Rosemary Stjernstedt (11 June 1912 – 31 October 1998) was an English

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 ...

and

town planner An urban planner (also known as town planner) is a professional who practices in the field of town planning, urban planning or city planning. An urban planner may focus on a specific area of practice and have a title such as city planner, town ...

. She began her career designing furniture in London and then worked on production drawings for the Barber Institute of Fine Arts in Birmingham. After completing her education and moving to Sweden, she focused on town planning. After the end of

World War II 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 opposin ...

, Stjernstedt returned to England and became the first woman architect to achieve grade I status at London County Council.

Life and career

Rosemary Owen Smith was born and raised in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

to banker Rupert Harry Smith and Dorothy Owen and was trained as an architect at the

Birmingham School of Art The Birmingham School of Art was a municipal art school based in the centre of Birmingham, England. Although the organisation was absorbed by Birmingham Polytechnic in 1971 and is now part of Birmingham City University's Faculty of Arts, Design a ...

. After graduating in 1934, she found work designing church furniture in London before joining the more established

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

practice of Robert Atkinson, where she worked on the production drawings for the Barber Institute for Fine Arts in Birmingham. It was during this time that she undertook a planning course at the

Architectural Association The Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, commonly referred to as the AA, is the oldest independent school of architecture in the UK and one of the most prestigious and competitive in the world. Its wide-ranging programme ...

before deciding to move to Sweden in the 1939 after visiting new housing projects on her previous holiday. There, she worked for six years as an architect and

. She married the Swedish lawyer- from a baronial family- Gunnar Stjernstedt (born 1911), taking his surname, and moved to

Gothenburg Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...

in 1943 where she worked for the City of Gothenburg Planning Office on Housing and Playground Layouts. Stjernstedt returned to England after World War II and began working for the

London County Council London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today kno ...

Housing Division. She was the first female architect to achieve grade I status at London County Council and in 1950 she became the first woman to reach senior grade I status in any British council county division. From 1951 to 1955, she led the design team for Alton East Estate, a pioneering council housing estate in

Roehampton Roehampton is an area in southwest London, in the Putney SW15 postal district, and takes up a far western strip running north to south of the London Borough of Wandsworth. It contains a number of large council house estates and is home to the U ...

that later became grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

s. When London County Council was dissolved in 1964, Stjernstedt began working for

Lambeth London Borough Council Lambeth London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Lambeth in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, and one of the 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London. The council meets at Lambeth Town Hall ...

under Ted Hollamby. There, she was in charge of the design team for a variety of projects that included the masterplan for the Central Hill Estate, another landscaped, award-winning council estate. In 1967, she moved to the Housing Development Directorate at the Department of Environment working under the architect, Pat Tindale. She helped Tinsdale with her research on layouts and on timber framed housing working closely with the Building Regulations Department. Stjernstedt retired in 1972 at the age of 60 and moved to Wales where she continued to work on modest alterations for the cottages of local people. In 1986,

RIBA The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three suppl ...

invited her to be part of their panel of

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

women architects as recognition of her achievements. The panel included

Jane Drew Dame Jane Drew , (24 March 1911 – 27 July 1996) was an English modernist architect and town planner. She qualified at the Architectural Association School in London, and prior to World War II became one of the leading exponents of the Modern ...

, Elaine Denby, Lynne Walker and Pat Tindale. She had a son, Robert (1941–2012), an ornithologist based in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

who inherited the Stjernstedt barony on his father's death;African Bird Club Bulletin, vol. 19, issue 2, September 2012, p. 240-241 her partner in later life was Fred Parker. She died on 31 October 1998.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stjernstedt, Rosemary 1912 births 1998 deaths Architects from Birmingham, West Midlands British women architects British urban planners Women urban planners Alumni of the Birmingham School of Art