In 1950 he joined the Architects' Department of London County Council, which was flooded by ex-servicemen and women determined to build a "Brave New World" out of the devastation of London. (James Stirling, Peter and Alison Smithson, Alan Colquhoun and Peter Carter were contemporaries there). It was the time of the "Angry Young Men", and Wilson was a principal activist in the Independent Group that, inter alia, launched the collaborative exhibition of architects and artists (entitled "This is Tomorrow") that took place in the Whitechapel Gallery, London in 1956. Out of his ensuing friendship with many artists, he has formed a major collection of British Art from 1950 to the present day. In the same year he was invited to join Sir Leslie Martin, the newly-elected Professor of Architecture at Cambridge, both to teach at the University and to work in association to form an architectural practice (1956-64). Together they produced the first project for the enlargement of the British Museum Library and a number of important University Campus Developments and buildings such as the complex of three Libraries for Oxford University and, in Cambridge, the Stone Building for Peterhouse and Harvey Court for Gonville & Caius College (see the presentation by Aldo Rossi in Casabella no. 250). In 1960 Wilson decided to build his own residence and working studio, and this enabled him to set up his own independent practice when he received a number of important Commissions (a development plan for the British Museum; the Civic Centre for Liverpool). He also formed close teaching ties in the USA, with Visiting Professorships to Yale (1960, 1964, 1983 and 2000) and MIT (1970-72). One of his students at Yale, Mary Jane Long, was one of the first assistants in his office, later becoming his wife and partner in his practice. They have one daughter and one son. He continued teaching until 1970, when he moved his practice to London. He did however return to Cambridge in 1975 as Head of the School until 1989. The project that has marked his practice from beginning to end is the British Library, for which he has produced two designs (1962-64 and 1969-73) opposite the British Museum in Bloomsbury, and a final design (1975-99) at St. Pancras. It is the major monument built by government in the twentieth century, and was the subject of an unprecedented political and procurement campaign lasting 36 years (even longer than the construction of St. Paul's Cathedral by Christopher Wren!). In addition to his commitment to practice and teaching, Wilson has written two important theoretical books, Architectural Reflections (1992: 2nd Edition 2000) and The Other Tradition (1995). He has also been a Trustee of the National Gallery and the Tate Gallery, and has formed a major private collection of British Art which will be housed in the building upon which he is currently working - the extension to Pallant House Gallery in Chichester. In 1997 a Touring Retrospective Exhibition of his work was accompanied by a booklet with texts by Kenneth Frampton, Martin Richardson and the artist R.B. Kitaj. He is a Commander of the Order of the Lion of Finland and was knighted in 1998. During the time when he occupied the house and studio full-time, Wilson had no family. It was a time of intense work in which the building was the venue both for teaching and practice, as well as residence. Syllabus and Course work at the School were the subject of important revision with colleagues like Leslie Martin, Colin Rowe and Peter Eisenman (who was a Ph.D. student and subsequently a teacher), and students like Christopher Alexander, Lionel March and Phillip Steadman. House, patio and garden were the setting for repast and relaxation for a small community of participants in a debate that was highly charged with the polemic of Brutalism, Team X, the Independent Group of the Institute of Contemporary Art and the first rumblings of "Post-Modernism". In the belief that there should be a general forum for the discussion of architectural issues, Wilson wrote a series of articles in the early 1950s in the popular press (The Observer) to encourage the participation of the general public. Before he left London to live in Cambridge, Wilson was one in a group of architect-friends who met regularly on Saturday mornings at the French Pub in Soho (Stirling, Colquhoun, del Renzio among them) and on Sunday afternoons at the house next to Wilson's apartment on Primrose Hill, where Mary and Peter Reyner Banham, the (then!) young architectural historian, played host to them and other artist friends (Richard Hamilton, William Turnbull). On Thursday evenings he played squash and "went on the town" with Stirling.   The significance of building his own house was fourfold. Firstly there were many jibes in the press about "modern architects who did not live in houses designed by themselves", and so to build one's own house was a gesture of self-confidence. Secondly, it was not just a house but a workbase as well, and this allowed him to set up an independent practice. He was lucky to receive commissions for three projects within as many months and quickly set up his first design team there. Thirdly, the life style of the office would from time to time spread into the patio and garden where a more informal, relaxed and, in the summer, playful atmosphere prevailed. Fourthly, the traditional teaching system at Cambridge entailed a routine in which groups of three students at a time would take part in a one-hour tutorial each week. Wilson chose to hold his tutorials in the house rather than the School so that it became a part of the life of his students and a demonstration of strongly held principles about the order of "carved" space, the importance of natural light and the response to body-language through touch. The site, on the western edge of town amongst houses of medium size 30-50 years old, is formed by the division of an orchard into plots 15.15 m. wide by 45.45 m. deep. The design of these two houses explored the conventional idea of a mixed residential street architecture. Although only a pair of houses were built, they were based upon a system of spatial and constructional elements whose combination could have extended the pair into a whole street with many variations. Common to both houses is the disposition of the entrance loggia, back entrance and larder on the street side and, on the garden-side, kitchen, dining-room and living room facing onto a walled patio. For the remaining elements the two houses differed widely. The Wilson house was advanced along the grid lines into the garden with its office and an entry courtyard on the street frontage. Furthermore the living room was developed into a double height space with a roof-lit library gallery at the rear, whereas the Squire house carried its principal bedroom over the single height living room. Maximum privacy was the aim, achieved in relation to the road by the use of glass-blocks and translucent glass and, between houses, by orienting the living rooms around walled patios (facing south and west) and by the enclosure of the gardens by walls. The building system is modular. The whole building is set out on a modular planning grid by a regular bay space 1.30 m. located on an irregular tartan of 300 cm. in the east-west grain and 400 cm. in the north-south grain. Both houses are constructed from a standard 200 x 400 cm. concrete block made with crushed Abergele limestone and waterproof white cement with white aggregate concrete beams exposed. The interior walls are also of fair-faced blockwork except in the bedrooms and the bathroom, which are plastered. All timber is stained with dark brown preservative. The floors are white rubber tile; heating is by off-peak electric underfloor panels; the windows are double glazed. This was the first time that concrete block had been used in this country as an "architectural" material, and the houses soon became the precedent for buildings all over England (Richard Rogers, a house in Cornwall: Peter Moro, a theatre in Nottingham, etc.). When the construction had reached a height of one metre, a passer-by wandering onto the site enquired: "To what is the temple dedicated?". And Colin Rowe, who was teaching at the School at the time, described the building as "the smallest monument in Cambridge". The living room was the subject of a major painting by Howard Hodgkin (Grantchester Road, 1975) and an unfinished crayon drawing by David Hockney. Since 1994 it has become the home of The Wittgenstein Archive whose Director, Dr. Michael Nedo, is the editor of the Vienna Edition of Wittgenstein's manuscripts, an undertaking described by Karl Popper as the most important editorial project of our time". Nedo perceived a "family resemblance" in this building to the house that Wittgenstein designed in 1926 for his sister Margarete. (In fact Wilson did not see the Wittgenstein house until 1966, but happily acknowledges the affinity!). The building was listed in 2000 by the Department of English Heritage as of historic importance. < BACK Nicola Flora