Leicester Engineering Department Building

Part of a series of technically informative monographs embracing a broad spectrum of internationally renowned buildings, this work deals with the engineering department building of Leicester University, and includes a comprehensive set of technical drawings and working details. While still in partnership with James Gowan, the late James Stirling's strong personal style is first seen to emerge in the extraordinary Leicester Engineering Department building. Its slender, almost transparent, tower rises above the projecting forms of its wedge-shaped auditoria. This constructivist inspired ensemble is then juxtaposed with the industrial toughness of the engineering workshops whose saw-tooth factory glazing cuts across its roof at an acute angle, setting up a powerful and contradictory geometry. An in-depth analysis is provided by Malcolm Higgs who worked in Stirling's office during the design and construction of the building in the early 1960s, and watched its progress at first hand.