Leaving behind his job at Camden’s architect department and his self-designed London home, Gibson moved to Shetland, setting up an award-winning practice and realising a significant and sensitive body of work
Richard and Victoria Gibson moved to the Shetland Isles in 1968. I am not exactly clear what initially drew them to the isles other than having a spirit of adventure. In the early years they presented a refreshing challenge to the embedded conventions and values of pre-oil Shetland. What is certain is that they brought colour to Shetland in both an abstract and literal sense.
At the time, Shetland was already a busy place with a thriving fishing industry. But no one had dreamt of the investment that was to come, and the Sullom Voe Oil Terminal was only in gestation. In later years Richard delighted in telling of the wheeling and dealing in the planning of the terminal that proved to have a massive impact on the isles.
Educated at the Architectural Association and the Slade School of Art respectively, Richard and Victoria left their self-designed London house to venture north, Richard swapping his job in Camden’s architect department for the role of deputy county architect on Shetland.
A couple of years later, in 1972, he took the risk of setting up what proved to be a professionally well-respected and enduring island-based practice in Lerwick: Richard Gibson Architects, renamed Née Gibson Architects after his retirement in 2016. Its varied body of work included urban and rural schemes for a local housing association, such as the award-winning John Jamieson Closs and Grödians. Local authority projects included civic, education and care-related buildings. Hamnavoe Primary School was the earliest nationally acclaimed work. Conservation work was approached with respect, accomplishing sensitive community reuse for listed buildings such as Haa houses and water mills.
Richard had a rather casual unhurried air, never pushy and always courteous and calm. He managed a remarkable alchemy of successfully entrusting employees with freedom to design and run projects with care. Like the qualities of the man, the buildings his practice produced were understated and well considered. His design approach was primarily one of integration and context rather than the more rigorous modernism of his London peers. If there is value in making comparison, then his design approach was closer to that of his late friend Ted Cullinan.
Richard’s 50 years of practice in Shetland left well-crafted buildings dotted throughout the isles. They make a significant contribution to the townscape of Lerwick and Scalloway today. This is, of course, a more meaningful legacy for local people than the approval of architectural peers but Richard had that too, frequently collecting prizes for design, including the RIAS lifetime achievement award in 2010. The Vadill housing scheme in Lerwick was to be the last project that Richard personally ran, and is a fine testimony to his skill in resolving a complex and awkward site in the town with a deceptively simple radial layout.
Richard and Victoria were very much a team. Throughout their long marriage they supported one another in his practice and her successful knitwear business. They had six children: Emma, Carn, Fred, Ben, Amy, and Rock who sadly died. The family messed with boats and played barefoot at their off-grid weekend ‘Tardis’ of a bunkhouse on the west coast of Shetland. Much of this converted ruined croft house was hand-built over a decade. The result is a building that has a delightful light touch – a credit to a decent, capable man who lived a good life.
Nick Brett is a former co-director of Richard Gibson Architects