Bowellism is a modern architectural style heavily associated with

Richard Rogers Richard George Rogers, Baron Rogers of Riverside (23 July 1933 – 18 December 2021) was a British architect noted for his modernist and Functionalism (architecture), functionalist designs in high-tech architecture. He was a senior partner a ...

. It is described as a transient architectural and flippant style that was influenced by

Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...

and Antoni Gaudi. The style consists of services for the building, such as ducts, sewage pipes, and lifts, being located on the exterior to maximise space in the interior.

Origin

The style originated with Michael Webb's 1957 student project for a Furniture Manufacturers Association building in High Wycombe.Simon Sadler, ''Archigram: Architecture Without Architecture'', Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT, 2005
p. 23, 1.11, 1.12 caption
calling bowellism a "micromovement". Webb coined the term in response to a comment on his design by Sir Nikolaus Pevsner in a 1961 lecture, in which he recalled hearing the words: "within the schools there are some disturbing trends; I saw the other day a design for a building that looked like a series of stomachs sitting on a plate. Or bowels, connected by bits of gristle". Thus this inside-out style was termed 'Bowellism' because of how it recalled the way the human body works. One of Webb's proposed structures based on bowellism was the Sin Centre for

Leicester Square Leicester Square ( ) is a pedestrianised square in the West End of London, England. It was laid out in 1670 as Leicester Fields, which was named after the recently built Leicester House, itself named after Robert Sidney, 2nd Earl of Leicester ...

. The concept was a geodesic structure that supports a glass skin. Some scholars cite

Reyner Banham Peter Reyner Banham Hon. FRIBA (2 March 1922 – 19 March 1988) was an English architectural critic and writer best known for his theoretical treatise ''Theory and Design in the First Machine Age'' (1960) and for his 1971 book ''Los Angeles: ...

as the first to use bowellism for the new architectural fascination with visible circulation, one that focuses on a building's skeletal services as well as its "bloodstream" or the moving cars and crowd, cascading down from the top to the main foyers - all visible through the structure's geodesic skin. Banham is also credited for introducing the term "topological" to refer to an aspect of

brutalism Brutalist architecture is an architectural style that emerged during the 1950s in the United Kingdom, among the reconstruction projects of the post-war era. Brutalist buildings are characterised by Minimalism (art), minimalist constructions th ...

. Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano continued the style with the design of the Pompidou Centre in Paris, described as a "vast exercise in Bowellism", so the floor space of the interior could be maximised to fully appreciate the exhibitions.Richard Rogers
Architects, From Here to Modernity

at the Wayback Machine, 15 March 2004.

Examples

* The Pompidou Centre in Paris (1977) by Rogers and Renzo Piano. * The Lloyd's building in London (1978) also by Rogers. * The Central Library of Rotterdam (1983) by Jaap Bakema. * The Channel 4 headquarters,

124 Horseferry Road 124 Horseferry Road is the headquarters for the British television broadcaster, Channel 4. It is located in the City of Westminster, London and includes 100 residential apartments. The building was opened on 6 July 1994 and was designed by Rich ...

, London.

Gallery

File:Pompidou center.jpg, Pompidou Centre, Paris File:Lloyds building taken 2011.jpg, Lloyd's building, London File:Rotterdam bibliotheek.jpg, Rotterdam Library, Rotterdam

References

Architectural styles 20th-century architectural styles {{Architecture-stub

Origin

Examples

Gallery

See also

References