黑料头条

King Charles III: Architecture and Controversy

with Clive Aslet

As Prince of Wales, King Charles III had a profound affect on the way architecture was viewed, not just in the UK but around the world. By championing Classicism and traditional styles, he gave heart to architects who had felt ostracized from their profession, due to the ideological dominance of the Modern Movement. Although he might only be giving voice to what ordinary people were saying, without being heard, his interventions in the debate often proved controversial. Since he became King three years ago, a broad swathe of opinion now recognizes that he may have been right.

The King first entered the fray with his famous “Carbuncle” speech. This was followed in 1987 by a speech at the Mansion House, defeating Modernist proposal that would have crowded the precincts of St Paul’s with aggressive office building was quashed and replaced with a new Paternoster Square designed on Classical principles. Controversy continued into the 21st century, when a scheme by Richard Rogers for the former Chelsea Barracks site was defeated.

Not content merely to criticize what other people were doing, Charles persuaded the Duchy of Cornwall to create the model urban developments of Poundbury and Nansledan—object lessons in the creation of beautiful and human communities for the 21st century. In the 1990s, a series of summer schools and a school for architecture and the crafts provided an architectural education like no other—at times chaotic but life-changing for many of the students attending. Since 2007, the 18th-century mansion Dumfries House, in a depressed area of Scotland, has become an engine for regeneration, with numerous schools to train young people in the skills of hospitality, agriculture and the crafts.

All the aspects of the King’s personality can be seen in the intensely personal Arcadia he has created at Highgrove House in the Cotswolds, with its famous garden. A different kind of Arcadia exists in parts of Transylvania, where he owns homes in surroundings of prelapsarian beauty.

As King, Charles is no longer head of the Duchy of Cornwall and cannot freely express his opinions. It is therefore time to assess the legacy of his 41 years of engagement with architecture. This lecture shows that it is astonishingly rich.

Clive Aslet is the Publisher of Triglyph Books, which he founded with the photographer Dylan Thomas in 2019. Triglyph specializes in architectural books, often on living practitioners such as Hugh Petter, Michael Imber, Oliver Cope, Andrew Skurman and Larry Boerder. In May, Triglyph published his own latest work, King Charles III: 40 Years of Architecture.

In 1977, Clive joined Country Life magazine to write about architecture. In 1993 he became Editor, a position he held for 13 years, before becoming Editor at Large. He opened the worlds eyes to the beauties of the Gilded Age in Britain and the US through pioneering books, beginning with The Last Country Houses (Yale University Press) in 1982. Clive has written over 30 books and hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles, many of them in support of Classicism. These have included major works on Quinlan Terry, John Simpson and others of the Classical tribe.

Since 2021, Clive has been a Visiting Professor of Architecture at the University of Cambridge, where he helped to establish the Centre for the Study of Classical Architecture at Downing College. Earlier this year he launched a podcast Your Place or Mine? with Dr John Goodall, exploring and celebrating places and architecture. He served as a trustee for organizations such as the Lutyens Trust, INTBAU and Plantlife International, and was a founder of the Twentieth Century Society in 1979.

Over Clive’s 47 year career he has championed the cause of Classicism and the architects who continue its legacy to this day.

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