We wanted to give members an opportunity to hear about 2020’s Award-winning work. Join us for an evening with Murray Fraser and Catherine Gregg, editors of the new Sir Banister Fletcher’s Global History of Architecture, which has won the Colvin Medal.
Entirely rewritten by 88 leading experts around the world, the 21st Edition of what is now retitled as Sir Banister Fletcher's Global History of Architecture (Bloomsbury) provides the most comprehensive and up-to-date survey of architectural development in all parts of the world over the past 5,500 years. Amounting to 1 million words in 102 chapters that are spread across its two volumes, it is also the first edition to be published both in print and online.
In this talk, Murray Fraser as the General Editor and Catherine Gregg as the Managing Editor will describe the process involved in what was an intensive five-year research project, reflecting also upon the key achievements of the book. Contributing authors include well-known architectural historians as well as archaeologists, art historians and cultural historians, making it a considerable challenge to fuse these different disciplinary approaches. Yet by allowing all these authors to express their own approaches to their area of expertise, the outcome is a genuinely plural and diverse account of the significance of architectural history for every human society, whatever its time period or wherever its location.
Furthermore, as an example of collective scholarship, this new edition of Banister Fletcher also offers a model for a more equal and distributed approach that is only made possible due to the major changes brought about by globalisation. How might this shift help shape the study of architectural history in the future, and how can we make our subject even more globally open and inclusive?
Murray Fraser is Professor of Architecture and Global Culture at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London. Trained both as an architect and architectural historian, in 2018 he received the RIBA Annie Spink Award for Excellence in Architectural Education. Currently he is also Chair of the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain.
Catherine Gregg studied history at University College London and history of design at the Royal College of Art. Following her work on the 21st Edition of Banister Fletcher, she is now part of a joint project between the RIBA and the Centro Internazionale di Studi di Architettura Andrea Palladio to produce an annotated catalogue of Palladio’s drawings.
For the foreseeable future the SAHGB Events will be virtual events via Zoom. We will circulate joining instructions via email the morning of the scheduled event. Please complete the form below to register.