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Leonard Manasseh was an ‘architect’s architect’, greatly admired by his contemporaries both on a personal and professional level. He came to prominence at the Festival of Britain and went on to be one of the leading British architects of the 1960s, designing private houses and offices as well as major public commissions.  

Timothy Brittain-Catlin, architect and architectural historian at the University of Kent, describes how the work of Leonard Manasseh and Partners expresses one of the central themes of the 1950s and 1960s – the apparent conflict between the architect as creative artist on one hand, and as rational technologist and scientist on the other. Leonard Manasseh and his partner Ian Baker were lauded for producing modernist designs that were in keeping with their historical settings or landscapes. Examples include industrial buildings in rural settings, a study for King’s Lynn, undertaken with architect-planner Elizabeth Chesterton, and the project that is most commonly associated with the practice, the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu.

Twentieth Century Architects Series.

This is the first ever series of monographs devoted exclusively to twentieth century British architects, reflecting the extraordinary diversity and skill of the best architectural practices of the century. While the names of a few individuals and practices may be relatively well-known, many architects of high quality remain undocumented in book form. Fine buildings dating from both before and after the Second World War can fall under the threat of demolition, and requests for listing are frequently turned down amid much controversy.

These books, whose subjects represent a range of architectural positions and types of practice, not only redress previous neglect, but also fill out the broader picture of the period. The books are accessibly and authoritatively written by well known experts. The first four titles in the series take readers from the Festival of Britain Skylon, by architects Powell and Moya, to the open plan family house, exemplified by Aldington and Craig’s house at Goodleigh, Devon, now a Landmark Trust property. It introduces the brilliant inventiveness of the Newcastle architects Ryder and Yates, and, the playful classical police stations and civic buildings of McMorran and Whitby.

The series editors Elain Harwood (English Heritage) and Alan Powers (University of Greenwich) are both authorities in the field who have a long association with The Twentieth Century Society, which is a co-publisher of the series together with English Heritage and RIBA Publishing. Fully illustrated in colour and black and white, each book includes a list of major works and bibliographic references, combining the expertise of the RIBA, English Heritage and Twentieth Century Society for the first time.

To find more information about the other titles in the series, please click here.