David Owers
David Owers is an architect, painter and teacher. Born in 1934, he has lived in Cambridge since completing graduate studies in architecture in the UK and US.
He met and worked with Jim Ede from the outset of fundraising for the development of Kettle’s Yard after the University had accepted responsibility for the future of the house and collection. David is jointly credited with Sir Leslie Martin as architects for the Kettle’s Yard extensions of 1970 and 1971.
In these interviews he refers to the challenge of working for two well informed clients, the University and Jim Ede, suggesting that Jim was an interesting and frequent communicator, doubtless because he wished to envisage the built effect of proposals as drawings were developed.
After some years as partner with Sir Leslie Martin and Partners, the Owers + Lumley practice was established. The consultancy continued as David Owers Associates from 1989, focussing on architecture and urban design. Work included around sixty projects, mainly university, museum and residential schemes, half of which were built. This occurred in parallel with advisory appointments concerned with master plan briefing, design and implementation for five universities and similar institutions on both sides of the Atlantic.
Visiting professorships at several universities followed eight years as visiting lecturer at Cambridge. Published articles that relate to Kettle’s Yard include Cambridge Review, vol. 91, May 1970, and Architectural Review, January 1971.
Interview location – the painting studio in David’s interlinked office and home directly south of the Backs in Cambridge.
Interviewed: 2008-05-08By: Robert Wilkinson
Length: 4 hour 3 mins
Media: On 3 tracks on CD with full transcript
Interview id: MYKY11
Viewing art from chairs and the long white sofa
View: Transcript Theme: House as artwork
One or two paintings would be at a very low level. For instance, the Wallis' have always been at a level, and you can often sit to absorb the paintings and dwell, to enjoy the paintings, not from standing eye level, but from sitting eye level, which encourages contemplation. The great majority of displays of this sort, if you like, lack places to sit and it is very nice. In our extension, the piece of furniture I enjoy most, almost, is the long white sofa on the north wall downstairs and usually has only one painting behind it so there is a lot of wall space which is relatively empty. It works wonderfully for concerts when the piano, or there is a quartet playing and particularly the younger members of the audience, well the students I've seen, and they gravitate to this sofa and sort of bunch up and recline, they are practically horizontal. Part of the enjoyment of Kettle's Yard is to do with the fact that you're encouraged to linger and you are seeing it in a different way, I think, and the way that even a painting sitting on the floor can look extremely successful and can be observed in a different way.
Direct link to audio: .mp3
Twin client for the extension - Jim and the University
View: Transcript Theme: House as architecture
There was a very interesting symmetry, if you like, because neither Jim Ede nor the University was the client, there was a twin client. So there was this symmetry between responding to the committee on the one hand, who I suppose ultimately had a final say, but there was also, could be, three or four times weekly response to a question, or a letter even, from Jim directly, saying that this or that was of interest to him. There was a period, looking back through the files, I found I'd written something like fifteen letters to Jim in response to material that he'd put down in print, handwritten notes, sometimes of several pages, sometimes deeply felt, agonizing almost over certain aspects of what he might or might not have and there would be consistencies and inconsistencies over a period of time but it was necessary to respond. To a large extent it was possible to convince all and sundry that one could get quite a substantial building on this site of a certain form and that was generally backed.
Direct link to audio: .mp3
Developing the brief, transition from the cottages to the extension
View: Transcript Theme: House as architecture
[The brief for the extension] It was relatively minimal and it was to do with maximizing the use of the site within certain budgetary constraints with a clear need for wall hang space effectively, for the display of sculpture and the incorporation of furniture and the artifacts which were very much part of the ambiance of the house. A key decision, really, taken early on was that the existing arrangement whereby you rang the doorbell, you pulled the rope and entered the house up two steps almost into the sitting room of the converted cottages... A key decision really was that that should remain the way the visit started so the intention established fairly early on was that the house itself should be seen. There are three levels to the house, move through that, then move into the new building via that middle level of the house because there was a bridge across the passageway which is the public approach to the front door and, at that point, it would become then a question of transition. You're moving from relatively small spaces and this is transition where the natural light levels would be changing, the spaces would be changing but that transition should be as gentle as possible.
Direct link to audio: .mp3
Directing the fall of natural light in the extension
View: Transcript Theme: House as architecture
In order to get the roof lighting evenly illuminating the wall, it needed to be inset a certain amount and it needed to be protected from direct source of light so there needed to be baffles introduced to shelter the upward view against glare and to also direct the light towards. The effect of this, by having two at the lower level, the effect is the light can illuminate the walls on either side and at the upper level it can also illuminate walls on each side and between the two there is the double height space which prevents what I've called the 'goldfish bowl effect' of a very dark ceiling with highly illuminated side walls which is often the situation you see even in some classically derived galleries, certainly some of the nineteenth century, can have dark, slightly oppressive ceilings and the attempt was to open up the centre so that there is an even illumination base.
Direct link to audio: .mp3
