Commonwealth Institute

Commonwealth Institute

Cultural exhibition and conference centre on Kensington High Street, W8, built 1960–62 with a small addition of the early 1970s in the north-west corner of the site. Designed by Robert Matthew, Johnson-Marshall and Partners (job architects Peter Newnham and Roger Cunliffe), with major engineering contribution from A J and J D Harris (partner in charge James Sutherland). Exhibition designer was James Gardner. The building was disused from 2005 and exhibition layouts have been much changed from the original.

Exterior

The main exhibition building is the primary focus of architectural interest. It stands on a low brickwork plinth with concealed blockwork walls clad on all four sides with opaque turquoise heat-soaked toughened glass panels (replacing the original blue-grey Hills patent glazing in 2001). The exhibition building roof is of complex section, consisting of a central hyperbolic paraboloid flanked by four warps of 'bastard' hyperbolic shape. The central warp is constructed of shell concrete and the outer warps of pre-cast radiating concrete ribs, covered by woodwool slabs. The whole was originally clad externally with sheet copper donated by the Northern Rhodesian (now Zambian) Government, replaced in 2001 with long strip copper sheets laid to follow the rooflines. In situ concrete 'legs' buttress the centre warps and project at the front and back of the exhibition building.

Attached to the west of the main exhibition building is a linear administration and conference building aligned north to south, of three storeys with a frame of reinforced concrete, brickwork cladding, and flat roofs. This is of lesser architectural interest.

A covered approach walkway from Kensington High Street forms part of the site, together with the grass sward, water channel and flagpole area in front, all landscaped by Sylvia Crowe. The site is included on the Register of Parks and Gardens at Grade II.

Interior

The main entrance to the exhibition building from Kensington High Street leads into a dark vestibule with a wall of coloured glass mosaic panels, and thence by ramp to a circular platform central to the building in both plan and section. Stairs lead up and down to three main levels of exhibition space, the whole designed to emphasize the effect of the roof and to make exhibition spaces allotted to the different Commonwealth countries equal in value and clearly visible. The exhibits were removed in 1996.

Interconnections are made on the west side with rooms in the administrative block, notably the art gallery at upper level which has a deep 'egg-crate' ceiling and a north-facing window calculated for natural lighting. Beneath the art gallery is a cinema/auditorium with raked seating. The administrative entrance is on the west side of the building, where the 'prow' of the exhibition area cuts into and through the administration block. The axis of the exhibition building is at 45° to that of the administration block.

History

The building was constructed 1960–62 as successor to the Imperial Institute (founded 1887 and housed in the South Kensington building designed by Collcutt). The expansion of Imperial College, a neighbour to the Imperial Institute, combined with dramatic changes in Imperial circumstances, led the Government to reconsider the Institute's role. The Commonwealth Institute Act of 1958 formally changed the name of the building and brought modern education and exhibition to the fore of the Institute's aims. The building was funded by the Government and built economically, subsidized by gifts in kind from Commonwealth countries.

Robert Matthew, Johnson-Marshall and Partners were appointed architects without competition. The brief for a 'tent in the park' formed within an innovative hyperbolic paraboloid concrete shell roof was drawn up 1958–60. Work began on site in 1960; the original plan to prefabricate the roof off-site proved too problematic, so it was constructed in situ by John Laing Construction Limited. The building was opened by Her Majesty the Queen on 6 November 1962.

In 2000, ownership of the building and site was transferred from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to a newly formed Trust managed on behalf of the High Commissioners to London of the Commonwealth nations. Significant works were undertaken in 2000–1 by Avery Associates, including repair of the roof, which suffered from significant leakage, and re-cladding of the exterior curtain wall. In 2002, the Commonwealth Institute decided to dispose of the building and site and to create a Centre for Commonwealth Education in partnership with Cambridge University's Faculty of Education.

Significance

The Commonwealth Institute has architectural and engineering significance as the first major British 'swept' roof, contributing to the international traditions of dramatic roof profiles set by Nowicki, Saarinen and Stubbins in the USA, Frei Otto in Germany and Felix Candela in Mexico. The structural system used for the Commonwealth Institute roof is internationally unique. Its shape represents the first major British use of the hyperbolic paraboloid favoured by Candela and is probably the largest span covered by such a roof at that date.

The building also has major cultural and historical significance as a new concept in educational and exhibition techniques, carrying on the Festival of Britain traditions of relating architectural form and display. It was Britain's first major public building since the Festival. Special attention was paid to lighting, ease of access and environmental services, and the building was fitted out with gifted materials such as timber, copper and hide from Commonwealth countries. It continued the traditions and aims of the Imperial Institute, to which it was the successor, while radically revising the way in which they were presented in accordance with the changing concept of the Commonwealth in the early 1960s.