Ryder and Yates: Twentieth Century Architects

In this exclusive extract from Twentieth Century Architects: Ryder and Yates by Rutter Carroll, we introduce a selection of the Modernist commercial and industrial buildings designed by the North East practice.

The architecture of Gordon Ryder and Peter Yates can be found in a diverse range of buildings of extraordinary maturity within the modernist canon. This is architecture of distinction, though not well known – perhaps due to its location in the North of England – but it clearly demonstrated the artistic and theoretical ideals of the Modern Movement.

Ryder and Yates demonstrated innovative thought, combined with an unshakeable belief in the validity of their ideals that was at once responsive to its location and to the demands of its strongly regional client base. The result was an architecture that was regional, yet also strongly national and even international in the scope of its ideas and in its calibre.

The design of each building type, even with the varying briefs and locations, shared a common approach. All their buildings were site-specific, responding to the particular character of the area in which they were to be built. The materials used were indigenous to the location, whether bricks, stone or timber, and could be used in a vernacular fashion.

Key buildings

Norgas House   Photo: Photo-Mayo Ltd.

Norgas House, completed in 1965, and the Gas Council's Engineering Research Station, finished in 1967, represented the high point of the practice's output and gained them national status through a series of architectural awards. Both buildings were precise in their relationship with the newly restored landscape, a flat site on the south side of a great artificial lake in Killingworth, Northumberland.

Engineering Research Station  Photo: Photo-Mayo Ltd.

The Engineering Research Station is Ryder and Yates' best known building, with its uncompromising design and clarity of form producing a piece of pure architecture. A series of highly sculptural roof towers contained water tanks and extract flues.

On-line Inspection Centre  Photo: Photo-Mayo Ltd.

The On-line Inspection Centre (OLI) at Cramlington, built in 1979, was unique in Ryder and Yates’s work in that it was located within the shell of an existing building.

Amberley Building  Photo: Photo-Mayo Ltd.

Two high-rise office blocks forming the Amberley Building were built in 1967 for Northumberland County Council, and formed the first part of the Citadel, as the town centre of the new Killingworth Township was known. A feature was a concealed boiler house which was denoted externally only by a composition of earth sculpture, three white chimneys and two rectilinear "conning towers".

Find out more

Twentieth Century Architects: Ryder and Yates by Rutter Carroll is the first ever comprehensive account of the outstanding work of Ryder and Yates, chronicled in this new book by Tyneside architect Rutter Carroll. Formed by Gordon Ryder and Peter Yates and heavily influenced by Le Corbusier and Berthold Lubetkin, the practice dominated the development of modern architecture in the North East of England from the early 1950s, where their visually astounding modernism put them in stark contrast to their contemporaries.

Structured by building type, the book attempts to reveal the principles of design particular to the practice of Ryder and Yates. It tells how, from its formation in Newcastle in 1953, it quickly established a reputation for innovative and highly individual buildings situated almost exclusively on Tyneside. Discussing key works in the Ryder and Yates portfolio such as Norgas House and the Engineering Research Station in Killingworth through to MEA House and the Salvation Army hostel, it reveals the level of influence this practice had over the region.

Lavishly illustrated by images and plans from the Ryder & Yates private archive, this book is an essential read for architects, students, architectural historians and modernist enthusiasts interested in learning more about one of the 20th century's most intriguing British practices. 

To order a copy of this book, please visit RIBA Bookshops.

Copyright RIBA Publishing April 2009

Additional publications

Also available to buy now from RIBA Bookshops:

Twentieth Century Architects: Powell & Moya

Twentieth Century Architects: Aldington, Craig and Collinge

Related NBS information:

Articles:

• Powell and Moya: Oxbridge and beyond
• Peter Eisenman: What makes great architecture?

Selected links:

• 20th century architecture
• Contemporary architecture

BackToTop