Alison and peter smithson biography
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Alison and Peter Smithson: The Duo that Led British Brutalism
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Wife and husband pair Alison (22 June 1928 – 16 August 1993) and Peter Smithson (18 September 1923 – 3 March 2003) formed a partnership that led British Brutalism through the latter half of the twentieth century. Beginning with a vocabulary of stripped-down modernism, the pair were among the first to question and utmaning modernist approaches to design and urban planning. Instead, they helped evolve the style into what became Brutalism, becoming proponents of the "streets in the sky" approach to housing.
Born in Stockon-on-Tees, Peter began studying architecture in Newcastle, then part of Durham University, but was interrupted in his studies bygd the outbreak of the Second World War. Enlisting in the army and fighting as an engineer in India and Burma, he met Alison Gill upon his return to Durham University after the war ended. After the c
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Alison and Peter Smithson
English architects
Alison and Peter Smithson | |
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Peter and Alison Smithson in 1990 | |
| Born | (1928-06-22)22 June 1928 (1923-09-18)18 September 1923 Sheffield, Yorkshire, England |
| Died | 16 August 1993(1993-08-16) (aged 65) 3 March 2003(2003-03-03) (aged 79) London, England |
| Occupation | Architect |
Alison Margaret Smithson (22 June 1928 – 14 August 1993) and Peter Denham Smithson (18 September 1923 – 3 March 2003) were English architects who together formed an architectural partnership, and are often associated with the New Brutalism, especially in architectural and urban theory.[1][2]
Education and personal lives
[edit]Peter was born in Stockton-on-Tees in County Durham, north-east England,[3] and Alison Margaret Gill was born in Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire.[4]
Alison studied architecture at King's College, Durham in Newcastle (la
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They met at what is now Newcastle University’s School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, then King’s College, Durham. They married on graduating and maintained a personal and professional partnership for over 40 years. Indeed, they are unique in architecture in that they are spoken about as a single entity.
The couple were thrust to premature architectural stardom in 1950 at the tender ages of just 21 and 26 respectively, when they won the competition to design Hunstanton School. Having worked in the schools' division of London County Council Architects’ Department for less than a year, winning the competition allowed them to set up their own practice.
Architectural historian Reyner Banham called them ‘the bell-wethers [sic] of the young throughout the middle Fifties’. They were certainly at the centre of attention in the world of architecture, being involved with the Independent Group at the Institute of Contemporary Art in London (the so-called ‘fathers of Pop’), as well