John Penn (11 March 1921 – 14 February 2007) was a British
architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
. He was born in
Greens Norton
Greens Norton is a village and civil parish in West Northamptonshire, England, just over north-west of Towcester. At the 2011 census the parish, including Caswell and Duncote, had a population of 1,526, a slight decrease since the 2001 census ...
,
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by
two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...
, and died in
Ipswich
Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line ...
,
Suffolk.
Penn was educated at Eton, and then at Trinity College, Cambridge. He studied History at Cambridge, and his studies were interrupted when he served in the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
. During his time in the military, he won the
Military Cross
The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level pre-1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth countries.
The MC ...
for bravery.
He spent some time in the United States with
Richard Neutra and his buildings were influenced by the
Case Study Houses
The Case Study Houses were experiments in American residential architecture sponsored by '' Arts & Architecture'' magazine, which commissioned major architects of the day, including Richard Neutra, Raphael Soriano, Craig Ellwood, Charles and Ray ...
. His work includes a factory, and a pavilion for
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...
, and several private houses in
Suffolk.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Penn, John
1921 births
2007 deaths
People educated at Eton College
Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge
Architects from Northamptonshire