Francis Reginald Stevens Yorke (3 December 1906 – 10 June 1962), known professionally as F. R. S. Yorke and informally as Kay or K, was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

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

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

. One of the first native British architects to design in a

modernist Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

style, he made numerous contacts with leading European architects while contributing to ''

Architects' Journal ''Architects' Journal'' is an architectural magazine published in London by Metropolis International. History The first edition was produced in 1895. Originally named ''The Builder's Journal and Architectural Record'', from 1906 to 1910 it was ...

'' in the 1930s, and in 1933 was secretary and founder member of the

MARS Group The Modern Architectural Research Group, or MARS Group, was a British architectural think tank founded in 1933 by several prominent architects and architectural critics of the time involved in the British modernist movement. The MARS Group came afte ...

. From 1935 until 1962 he was the editor of an annual publication ''Specification''. Between 1935 and 1937 he worked in partnership with the Hungarian architect and former

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 20 ...

teacher

Marcel Breuer Marcel Lajos Breuer ( ; 21 May 1902 – 1 July 1981), was a Hungarian-born modernist architect and furniture designer. At the Bauhaus he designed the Wassily Chair and the Cesca Chair, which ''The New York Times'' have called some of the most i ...

, before forming the

Yorke Rosenberg Mardall Yorke Rosenberg Mardall (Yorke, Rosenberg and Mardall, YRM) was a British architectural firm established by F. R. S. Yorke (1906-1962), Eugene Rosenberg (1907-1990) and Cyril Mardall (Sjöström) (1909-1994) in 1944.Melvin, Jeremy (1997). Obituar ...

partnership in 1944 together with Eugene Rosenberg (1907-1990) and Cyril Mardall (Sjöström) (1909-1994), with whom he designed many post-war buildings including

Gatwick Airport Gatwick Airport (), also known as London Gatwick , is a major international airport near Crawley, West Sussex, England, south of Central London. In 2021, Gatwick was the third-busiest airport by total passenger traffic in the UK, after H ...

. Yorke was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, where his father was also an architect, and studied architecture and planning at the

Birmingham School of Architecture , mottoeng = "Do what you are doing; attend to your business" , established = 1992—gained university status1971—City of Birmingham Polytechnic1843— Birmingham College of Art , type = Public , affiliation = ...

, where his fellow students included other notable early modernist figures including Richard Sheppard,

Frederick Gibberd Sir Frederick Ernest Gibberd (7 January 1908 – 9 January 1984) was an English architect, town planner and landscape designer. He is particularly known for his work in Harlow, Essex, and for the BISF house, a design for a prefabricated council ...

, Colin Penn and

Robert Furneaux Jordan John Robert Furneaux Jordan ARIBA (10 April 1905 Birmingham – 14 May 1978 Burcombe, Wiltshire) was an English architect, architectural critic and novelist. He worked as an architect from 1928 to 1961, after which he became an academic, broadcas ...

The Modern House

In 1934, Yorke wrote ''The Modern House'', a book that introduced modernist houses, fourteen pages of which were dedicated to English examples. Yorke was inspired by seeing modern architecture on his

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

visit in 1931 and initially collaborated on the book with the Czech architect Karel Honzík. He wrote a follow-up article in the ''Architectural Review'' in 1936 focusing on the use of concrete and this included a further eleven English houses. These contributions helped lay the basis for the postwar English fascination with concrete. In 1937 he published ''The Modern House in England'' which illustrated houses from a number of his fellows from the MARS group. The book was split into chapters on brick and stone, timber frame and concrete. It included a foreword by

William Lethaby William Richard Lethaby (18 January 1857 – 17 July 1931) was an English architect and architectural historian whose ideas were highly influential on the late Arts and Crafts and early Modern movements in architecture, and in the fields of co ...

Also in 1937 Yorke together with

published ''The Modern Flat'' and in 1939 with Colin Penn ''A Key to Modern Architecture''.

Notable buildings

* Torilla, a house at Nast Hyde, Hatfield (1935) * Gane Pavilion, Bristol (1936), with

* House in High Street, Iver (1936) * Sea Lane House, Angmering-on-Sea (1937) with

- now a 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 ...

. * Shangri-la, Lee-on-the-Solent (1937), with

* Forge House,

Sutton Sutton (''south settlement'' or ''south town'' in Old English) may refer to: Places United Kingdom England In alphabetical order by county: * Sutton, Bedfordshire * Sutton, Berkshire, a location * Sutton-in-the-Isle, Ely, Cambridgeshire * ...

(1937) * Houses at Eton (1938), with

* Seven cottages, Stratford-on-Avon (1939) with F.W.B. Yorke * New House, Luccombe, Isle of Wight (1946) * Rectory at Wootton by Woodstock, Oxfordshire (1954) * Crawley Hospital (1959–61), with

References

Literature

* * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Yorke, F. R. S. People from Stratford-upon-Avon 1906 births 1962 deaths 20th-century English architects Alumni of the Birmingham School of Art Architects from Warwickshire