The House as Manifesto: Inigo Jones to Richard Rogers
Part One of a Four Session Short Course
Tuesday 28 April 2015 6.30 - 8.30pm
Reynolds Room, Burlington House.
£190.
Friends of the RA book first
Explore four centuries of landmark English houses through which architects have expressed their particular values and sensibilities and changed the direction of architectural history, with Dr Alan Powers.
Tue 28 April, 5 May, 12 May and 19 May.
6.30pm—8.30pm each day.
In a ‘manifesto house’, architects announce the values and sensibilities that define their style. From the 17th century to the present day, ‘manifesto houses’ have often changed the direction of architectural history.
This four-part course will begin with the formal classicism of the 17th and early 18th centuries, and will then explore the greater freedom of Robert Adam and his contemporaries in evoking the ancient world with complex spaces. Then come the Victorians, for whom home was a sacred principle, with new types of client and a ransacking of the styles of far-off places and times. This will be followed by a discussion of the sobering effect of Modernism in the 20th century which, contrary to common belief, far from banished the magic and mystery of architecture and the interior.
Bringing both familiar and unfamiliar examples to life through the interpretation of the design intentions of architects and clients, these lectures are aimed at audiences with relatively little background in architecture. The main examples studied will be in the London area and many are open to the public and easily visited.
A glass of wine will be served after the lecture.
This is part of a series and cannot be booked individually.
Dr Alan Powers is a writer and teacher of English art and architecture, with a particular interest in the history of houses. From his specialised field as the former chairman of the Twentieth Century Society, he looks to the past to find patterns of continuity that are often overlooked.
He is a frequent contributor to Country Life and The Spectator, and has curated a number of exhibitions at institutions such as the Design Museum and the Imperial War Museum, including ‘Eros to the Ritz: 100 Years of Street Architecture’ at the RA in 2012 and ‘Edward Bawden Storyteller’ at Morley College, London in 2014. Dr Powers was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) in 2008.