Schlumberger Building Building Sights

Archive

programmes chosen by experts.

For this Collection, Janet Street-Porter has selected

programmes about post-war architecture.

More programmes on this theme,

and other BBC Four Collections, are available on BBC iPlayer.

PIANO MUSIC

PLAYS

Looking back, each period in the architectural history

had its own heroes,

and they were the people who stretched the existing technology

and possibilities

up to their limits

and, sometimes, much beyond.

This is why we admire Egyptian monuments as much as Eiffel Towers.

And this is why I so much admire this building.

This is a building which is daring, and there are not very many of those.

When I first visited Schlumberger building,

I tried to be very critical.

But I found it very difficult not to

like the little monster,

and I still do.

Schlumberger is a research centre for testing oil-drilling techniques.

It went up in 1984

and is one of the architectural landmarks of the decade.

Mind, a construction like this

isn't just a feat on the part of the architect, Michael Hopkins.

Think of all the engineering skills which go to make it up.

The clients were visionary in paying for such an adventurous design,

especially as the client can't be sure how plans will turn out -

for all good new architecture is a calculated risk.

It is an act of bravery to get such a building up in Britain today.

Encouraged by the heritage industry and the promptings of Prince Charles,

we have developed a phobia about

anything new.

Schlumberger seems even more heroic

when you consider its traditional setting.

It is very close to the spires of Cambridge,

where there is a conservation order on every stone.

Of course, the old is not always delightful,

even if

we have constructed a myth

whereby all old buildings are seen as exceedingly comfortable -

old masterpieces of design. I disagree.

The old can be as uncomfortable as the new.

Anyway, we shouldn't be thinking

in terms of new and old buildings, but good and bad.

Schlumberger is a good building and, paradoxically,

it's closer to traditional Cambridge than you might at first think.

It breaks the East Anglian skyline in a patterned and dramatic way,

just like the best traditional buildings.

Notice, too, how many Cambridge buildings

make a virtue of having an open space in their centre -

the courtyard.

The Schlumberger has made a virtue of central space, too.

But it's a functional use.

With labs and offices running along the sides,

the heavy work is carried on in the centre.

Under that great membrane of a roof is the test floor,

where researchers try out new oil-drilling techniques.

But give or take a few very well soundproofed sheets of plate glass,

these industrial aspects of the building

are mixed in with the social, like the canteen.

This is not at all oppressive, and seems to lighten the workload,

making for a very good atmosphere.

A big contributing factor to these nice atmospherics

is the Teflon-coated glass fibre roof

which, by diffusing light,

makes it soft and liveable with.

It gives a feeling of space and airiness - even playfulness.

That's the sort of atmosphere I'd find conducive to hard work.

And the offices, running along the sides,

are well served with light too,

which the electronic blinds help to control.

It's the small aspects of the building which I very much like, too.

Most things about it have a good finish.

There is no sloppiness,

even with the nuts and bolts.

It's all very solid, in spite of its looking like a travelling circus.

Yes, it does look like a big top. That's all part of its humour.

A

building ought to have

a sense of humour.

But a building with a sense of humour is still serious.

These aren't mere punning references to circus guy ropes,

but

solid-steel masts and anchors,

following all the correct principles

of a properly balanced stanchion structure.

Last year's hurricane didn't trouble Schlumberger.

There are more and more new buildings in

Cambridge -

many of them a spin-off from university research

and new hi-tech silicon industries.

But very few of these constructions

reveal Schlumberger's spirit of adventure.

They are basically unimaginative box shapes

into which everything is packed away.

However, some Cambridge buildings have departed from a simple box.

James Stirling's history faculty is much more inventive with the form.

There's nothing boxed-in about Schlumberger.

I'd like to see more buildings like it,

but there are few to touch its sense of drama.

In the meantime, we have the prospect of the building itself growing.

It's been left deliberately open-ended,

so that extensions can be easily added.

I said it was a little monster, and

it can get bigger, multiply.

It never sleeps. It's alive.