Oral history interview with John F.C. Turner, 2007.

Biographical Note

Architect and writer.

Scope and Contents

Education: Architectural Association, London, 1944-1945, 1947-1954; early interest in architecture inspired by father's practice as an architect, including designing Turner's childhood home; military service, 1945-1947 -- claiming conscientious objector status in response to the Allied use of atomic weapons against Japan -- discovering the anarchist newspaper Freedom awakening an interest in anarchist philosophy -- meeting with Colin Ward; introduction to the writings of Patrick Geddes, 1947 -- exploration of Geddes' Notation of Life diagrams; return to the AA, 1947 -- influence of teacher Walter Segal, and of fellow students Bruce Martin, Paffard Keatinge-Clay, Pat Crooke, Andrew Derbyshire, and John Voelcker; collaboration with Crooke, Derbyshire, Voelcker, and others in the production of Plan magazine, 1949-1950; publication of a short essay on Geddes' Notation of Life co-written with Keatinge-Clay in Cities in Evolution edited by Jaqueline Tyrwhitt, 1949; travels in Europe, 1948-1952 -- meeting Sigfried Giedion and Giancarlo de Carlo --attending CIAM meetings in Bergamo, 1949 and in Hoddesdon, 1951 --internship with BBPR in Milan; attending CIAM summer school in Venice, 1952 -- meeting with Peruvian architect Eduardo Neira; move to Peru, 1957 -- lecturing on planning theory in Lima, carrying out small projects for Eduardo Neira's architectural office, taking up a position with the Oficina de Asistencia Técnica in Arequipa (OATA) -- development of projects to improve conditions in barriadas (squatter settlements); earthquake in Arequipa, January 1958 -- urgency of rebuilding housing opens up the possibility of experimentation with self-help construction -- subsequent need to leave OATA due to political factors; collaboration with anthropologist Eduardo Soler on consultants' report to improve housing for a sugar mill in Paramonga, 1960-1961; work in Paramonga interrupted by involvement with securing a loan from the Inter-American Development Bank to implement a nationwide program of self-build housing, 1961 -- involvement with this program cut short as forced out of Peruvian civil service due to status as foreign national -- continued involvement with housing projects in Lima (especially at Ventanilla and Villa Los Angeles) as a technical expert employed by the British government; leaving Peru for Harvard-MIT Joint Center on Urban Studies, 1965; recent involvement with the Hastings Trust.

Subjects

• Architects--Interviews.
• Architectural Association (Great Britain)
• City planning.
• Geddes, Patrick, Sir, 1854-1932.
• Gyger, Helen, interviewer.--http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/ivr
• Hastings Trust.
• Housing--Peru.
• Interviews.
• Joint Center for Housing Studies of MIT and Harvard University.
• Oral histories (literary works)
• Self-help housing--Peru.
• Turner, John F. C.--Interviews.
• World War, 1939-1945--Conscientious objectors--Great Britain--Interviews.

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