Morris and Steedman was an

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

firm based in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

. The firm was founded by James Shepherd Morris (1931–2006) and Robert Russell Steedman (born 1929) in the 1950s. The pair are best known for their private houses in the

modernist Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

style, built during the 1950s and 1960s, described as "arguably the most important series of 20th century houses by a single practice in Scotland". Both founders retired in 2002, although their practice continues as Morris and Steedman Associates. Several of their buildings are now

listed Listed may refer to: * Listed, Bornholm, a fishing village on the Danish island of Bornholm * Listed (MMM program), a television show on MuchMoreMusic * Endangered species in biology * Listed building, in architecture, designation of a historicall ...

, and seven of their works were included on the list of 100 best modern Scottish buildings published by '' Prospect'' magazine in 2005.

Architects

James Morris met Robert Steedman while the two were studying together at

Edinburgh College of Art Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) is one of eleven schools in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. Tracing its history back to 1760, it provides higher education in art and design, architecture, histor ...

(ECA). Encouraged by their tutor, Ian McHarg, the two went on to complete a Master of Liberal Arts course in landscape architecture at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

. Here, under the guidance of

Philip Johnson Philip Cortelyou Johnson (July 8, 1906 – January 25, 2005) was an American architect best known for his works of modern and postmodern architecture. Among his best-known designs are his modernist Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut; the po ...

, they absorbed the ideas of architects such as Ludwig Mies van der Rohe,

Marcel Breuer Marcel Lajos Breuer ( ; 21 May 1902 – 1 July 1981), was a Hungarian-born modernist architect and furniture designer. At the Bauhaus he designed the Wassily Chair and the Cesca Chair, which ''The New York Times'' have called some of the most i ...

, Richard Neutra, and the "

Case Study Houses The Case Study Houses were experiments in American residential architecture sponsored by '' Arts & Architecture'' magazine, which commissioned major architects of the day, including Richard Neutra, Raphael Soriano, Craig Ellwood, Charles and Ray ...

" of California. Both architects were elected associates of the

Royal Institute of British Architects The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three supp ...

(RIBA) in 1955; they joined in partnership, based in

in 1957.

Buildings

They obtained their first commission from Steedman's dentist in 1952, while still in their final year at ECA. The resulting house, "Avisfield", at

Cramond Cramond Village (; gd, Cathair Amain) is a village and suburb in the north-west of Edinburgh, Scotland, at the mouth of the River Almond where it enters the Firth of Forth. The Cramond area has evidence of Mesolithic, Bronze Age and Roman ac ...

(1957) was listed at category B in 2007, as "one of the first modern-movement houses to be built in Scotland". Their second house, at Kevock Road,

Lasswade Lasswade is a village and civil parish in Midlothian, Scotland, on the River North Esk, nine miles (14.5 kilometres) south of Edinburgh city centre, contiguous with Bonnyrigg and between Dalkeith to the east and Loanhead to the west. Melvil ...

, was built on a narrow site above the

River North Esk The North Esk ( gd, Easg Thuath) is a river in Angus and Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is formed by the meeting of the Water of Mark (from Glen Mark) and the Water of Lee (from Loch Lee), and enters the North Sea four miles north of Montrose. I ...

. The narrow site required the building to be

cantilever A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is supported at only one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a cant ...

ed over the slope. The Sillito House on Blackford Hill followed in 1959, with the main living space placed on the first floor to take advantage of views across Edinburgh. By 1970 around 15 houses had been completed, including Morris' own house at Fala (1970), and Steedman's in

Ravelston Ravelston is an affluent area of Edinburgh, Scotland, to the west of the city centre, the east of Corstorphine and Clermiston, the north of Murrayfield, West End and Roseburn and to the south of Queensferry Road (the A90). Ravelston is ofte ...

(1960), as well as the Principal's House at the

University of Stirling The University of Stirling (, gd, Oilthigh Shruighlea (abbreviated as Stir or Shruiglea, in post-nominals) is a public university in Stirling, Scotland, founded by royal charter in 1967. It is located in the Central Belt of Scotland, built ...

(1967), which was listed at category A in 2009. A full list of Morris and Steedman clients and projects is available from the successor practice's website. Although best known and celebrated for their early private houses, this list demonstrates the wide range of clients Morris and Steedman and their successor practice worked for over the years and the diversity of types of projects undertaken. Perhaps one of the best known of their education projects is the B-listed Wolfson Centre for Bioengineering (1969–72), the

University of Strathclyde The University of Strathclyde ( gd, Oilthigh Shrath Chluaidh) is a public research university located in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded in 1796 as the Andersonian Institute, it is Glasgow's second-oldest university, having received its royal chart ...

, situated at Taylor Street (106 Rottenrow), Glasgow. This five-storey building, including laboratories and teaching spaces, has full-height ribbed chevron-shaped concrete cladding panels and is a prominent landmark on the campus. According to the listing, services were integrated into the architecture and housed in the chevron cladding. Another example of Brutalist Modernist work is the University of Edinburgh Student Centre at Potterrow, actually built in phases and originally including 6 & 7 Bristo Square as well as the current student union facilities at 1-5 Bristo Square; the dome at Potterrow was phase III (1966–73). In 2009 the University of Edinburgh contributed to a master plan published by the city council suggesting these buildings are likely to be removed. However, the buildings at 7 Bristo Square have been refurbished and extended by the University of Edinburgh at a cost of £8m to form a Wellbeing Centre (2018-2020). The Countryside Commission for Scotland (now

Scottish Natural Heritage NatureScot ( gd, NàdarAlba), which was formerly known as Scottish Natural Heritage, is an executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government responsible for the country's natural heritage, especially its natural, genetic and s ...

) centre at

Battleby Battleby is a country house in Perth and Kinross, Scotland. It is in the parish of Redgorton, west of Luncarty and north of Perth. The 19th-century house is occupied by Scottish Natural Heritage, and is protected as a category B listed build ...

, Perth (1971), was by contrast a conservation project and involved rebuilding a ruined farmstead. This project was awarded a RIBA award in 1974 and a Civic Trust Award in 1975. The Dalmeny Tank farm project earned a European Architecture Heritage Year award in 1975, and that for Braefoot Mossmoran in Fife a European Heritage Business and Industry award in 1985. Their extension to the Princess Margaret Rose Hospital in Edinburgh (1966) was demolished after a fire in 2002.

References

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External links

Morris and Steedman Associates
{{Authority control Architecture firms of Scotland Companies based in Edinburgh 1950s establishments in Scotland Companies established in the 1950s