Prof Mark Swenarton BA, MA, PhD, FRHistS, FRSA, HonFRIBA

Personal Statement

I have dual interests as a historian and a critic of architecture. I trained originally as an architectural historian and have practiced as such over many years, focusing on the twentieth-century and housing in particular. In the first part of my career I was on the faculty of the Bartlett School of Architecture, where I co-founded the first masters' course in architectural history in the UK. Later I became also an architectural critic and editor, co-founding and editing the monthly review 'Architecture Today' from 1989 to 2005 and chairing design review at CABE from 2010. These twin interests, in history and design, informed my work when I returned to academia, from 2005-10 as head of the architecture school at Oxford Brookes University and from 2011-15 as inaugural James Stirling Chair of Architecture at Liverpool. Since becoming emeritus professor in 2015, I have maintained these twin interests. In 2017 I published 'Cook's Camden: The Making of Modern Housing', followed in 2018 by a new edition of my 1981 book 'Homes fit for Heroes' and in 2023 by 'Housing Atlas: Europe - 20th Century'; and I have remained active in design review, particularly with the Oxford Design Review Panel (2014- ), and as an architectural critic and judge. In 2020 I returned to my interest in editing when I took up the editorship of 'Architectural History: The journal of the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain', serving as editor for a three-year term and remaining on the editorial board thereafter.