‘Stirling's worth’: architectural quality and the Florey building, Oxford

Extract

In 1976, Gavin Stamp published the legendary review, ‘“Stirling's Worth”: the History Faculty Building’. Written from the perspective of a user of the building, it offers a critical assessment of the quality of what is recognised by architectural connoisseurs as one of James Stirling's masterpieces of avant-garde architecture; designed in the architect's early phase, 1950–74. Apart from the History Faculty building at the University of Cambridge, 1964–67, early period works also include Stirling and Gowan's iconic Engineering building at the University of Leicester, 1959–63, and the lesser known Florey building at The Queen's College in Oxford, 1966–71 [1].