Initially, Wilson had been captivated by Le Corbusier, especially his sculptural post war Brutalist work. Thus, Wilson’s extension to the Architecture School at Cambridge has the textured roughness of Le Corbusier’s Unite d’Habitation (Marseilles, 1946–52) and the Maisons Jaoul (Paris, 1952–56). Ultimately, however, Alvar Aalto would be much more influential. Wilson often quotes the Finnish master’s observation about modern architecture of the heroic period, made when Aalto received the RIBA Medal in 1957: “Like all revolutions it starts with enthusiasm and stops with some sort of Dictatorship” (Architectural Reflections, p. 84). Thus, Wilson began to seek an alternative tradition for modern architecture, which he found in the work of other Scandinavians like Sigurd Lewerentz and Gunnar Asplund, as well as German organicists like Hugo Här-ing and Hans Scharoun. Aalto’s immediate effect can be recognized in Harvey Court at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, in the dominant materials of brick (rather than the prevailing béton brut), natural wood, and copper; in the arrangement of a raised courtyard (as at the Town Hall, Säynatsalo, 1950–52) with a pyramidal skylight admitting light to below; and in the way the stairs are expressed (both devices also recalling Aalto’s Baker House at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1946–49). Although at Harvey Court the image of La Tourette also lingered, increasingly it was Aalto and the German Expressionists who excited Wilson’s admiration. Thus, the fan shape of the William Stone Building at Peterhouse College (1960–64) brings to mind one of Aalto’s favorite motifs.

In his designs and his writings, Wilson vigorously combats the leading tendency of the 1980s and 1990s to view architecture as autonomous and as a discipline, a mode of abstract thinking, that exists outside the practice of making buildings and creating space. Wilson has also set himself against “inauthenticity,” which he has found both in the modernism of the International Style and in Postmodernism. Probity is a revered quality, and Wilson seeks an ethical dimension that is hardly new; its sources can be found in A.W. N. Pugin and John Ruskin no less than H.P. Berlage or Aalto—all intellectual forebears.

Nourished on a diet of astute English critics of widely varied opinions, including Ruskin, Geoffrey Scott, and Adrian Stokes, Wilson is passionate about architecture without being narrowminded or doctrinaire. He is also a bibliophile, and it is appropriate that he should have become a specialist in redefining the program of the contemporary library. Thus, with Martin he designed three libraries for Oxford University (1959–64), with Long he worked on the National Libraries Feasibility Study as well as the libraries for the Bishops’ School and for Queen Mary College, and he acted as consultant for the Harold Washington Library in Chicago by Hammond Beeby Babka. At the same time, Wilson is also profoundly involved in the visual arts as painter, draftsman, and sculptor; as museum trustee; and as collector. He has been the intimate friend, and often mentor, of many artists: Peter Blake, Eduardo Paolozzi, R.J. Kitaj, Howard Hodgkin, Richard Hamilton, and William Turnbull, among others; his extensive collection of their work has been promised to the Pallant House Gallery in Chichester, for which he designed an extension. In 1994 Wilson suggested that Long and their associate Rolfe Kentish establish a new partnership to supplement the existing firm, and he subsequently has involved himself with projects by Long and Kentish. Although many laurels have come his way since the opening of the British Library—for example, a knighthood and an exhibition at the British Pavilion of the Venice Biennale (1996), as well as numerous invitations to teach and lecture—Wilson is still deeply engaged in shaping architectural practice to embody his deeply felt principles.

HELEN SEARING

Sennott R.S. Encyclopedia of twentieth century architecture, Vol.3. Fitzroy Dearborn., 2005.  

1922 Born in Cheltenham, England, 14 March;

1940-42 Attended Corpus Christi College, Cambridge; master’s degree 1942;

1942-46 Served in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve;

1946-49 Studied at Bartlett School of Architecture, University of London; diploma of architecture 1949;

1950-55 Worked in the Housing Division, Architects’ Department, London County Council;

1955-56 Worked at the development office of John De Vere Hunt;

1956-70 Private partnership with Leslie Martin;

1956-59 Instructor, School of Architecture, Cambridge University;

1960 Visiting critic, Yale University School of Architecture;

1964 Visiting critic, Yale University School of Architecture;

1970-72 Bemis Visiting Professor of Architecture, MIT;

1971 Senior partner, Colin St. John Wilson and Partners, London;

1973-80 Trustee, Tate Gallery;

1975-89 Professor and head, School of Architecture, Cambridge University;

1977-80 Trustee, National Gallery, London;

1983 Visiting critic, Yale University School of Architecture;

1985 Visiting critic, Yale University School of Architecture;

1994 Partner, Long and Kentish;

2000 Visiting critic, Yale University School of Architecture;

2002 William Henry Bishop Visiting Professor jointly with M.J. Long;

14 May 2007 Died.

The Design and Construction of the British Library, London: The British Library, 1998

The Other Tradition of Modern Architecture, London: Academy Editions, 1995

Architectural Reflections: Studies in the Philosophy and Practice of Architecture, Oxford: Butterworth, 1992

Banham, Reyner, The New Brutalism, London: Architectural Press, 1966

Frampton, Kenneth, R.B.Kitaj, and Martin Richardson, Colin St. John Wilson, London: Royal Institute of British Architects, 1997

Maxwell, Robert, New British Architecture, New York: Praeger, 1973

Searing, Helen, “The Other Tradition,” Constructs, New Haven: Yale University School of Architecture, 2000

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