Alison and peter smithson biography of albert

Husband and wife team, Alison and Peter Smithson were English architects whose role in the development of brutalist architecture in England should not be underestimated. Alison Gill, 21, married Peter Smithson, 26, in and more or less immediately they worked together in the Architectural offices of the London County Council.

Alison and peter smithson house of the future

Arguably they were in the right place at the right time early in their careers — a time of growth and post-war rebuilding. They received their first personal significant commission to build Hunstanton Secondary Modern School in Norfolk, England more or less immediately in which they completed Receiving such a weighty commission so early in their career allowed them the opportunity to open their own practice far earlier than perhaps they otherwise would have.

Groundbreaking in their thinking about postwar urbanism in Britain, their design for Hunstanton School whilst revolutionary in elements and loved by their fellow professionals, appears to have been hated by the people actually using the building. It was beset with technical failings, notwithstanding, there was, in architectural circles, a recognition that the design mattered and that the Smithsons were a force to be reckoned with, the architectural duo were determined to shake up the status quo locally and internationally.

In Alison and Peter Smithson became leading figures in the newly formed Team 10 sometimes called Team X a group of young architects coming to prominence in the postwar era. CIAM which had been formed by 34 key modernist architects and designers in was hugely influential, it regrouped after WW2 with its first meeting in Bridgewater, Devon. Senior figures such as Corbusier took a leading role at a time when Europe needed to be rebuilt after the devastation wrought by bombing and the reconfiguring of borders.

However, they were slow to recognise that their world had changed profoundly and by the 9th Congress in the new younger members wanted tangible change and recognition of their views.