Greenhouses
A study of Clifton Nurseries by Terry Farrell and Partners, 1980–1988
Not Much More than a Barn
Designed for Clifton Nurseries in 1980, Terry Farrell’s Covent Garden greenhouse was always intended as a temporary structure, but this did not mean, at least in Farrell’s eyes, that it needed to look temporary. Now demolished, the building was placed in proximity to Inigo Jones’ St Pauls church, and mirrored its pediment form. However, only half of the pediment covered the building behind, giving the building the illusion of being larger and more permanent than it actually was. It appears from the notes on the original concept sketches of the project by Farrell (below), that time and budget constraints were a primary impetus for the development of the form, as he writes — “put all the effort into Post-Modern Screen / Arch” concealing the “long, off the peg, simple lean-to greenhouse” which is “rather demure and hidden.”
Whilst this building does use the temple form to give grandeur to its functionality as a greenhouse, this does not appear to be its primary function. More apparent is the building’s desire to ‘fit in’ with its surroundings, to harmoniously use the classical style, because this was the context in which it was located. This building is not primarily self-referential to its internal function, but to its immediate context, that being the context of Inigo Jones’ St Paul’s Church, the great Neo-Classical icon. There is a fitting metaphorical game being played here with the way in which architects describe their own designs. The story goes that in 1631 Inigo Jones was briefed for the new church by Lord Bedford that he “would not have it much better than a barn,” to which Jones’ famously responded, “then you shall have the handsomest barn in England.” This metaphor is mirrored with Farrell’s creation, however this time with a greenhouse instead of a barn. One might imagine the conversation between Clifton Nurseries and Terry Farrell following a similar line. Whether knowingly or not, the building once again plays out a story of metaphor which is present in its direct context, the desire to make utility ‘handsome.’
It is clear that the same budgetary constraints which applied to Inigo Jones in the seventeenth century also applied to Farrell in the twentieth, each time resulting in a new approach to the use of the Classical portico form. Because of this constraint Inigo Jones’ St Paul’s church was drastically different from any building built at the time and has stood as one of the most recognisable symbols of the Neo-Classical period in the UK. Although no longer in existence, the fleeting presence of Farrell’s Clifton Nurseries in this context has been recorded and championed as one of the most recognisable symbols of its own period, that of twentieth century British Postmoderism.
The main aspect of the design is to make the greenhouse appear much larger than it actually was. This is a form of trickery or sleight of hand which is common in the history of the Classical style, Palladio’s Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza, 1584 and Bramante’s Santa Maria presso San Satiro in Milan, 1482 are just two well-known examples of the use of such techniques to make a space feel much larger than it is in reality.
There is also a metaphorical layering of the widely understood construction origin of the column outlined clearly by John Summerson, when referring to the earlier works of Marc-Antoine Laugier, that columns originated from the primitive hut form which used tree trunks to support a rudimentary pediment. This theory is nodded to by both Jones’ Neo-Classical church at a time when these origin theories were becoming more prevalent with a desire for purity of historic reference; and by Terry Farrell in his design for a garden centre. In fact, Farrell’s replacement of two of the central columns with bare frames references this quality once more by acting as climbing frames for the growth of real plants. Metaphor in this instance manifesting itself back into reality.
The decoration and form of the greenhouse pediment seems to refer both to St Paul’s and to the broader historic language of ancient Classicism. This can be read through the lens of George Hersey’s works as relating to the proto-classical symbolism associated with the ancient Greek ritual of assembling plants and fruits on the table top of the altar after the ritual of sacrifice. In this contemporary setting, the entablature is an ensemble of plant metaphors, colours and the company name which is known for its flower arrangements. Being a commercial enterprise, Clifton Nurseries uses ornaments which Hersey would describe in the classical world as an advertisement for the rituals happening within, as actual advertisement to sell products contained within.
The building existed as a strange balance of layered references symbolising the immediate context in its general location and orientation; the greenhouse typology synonymous with gardening and plants in its material selection; and the ancient Greek temple form in the metaphorical incorporation of elements such as metopes and triglyphs. It arguably benefits from the inclusion of each one of these complex and mature references to create a rich new architectural language, in much the same way that Inigo Jones did some 350 years earlier. This resulting unique style is identified by Charles Holland as the “largely forgotten marriage of high-tech and historical strains of Postmodernism.”
It is the sheer quantity of games and layers of historic contextual meaning which have made this temporary building stand as a prime example of successful British Postmodernism, and its reaction against the preceding Modernist style.
References:
Charles Jencks, The Language of Post-Modern Architecture, 6th Edition (London: Academy Editions, 1991).
George L Hersey, The Lost Meaning of Classical Architecture: Speculations on Ornament from Vitruvius to Venturi (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1998).
John Summerson, The Classical Language of Architecture (London: Methuen, 1963).
Marc-Antoine Laugier, Essai Sur l’architecture, ed. by Wolfgang Herrmann and Anni Herrmann, 1977 Trans (Los Angeles: Hennessey & Ingalls, 1753).
Robert Venuri, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture, 2nd Edition (London: The Architectural Press, 1977).
Sir Banister Fletcher, Palladio: His Life and Works (London: G. Bell and Sons, 1902).
Umberto Eco, ‘Rethinking Architecture: A Reader in Cultural Theory’, in Function and Sign: The Semiotics of Architecture, ed. by Neil Leach (London: Routledge, 1997).
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