Challenging the New University
John’s work on UK new universities began with a study of The University of Essex, accepted by The Architectural Press as a book (1971), but which became the special double issue of The Architects’ Journal (20 August 1972). It was described by The Times Higher Education Supplement as “pinpointing absolutely the problem of the modern university” (THES, 20 October 1972) and elicited much comment over subsequent months.
He has written about university housing (one study being a complete issue of The Journal of the RIBA, October 1975), about various universities (such as Stirling, The Architectural Review, June 1973), and more recently the overview “The English university in the 1960s” in Man-Made Future (2007).