Denys Lasdun (1914–2001) was an English architect, hailed as "the greatest English architect of the early heroic modern period", whose best-known buildings are landmarks of British brutalism. He studied at the Architectural Association in London. His typical style combined cubic towers, bare concrete and jutting decks, and he received the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 1977.
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Keeling House in London's Bethnal Green (1957) is one of his "cluster blocks": four blocks of maisonettes grouped around a central service tower. The Royal College of Physicians in Regent's Park (1964), seen as his breakthrough, is listed Grade I. At the University of East Anglia Ziggurats (Norfolk and Suffolk Terraces) in Norwich (1968), stepped, glazed student rooms rise beside classrooms and laboratories linked by walkways. The Royal National Theatre on London's South Bank (1976), his best-known work, is built of pale concrete meant to match the stone of nearby Waterloo Bridge and Somerset House. It is now listed Grade II*, though the future King Charles once compared it to a nuclear power station. Denys Lasdun's buildings are studied for horizontal terraces, public decks and the drama of concrete.
Hallfield Primary School1954 · London
National Museum of Ghana1957 · Accra
Royal College of Physicians1964 · London
University of East Anglia Ziggurats (Norfolk and Suffolk Terraces)1968 · Norwich
Keeling House1957 · London
Fitzwilliam College1963 · Cambridge
Institute of Education1976 · London
Royal National Theatre1976 · London