About Practice and Teaching

A talk by Peter St John, a founding partner of Caruso St John Architects.

Professor Peter St John's inaugural professorial lecture: About Practice and Teaching

Peter St John is a founding partner of Caruso St John Architects.

“Since its foundation in 1990, Caruso St John has been pursuing an architecture that is rooted in place. The practice resists the thin-skinned abstraction that characterises much global architecture in favour of buildings that are perceived slowly over time and that have an emotional content.

Its work is enriched by an on-going dialogue with the European city and with history – that of architecture, art, and culture more widely – traditions that bring an accumulated richness of expression to the work. Ideas are elaborated in a manner akin to art practices that engage directly with the built environment and embrace the ‘found’ space. Caruso St John intervenes in sites carefully, valuing the humble and everyday as well as the more celebrated products of the architectural canon. It is the context that is the starting point for generating form rather than allowing the programme to dictate the architecture.”

Caruso St John’s have built in the UK and across Europe. They were architects for the British Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Biennale and have won numerous prizes in the UK and overseas, including in 2016 the RIBA Stirling Prize for the Newport Street Gallery in London.

Peter has taught a RIBA2 Diploma/MArch Unit at The Cass since 2012 and was appointed Professor of Architecture in 2018.