Soane operated at the tipping point of the industrial revolution, witnessed the birth pangs of the modern world. He began his career seeking the favour of aristocratic patrons, but through his work with the directors of The Bank helped to define the modern conception of the commercial / professional architect. The RIBA was founded shortly after his retirement and received it’s royal charter in the year of his death.
It has taken me 40 years longer than my contemporaries (from the class of ’72) to get around to joining this club, which to be fair is no longer quite the elitist institution it was once felt to be. Still feels a bit odd, to be honest, I guess I will never quite shake off those anti-establishment blues.
Soane was under constant pressure to design more economically and in some ways this drove him to develop the innovative simplifications and abstractions that we tend to value in his work. I guess it has become one of the obsessions of the modern architect to somehow cut…