Morris and Steedman was an

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

firm based in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. The firm was founded by James Shepherd Morris (1931–2006) and Robert Russell Steedman (born 1929) in the 1950s. The pair are best known for their private houses in the

modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

style, built during the 1950s and 1960s, described as "arguably the most important series of 20th century houses by a single practice in Scotland". Both founders retired in 2002, although their practice continues as Morris and Steedman Associates. Several of their buildings are now listed, and seven of their works were included on the list of 100 best modern Scottish buildings published by '' Prospect'' magazine in 2005.

Architects

James Morris met Robert Steedman while the two were studying together at

Edinburgh College of Art Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) is one of eleven schools in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. Tracing its history back to 1760, it provides higher education in art and design, architecture, histor ...

(ECA). Encouraged by their tutor, Ian McHarg, the two went on to complete a Master of Liberal Arts course in

landscape architecture Landscape architecture is the design of outdoor areas, landmarks, and structures to achieve environmental, social-behavioural, or aesthetic outcomes. It involves the systematic design and general engineering of various structures for constructio ...

at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

. Here, under the guidance of

Philip Johnson Philip Cortelyou Johnson (July 8, 1906 – January 25, 2005) was an American architect who designed modern and postmodern architecture. Among his best-known designs are his modernist Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut; the postmodern 550 ...

, they absorbed the ideas of architects such as

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Ludwig Mies van der Rohe ( ; ; born Maria Ludwig Michael Mies; March 27, 1886August 17, 1969) was a German-American architect, academic, and interior designer. He was commonly referred to as Mies, his surname. He is regarded as one of the pionee ...

Marcel Breuer Marcel Lajos Breuer ( ; 21 May 1902 – 1 July 1981) was a Hungarian-American modernist architect and furniture designer. He moved to the United States in 1937 and became a naturalized American citizen in 1944. At the Bauhaus he designed the Was ...

Richard Neutra Richard Joseph Neutra ( ; 8 April 1892 – 16 April 1970) was an Austrian-American architect. Living and building for most of his career in Southern California, he came to be considered a prominent and important modernist architect. His most ...

, and the " Case Study Houses" of California. Both architects were elected associates of the

Royal Institute of British Architects The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three suppl ...

(RIBA) in 1955; they joined in partnership, based in

in 1957.

Buildings

They obtained their first commission from Steedman's dentist in 1952, while still in their final year at ECA. The resulting house, "Avisfield", at

Cramond Cramond Village (; ) is a village and suburb in the north-west of Edinburgh, Scotland, at the mouth of the River Almond where it enters the Firth of Forth. The Cramond area has evidence of Mesolithic, Bronze Age and Roman activity. In modern ...

(1957) was listed at category B in 2007, as "one of the first modern-movement houses to be built in Scotland". Their second house, at Kevock Road, Lasswade, was built on a narrow site above the

River North Esk The North Esk () is a river in Angus, Scotland, Angus and Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is formed by the meeting of the Water of Mark (from Glen Mark) and the Water of Lee (from Loch Lee), and enters the North Sea four miles north of Montrose, Ang ...

. The narrow site required the building to be

cantilever A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is unsupported at one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a cantilev ...

ed over the slope. The Sillito House on

Blackford Hill Blackford Hill is a hill in Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland. It is in the area of Blackford, between Morningside, and the Braid Hills. Together with the Hermitage of Braid, it comprises the Hermitage of Braid and Blackford Hill ...

followed in 1959, with the main living space placed on the first floor to take advantage of views across Edinburgh. By 1970 around 15 houses had been completed, including Morris' own house at Fala (1970), and Steedman's in Ravelston (1960), as well as the Principal's House at the

University of Stirling The University of Stirling (abbreviated as Stir or Shruiglea, in post-nominals; ) is a public university in Stirling, Scotland, founded by a royal charter in 1967. It is located in the Central Belt of Scotland, built within the walled Airth ...

(1967), which was listed at category A in 2009. A full list of Morris and Steedman clients and projects is available from the successor practice's website. Although best known and celebrated for their early private houses, this list demonstrates the wide range of clients Morris and Steedman and their successor practice worked for over the years and the diversity of types of projects undertaken. Perhaps one of the best known of their education projects is the B-listed Wolfson Centre for Bioengineering (1969–72), the

University of Strathclyde The University of Strathclyde () is a public research university located in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded in 1796 as the Andersonian Institute, it is Glasgow's second-oldest university, having received its royal charter in 1964 as the first techn ...

, situated at Taylor Street (106 Rottenrow), Glasgow. This five-storey building, including laboratories and teaching spaces, has full-height ribbed chevron-shaped concrete cladding panels and is a prominent landmark on the campus. According to the listing, services were integrated into the architecture and housed in the chevron cladding. Another example of Brutalist Modernist work is the University of Edinburgh Student Centre at Potterrow, actually built in phases and originally including 6 & 7 Bristo Square as well as the current student union facilities at 1-5 Bristo Square; the dome at Potterrow was phase III (1966–73). In 2009 the University of Edinburgh contributed to a master plan published by the city council suggesting these buildings are likely to be removed. However, the buildings at 7 Bristo Square have been refurbished and extended by the University of Edinburgh at a cost of £8m to form a Wellbeing Centre (2018-2020). The Countryside Commission for Scotland (now Scottish Natural Heritage) centre at Battleby, Perth (1971), was by contrast a conservation project and involved rebuilding a ruined farmstead. This project was awarded a RIBA award in 1974 and a Civic Trust Award in 1975. The Dalmeny Tank farm project earned a European Architecture Heritage Year award in 1975, and that for Braefoot Mossmoran in Fife a European Heritage Business and Industry award in 1985. Their extension to the Princess Margaret Rose Hospital in Edinburgh (1966) was demolished after a fire in 2002.

References

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External links

Morris and Steedman Associates
{{Authority control Architecture firms of Scotland Companies based in Edinburgh 1950s establishments in Scotland Companies established in the 1950s