Architectural historian Joseph Rykwert, a recipient of the prestigious RIBA Royal Gold Medal, has passed away at the age of 98.
Rykwert, also a well-known critic and writer known for seminal books such as The Idea of a Town, died on 18 October 2024.
Born in Warsaw in 1926, Rykwert began his career as an architect, educated at the Bartlett, the University of Cambridge and later at the Architectural Association.
On completing his studies he worked under architects including Maxwell Fry, Jane Drew and Richard Sheppard, as well as engineer Ove Arup.
However, his focus gradually turned to teaching and writing, leading him to take up academic posts at institutions including Hammersmith School of Arts & Crafts and the Royal College of Art.
He then went on to teach at some of the world’s most prestigious architecture schools, including the Cooper Union, Harvard Graduate School of Design, the University of Sydney and the Institut d’Urbanisme.
Rykwert’s works explored our sense of place
As a writer, Rykwert published several influential titles, with one of his best-known being The Idea of a Town, published in 1963.
The Idea of a Town explores the anthropology of ancient towns and how this relates to modern urban design.
It reflects a common theme throughout his work – the concept of creating a sense of place, which often drew on his own experiences of displacement at the age of 13, when he and his parents escaped from Warsaw to London on the eve of the second world war.
Rykwert’s other influential works include On Adam’s House in Paradise published in 1972, The Necessity of Artifice in 1982 and The Seduction of Place in 2002.
His work had influence far and wide, with his publications translated into several languages.
Rykwert celebrated for “groundbreaking ideas”
In 2014, Rykwert was awarded the Royal Gold Medal by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), which described him as “a world-leading authority on the history of art and architecture”.
He is one of four critics to have won the prestigious prize since its creation in 1848.
“His groundbreaking ideas and work have had a major impact on the thinking of architects and designers since the 1960s and continue to do so to this day,” RIBA said at the time.
Rykwert was also the recipient of the Bruno Zevi prize in architectural history at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2000, the Gold Medal Bellas Artes in 2009 and a CBE in 2014.
In 1984, he was appointed The Order of Arts and Letters in France and he also held honorary degrees from institutions including the University of Edinburgh and the University of Bath.
The main photo is by Paweł Mazur via Wikimedia Commons.
