Sir Denys Louis Lasdun, CH was an eminent architect, the son of Nathan
Lasdun 1879-1920, and Julie [nee Abrahams]1884-1963. Probably his best
known work is the Royal National Theatre, on London's South Bank of the
Thames, which is a Grade II* listed building and one of the most notable
examples of Brutalist design in the United Kingdom.
Lasdun studied at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in
London and was a junior in the practice of Wells Coates. Like other Modernist
architects, including Sir Basil Spence and Peter and Alison Smithson, Lasdun
was much influenced by Le Corbusier and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, but there was
a gentler, more classical influence, too, from the likes of Nicholas
Hawksmoor. Lasdun's son is the author James Lasdun.
Early work Before and after Second World War
service in the army, Lasdun worked for a while with Berthold Lubetkin's Tecton
practice, becoming a partner. In this period he also completed one private
house in Paddington in Le Corbusier's style. After the war Lasdun worked with
Lindsay Drake on the Hallfield Estate, which had been planned by Lubetkin and
Tecton in a similar patterned, tightly planned idiom to his Spa Green and
Priory Green Estates. Lasdun's Hallfield School was the first clue to his mature
style, in its use of bare concrete and angularity, as well as its more human
scale. In the 1950s he was a partner with Jane
Drew, Maxwell Fry and Lindsay Drake, in Fry Drew Drake and Lasdun. His
originality became more evident in his 'cluster blocks' in Bethnal Green. These
were a response to the critique of much post-war development for creating an
isolating environment and discouraging community. The cluster blocks grouped
flats around a central tower, and tenants were intended to be able to pick
out their own flats in the structure. The earlier blocks at Usk Street of 1954
were medium-sized, while the later block, Keeling House is high-rise.
Keeling House was sold to a private developer by Tower Hamlets council, and
is now a block of luxury flats. Lasdun made an excursion into private housing
in 1958, with his St James' Flats, the plan of which was partly derived from
social housing models such as the Narkomfin Building.
University buildings Elements of Lasdun's most famous style,
which combined cubic towers, bare concrete and jutting foyers, which was
compared by some to Frank Lloyd Wright, can be found in his first educational
buildings, the Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge and the Royal College of
Physicians in Regent's Park, the latter of which compared favourably to the
surrounding buildings by John Nash. More extensive was his design for the
University of East Anglia. This consisted of a series of classrooms and
laboratories connected by walkways, and glazed residential quarters shaped like
ziggurats. Following this acclaimed design Lasdun designed two buildings for
the University of London, one for SOAS and another for the Institute of
Education, which was particularly controversial in its insertion into the
previous street plan of squares and terraces, which it tried to replicate in
a more Brutalist manner. The expressed staircases make references to Wells
Coates and Louis Kahn and Lasdun's masterplanning created a new public
square. The building is now listed Grade II*.
Late work The most famous and disputed of the
architect's work is his Royal National Theatre on London's South Bank. Prince
Charles compared it to a nuclear power station but it was popular with other
traditionalists, with John Betjeman writing Lasdun a letter in praise of its
design. Lasdun designed the neighbouring IBM headquarters as a continuity with
the theatre. His European Investment Bank in Luxembourg was similar. The last
work produced by the firm in London was an office block called Milton Gate near
the Barbican Estate, which in its use of green-tinted glazing represented a
departure from his familiar bare concrete style.
Lasdun was awarded the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 1977. His drawings and papers
are available for consultation at the RIBA Drawings & Archives Collections.
Despite the controversy of much of his work, most of Lasdun's surviving
buildings are listed, although his 1958 Peter Robinson department store on
London's Strand was demolished in the 1990s.
Lasdun died on 11 January 2001 aged 86. Projects
Hallfield primary school, Paddington, London
Keeling House and Bradley House, Bethnal Green, east London
Peter Robinson department, Strand, London.
Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge Royal College of Physicians, London
Grade I listed The core buildings of the University of
East Anglia, Norwich University Sports Centre, Oxford Road,
Liverpool, England The Charles Wilson building at the
University of Leicester The Lasdun Building, a residential block
located in Stamford Hall, at the University of Leicester
Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, Institute of Education, and the library
of the School of Oriental and African Studies, Bloomsbury
New Court, Christ's College, Cambridge Royal National Theatre, South Bank,
London Grade II* listed The first phase of the European
Investment Bank, Luxembourg IBM Building, South Bank, London
References The Legacy of Lasdun
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography William J. R. Curtis, Denys Lasdun:
Architecture, City, Landscape Barnabas Calder, "The Education of an
Architect: Denys Lasdun in the 1930s" in British Modern