The Martin Centre Research Seminar - James Dunnett

The Martin Centre Research Seminars - Easter Term Seminar 2

We are delighted to welcome James Dunnett, (Architect, Principal - James Dunnett Architects) who will give a talk on: 

Martin, March, and Le Corbusier – Built Form Models and Urban Implications

Abstract

The courtyard-versus-tower diagrams of Leslie Martin and Lionel March dating from the mid-1960s were highly influential and provided the logo for the Land-Use and Built Form Study Centre that they founded, now the Martin Centre. These diagrams represented a conscious reversal of the ideas of Le Corbusier, of whom, however, both nominally remained admirers. While the diagrams still have much to tell us, they were widely promoted and accepted in terms of that reversal, with the associated architectural message - an interpretation that confounded a number of different issues. If those are separated, the conclusions need not be those promoted.

Bio
James Dunnett studied under Leslie Martin at Cambridge from 1967. In 1970-71, with Martin’s encouragement, he followed Anthony Caro’s sculpture course at St Martin’s School of Art, subsequently taking his Diploma in Architecture. He worked first for Ernö Goldfinger 1973-75, then Camden Council’s Department of Architecture till 1983, when he mounted a retrospective exhibition of the work of Goldfinger at the Architectural Association and, with Gavin Stamp, produced an accompanying book. He began to teach part time first at Canterbury College of Art, then at Oxford Brookes University, while pursuing his own architectural practice. He was founding Secretary, later Chair, of DOCOMOMO-UK 1990-2012. James Dunnett’s translation of Le Corbusier’s book the Decorative Art of Today (1925) was published by MIT Press in 1987 and he has a number of other published articles about Le Corbusier.