Benedict O'Looney

London Society Saturday Schools: The brilliant modernity and artistic achievement of London’s Edwardian Architecture, a talk by Benedict O'Looney.

Architecture and Urbanism MA and Cass Cities present

An understanding and appreciation of the London’s Edwardian building boom is essential for navigating London’s architectural scene today. In the Edwardian period, the City and most of London’s West End was rebuilt. The new architecture that replaced the faded Georgian capital was supremely confident, beautifully detailed using high-quality materials, and adopted all the latest technological advances available to the twentieth-century architect and engineer.

Benedict O'Looney (Benedict O'Looney Architects) will examine both the stylistic and technological sources of London’s Edwardian scene; how the brilliant architect Norman Shaw found a way out of the battle of the styles that characterised high Victorian Architecture and how Shaw and his pupils and followers set the high artistic standards and paths that British architecture was to follow into the twentieth century.

Benedict will look at the two principal design currents of Fin de Siècle London: the changeful Arts and Crafts Edwardian Free Style and the Classical revival brilliantly led by Edwin Lutyens. He will also look at how progressive architects and engineers battled with London’s antiquated building control laws to introduce fully steel-framed buildings, and show that behind the immaculately detailed Portland Stone, glazed brick and terracotta facades, the modern structures and services we take for granted in building today were first found.

You can book the events individually, or save money by booking every event in the Architecture Saturday School: Block Booking

Staff and students at The Cass get a discounted booking rate, email j.clossick@londonmet.ac.uk for your discount code.