A Place for All People
Life, Architecture and the Fair Society
Richard Rogers & Richard Brown
“Architecture creates shelter and transforms the ordinary. Good architecture civilises and humanises, bad architecture brutalises”
Available as Hardback
A stunningly designed memoir with pictures by one of the world’s leading architects and urban thinkers - ‘A towering genius’ Telegraph
Richard Rogers, founder of Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, is a pre-eminent architect of his generation, whose approach to buildings is infused with his enthusiasm for modernism, love of life and strong sense of social justice.
From the Pompidou Centre in Paris to the Lloyds Building in the City of London, and from airports, to cancer care centres to low-cost homes, the buildings he and his partners have designed blend private use, public space and civic value.
In part inspired by his 2013 Royal Academy exhibition, A place for all people is a mosaic of life, projects and ideas for a better society. Ranging backwards and forwards over a long and creative life, and integrating relationships, projects, stories, collaborations and polemics, with case studies, drawings and photographs A place for all people is a dazzling and inspiring book as original as its author.
“Rogers’s wonderful new book is part memoir, part manifesto, a vision for how our cities could be more creative, beautiful and sustainable”
rohan Silva, Sunday Times
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“An essential book for anyone interested in our human future”
Antony Gormley
“Richard is one of the most profound architects of modern times and this book provides an insight into the man and the legend he has become - a must read”
Sir David Adjaye
“In his profession, so in this book: Richard Rogers has brilliantly marked out a generous space where architecture and social justice meet. The master builder is rich in humane ideas and has an infectious delight in cities and their possibilities”
Ian Mcewan
“Richard Rogers brings ideas and a fascinating personal story to life with as much flair, passion, brilliance and originality as he has brought buildings to life for over half a century. A simply wonderful read”
Stephen Fry
Richard Rogers & Richard Brown
Richard Rogers was born in Florence in 1933. He was educated in the UK and then at the Yale School of Architecture, where he met Norman Foster. Alongside his partners, he has been responsible for some of the most radical designs of the twentieth century, including the Pompidou Centre, the Millennium Dome, the Bordeaux Law Courts, Leadenhall Tower and Lloyd’s of London. He chaired the Urban Task Force, which pioneered the return to urban living in the UK, was chief architectural advisor to the Mayor of London, and has also advised the mayors of Barcelona and Paris. He is married to Ruth Rogers, chef and owner of the River Café in London. He was knighted in 1991 by Queen Elizabeth II, and made a life peer in 1996. He has been awarded the Légion d’Honneur, the Royal Institute of British Architects’ Royal Gold Medal, and the Pritzker Prize, architecture’s highest honour.
Richard Brown is Research Director at Centre for London, the independent think tank for London. He was previously Strategy Director at London Legacy Development Corporation, Manager of the Mayor of London’s Architecture and Urbanism Unit, and an urban regeneration researcher at the Audit Commission.