Join Ben Pentreath, one of Britain’s leading architectural and interior designers, as he talks about his work, spanning the interior design of private houses and apartments (such as works for the Princess of Wales at Anmer Hall), through to major master-planning and urban development projects, including the master-planning of Poundbury, King Charles’ New Urbanist development in Dorset. Ben’s work encompasses various exciting and experimental developments – many informed by the philosophies of the New Urbanist movement – both at home at abroad, and he will discuss how these can inform architecture, design and urban planning for generations to come in increasingly challenging urban contexts. Underlying all of Pentreath’s work is a profound sense of hope – that in our complex world, architects and designers have the capacity to create cities, towns, landscapes, and houses that can bring beauty and function to daily life while conserving nature and protecting our natural environment.
Ben Pentreath studied Art History at the University of Edinburgh before attending the Prince of Wales’s Institute of Architecture. He worked for five years in New York and then with the Prince’s Foundation, before starting his own practice in 2004. Since then, the firm has grown carefully to occupy two studios in Bloomsbury’s renowned Lambs Conduit Street. Since 2009, Ben has been responsible for much of the development masterplan of Poundbury, King Charles’ experimental New Urbanist development, which comprises more than 1,500 buildings and which has been widely hailed as a triumph of postwar suburban expansion. His book English Decoration, published in 2011, established his growing reputation as an author and he has been a regular contributor to the Financial Times and other journals. A sequel interiors book, English Houses, was published in 2016. His new book, An English Vision, a monograph of the work of his design practice, was published by Rizzoli New York in 2024 and quickly became one of the best-selling interiors and architecture books of the year. In 2023, Ben was awarded the Richard H. Driehaus Prize, given to a living designer whose work embodies the highest principles of traditional and classical architecture and urbanism in contemporary society. Ben is one of the youngest laureates of the award.
Organised by Dr Kyle Leyden, Lecturer in Early Modern Architecture and Visual Culture, and the Courtauld Student’s Union Architecture Society.
