J Gordon Ryder
J Gordon Ryder Dip TP RIBA OB
Born in 1919, Gordon Ryder read architecture at Kings College, Durham University, qualifying in the same year as his close friend Peter Smithson. In 1948, he joined Berthold Lubetkin who had been appointed Architect/Planner for Peterlee new Town in County Durham and it was here he met his future partner, Peter Yates. For Lubetkin and his team, the next two years were to be stifled with post war bureaucracy and resistance to the ideal of the creation of a progressive and humane architecture. In 1950, having exercised a quality of imagination and principled judgments that they where not prepared to compromise further, Lubetkin and his whole team resigned. Lubetkin left architectural practice, Gordon Ryder set up his own practice and Yates moved to Paris.
In 1953 the Ryder and Yates Partnership was formed, concentrating initially on private houses, exhibition stand designs and shop fronts. Their first major commission for a Ford dealer’s showroom (1964), for which there had been no precedent. The extraordinary use of space, structure and materials, colour arrangement and graphics demonstrated the architect’s skill and control, producing a beautiful yet simple building.
It rapidly became obvious to them that the only way to design buildings was in conjunction with other people who were very much part of the design operation, leading to the formation of a multi-disciplinary practice of architects and engineers.
The success of this approach was demonstrated most convincingly in their design for their Northern Gas Board offices, Norgas House, completed in March 1965. Norgas House was the first major building at Killingworth New Town, on the outskirts of Newcastle, establishing the practices reputation for innovative and highly individual modern buildings and winning the RIBA Award in 1966. The building demonstrated the controlled quality of the work of Ryder and Yates, subtly related to levels, textures and movement. The use of colour, of gently moving water, the reflection in glass and imagery was executed with masterly assurance and deceptive simplicity.
A second commission in Killingworth, for British Gas, led to the design of the Engineering Research Station, winner of the Financial Times Industrial Architecture Award for 1968 and an RIBA Award in 1969. This building demonstrated their uniqueness, inventiveness and innovation in a way that challenged traditional architecture and engineering ideas. The Engineering Research Station, became arguably their best-known building. Its uncompromising design concept led to the building being described by the Architects’ Journal as ‘pure architecture’.
Ryder and Yates’ approach to architecture was to redefine building design so that it became non-representational and that philosophy was extended throughout the next two decades not only in social housing, particularly the development at North Kenton for the city but also major buildings for the Salvation Army, Tyne Tees Television, MEA House and Vickers Armaments, buildings that have redefined and reshaped the architectural landscape of Newcastle.
Gordon Ryder never lost sight of his commitment to modernism, the second generation of the modern movement and pursued it with vigour even after most of his contemporaries had rejected it.
Privately Gordon was first and foremost a family man. He and his wife Mary were accomplished sailors, spending many wonderful holidays sailing around the Mediterranean with their four children. In retirement Gordon was able to spend more time with Mary, their children grandchildren and great grandchildren, and enjoying his other great passions of model making and music.
Gordon was wonderful host and teller of anecdotal stories, which he constantly embellished, much to the delight of his listeners. Charmingly flirtatious, highly intelligent with a marvelous sense of humour, Gordon did not suffer fools gladly, but to his many friends and acquaintances he offered true friendship and generosity. He continued to live life to the full long after his retirement, never losing his passionate interest in architecture or the firm, which has continued much in the spirit upon which it was founded.
Rutter Carroll, Newcastle, 2011.
Born in 1919, Gordon Ryder read architecture at Kings College, Durham University, qualifying in the same year as his close friend Peter Smithson. In 1948, he joined Berthold Lubetkin who had been appointed Architect/Planner for Peterlee new Town in County Durham and it was here he met his future partner, Peter Yates. For Lubetkin and his team, the next two years were to be stifled with post war bureaucracy and resistance to the ideal of the creation of a progressive and humane architecture. In 1950, having exercised a quality of imagination and principled judgments that they where not prepared to compromise further, Lubetkin and his whole team resigned. Lubetkin left architectural practice, Gordon Ryder set up his own practice and Yates moved to Paris.In 1953 the Ryder and Yates Partnership was formed, concentrating initially on private houses, exhibition stand designs and shop fronts. Their first major commission for a Ford dealer’s showroom (1964), for which there had been no precedent. The extraordinary use of space, structure and materials, colour arrangement and graphics demonstrated the architect’s skill and control, producing a beautiful yet simple building.
It rapidly became obvious to them that the only way to design buildings was in conjunction with other people who were very much part of the design operation, leading to the formation of a multi-disciplinary practice of architects and engineers.
The success of this approach was demonstrated most convincingly in their design for their Northern Gas Board offices, Norgas House, completed in March 1965. Norgas House was the first major building at Killingworth New Town, on the outskirts of Newcastle, establishing the practices reputation for innovative and highly individual modern buildings and winning the RIBA Award in 1966. The building demonstrated the controlled quality of the work of Ryder and Yates, subtly related to levels, textures and movement. The use of colour, of gently moving water, the reflection in glass and imagery was executed with masterly assurance and deceptive simplicity.
A second commission in Killingworth, for British Gas, led to the design of the Engineering Research Station, winner of the Financial Times Industrial Architecture Award for 1968 and an RIBA Award in 1969. This building demonstrated their uniqueness, inventiveness and innovation in a way that challenged traditional architecture and engineering ideas. The Engineering Research Station, became arguably their best-known building. Its uncompromising design concept led to the building being described by the Architects’ Journal as ‘pure architecture’.
Ryder and Yates’ approach to architecture was to redefine building design so that it became non-representational and that philosophy was extended throughout the next two decades not only in social housing, particularly the development at North Kenton for the city but also major buildings for the Salvation Army, Tyne Tees Television, MEA House and Vickers Armaments, buildings that have redefined and reshaped the architectural landscape of Newcastle.
Gordon Ryder never lost sight of his commitment to modernism, the second generation of the modern movement and pursued it with vigour even after most of his contemporaries had rejected it.
Privately Gordon was first and foremost a family man. He and his wife Mary were accomplished sailors, spending many wonderful holidays sailing around the Mediterranean with their four children. In retirement Gordon was able to spend more time with Mary, their children grandchildren and great grandchildren, and enjoying his other great passions of model making and music.
Gordon was wonderful host and teller of anecdotal stories, which he constantly embellished, much to the delight of his listeners. Charmingly flirtatious, highly intelligent with a marvelous sense of humour, Gordon did not suffer fools gladly, but to his many friends and acquaintances he offered true friendship and generosity. He continued to live life to the full long after his retirement, never losing his passionate interest in architecture or the firm, which has continued much in the spirit upon which it was founded.
Rutter Carroll, Newcastle, 2011.
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