Many teams have their origin in the studio of a third architect, and in the case of Adam Caruso (1962) and Peter St. John (1959), associated since 1990, this is Florian Beigel, under whom both once worked and with whom both share an interest in the architecture removed from Miesian ideals that seem to dominate the British scene. In their projects, one can trace both admiration for the principal role played by material in the work of Sigurd Lewerentz, on whose churches Caruso has written an essay, as well as for the spatial complexity of Hans Scharoun’s proposals. From the drawing boards of their London office to the classrooms of the University of North London, where they teach, Caruso and St. John defend an architecture that entrusts itself not to language, but to the physical presence of the built form. Invitations to take part in critical sessions at Dublin’s University College, Atlanta’s Georgia Institute of Technology or Amsterdam’s Academy von Bouwkunst have allowed them to disseminate, far beyond the frontiers of the British capital, a credo that can be summed up through what it goes against: a priori compositions, rhetoric use of technology, or invention for invention’s sake...
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