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Summary

Description

Robert Matthew Johnson-Marshall and Partners, 1970, (John Richards, partner-in-charge). Long straight high level open bridge spanning Airthrey Loch N to S set in picturesque campus parkland (planned by Ed Hillyard, landscape architect). U-section reinforced concrete with later timber deck. 2 large, narrow splayed supports. Large plain recessed panels with bevelled edges to exterior of parapet, similar smaller panels to inward face of parapet.

Statement of Special Interest

An axial bridge which cuts a bold straight line across the natural form of Airthrey Loch and an important component of planned campus layout, providing a key visual and physical link between the central area of the campus and the residences on the N bank.

Robert Matthew Johnson-Marshall and Partners, were among the leading architects' practices in Scotland dominating the architectural scene from the late 1950s onward. With Robert Matthew as their founder, and with later influential partners such as John Richards they produced some of the most highly regarded buildings of the post-war period in Scotland, the UK and abroad. They made a particular impact on institutional architecture and are responsible for important university schemes at Dundee, Edinburgh, York, Bath and Coleraine.

Stirling University was the only 'New University' to be built in Scotland and was part of the wider government agenda to develop and expand tertiary education near small urban centres across the UK, leading up to and the following recommendations made by the seminal Robbins Report Higher Education of 1963. Stirling was chosen along with Sussex, Warwick, Kent, York, Essex, Lancaster, East Anglia, all of which were set in parkland. The planning and design of Stirling University benefited from being conceived in the later 1960s once lessons of the first university schemes had been learned. For example, at Stirling, the perceived elitist agenda of the first schemes modelled on the Oxbridge formula of cloisters and segregated social and departmental areas (as pre-conceived by a master-plan), had expanded to a completely flexible, non-rigid set of buildings which could accommodate shifting patterns of inter-departmental teaching and allow for more casual social interaction among the student population.

Ed Hilliard was the landscape architect for the University of Stirling Campus between 1967 and 1972 (apart from Pathfoot building). During his work on the campus he conducted detailed site analysis prior to the completion of the design. His designs at Stirling were amongst his first works, and he went on to work alongside RMJM at The Royal Commonwealth Pool in Edinburgh (separate listing at category A) and on designs for Cumnock.

The original concrete deck was replaced in the later 20th century with timber boards covered with a waterproof membrane.

References

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