Architecture at Cambridge, The Leslie Martin Years, 1956-1973 - Professor James Campbell

On Saturday 1 and Sunday 2 November the Faculty held a highly successful conference in the Sandy Wilson lecture theatre, looking back at the years under the leadership of Leslie Martin. The Faculty has never had a proper history and this event is part of that larger ambition to begin to put one together. The conference was the brainchild of Nick Bullock, and ably managed by Dr Natcha Ruamsanitwong who wrote her PhD in the Department on Leslie and Sadie. The various sessions were chaired by Faculty past and present, including Flora Samuel, James Campbell, and Holly Smith.

The flavour of the event was somewhere between an alumni reunion and an academic conference. Tim Brittain Catlin and Nick Bullock provided contextual papers, but the rest of the papers were strongly based around personal experiences and reflections. The speakers included Peter Carolin, Robin Webster, John Sergeant, Alex Reid, David Mellor, Nick Ray, John Meunier, John Ellis, Oliver Hawkins, Peter Dickens, Dean Hawkes, Phil Steadman, Marcial Echenique, Paul Richens, Randall Thomas, Rob Howard, Richard Hill, James Dunnett, Steve Greenberg, Bob Barnes and Peter Dickens. So much was discussed over the two days that it is difficult to summarise here. Leslie Martin took over the school when it was threatened with closure, something that, as Andrew Saint pointed out, seems to have happened disappointingly frequently in its history. The rescue on this occasion had been orchestrated by Noel Annan. Under the rescue plan, Leslie formed the diploma and the school became fully recognised by the RIBA. Leslie seems to have taught on the Diploma.

Many of the speakers had done undergraduate and then left to finish elsewhere and their recollections were of someone who was so busy he was rarely seen, although much respected. One interesting and surprising theme that emerged was the importance of Peter Eisenmann who arrived as a PhD student and was put in charge of first year. The Eisenmann first year was then further developed by John Meunier, with young undergraduates being given copies of Eisenmann’s PhD to pore over. Another strong theme was that by the mid-1960s students were beginning to rebel against the strongly Corbusian ideas still current in architecture. Colin Rowe was also cited as leading figure.

In research terms, on the Sunday, the papers showed how some of the initiatives started under Martin developed into important strands of research in the 1970s and 1980s. Much of the conversation went on in the library over lunch on both days and an excellent dinner in Queens’ on the Saturday night. With the success of this event covering the 1960s, we are considering whether similar events might be considered for other decades, starting with the 1970s. The organisers are now looking at possible routes to publication.