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Summary

Description

Robert Gardner-Medwin. 1961. 7-bay ribbed, rectangular-plan, flat-roofed Brutalist lecture theatre set on cantilevered angled base rising from central half-cylindrical concrete plinth. Timber shuttered concrete base with fanned shuttering detail; 7 vertical tapering concrete ribs to each side infilled with painted diagonal timber cladding. In situ cast concrete escape stair to S with plain metal balustrades and timber handrail; part polished stone plinth forming bottom step. Later additions of temporary building and railings bike shed to NE.

Partially glazed walkway to main flat-roofed rectangular-plan brick classroom block to N. Crush Hall with timber ribbed detail desk to interior.

INTERIOR: boldly detailed interior decorative scheme survives largely intact. Exposed concrete structural ribs with decorated integral perforated timber acoustic panels. Lowered section of ceiling to centre. Shallow stage with vertically aligned timber panelling to rear behind modern white boards. Large cast concrete lectern with tapered detail to one side. Seating dates to 1996.

BOUNDARY WALLS: shuttered concrete boundary retaining walls surrounding lecture theatre. Paved area below enclosing former pond area to base of plinth (now infilled).

Statement of Special Interest

A fine and early example of Brutalist architecture in Scotland surviving in near its original condition, contemporary with other Brutalist lecture theatres such as the Architectural School Cambridge and a wave of Brutalist campus architecture across North America.

The lecture theatre is a good example of form and function being illustrated by the use of materials. The structural elements of the building such as the exposed ribbed beams illustrate the internal structure and sculptural engineering qualities. Different elements of the building are subtly emphasised by use of different materials, such as finely textured shuttered concrete for the structural ribs and diagonal timber cladding for the infill panels. When built the central support leg rose from a water filled pond, which cleverly emphasised the lightness of the cantilever over it.

Robert Gardner-Medwin (1908-1995) was educated at Liverpool University. He was Chief Architect and Planning Officer to the Department of Health for Scotland in 1947, succeeding Robert Matthew. The Engineering Building was his first for the University of Edinburgh; he is thought to have executed several more commissions within the Kings buildings throughout the 1960s. Gardner-Medwin returned to Liverpool to chair the architecture school at Liverpool University where he maintained strong links.

The building is a rare example of sculpturally expressive lecture theatres in Edinburgh, others were the Morris and Steedman lecture theatre at the Princess Margaret Rose Hospital (now demolished) and the George Square Theatre by RMJM (1963) built as part of the podium design for George Square. Sir Basil Spence s paired lecture theatres at Glasgow Royal Infirmary of the 1970s are much plainer by comparison.

The glazed link was formally fully glazed but has been re-clad in uPVC panels solid to the lower level.

Statutory address revised in 2020. Previously listed as 'Mayfield Road, Edinburgh University Kings Buildings, Hudson Beare Lecture Theatre, Department of Engineering, including hard landscaping and retaining boundary walls'.

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