Title & Author:

Learning from the Tropics / [presented by] Maxwell Fry (Fry, Drew & Partners).

Publication:

London, England : Pidgeon Digital, 1979.

Description:

1 online resource (1 video file (29 minutes)) : sound, color

Notes:
Maxwell Fry -- West Africa -- Wesley Girls' Secondary School, Cape Coast -- West Africa -- Staff House, Mfantsipim -- West Africa -- School Girls -- West Africa -- Climatic Regions. From 'Tropical Architecture' By Fry, Drew (Batsford 1956) -- West Africa -- Aburi Secondary School, Gold Coast -- West Africa -- Sun Control Diagrams. From 'Tropical Architecture' By Fry, Drew (Batsford 1956) -- West Africa -- Shade Diagram. From 'Tropical Architecture' By Fry, Drew (Batsford 1956). Shady College Hall -- West Africa -- Shade & Air Diagram. Aburi Girls Secondary School -- West Africa -- Perforated Screens, Queen Elizabeth College -- West Africa -- Sun Protection. Roofs -- West Africa -- Balcony At Abigadel Teacher Training College -- West Africa -- African Art Influence -- West Africa -- Ibadan University. Plan Model. Study-Bedroom Block -- West Africa -- Ibadan University Library -- West Africa -- Ibadan University. Library Balcony Corridor. Cross Section -- Chandigarh -- Judge's House -- Chandigarh -- Two Women's Colleges -- Chandigarh -- Two Examples Of Housing -- Chandigarh -- Workers' Housing -- Chandigarh -- House 9 -- Chandigarh -- High Court By Le Corbusier -- Chandigarh -- Nurses' Home.

Summary:

The late Maxwell Fry - pioneer of the Modern Movement in architecture in Britain and Royal Gold Medallist- was working in West Africa in the 1940s and 1950s with his wife/partner Jane Drew. New conditions made the traditional, annually-renewed, mud and thatch of African villages inappropriate. New materials had to be considered. They experienced for the first time the difficulty of protecting buildings from the sun, colossal heat, extreme humidity and near horizontal heavy rain. In the process of dealing with these and other problems, they developed a series of rule-of-thumb solutions which have since become the norm for tropical building. This produced a quite new kind of architecture that responded to tropical conditions, harnessing nature even for 'air-conditioning' a university library. In Chandigarh, where Fry and Drew worked with Le Corbusier in the 1950s, the same principles applied, except that here the sun proved a greater enemy than humidity. Additionally, there was a dust-laden breeze to contend with. Fry and Drew's recipe for a future in which energy sources are drying up is that we must learn to obey Nature's laws. "We have come to the end of the era of the faceless box completely supplied with artificial climate and artificial light".

Subject:

Architectural design Africa, West.
Architectural design India.
Design architectural Afrique occidentale.
Design architectural Inde.
Architectural design.
India.
West Africa.

Added entries:

Fry, Maxwell, 1899-1987, narrator.