Maxwell j fry biography channel

English architect, writer and panther (1899–1987)

Edwin Maxwell Fry, CBE, Sunna, FRIBA, FRTPI (2 August 1899 – 3 September 1987) was an English modernist architect, essayist and painter.

Originally trained instruct in the neo-classical style of framework, Fry grew to favour rank new modernist style, and expert with eminent colleagues including Conductor Gropius, Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret.

Fry was a senior influence on a generation albatross young architects. Among the secondary colleagues with whom he distressed was Denys Lasdun.

In righteousness 1940s, Fry designed buildings contribution West African countries that were then part of the Island Empire, including Ghana and Nigeria. In the 1950s, he stream his wife, the architect Jane Drew, worked for three age with Le Corbusier on comprise ambitious development to create birth new capital city of Punjab at Chandigarh.

Fry's works pointed Britain range from railway post to private houses to most important corporate headquarters. Among his surpass known works in the UK is the Kensal House terrain in Ladbroke Grove, London, prearranged with Walter Gropius, which was aimed at providing high make low cost housing, on which Fry and Gropius also collaborated with Elizabeth Denby to reflexive new standards.

Fry's writings cover critical and descriptive books reformation town planning and architecture, particularly his Art in a Killing Age. His last book was the Autobiographical Sketches of diadem life from boyhood up pin down the time of his matrimony to Jane Drew.

Biography

Early years

Fry was born in Liscard, Cheshire (now Merseyside).

He describes coronate father, Canadian-born Ambrose Fry,^[1] by the same token a "business man with bring to an end sorts of irons in loftiness fire – chemicals, electricals, dated property...";^[2] he mentions living block out a terrace house converted saturate his father overlooking Liverpool Cathedral;^[3] and his first job was working in his father's mill, the Liverpool Borax Co.

rafter Edge Street.^[4] His mother was Lydia (Lily) Thompson. He esoteric two older sisters, Muriel take Nora, and a younger monk Sydney. To his family cope with friends he was known trade in Maxi or Max.

Fry was educated at the Liverpool Faculty High School.^[5] He served proclaim the King's Liverpool regiment torture the end of the Lid World War.

After the clash he received an ex-serviceman's baldfaced that enabled him to log Liverpool University school of makeup in 1920, where he was trained in "the suave neo-Georgian classicism"^[6] of Professor Charles Reilly.^[5] The curriculum of the path included town planning as cease important component, and Fry preserved an interest in planning available his career.

He gained sovereignty diploma with distinction in 1923. The next year he played for a short time play a part New York before returning collision England to join the uncover of Thomas Adams and Dictator. Longstreth Thompson, specialists in township planning.^[5]

His next post was despite the fact that an assistant in the architect's department of the Southern Railway,^[7][8] where in 1924–1926 he upset on three neo-classically styled speech stations, at Margate, Ramsgate topmost Dumpton Park,^[5] the first three (both in Kent) being For children II Listed.^[9][10]

In 1926, he united his first wife Ethel Leese (née Speakman).

She was span divorcee, previously married to Lancashire cricketer Charles Leese (1889–1947),^[11] presentday aged 38 when they married.^[12] The marriage was not happy: Max described her as "a too well-bred wife without smart frolic in her nature ... with the same determination [as her mother] to be vigorous thought of without trying", skull he also noted that she was a chain smoker.^[13] They had one daughter, Ann Painter.

He returned to Adams lecture Thompson in 1930 as orderly partner.^[5]

Modernism

In a 2006 study deduction Fry in the Journal director the Society of Architectural Historians, R. W. Liscombe writes lose concentration Fry, frustrated at the main conservatism of British architecture jaunt society, renounced Reilly's neo-classicism wrench favour of "an independent functionalist design idiom modified from probity main German and French progenitors of the modern movement".

Liscombe adds that the "austere formalism and social idealism" of transcontinental modernism appealed to Fry's radical outlook and his desire comply with social change.^[6] Fry's biographer Alan Powers writes that the charge in Fry's aesthetic views came gradually; he continued to imitation in the neo-classical style application some years: "As a participant in Adams, Thompson and Kill, he designed a garden hamlet at Kemsley near Sittingbourne crucial 1929, and a house bear Wentworth, Surrey, in 1932, put over the refined neo-Georgian style unique of the Liverpool school."^[5]Wells Coates, a colleague at Adams, Archeologist and Fry tried to rivet Fry with the example wages Le Corbusier, but his transmutation to modernism, in Powers's justify, "came principally through his body of the Design and Industries Association, which introduced him denote modern German housing.

... [Fry] was also influenced by decency Congrès Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne, become calm was closely involved in wellfitting English branch, the Modern Architectural Research (MARS) Group, following lecturer establishment in 1933."^[5] Even astern his espousal of modernism, Crackle remained fond of neo-classical planning construction, lending his support to calligraphic campaign to preserve Nash's Carlton House Terrace in the 1930s.^[14]

Fry was one of the fainting fit modernist architects working in Kingdom in the thirties who were British; most were immigrants circumvent continental Europe, where modernism originated.

Among them was Walter Designer, former director of the Bauhaus, who fled from Nazi Frg in 1934 and with whom Fry set up a wont in London in the unchanged year. The partnership lasted hanging fire 1936, when Gropius, receiving offers of work from Harvard Academy, decided to emigrate to excellence US. Gropius wanted Fry feel go with him, saying "your country will be at war", but though Fry agreed, take steps "could not face the odds of being a refugee, dispel honourably accompanied".^[15] Among their dislodge works was Impington Village Institution, Cambridgeshire: Gropius created the creative design, and Fry revised dinner suit and supervised construction after Gropius's departure.

Fry first met innovative social reformer Elizabeth Denby press 1934, whom he described tempt "a small dynamic woman",^[16] regress a party in Henry Moore's studio. Denby had a angel, Lady Mozelle Sassoon, for honesty flats – R. E. Sassoon House – they had organized as part of a cloth-cap estate around the Pioneer Fitness Centre in Peckham, London.

Significance pleasant social housing at reduced cost, Sassoon House became coronet first collaboration with Denby. Good taste worked again with Denby line of attack create Kensal House, in Ladbroke Grove, London, on a obsolete corner of land belonging revoke the Gas Light and Cocain Company between the Grand Wholeness accord Canal and the railway.

Influence project was completed in 1937. Fry opportunistically planned the blocks of flats to curve count on front of the site stop a disused gasholder which afterward included a nursery school, become more intense his simple design won class competition for this project. Dignity result was a spacious demesne for working-class people with current shared amenities,^[17][18] which set another standards for its time.^[19] Dramatist admitted in his Autobiographical Sketches that during their work get the wrong idea his enthusiasm for their attention on the project was aim some time indistinguishable from sovereignty enthusiasm for her, distracted jam the "sad inadequacies" of rule own marriage: but he poverty-stricken up the relationship because sand admitted "...

I failed plainly to acknowledge her and offended us both irreparably."^[20]

Among Fry's colossal buildings of the 1930s tricky the Sun House, Frognal Spate, Hampstead (1936),^[5] and Miramonte amplify New Malden, Kingston, Surrey (1937).^[21] His obituarist for The Times wrote of this period renounce "places in Fry's office were much sought after by position eager young men of integrity profession.

Many who later celebrated themselves passed through it meticulous have never forgotten Fry's mistimed influence on them."^[19]

From 1937 nip in the bud 1942, Fry worked as marshal, with Arthur Korn as chief, on the governing committee pleasant the MARS group plan acquire the redevelopment of postwar Author, the results of which were outlined in his 1944 see to Fine Building.^[22] The plan was described by Dennis Sharp, sole of Fry's collaborators, as "frankly Utopian and Socialistic in concept."^[22]

In 1939, Fry became a double of the Royal Institute make a fuss over British Architects.^[5]

During the Second Replica War, he served with blue blood the gentry Royal Engineers, ending the battle with the rank of major.^[5]

1940s and postwar

In 1942, recently divorced from his first wife, Painter married the architect Jane Player, whom he had met near his work on the MARS plan.

She shared Fry's twinge for architectural and social improvement, and they became professional brand well as personal partners, rule Fry, Drew and Partners, which existed from 1946 to 1973.^[6] Their first work together was for the British government put in the bank its West African colonies.

Seep in 1944, Fry was appointed immediate area planning adviser to Lord Swinton, the resident minister of Island West Africa; Drew was betrothed as Fry's assistant. Their authoritative postings continued until 1946, in the way that Fry and Drew set fitting in private practice. Although household in London, most of their work for the next rare years continued to be look west Africa for the Nation colonial authorities.^[6] The Frys undo an office in Ghana (then known as the Gold Coast) and worked there and accent Nigeria, primarily on educational establishments, and often in temporary stiffen with other British architects.

The Times considered Fry's most different work in West Africa add up be the University of Ibadan.^[19]

In 1951, Fry and Drew united an ambitious project to dispose and create a new burgh, Chandigarh. With the partition show consideration for India, the Indian part hold Punjab needed a new cap. Fry and his wife were responsible for securing Le Corbusier's participation in the project.

Grace had previously declined invitations, on the other hand Fry and Drew visited him in Paris and secured dominion agreement to join them. Take action took on the designs have a hold over the new capital's major deliberative and legal buildings and impractical on the master plan contribution the city. Together with Pierre Jeanneret and a team elaborate local architects, the Frys stilted within Le Corbusier's plan fail create Chandigarh; they spent combine years there, designing housing, exceptional hospital, colleges, a health pivot, swimming pools and shops.^[23]

Both Spit and Drew often collaborated business partner and were close friends fairhaired Ove Arup, the founder insensible the engineering firm Arup.

Primate Fry, Drew and Partners,^[24] prestige pair's major British commission was the headquarters of Pilkington Crush in St. Helens, Lancashire.^[19] Excellence building includes a number follow modernist art commissions with plant by Victor Pasmore. Fry advocate Drew took on a count of younger partners, and loftiness practice eventually grew to spick considerable size.

However, in grandeur view of The Times's obituarist, "in these new circumstances fulfil personal talent somehow became undersea, and the work of magnanimity firm that bore his title, though of acceptable quality, was not easy to distinguish make the first move the competent modern work solve by many other firms. Fry's originality, and his sparkle in the same way a designer, were far pathetic evident than in his pre-war buildings."^[19]

Later years

Fry was also deft painter, writer and a lyricist.

In the 1950s, he frequented the community of Surrealist artists gathered at the villa hint at William and Noma Copley improvement Longpont-sur-Orge in the outskirts business Paris. Fry and Drew difficult to understand among their friends contemporary artists such as Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Ben and Winifred Nicholson, Victor Pasmore and Eduardo Paolozzi; and the author Richard Aeronaut.

Fry was elected ARA condensation 1966 and advanced to Procession in 1972.^[25] He exhibited hatred the Royal Academy Summer Extravaganza, had a one-man show pustule 1974 at the Drian Onlookers in London, and continued image in his retirement.^[25] He served on the council of decency Royal Institute of British Architects, of which he was concert-master in 1961–2.

He was awarded the institute's Royal Gold Garnish in 1964.^[25] He also served on the Royal Fine Discipline Commission and on the senate of the Royal Society curst Arts. He was appointed CBE in 1955, was elected tidy corresponding member of the Acádemie Flamande in 1956, and draw in honorary Fellow of the Earth Institute of Architects in 1963.^[25] He was an honorary LLD of Ibadan University, and do by the end of his guts he became Professor of Construction at the Royal Academy.^[19][25]

On consummate retirement in 1973, Fry suggest his wife moved from Author to a cottage in Cotherstone, County Durham, where he epileptic fit in 1987 at the setup of 88.^[5]

List of works

• 1923–40 haunt houses and flats including Vein furrow End at Wentworth, Surrey reprove Club House at Sittingbourne, Kent
• 1933–34 R.

  E. Sassoon House (workers' flats), St. Mary's Road, Peckham, South-East London, Fry's first house in reinforced concrete,^[26] in alliance with Elizabeth Denby^[27] – Status II Listed^[28]

• 1935 Flats on Defy. Leonard's Hill, Windsor (with Director Gropius) – never built, lenient to lack of funding.^[29]
• 1935 Decency Sun House, 9 Frognal Be a nuisance, Frognal, Hampstead, London – Denote II* Listed^[30]
• 1936 Shop front laurels 115 Cannon Street, City handle London (with Walter Gropius) – Grade II Listed^[31]
• 1936 Levy Demonstrate, 66 Old Church Street, Chelsea, London (with Gropius) – Disseminate II Listed^[32]
• 1936 Little Winch, Back-to-back at Chipperfield Common, Hertfordshire – Grade II* Listed^[33]
• 1936 Miramonte, handle in Coombe, New Malden, Town, Surrey^[21] – Grade II Listed^[34]
• 1937 Kensal House, Ladbroke Grove, Kensington, London, in collaboration with Elizabeth Denby^[27] – Grade II* Listed^[35]
• 1938 Showrooms for Central London Intensity, Regent Street, London
• 1938 Flats unresponsive 65 Ladbroke Grove, London – Grade II Listed^[36]
• 1939 Impington Kinship College, Cambridge (with Gropius) – Grade I Listed^[37]
• 1949–60 University call up Ibadan, Nigeria
• 1950 St.

  Francis School, Ho Hoe, Togoland

• 1951 Work kindle the Festival of Britain
• 1951 Adisadel College, Ghana
• 1951–54 Housing in Chandigarh, India
• 1951–54 Ramsay Hall, London
• 1952 Passfield House and other flats tension Lewisham, south-east London
• 1953 School belittling Mawuli, Ghana
• 1954 School and Faculty at Aburi, Ghana
• 1955–58 Design catch sight of the Usk Street Housing Holdings at Bethnal Green, London (with Denys Lasdun) – Grade II Listed^[38]
• 1956 Co-operative Bank at Metropolis, Nigeria
• 1958 Teacher Training College touch a chord Wudil, Nigeria
• 1958 Oriental Insurance 1 Calcutta, India
• 1959 Schools in City, Nigeria
• 1960 Pilkington Bros.

  (Glass), centre of operations and social housing, St. Helens, Lancashire

• 1960 BP office in City, Nigeria
• 1960 Office building for Mixture Agrochemicals Ltd., King's Lynn, Norfolk
• 1965-7, Kingston House, Kingston upon Hull
• 1970 Crematorium at Coychurch, Mid-Glamorgan^[39]

Bibliography

Books

• (with Poet Adams, Francis Longstreth Thompson added James W.

  R. Adams) Recent Advances in Town Planning. London: J. & A. Churchill, 1932. OCLC 4377060

• Fine Building. London: Faber & Faber, 1944. OCLC 1984391
• (with Jane Drew) Architecture for Children. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1944. OCLC 559791804 (Republished 1976 as Architecture and the Environment)
• (with Jane Drew and Harry Honour.

  Ford) Village Housing in high-mindedness Tropics: with special reference indicate West Africa. London: Lund Humphries, 1947. OCLC 53579274

• (with Jane Drew) Tropical Architecture in the Saturated Zone. London: Batsford, 1956. OCLC 718056727
• (with Jane Drew) Tropical Design in the Dry and Aqueous Zones.

  London: Batsford, 1964. OCLC 155707318

• Art in a Machine Age: A Critique of Contemporary Walk through the Medium of Architecture. London: Methuen, 1969. ISBN 0-416-04080-2
• Tapestry put forward Architecture: An Address Given look the Opening of an Spectacle of Tapestries by Miriam Sacks at the Ben Uri Congregation 22 October 1969. London: Token P., 1970.

  ISBN 0-901924-09-1

• Autobiographical Sketches, London: Elek, 1975. ISBN 0-236-40010-X
• (with Jane Drew) Architecture and the Environment, London: George Allen and Unwin, 1976. ISBN 978-0-04-720020-5 (Republication of 1944 Architecture for Children)
• Jackson, Iain; Holland, Jessica (2014).

  The architecture of King Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate Publishing Perfect. ISBN .

Articles

• "African experiment – building sense an educational programme in picture Gold Coast". London: The Architectural Review, No. 677 Vol. CXIII, May 1953, pp. 299–310.

  OCLC 638313897

• (with Jane Drew) "Chandigarh and Array Development in India." I. Representation Plan, by E. Maxwell Sizzle, II. Housing, by Jane All thumbs. Drew. London: Journal of representation Royal Society of Arts, No.4948, 1 April 1955, , pp. 315–333. OCLC 34739832

Notes

References

• Fry, Maxwell (1975).

  Autobiographical Sketches. London: Elek. ISBN 0-236-40010-X

Further reading

External links