The first major monograph to be published on the firm, Rick Mather Architects explores the full scope of the 500 projects that the office has undertaken over the past 33 years. Best known for their award winning museum extensions, such as the Dulwich Picture Gallery and the National Maritime Museum, and their major new expansion to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, USA, which is currently on site and due to complete in 2008, their portfolio spans a broad spectrum of projects including residential and student housing, masterplans, of which the first phase of their masterplan for London's South Bank is nearing completion, including both renovations and new buildings.
Essays by leading architectural historian and former Dean of Architecture at Princeton, Robert Maxwell; architect and structural engineer Tim Macfarlane, renowned for his pioneering work in structural glass; and Patrick Bellew, distinguished for his commitment to 'green' engineering, form the backbone of this comprehensive and illuminating study.
As a firm Rick Mather Architects bridges the space between the street and the interior, the old and the new, infusing their buildings with a distinct architectural identity. They are world renowned for their intuitive sense of place and context, as well as their pioneering technologies in structural glass and sustainable design. Rick Mather Architects draws on Mather's original plans and drawings and does full justice to the firm's unique subtlety.
Robert Maxwell has had a long and distinguished career as an architect and architectural historian and teacher. For many years, he was the Dean at Princeton School of Architecture; prior to this, he was a practicing architect in the UK. Maxwell is currently teaching the history and theory of architecture at the Architectural Association in London. Although a champion of Modernism, this interest is informed by an acute appreciation of Postmodern developments in the late twentieth century. Tim Macfarlane was a founding partner of Macfarlane Dewhurst, one of the most prominent structural engineering practices working in the UK today, with offices in New York and London; they are particularly known for their use of glass as a structural material. Tim Macfarlane is highly regarded both for his work as a practising architect, and for his teaching roles in UK and American Universities. Patrick Bellew was one of the founding partners of Atelier 10, a cutting edge design engineering practice particularly known for their work on environmental sustainability. Aside from their extensive work for Rick Mather Architects, Atelier 10 are known for their economically and environmentally accountable design engineering work for Zaha Hadid, Richard Rogers Partnership, and Future Systems, among others. Bellew is also a respected teacher at Yale, Harvard, and Columbia Universities.
