Alison Smithson

• English architects Alison Smithson (22 June

1928 – 16 August 1993) and Peter
Smithson (18 September 1923 – 3 March
2003) together formed an architectural
partnership, and are often associated with
the New Brutalism (especially in architectural
and urban theory)
• They first came to prominence with Hunstanton School which used some of
the language of high modernist Ludwig Mies van der Rohe but in a stripped
back way, with rough finishes and deliberate lack of refinement. They are
arguably among the leaders of the British school of New Brutalism. They were
associated with Team Xand its 1953 revolt against old Congrès International
d'Architecture Moderne (CIAM) philosophies of high modernism.
• Among their early contributions were streets in the sky in which traffic and
pedestrian circulation were rigorously separated, a theme popular in the
1960s. They were members of the Independent Group participating in the
1953 Parallel of Life and Art exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary
Arts and This Is Tomorrow in 1956. Throughout their career they published
their work energetically, including their several unbuilt schemes, giving them a
profile, at least among other architects, out of proportion to their relatively
modest output.
Aldo van Eyck
An architect from the Netherlands. He was one
of the most influential protagonists of the
architectural movement Structuralism.