File:James stirling, florey building, oxford 1966-1971 (5122476997).jpg

florey building, oxford, england 1966-1971 architect: james stirling, 1926-1992.

the courtyard, and here's what you see of it without prior arrangements, is what this building is really about. yes, it is typologically related to oxonian quads but the quad is an enclosed space because its origins are religious. the old schools were built for theological studies and as has long been the belief of the church, you must shut out reality if you are to come any closer to god. in that regard, the very fabric of oxford is similar to the ancient cities of iran: from satellite, it looks more like isfahan than it does any of its neighbouring, english towns.

and so, stirling who was a modernist at the time, a modernist with a critical eye to history, did a fragment of a courtyard, open to the river where you can enjoy yourself. enjoyment was never the original purpose of oxford but it must have been high on the list for stirling along with any other emancipating quality he was able to bring to architecture. the connection to the river has since been closed off for what looks like reasons of security (though I couldn't figure out who's afraid of whom in oxford these days), and stirling, the brilliant modernist, abandoned modernism. was he so talented he was bored, or did he fail?

we know his three famous red-tiled buildings all began disintegrating the moment keys were handed to the clients. if you are reading this in L.A. or spain, you'll understand that a leaking roof can be annoying, but under British weather a leaking roof is a crime against humanity and in stirling's buildings, everything leaked. when it finally stopped raining, the pipes would take over.

his contractors were in over their heads and over budget too, the buildings were much too complicated for either. what stirling was asking was more than could be delivered at the time in england but it is doubtful if he cared. his aim was to rewrite the history of British architecture and you are not going to let a plumber get in the way of that.

making architectural history as an architect is not all about clever formal solutions, it is about showing where society is going and stirling showed it in a way that made society want to go somewhere else, if only to stay warm and dry. that doesn't mean that his proposals weren't right, only that their execution wasn't. the open courtyard remains an intense space, bringing students so closely together it is almost voyeuristic. complaints were filed, naturally, about the lack of privacy, but I can't help thinking that stirling was simply welcoming timid students into the sixties, and maybe pushing them a little. to me, the florey looks like the perfect frame for what we hope our university or college years to be today and much more so than the older oxford buildings - or for that matter any new student accomodation I can think of.