Ryder + Yates


Peter Yates and Gordon Ryder met whilst working for Berthold Lubetkin as part of the Masterplan team at Peterlee.
Ryder and Yates Engineering Gas Research Station KillingworthIn 1953, they met again by chance in London. Gordon persuaded Peter to move to Newcastle upon Tyne, where they formed an architectural practice; later welcoming Ted Nicklin as a partner after he joined Ryder and Yates in 1963. The company's groundbreaking approach of multidisciplinary practice included engineers (Leszek Kubik becoming a partner in 1963) and underpinned their success from an early stage. The company ethos of skill interaction was mirrored in their own office building, with no offices for partners and purposefully designed so that it couldn't expand to accommodate more than 40 staff. [ref. RIBA Journal January 1976]

Ryder and Yates’ early work included exhibition stand design, shop fronts and a number of domestic architectural commissions for private clients. Industrial commissions for organisations such as British Gas, Sterling Organics and others ensued. Social consciousness and capability were reflected in projects for the Salvation Army in Newcastle and Sunderland, a large social housing project in Kenton to the west of Newcastle Upon Tyne, in addition to local government and healthcare projects.

Building design followed a clear philosophy of paring down the brief to its simplest possible built form. Sculptural aspects were employed to make a functional feature into 'a thing of joy and beauty', such as the grassy slopes at the entrance to the Engineering Gas Research Station and the inverted storage cylinders on the roof (image above).  Local context and early recognition of the need for sustainability were demonstrated in designing buildings which took the weather into account. This was achieved by the use of devices such as glass curtain walls and specially designed aggregate panels with rainwater channels cast in their surface. [ref. RIBA Journal January 1976]

Ryder and Yates' portfolio of highly regarded buildings won numerous architectural awards  over the three decades following their inception in 1953.

'Ryder and Yates were Lubetkin's sole professional heirs - a legacy mutually recognised - and their work is a compelling reminder of Lubetkin's lesson that the poetic and the rational were inextricable impulses in modern architecture's original vision.' John Allan, Director of Avanti Architects. A book about Ryder and Yates was published as part of the RIBA 20th Century Architects Series.

Notable Ryder and Yates buildings:
  • R H Patterson Ford Dealer, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1964
  • North Kenton Housing Scheme, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1964
  • Norgas House, Killingworth, 1965
  • Engineering Gas Research Station (ERS), 1967
  • The Citadel, Killingworth, 1967
  • Sterling Organics, Dudley, 1972
  • Northern Gas Computer Centre, Killingworth, 1974
  • Salvation Army 'Men's Palace', Newcastle upon Tyne, 1974
  • MEA House, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1976
  • Studio 5, Tyne Tees Television, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1981
  • Salvation Army, Sunderland, 1982
  • Vickers, Newcastle and Leeds, 1982

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