Students:
- Alistair Styler
- Abi Butler
- Aaryaa Belsare
- Ayisha Bawla
- David Badin
Bowland Tower:
Bowland Tower‘s main purpose is to encompass the heating/boiler tower and be used as accommodation. The original dimensions/size of the tower were determined to be 1:3 metres – one height to three widths. However, to keep in accordance with the Clean Air Act (of 1956 and 1968), the boiler house chimney needed to be 125 feet. Considering this, Epstein redesigned the tower, later agreeing to use it as residential accommodation for Bowland College. Notably, at some point, due to money issues, many of these rooms were redesigned so that two people could share a room. As the tower was being discussed, the UGC (University Grants Commission) gave the university an extra £250,000 for residential, which was used to incorporate the tower into the corner of Alexandra Square where it is now situated. Due to the tower’s slim profiles, it was decided that the residents should spread into the adjoining low-rise wings now known as Bowland East and South.
In 2013 it was announced that Bowland tower which hadn’t been used since July 2008, would have a refurbishment worth £2.5 million. The plans were to return it to being used solely to accommodate students wanting to live on campus. It planned to contain 55 rooms in the 14 stories it already had. Each flat would contain 5 rooms with suites and a kitchen/living space for the students. With the building being out of use for 7 years, the architects and contractors went in from a fire-engineered approach to ensure the building was completely safe. Wilson Mason and Partners were the architects chosen for this refurbishment, taking what Shepherd and Epsein had created in the 1960s as a boiler tower and accommodation to then creating a modern version of it that was a lot safer and solely used to accommodate students.
Epstein:
He was known for his approach to urban design and wanted to primarily focus his work on people-based, practical and modern architecture. In 1937 he apprenticed in Jerusalem under Erich Mendelsohn, but his studies were interrupted in 1938 due to the war beginning. He graduated from the Architectural Association in 1949 but continued his work there by teaching there until 1956 and then went on to become the president of the association in 1963.
He joined the Shepheard and Epstein firm in 1963, now renowned for its university designs. When the project for Lancaster University came up, Epstein started sketching the ideas for the spines and loop roads. They planned this in the centre so that over time, the university could expand but still have places that were complete for people to use. Epstein’s style was very people-based, so when taking into consideration this fact with university buildings, he assigned the top floors as accommodation, the middle for teaching and the bottom for social and retail. ‘Sir Charles Frederick Carter, the founding vice-chancellor, described the project as ‘one of the major achievements of British architecture which set new standards and precepts for all university and urban plans’.
Gabriel also worked on Liverpool’s Student Union, buildings in Warick, Keele and the Open Universities, parts of the University of Louvain in Belgium, and many others.
Shepheard:
In 1943, Shepheard’s godfather offered him a place to work on the Greater London Plan postwar development of London. Then after that, he moved on to working for the Ministry of County and Town Planning, which then led to him becoming deputy chief architect for the Stevenage Development Corporation. He started his partnership with Derek Bridgewater, but when he retired in 1962, the partnership was formed with Epstein and Hunter. Aside from working at universities, he is also well known for designing landscapes at the London Zoo, the restoration of Vanessa Bell’s garden and Bessborough Gardens. He was elected president of the Architectural Association in 1954, then later on, from 1969 to 1971 he was president of the Royal Institute of British Architects.
In 1980 Shepheard was someone who was a big influence in the architecture world and was also known for his urban designs, like his co-founder Epstein. Despite their huge success in the 80’s, the dispute between Thatcher and Heseltine meant they could no longer rely on their public sector reputation. Shepherd used his initiative and started speculating and pitching ideas for urban areas.
Dawn:
Dawn is a contemporary sculpture made by Dennis Westwood. It is made from bronze and is located in the Lancaster University library, on Floor C. The sculpture was commissioned by Mr & Mrs Fabian as a memorial piece, made in memory of Fabian’s daughter, Dawn. Therefore, the sculpture is unique and sensitive in meaning but not in style and material – as is the signature within all of Westwood’s work.
The Fabians lived in Scotland and would come and visit the art piece when travelling south.
In the past, Dawn has been “loaned” out to the Harris Museum in Preston as they loved the art piece. The Harris Museum decided to use it as an interactive artwork for the blind (because of its textural qualities, such as the engraved hatchings at the top), although the sculpture was not intended to be when it was commissioned.
There is very little information out there about Dawn and the sculptor, Dennis Westwood himself because this piece was commissioned privately, probably because of its sentimental value.
Dennis Westwood:
Dennis Westwood, born in 1928, died in 2021. Westwood was a graduate of Wimbledon School of Art and the Royal College of Art. He went on to be a teacher sculpting at the Carlisle College of Art.
He worked exclusively in bronze, and his style consists of telling a story of poetry through the composition of his sculptures, which is a very hard thing to capture in a still piece of artwork. He’s telling stories of calm and smooth poetry with such a heavy, rough metal juxtaposing his meaning to his art.
His process for sculpting starts with making a clay model, then goes on to cast them, then welding, grinding, patinating and polishing his pieces.
He first exhibited in the Young Contemporaries in London in 1954 and had many solo exhibitions throughout his career, including at The Laing in Newcastle.
His public commissions went towards universities, banks, airlines and corporate collections.
“No one piece is finite: each is only a step in the process of discovery and change” – Westwood