15 Jul PETER BUCHANAN
2003
PETER BUCHANAN
ARCHITECTURE OF THE EMERGENT EPOCH
After graduating, Peter Buchanan worked with two leading Cape Town architects: Gabriel Fagan (1969-70); and Revel Fox and Partners (1970-71). In 1972 he moved to London and worked until 1976 for Halpern + Partners on commercial and planning projects. From 1976 until 1979 he worked for Sidell Gibson Partnership master-planning the extension of the city of Arak in Iran.
In 1979 he joined The Architectural Press as an editor and writer on the Architect’s Journal and The Architectural Review, becoming Deputy Editor of the latter in 1982.
Since 1992 he has freelanced as a writer, exhibition curator and consultant in environmental design and planning. He curated two exhibitions for The Architectural League of New York: Renzo Piano Building Workshop: Selected Projects in 1992 (for which he also wrote the catalogue) and Ten Shades of Green in 2000, both of which travelled extensively over several years. In 2000-01 he was a consultant to the Greater London Authority’s Planning Decisions Unit and its Spatial Development Strategy.
When an editor, he wrote copiously for The Architectural Review and Architect’s Journal, including entire special issues of the AR on the Netherlands, Spain and Northern Switzerland (and later the Kansai International Airport) and edited a commemorative issue on Le Corbusier. Many of his articles in AR and AJ were republished in other languages and he has
written for journals in the Netherlands, Spain, France, Germany, Poland, Italy, USA, Canada, Japan and South Africa. He has been an editorial advisor to many journals and was on editorial boards of Architecture + Urbanism (Japan), Daidolos (Germany) and Harvard Design Magazine (USA).
Besides writing the catalogues to the exhibitions for which he was curator, he has contributed essays to other catalogues, including on Aldo and Hannie van Eyck and Thomas Herzog, and to several monographs on contemporary architects. His books include the five volumes (each in six language editions) of Renzo Piano Building Workshop: Complete Works (Phaidon Press) and Ten Shades of Green (W W Norton).
He has featured on BBC radio programmes on James Stirling, Iannis Xenakis and Le Corbusier and television appearances have included programmes on Santiago Calatrava (BBC) and Kansai International Airport (Discovery Channel).
He has been studio tutor, visiting critic and lecturer at various universities, master classes and summer schools and given public lectures in many countries, including the UK, Spain, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Finland, France, Switzerland, Croatia, Poland, Portugal, Japan, USA, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Mexico, Curacao, South Africa and Uzbekistan.
Born 16 October 1942
Education 1968: Bachelor of Architecture, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, Western Cape