Wright's approach to design comprised a polarity of modes, ranging from axial symmetry, employed in public buildings, to free and spontaneous expression of use, route and place, in the private house. Together these showed a deep awareness of the Classical tradition, and personal study, unusual for his time, of oriental place-making. An idiosyncratic attitude to nature and existence lay behind this, often embodied in a ‘high place’.

This paper explores how the new library for Cork Regional Technical College, Ireland, by de Blacam and Meagher, becomes a critique of the contemporary architecture and institution of the library. Its relationship with the evolving typology is excavated.

A concise report about the landform, architectural, and detail design concepts for the recently completed modernisation of the Bishopsfield Housing Estate in Harlow, Essex. The objective was to develop proposals for new interventions which are directly based on, and give emphasis and new life in a contemporary way to the architectural and urban design conceptions of the original architects and town planner.

The first part of this essay analyses in detail key aspects of The Hill House, in order to reveal the organising aesthetic principle that governs it. It would seem that a simple yet infinitely complex system of proportional measure binds a few natural and geometric symbols into a complex whole of profound poetic significance. The second part outlines the possible implications of this discovery for the interpretation and history of the house as an individual work of art, as well as of Mackintosh's oeuvre as a whole. These will be the subject of future research.

This paper considers the relationship between atrium design and different climatic conditions in Europe. The analyses may be used to inform design proposals for buildings which seek to optimise the thermal buffering characteristics of atria. Particular attention is given to certain parameters witl a potential to form climatic responsive and energy efficient atrium buildings.

A series of changes is identified in the iconography of the English courtroom, which seems to indicate a gradual liberalisation in the architecture of justice. However, it is suggested that this masks a deeper continuity in the layout and space configuration of the law court building, which relates to the fundamental social programme which it has to fulfil. Configurationallyspeaking, the space of the courtroom, which appears so powerfully to integrate the actors in the courtroom drama, turns out to be ‘virtual’. Although the actors can see and hear each other perfectly well, they actually inhabit separate and mutually-exclusive physical domains. The locus of spatial integration is to be found in the backstage corridors of the law court which, it is argued, is the place where legal negotiations take place. Thus, though it would be theoretically possible to reproduce the social programme of the law court in a virtual reality courtroom, this would be at the expense of a vital generative function served by the building, which is to ensure that specific legal conflicts are resolved in the interests of a wider social justice.

In connection with the Scharoun Exhibition held at the RIBA last February, Peter Blundell Jones and Nasser Golzari organised a one-day symposium about Scharoun and his influence. Among the invited speakers were Friedrich Mebes, whose contribution we published in the first issue of arq, and Günter Behnisch, the leader of the most distinguished German firm that could be said to follow the Scharounian spirit today. Behnisch & Partners first rose to world fame with the Munich Olympic buildings of 1972, but it has gone on to complete such prestigious works as the new Bonn Parliament, the Frankfurt Post-museum and the University Library in Eichstätt. Behnisch was invited to speculate on his relationship with Scharoun, and more generally on the master's influence in Germany today.

In February of this year an exhibition of the work of Hans Scharoun devised by Nasser Golzari and Peter Blundell Jones was put on at the RIBA in London, in connection with which was held a Scharoun Symposium on 17 February. This included two German speakers sponsored by the Goethe Institute. Günter Behnisch spoke as the leading practitioner in what could be called a Scharounian direction. Also invited was Alfred Schinz, one of the most articulate of Scharoun's assistants from the rich period of the early 1950s, when Scharoun devised the prototypes for all his later work. Schinz's health unfortunately let him down, and he suggested that his place be taken by Friedrich Mebes, an architect friend from Essen who had been a student of Scharoun in Berlin in the 1940s and who still practises rather well in a Scharounian direction. With some help from Schinz, Mebes prepared what turned out to be an inspiring and informative paper, and it is printed below slightly shortened and with some tidying of the translation. Peter Blundell Jones

This paper describes the structural principles of cantilevered staircases. A brief history is given of stone staircases built in England, and a number of particularly interesting examples are discussed in detail. Four new staircases, built during the last decade, are described, demonstrating the relevance of these long established principles to contemporary construction.

In this article the design of Mendelsohn's famous Expressionist tower at Potsdam is shown to have been shaped by the cosmology of Albert Einstein informed, however, by the apparently conflicting occult philosophy of Rudolf Steiner.

This paper is based largely on a document presented at a conference celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Martin Centre, held at the University of Cambridge in October 1992. It takes as its point of departure Sir Leslie Martin's essay, ‘Architects’ approach to architecture' (Martin, 1967). Commencing with his argument that ‘intentions and processes’ in architecture are more fundamental than form, this paper questions past attempts at relating history to architectural process, and outlines the potential offered by more recent advances in technology – especially, photogrammetry and the computer – for achieving a more objective and broader base for architectural criticism and consensus.

This paper describes the results of measurements taken in a number of step wells, well houses, and bath houses in northern India, between March and April 1995. There is a discussion of the combination of thermally massive structures and evaporative cooling effects which characterise the buildings (some of which are over 500 years old). All of the structures examined continue to provide comfortably cool interiors in the heat of summer.

Parametric design is a paradigm for the more effective use of computers in architectural design and practice. Rather than focus on design as a holistic process of formal synthesis, the more localised issue of design development will be discussed, especially with regard to the resolution of complex geometry. The triforium of Gaudí's Sagrada Familia is taken as a case study. Parametric variation is used to define surface geometry consistent with the surviving fragments of plaster models, and what we know of Gaudí's technique.

The study of metaphor provides valuable insights into the workings of technology and how technology brings about change. This paper considers some current influential thinking about metaphor and how this impinges on understandings of technology and design.

Developing a new building type raises questions of accommodation appearance and cost. This paper sets in context the emergence, development and decay of one highly specialised and localised building type – the purpose-built coroner's court which appeared in the metropolis in the 1870s. Surviving references suggest how far the existence and the details of the coroner's courts owed to a particular and short-lived combination of procedural requirements, administrative wrangles and social pressures.

This paper investigates Gottfried Semper's use of comparative science as a basis for a theory of architecture. It traces Semper's reliance on the works of Jean-Nicholas-Louis Durand and the zoologist Georges Cuvier. Following Michel Foucault's argument that the emergence of comparative science entails a decisive transition in modern thought, the paper explores the origins and implications of Semper's comparative theory of architecture. Through this focus, the paper attempts to identify and explore an essential tension inherent in Semper's work between, on the one hand, his sensitive recognition of the symbolic significance of architecture, and on the other, the proto-positivism implied in his ‘science of invention’. This dilemma still conditions our contemporary architectural culture, making the study of Semper's complex and conflicting ideas more relevant than ever.

At a time when the architectural profession in the United Kingdom and elsewhere is undergoing considerable change, a clear understanding of the relationship between the services that architects can, and want to, provide and those desired and valued by our clients is vital. The architect's unique skill has been described as that of design. What does that mean today? We may all believe in the value of design but we must be sure that we can afford to offer such services at a realistic cost if we are to stay in business. This paper seeks to discover the linkages between the cost of design and its value.

The Museum of Natural History in London exemplified the state of environmental services when it was built in 1873. Although the admirable qualities of the building's natural lighting have sometimes been noticed, other aspects of its environmental design have drawn little comment. This paper explores the fabric of the building behind the scenes, related to the integral construction for ventilation. Recent on-site investigations under the floor of the basement, within the attics and elsewhere, reveal the former presence of a comprehensive fresh-air ventilation system of surprising versatility before the advent of electrically-driven fans. Archival documents provide details. The design and performance of such fresh-air systems inform us about the evolution of building services and about the practice of architecture and engineering as distinct professions. And the forgotten knowledge revealed may serve to help in the design of natural and low energy systems for large buildings today.