HUGH CASSON 1910-1999 MARGARET CASSON 1913-1999
T
he husband and wife duo of Hugh and Margaret Casson was one of the most dynamic in British design in the 20th century. They met while studying at The Bartlett: Margaret Macdonald Troup – Reta to her friends – was starting her first degree in architecture when Hugh Casson, who had already completed his BA in architecture at Cambridge, arrived to do his second degree. Hugh, in a hurry as always, missed the first terms and fasttracked by taking the registrar’s surreptitious correspondence course. Marrying in 1938, Hugh spent the war years in service as a camouflage artist for the Air Ministry, while Reta raised their three daughters. In 1948, he became Director of Architecture for the Festival of Britain of 1951 on London’s South Bank. With his ebullient and winning personality, he drew on his wide circle of friends and colleagues to put together a team of brilliant designers and create the hugely successful exhibition. Although he only designed a small section of the Festival site, his coordination of the design of the whole exhibition reflected his very personal and serious intention to promote good design in an entertaining fashion. In the New Year’s Honours list 1952, Casson, aged 41, received a knighthood. Casson’s position as director ended soon after the exhibition opening, so he and Reta took up the offer to set up a new department of interior design at the Royal College
of Art: Hugh became professor and Reta became senior tutor (which meant doing most of the day-to-day work). Over the next 20 years, they shared the same office, brought on an eminent cast of tutors, produced stellar graduates and, thus, raised the much-maligned profile of the interior designer. Assisted by HT Cadbury-Brown and Robert Goodden, Hugh designed the new RCA building in Kensington Gore. In 1952, Hugh set up in architectural practice with Neville Conder. Although Conder was responsible for much of their output, Casson pulled out a few plums of his own: as a favourite of the Royal Family, he created the interiors of the Royal Yacht Britannia and suites of rooms at Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace. Architecturally, his most admired work remains the Elephant and Rhinoceros Pavilion at London Zoo (1965). Charisma and diplomacy made Hugh Casson one of the most outstanding presidents of the Royal Academy of Arts (1976-84), bridging the gap between traditionalists and the new moderns, and setting the RA on a firm financial footing. He was also a prolific watercolourist, exhibiting often and illustrating the many articles he wrote for architectural journals. Casson published books of his drawings throughout his career – to the public, his reputation as an artist was greater than that as an architect. Neil Bingham
LOUIS HELLMAN
CAROLA ZOGOLOVITCH
BARTLETT STUDENTS 1932-1934 & 1932-1935
an expert in sport and stadium architecture, has been honoured by the International Olympic Committee, while Peter Rees was the incomparable chief planning officer for the City of London when it saw off all competition to cement its position as one of the world’s two pre-eminent financial centres. Maxwell’s influence continued through the 1970s, as Llewelyn-Davies and his closest colleagues focused on planning Milton Keynes and working out how to optimise daylight in hospitals. At the beginning of the decade Bernard Tschumi spent a year studying for a Master’s degree though without obvious distinction. As the decade progressed, new members of staff such as Philip Tabor and Steven Groák, in quite different ways, helped to make space for discussing design. Out of this milieu came 9H, which originated as a magazine and mutated into a gallery, and a couple of undergraduates who would move to the Architectural Association and begin to make an impact in the design world: Peter St John, co-founder of Caruso St John, and Robert Mull, a member of the NATO group and, much later, dean of The Sir John Cass Faculty of Art, Architecture and Design at London Metropolitan University. Thomas Croft, a baronet who does not use his title, has built up a successful niche practice for people with a taste for contemporary art and design, and the means to pay for it. Bill Gaytten, former creative director of Dior, graduated from The Bartlett School of Architecture in 1982 before switching to fashion to work alongside John Galliano. In the last 30 years this trickle of leading designers has turned into a steady flow. Although boosted by the emphasis that was placed on design in the 1990s, seeds were planted a few years previously: Allford Hall Monaghan Morris’s founders and, a couple of years later, Farshid Moussavi, co-founder of Foreign Office Architects before starting her own practice, graduated from the school in the 1980s. AHMM, the first Bartlett-alumni-founded firm to win the Stirling Prize, saw from the start that an overhauled traditional concept of architectural practice was still the most effective way of achieving high-quality design. It argued that this allows it to develop effective long-term relationships both with clients in the public and private sectors, and with contractors and fabricators. Its growth to more than 300 people, and frequent presence on the