Charles Holland: A House For Essex and Other Stories.

Our Professor of Architecture will be back in his native sunny Essex next month, to give a talk on A House For Essex at Colchester’s First Site Gallery. His talk will describe how the design of the house reflects its surroundings as well as a number of other architectural influences.  He will describe the house as a journey across Essex, starting in the Thames Estuary and Canvey Island and ending on the banks of the River Stour and the boundary with Suffolk and the North Sea. Along the way taking in in south Essex’s plotland communities, the post war new town of Basildon and the hobbit-inspired new town of South Woodham Ferrers, the marshy coastline of the Dengie Peninsular and the Brutalist campus of Essex University.

FAT (1994 – 2013) was a cross-disciplinary architecture, art and design practice. Formed originally as a loose collective of architects, artists, film makers and designers, the practice was known for its provocative and playful approach and a desire to expand the definitions of each discipline. FAT went on to design a number of the most influential buildings of the era including the Islington Square housing estate in Manchester, the Hoogvliet civic centre in Holland and the Blue House in Hackney. Their work has been published and exhibited worldwide and has won numerous awards.

FAT was run by three directors: Charles Holland and Sean Griffiths and  Sam Jacob. In 2013, they decided to close the practice stating that it had achieved all that it had set out to do. Hugh Pearman, architecture critic for the Sunday Times, described FAT as having “changed the architectural weather”. Each of the practice’s director’s have since gone on to run their own solo practices. A House for Essex was the practice’s final project. It was run Charles who continued to oversee the project until its completion in 2015.

For booking details for the talk see our Events page.