A.W.N. Pugin, best known as a designer of Gothic churches and the decoration of the Palace of Westminster, perhaps had his greatest impact designing residences that were completely different from any historic precedent. Their most important feature was the pinwheel plan, where rooms revolve around a central staircase hall. This lecture will introduce us to Pugin and the Gothic Revival and the influence of his neglected domestic architecture on later English residential building.
This lecture is also the keynote of a two-day colloquium, The Origins and Significance of Residential Gothic Architecture in Ottawa. The colloquium includes tours, lectures on Pugin’s influence in Ottawa, and an exhibit. Please see the following listing for more information.
PHOTO: A.W.N. Pugin's "The Grange" / Stair Hall reproduced by kind permission of Cathedral Communications Limited.
Architect and architectural historian Timothy Brittain-Catlin, University of Kent School of Architecture, specializes in early 19th-century English architecture. His 2004 doctorate from Cambridge on Pugin's residential architecture led to his 2008 book The English Parsonage in the Early Nineteenth Century.