slender by trendy requirements, there was a noticeable lack of jostling as boys discovered their method to lecture rooms on the higher ground. That is, maybe, a mirrored image of an unconscious recognition that they’re lucky to occupy a constructing that’s steeped in historical past but meets the requirements anticipated of a contemporary faculty. The staffroom, occupying the house of the unique library overlooking the primary entry, has decoratively carved stone corbels, glowing timber beams and panelling, extra akin to an unique membership than to a workaday faculty atmosphere.

From the brink of the primary entrance, the view to the north extends throughout enjoying fields to the varsity’s World Warfare One memorial shrine, additionally by the Guthries, unveiled in January 1926, 4 months earlier than the varsity itself opened on its new web site. Turning by means of 180 levels, the opposite element of this memorial axis is revealed: the World Warfare Two Roll of Honour that frames the doorway to the corridor on the high of the primary flight of the primary stair. Such a robust conjunction of structure and panorama is uncommon in New Zealand but it surely highlights the worth of heritage retained and celebrated. By following the well-established conservation precept of doing ‘as little as potential and as a lot as obligatory’, Athfield Architects has given new life to a constructing that has nurtured generations of scholars, amongst them, Sir Ian Athfield himself.