Sir basil spence biography of williams
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Basil Spence
Scottish architect
Sir Basil Urwin Spence, OM OBE RA (13 August 1907 – 19 November 1976) was a Scottish architect, most notably associated with Coventry Cathedral in England and the Beehive in New Zealand, but also responsible for numerous other buildings in the Modernist/Brutalist style.
Training
[edit]Spence was born in Bombay, Bombay Presidency, British India,[1] the son of Urwin Archibald Spence, an assayer with the Royal Mint. He was educated at the John Connon School, operated by the Bombay Scottish Education Society, and was then sent back to Scotland to attend George Watson's College in Edinburgh[2] from 1919 to 1925. He enrolled at Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) in 1925, studying architecture,[3] where he secured a maintenance scholarship on the strength of the "unusual brilliance" of his work. He won several prizes at the college, and meanwhile carried out paid work drawing architectural perspectives for practis
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Basil Spence: Radical or Reactionary?
A talk bygd Keith Williams
6 June 2023 1830hrs
At The Gallery EC1 only. We will record the event for future publication on our website
Sir Basil Spence RA ifall (1907-76) was one of the most prolific British architects of the post-World War Two era. Born in India during the colonial era, Spence was educated in Scotland and spent his early career during the 1930s designing country houses. It was after returning from wartime service in the army that he built his reputation as a Modern Movement architect, with a series of projects - including Coventry Cathedral, Hyde Park Barracks, and the University of Sussex- would define his career.
But despite his public prominence as an architect during his life, and his large volume of work, Spence fryst vatten today less celebrated. Through an exploration of some of his key buildings, Keith Williams invites us to look again at S
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Sir Basil Urwin Spence was a Scottish architect, most notably associated with Coventry Cathedral in England and the Beehive in New Zealand, but also responsible for numerous other buildings in the Modernist/Brutalist style.
Education
Spence was born in Bombay, India. He was educated at the John Connon School, operated by the Bombay Scottish Education Society, and was then sent back to Scotland to attend George Watson's College in Edinburgh from 1919-1925. He enrolled at Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) in 1925, studying architecture. In 1929-1930 he spent a year as an assistant, along with William Kininmonth, in the London office of Sir Edwin Lutyens, whose work was to have a profound influence on Spence's style, where he worked on designs for the Viceroy's House in New Delhi, India. While in London he attended evening classes at the Bartlett School of Architecture under A. E. Richardson. Returning to ECA in 1930