Birks: Building the New Universities

Shortly after The Plateglass Universities (1968), came Building the New Universities (1972).

Published four years after Michael Beloff, architectural historian Tony Birks’ research takes a more focused approach, examining the architectural and environmental impact of the seven newly created universities. Rather than documenting their academic structures, he explores the elements that make each institution’s architecture unique, such as their financing, library design, student housing, etc, areas that affect the student and community experience.

Birks writes in a systematic, formal tone, perhaps a bit dry, but his architectural expertise shines through, as he avoids Beloff’s terminology, instead referring to them simply as “the seven” (similar to the University Grants Commission terminology). Both writers, however, share a focus on their creation, spurred by the Robbins Report on Higher Education (1963) under Lord Robbins, which accelerated the establishment and construction, and the elevation of the Colleges of Advanced Technology. Birks draws architectural comparisons that help readers appreciate the scale and ambition. He likens the new universities impact, subtly, to historic cathedral-building movements, though aesthetically very different. Similarly, he references Britain’s twentieth-century new towns to highlight parallels in their planning, construction speed and national expansion. His observations are grounded, objective, and architecturally focused. For example, Keele University missed opportunities through it’s failure to appoint a consultant architect, resulting in a “physical environment so mediocre that it belies the experiment of the university itself.”

Birks also contrasts the “new universities” with the older advanced technological colleges which had decades of teaching experience and industry links. By the time he was writing, Salford had received its Royal Charter and was operating from the modern surroundings of the Maxwell Building, while the campus was undergoing rapid expansion through its second major masterplan. These colleges became universities themselves, but with far less opportunity for architectural innovation. In comparison, new universities had a blank slate to experiment, introducing modern designs and curricula aligned with contemporary pedagogical thinking. Birks offers a detailed, architectural lens on the founding of the seven new universities, capturing both their design and functional uniqueness, and highlighting how modernist architecture infuenced student and community experiences.

Birks, T. (1972). Building the New Universities (Vol. 1). David and Charles.