Architects

Name:

Geoffrey Copcutt

Designation :

Architect

Date of Birth:

Exact Date

Exact DOB:

31/07/1928

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Date of Death:

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Exact DOD:

04/05/1926

Year of Death:

1997

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Bio Notes :

Geoffrey Copcutt was born in Yorkshire on 31 July 1928. From September 1944 to June 1947 he studied at South East Essex School of Art. He would appear to have broken off his studies for National Service from June 1947 until September 1949. At this time he enrolled at Edinburgh College of Art and graduated in 1951. He was elected ARIBA later that year (his proposers are not listed in his ARIBA Nomination Paper). He worked briefly for the City Architect’s Department in Edinburgh in 1951-52.

From 1952 to 1956 he was a partner in Copcutt, Hancock & Associates in Leicester. This was a general practice. Zodiac, the International Magazine of Contemporary Architecture, portrayed Copcutt with his partners Thomas Hancock and *****Hawkes as outstanding architects of the year 1957-58. Copcutt returned to Scotland in 1958 to begin working for Cumbernauld Development Corporation and from 1959 he was Group Leader with responsibility for the development of the town centre. He remained in Cumbernauld until 1963, though he was the Henry L Florence Research Scholar in 1961. This enabled him to study for a Diploma in Traffic Engineering and Highway Planning at the Royal Technical College of Glasgow. He graduated from this with First Class honours. He was also awarded the Alexander Thomson Travelling Scholarship with which he visited Athens. Copcutt was hailed as ‘Grandiose Magnifico’ by Luigi Nervi for his work as Group Leader for the Town Centre project at Cumbernauld New Town, where he completed many details including shops, offices, banks etc.

In mid-1963 Copcutt moved to Northern Ireland to work for the Ministry of Development in the Government. His post was Chief Architect to Craigavon, the planned new city. It was conceived as a linear city that would link the towns of Lurgan and Portadown to create a single urban area and identity. However, in August 1964 Copcutt resigned from his post in a blaze of publicity, criticising the scheme for the dominant role of administrators and the political and religious restraints. Only about half of what was planned for Craigavon was executed. Copcutt never published his proposals the lack of which which was considered to be a great loss to British architecture and planning. In 1964 Copcutt moved to a post with the United Nations in New York where he was advisor in the Urban Design Special Fund Office and would seem to have carried out a number of studies for the UNO in Eire but in 1966 moved to the post of Mellon Professor of Architecture and Consultant to the Tranportation Institute at the Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh. At the same time he had a private practice, Urban Design Associates. During this period he produced a ‘Plan for Comprehensive Education in Pittsburgh’.

Copcutt returned to Ireland in 1969 where he was Director of Planning, Frank Dunne (Developments) Ltd, Dublin and lived in this period in Redcross, Co. Wicklow. He was elected FRIBA in 1970, his proposers being Ian Duncan Black, Alexander Kerr and Tom Hancock. From 1971-73 he was senior partner in the firm (his own practice?) Urban and Regional Analysts. He moved to the Phillipines in 1981 and established himself as an Urban Planning and Land Use Consultant. He undertook work as far afield as Malaysia and Thailand.

Copcutt’s work was regarded as internationally significant. Alexander Kerr described his work at Cumbernauld as shaping the design of town centres thereafter. He also remarked that ‘from 1961-68 he held a most important position to forward the aims and objectives of space time and architecture’. William Gillespie, who worked with him at Cumbernauld, remembers him as ‘wild in every way: wild beard, wild hair, and he used to wear suits like carpets, light brown, with huge buttons; he was an amazing man’. Besides the recognition and awards noted before he was co-recipient of the Reynolds Award for community architecture and received a merit award from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. He published widely and made a number of broadcasts.

He died in 1997 in the Phillipines.

Bio Notes continued...

Additional Notes

The following private or business addresses are associated with this person:

Private Addresses2 classic

Address	Class	Date From Char	Date From Type	Date To Char	Date To Type	Notes
Redcross Wicklow County Wicklow Eire	Private
40 Belgrave Square Dublin Eire	Private

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The following individuals or organisations employed or trained this person (click on an item to view details):

Employers2 classic

Name	Name Link	Date From	Date To	Position	Notes
Edinburgh City Architect's Department (Edinburgh Corporation)	201964	In year 1951	In year 1952	Assistant
Copcutt, Hancock & Associates	405276	In year 1952	In year 1956	Partner
Cumbernauld New Town Development Corporation	400828	In year 1958	Mid 1963s	Group Leader	Group Leader for the Town Centre development
Ministry of Development, Government of Northern Ireland	405277	In year 1963	In year 1964	Chief Architect
Urban Design Associates	405279	In year 1966	In year 1969	Partner
Frank Dunne (Developments) Ltd	405280	In year 1969	In year 1971	Director	Was Director of Planning
Urban and Regional Analysts	405281	In year 1973	In year 1979	Senior Partner

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The following individuals proposed this person for RIBA membership (click on an item to view details):

RIBA PROPOSERS2 classic

Proposer	Proposer Link	Date Proposed	Notes
Thomas Hancock	404489	1970/10/07	For Fellowship
Duncan Ian Black	401238	1970/10/07	For Fellowship
Alexander Kerr	405278	1970/10/07	For Fellowship

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This person was involved with the following buildings or structures from the date specified (click on an item to view details):

Buildings and Designs2 classic

Building Name	Date Started	Town, District or Village	City or County	Country	Notes
Cumbernauld Civic Centre	In year 1958	Cumbernauld	Lanarkshire	Scotland	As chief architect Cumbernauld Development Corporation
Cumbernauld Town Centre, Phase I	In year 1959	Cumbernauld	Lanarkshire	Scotland	As Group Leader
Roxburgh County Buildings	1961/05/26	Newtown St Boswells	Roxburghshire	Scotland	Copcutt\'s competition entry (no. 22) placed third per Builder p990
Belfast Regional Plan	In year 1963		Belfast	Northern Ireland	Head of design team for New Town \'Craigavon\'<br>He resigned in August 1964

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The following books contain references to this person:

Bib ref classic

Author	Title	Date	Publisher	Notes
RIBA	Directory of members	1979
Glendinning, Miles	Modern architect: the life and times of Robert Matthew	2008	RIBA Publishing	p333,336-7
Glendinning, Miles	Rebuilding Scotland: The Postwar Vision, 1945-75	1997	Tuckwell Press Ltd	p30-1 Cumbernauld Town Centrep84-5 Aerial of model of Town Centrep86-92p172 Cumbernauld Town Centre Phase I
Glendinning, M, MacInnes, R and MacKechnie, A	A History of Scottish Architecture	1996		p562-563
Glendinning, Miles and Muthesius, Stefan	Tower Block: Modern Public Housing in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland	1994	Yale University Press: New Haven and London	p239 Cumbernauld Town Centre Phase 1
RIBA	The RIBA Kalendar 1963-64	1964
RIBA	RIBA Directory 1970	1970
Miles Glendinning, Diane Watters, David Whitham	Docomomo Scotland Leaflet			p230 Cumbernauld Town Centre

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The following archives hold material relating to this person:

Arc ref classic

Archive Name	Source	Source Cat No	Building Id	Item Name	Notes
Interview of William Gillespie by Jessica Taylor, 2 February 2009 at ECA	Courtesy of William Gillespie	201249

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Basic Biographic Details

Addresses

Private Addresses

Private Addresses2 classic

Employment and Training

Employers2 classic

RIBA Proposers

RIBA PROPOSERS2 classic

Buildings and Designs

Buildings and Designs2 classic

References

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