ABSTRACT

First published in 2005, An Architecture of invitation: Colin St John Wilson  is a distinctive study of the life and architectural career of one of the most significant makers, theorists and teachers of architecture to have emerged in England in the second half of the twentieth century. Exceptionally in an architectural study, this book interweaves biography, critical analysis of the projects, and theory, in its aims of explicating the richness of Wilson’s body of work, thought and teaching. Drawing on the specialisms of its authors, it also examines the creative and psychological impulses that have informed the making of the work – an oeuvre whose experiential depth is recognised by both users and critics.

chapter |6 pages

Introduction: the examined life

chapter 1|24 pages

Framing a life

chapter 2|31 pages

London: building the ‘new world’

chapter 3|54 pages

Wall and court: the Cambridge years

chapter 4|14 pages

The ‘carving’ of space: Cornford House

chapter 5|37 pages

Shaping the polis

chapter 6|51 pages

Master builder: the British Library

chapter 7|11 pages

Architecture and art

chapter 8|10 pages

A time to profess: return to Cambridge

chapter 9|42 pages

An ethical line: ethics and aesthetics