About this talk

Running time: 18 minutes

Birkin Haward graduated from the Architectural Association School in 1969. Joanna van Heyningen, his wife and partner, was taught by him at Cambridge. They started to practise together in 1982, after Birkin had been for twelve years with Norman Foster.

They have a great respect for understanding how traditional buildings are put together though they seek to design in a modern idiom, using materials and components appropriate to each given purpose.

For their talk they have chosen to look at some of their recent school and university work in Britain.

One of the ideas which recurs is that of precedent. They are not afraid to re-use or re-work an idea. A traditional form to which they are attached is the centralised top-lit plan.

Another preoccupation is the idea of the inclusive envelope into which everything fits - as opposed to the tendency towards dispersal of the modernist tradition.

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