Jeremy Till

Till was educated at Eton College (1970–75), Cambridge University (MA, 1979), Polytechnic of Central London (Dip Arch 1983) and Middlesex University (MA Modern European Philosophy, 1999).

Till worked for relatively low-key architectural practices, Alex Gordon Partnership and Peter Currie Architects, before joining his partner, Sarah Wigglesworth, to design and build their well-known house and office, 9 Stock Orchard Street, which was featured on the first series of the TV Programme Grand Designs; subsequently the presenter Kevin McCloud named the project as one of his favourite projects.{{cite web|title=Kevin McCloud: Most Grand Designs are too big and too bright|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/9596965/Kevin-McCloud-Most-Grand-Designs-are-too-big-and-too-bright.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121010051930/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/9596965/Kevin-McCloud-Most-Grand-Designs-are-too-big-and-too-bright.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=2012-10-10|work=The Daily Telegraph}} The building, made from straw bales and other unconventional materials, was awarded Civic Trust Award (2002), RIBA National Award (2004) and RIBA Sustainability Prize (2004). It has been published extensively worldwide, with the journal World Architecture saying: "It is destined to become an icon, the subject of dissertations and copycat projects. Unlike the established canon of exemplary houses, this house/office is a deep, dense and determined essay on the question: what is architecture today?" He left Sarah Wigglesworth Architects in 2002 to concentrate on an academic career. Till curated the British Pavilion at the 2006 Venice Architecture Biennale.{{cite web|title=Jeremy Till to curate British Pavilion|url=http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/jeremy-till-to-curate-british-pavilion-in-venice/583008.article|work=Architects Journal}} the exhibition, entitled Echo City received very mixed reviews, with severe criticism from the London architectural press, but praise from international reviewers.{{cite news|title=Sheffield Goes to Venice|url=http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/main-topics/local-stories/sheffield-goes-to-venice-1-2385814|newspaper=Yorkshire Post}} He chaired the RIBA Awards Panel from 2004 to 2006, the only academic to have held this position. In 2013 he co-curated the UK Pavilion at the Shenzhen Biennale with a team from Central Saint Martins,{{cite web|title=CSM to curate the British pavilion at the Shenzhen Biennale Shenzhen|url=http://disegnodaily.com/news/csm-to-curate-the-british-pavilion-at-the-shenzhen-biennale}} for which they were awarded the Biennale's Academic Committee Prize.

Till started his teaching career at what was then Kingston Polytechnic in 1986. He moved to the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London in 1990, soon after the appointment of Peter Cook as the School's Head. While at the Bartlett, Till was undergraduate course director, Diploma studio teacher and sub-Dean of the Faculty. In 1999, he was appointed as Head of the School of Architecture and Professor of Architecture at the University of Sheffield. Under his direction, the School gained a reputation for the social and political basis of its teaching and research. In 2008 he was appointed Dean of Architecture and the Built Environment at the University of Westminster. He was appointed as Head of Central Saint Martins and Pro Vice-Chancellor of the University of the Arts London in 2012, and held that position until September 2022. He was appointed the University Lead on Climate Emergency in 2018. He is now an Emeritus Professor of Architecture at the University of the Arts London. He has sat on a range of national committees including as a panel member for the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise and the 2014 Research Excellence Framework. He was a member of the RIBA Education and Research Committees in the 2000s.

Till's research and writing has concentrated on the social and political aspects of architecture and the built environment. Stephen Moss writes in the Guardian that, "the appeal of Till's thinking is that he starts with people rather than structures, and asks us not to venerate buildings but to occupy them."{{cite web|title=Bricks and Mortals|url=https://www.theguardian.com/education/2001/sep/29/arts.highereducation1?INTCMP=SRCH|work=The Guardian |date=September 2002}} His best known book is Architecture Depends,{{cite book|last=Till|first=Jeremy|title=Architecture Depends|year=2008|publisher=MIT Press}} which was widely reviewed, and praised by the Times Higher as "a brave, enjoyable, affirming and important book."{{cite web|title=Book of the Week|url=http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/books/book-of-the-week-architecture-depends/406252.article|publisher=Times Higher|accessdate=4 March 2009}} Other books include Flexible Housing (written with Tatjana Schneider){{cite book|last=Till|first=Jeremy|title=Flexible Housing|year=2007|publisher=Architectural Press|location=Oxford|author2=Schneider, Tatjana}} and Spatial Agency (written with Nishat Awan and Tatjana Schneider){{cite book|last=Till|first=Jeremy|title=Spatial Agency|year=2011|publisher=Routledge|location=London|author2=Awan, Nishat |author3=Schneider, Tatjana }} All three of these books were awarded the RIBA President's Award for Outstanding University-based research, making Till the only person to have received this international honour three times.{{cite web|title=Winners of 2011 RIBA Awards|url=http://www.architecture.com/NewsAndPress/News/RIBANews/News/2011/Winnersof2011RIBAPresidentsAwardsforResearchannounced.aspx#.UmB7ACRjF-4}}{{cite web|title=Past Winners of RIBA Research|url=http://www.architecture.com/awards/ribapresidentsawardsforresearch/pastwinners.aspx#.UmB7byRjF-4|publisher=RIBA}} In addition to these books, Till has written numerous articles, which are collected together on his own website. From 2010 to 2013 he ran a large research project on issues of scarcity and creativity in the built environment, funded by HERA (Humanities in the European Research Area).{{cite web|title=SCIBE|url=http://www.heranet.info/scibe/index|publisher=European Science Foundation}} From 2021 he led, again with Tatjana Schneider, a research project funded by AHRC and DFG entitled 'Architecture after Architecture: spatial practice in the face of the climate emergency.{{Cite web |last=UAL |date=2021-11-09 |title=Architecture after Architecture |url=https://www.arts.ac.uk/research/current-research-and-projects/architecture-after-architecture |access-date=2022-09-15 |website=UAL |language=en}} For this project, he is part of the research collective [https://www.mould.earth MOULD] It has been commented that his privileged Eton and Cambridge background is at odds with his later left-wing political views.{{cite journal|title=Manning the Barricades|journal=Building Design|date= |volume=2012|page=7|url=https://jeremytill.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/profile/attachment/1/profile_bd.pdf}}{{cite web|title=Manning the Barricades: Profile of Jeremy Till |url=http://www.bdonline.co.uk/news/profile/profile-jeremy-till/5031714.article |publisher=Building Design |accessdate=10 February 2012}}

Till is the son of the educator and former cleric Barry Till and the long-term partner of the architect Sarah Wigglesworth, a pair called by the Evening Standard "a glamorous power couple."{{cite web|title=Intelligence and Design|url=http://www.homesandproperty.co.uk/property_news/news/jeremytillhowintelligenceanddesigncanovercomeourhousingproblems.html|work=London Evening Standard|accessdate=17 July 2013}} His interests are listed in Who's Who as 'growing, cooking and eating food'. He lives in London. He served as a trustee of the New Economics Foundation from 2015 to 2021.

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• [http://www.jeremytill.net Personal Website]

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Category:1957 births

Category:Living people

Category:People educated at Eton College

Category:20th-century English architects

Category:Academics of University College London

Category:Alumni of Middlesex University

Category:Alumni of the Polytechnic of Central London