12 Court in Brighton where a mural by McKnight Kauffer was projected on to the walls of the entrance hall. The end of the 1920s saw a break through in the understanding ofthe nature of polymers leading to the emergence of a series of tailor-made plastics. Vinyls, acrylics, Cellophane and Nylon were among the many materials which were promoted for the building market often using well known architects such as Maxwell Fry or F. R. S.Yorke to give their name to designs incorporating the new materials. Casein, a milk-based polymer, was used for a wide range of handles and bathroom fittings in mottled colours while the dark laminates based on phenolformaldehyde were supplanted by a brightly coloured range using urea or melamine-formaldehyde resins. Reputedly the first use of ureaformaldehyde sheets was for the wall linings to several studios in Broadcasting House where, because of an edict issued by the Controller banning the use of imported goods, Wells Coates, Raymond McGrath and Serge Chermayeff had to find a substitute for the German manufactured Trolit which led to their discovery of Bead produced by Beetle Products of Oldbury and believed to be so named because it "beat all". Many materials found new uses in the inter-war period and fine glass filaments were produced for the first time in a form suitable for reinforcing plastics. Early attempts to use these in laminates failed since the polymers were thermosetting exothermic materials which in curing precipitated water. In order to control the steam produced they were manufactured at high pressures which the delicate glass fibres could not withstand. By the end of the 1930s coldcuring polyesters had been discovered and were developed rapidly under wartime conditions to provide military necessities including radomes and boats. Manufacturers of many other polymers, such as polyvinylchloride for electrical cable insulation, also benefited and by the end of the war there was a plastics industry with enormous spare capacity. Like the aluminium producers, plastics manufacturers turned to the building industry as an outlet for their surplus goods and often materials such as GRP transparent sheeting, which when first produced had a life of only two or three years, were foisted on an unsuspecting industry and gave the materials an undeserved reputation as cheap and unreliable substitutes for more traditional materials. There were, however, those who were enthusiastic about plastics in their own right. The Hertfordshire schools programme concentrated on prefabricated systems using simple frameworks with infilling panels which could be interchanged and rearranged to give the full flexibility in initial layout and subsequent use. Bruce Martin, known for his work on modular co-ordination, was in the architects department and saw plastics panels as an ideal material. He worked on the development of Holoplast panel systems one inch thick which could be used for internal and external panels, filledwith sand to provide sound insulation and which, according to Singer, even had heating elements incorporated in them. Sadly Summerwood school, which Martin designed, burnt down but any other examples of the use of these panels would be of considerable significance even if only so that they can be recorded. The use of plastics for cladding came to be of major significance at least in the minds of designers. The benefits of lightweight self-supporting and ostensibly low maintenance walling were self evident but the practical problems of fire Summerwood School using Holoplast panels. By courtesy of Bruce Martin. resistance and large mouldings were more intractable than was realised at first. By the early 1960s there was considerable interest in the development of threedimensional forms often inspired by car and lorry bodies. Mickleover Transport produced a series of relay cabins for British Rail which was developed as a two storey version for a telephone exchange at Tyseley and for laboratories in the Arctic. At about the same time John Davidson in the GLC Architects Department was very keen to develop a fully industrialised housing system, partly because a shortage of professional staff was delaying the housing programme. A prefabricated steel frame with lightweight cladding was seen as the solution and, various options having been considered, the SFl system was selected. This used a GRP panel manufactured by Indulux and four buildings (all now demolished) were constructed. While not of major architectural value they were seen at the time as heralding a technical breakthrough and are thus of considerable interest to the industry as well as in the history oflocal authority housing and for that reason it has been possible to save some panels for the Science Museum collection. Possibly the most architecturally significant building to use GRP cladding is Sir James Stirling's extension to the Olivetti training college at Haslemere in Surrey. Here, again, other materials were first considered but the benefits of plastics shells outweighed other considerations and were used to provide an extruded image consistent with the brief which required flexibility to extend the two arms to an unlimited degree. The detailing to achieve this smooth image relied on a simple butt joint between the panels which was reported as a source of problems from the outset and alterations have been considered which would change the profile, thus detracting from the original concept. Decorative laminates boomed in popularity in the post-war period. Warerite's successful lamination of a Nicholas Bentley cartoon for the Coronation Scot in 1939 is believed to be the first of its kind and after the war a wider variety of panels was produced ranging from maps to murals. Repeat patterns used offset litho and silk-screen printing techniques but individual panels were actually hand crafted and despite their impersonal finish are indeed works of art worthy of preservation. Unfortunately, th<';Yare only too often CONfEXT49 t
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