Obituaries 

Alison Smithson


(1928-1993)

In conjunction with her husband and partner Peter, among the most emblematic works of this British architect who passed away on August 16 is the London headquarters of The Economist (1963-1967). This building sealed the prestige of the Smithsons, whose role in postwar Great Britian was distinguished for their opposition to the architecture of the country's reconstruction, for their active militancy in Team X, which they were founding members of, and for their theoretical formulation of New Brutalism, a synthesis of the tectonic aspects of the work of Mies and the formal vigor of the final phase of Le Corbusier, which the Hunstanton grammar school of Norfolk (1949-1954) was an exponent of. Though they built very few works, the influence of Alison and Peter Smithson was and still is important as a model of a critical attitude and commitment to the realities of the times.


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