Architect of the Week: Robert Harvey

Robert Harvey, The Modern House
Robert Harvey, The Modern House
Robert Harvey, The Modern House

Robert Harvey was born in Coventry in 1919 and studied architecture at the Birmingham School of Art, the source of many modern architects in the inter-war period, and one which encouraged a strong interest in the work of Frank Lloyd Wright then and later. Harvey was the most distinguished of a small idiosyncratic group of Birmingham-trained architects who were fascinated by the work of Frank Lloyd Wright before it became fashionable.

In 1950 Harvey joined the office of J. Brian Cooper, and later worked for Leonard Harper (the father of his student contemporary and friend Ross Harper). In 1951 Harper’s practice amalgamated with that of F. W. B. Yorke, father of the noted modernist architect F. R. S. Yorke, and Harvey took over the latter’s Stratford office, specialising in private houses while the Birmingham office handled the more commercial work.

Despite facing difficulties in securing planning permission for many of this early houses, Harvey went on to design over 50 properties, mainly in an around Warwickshire. No other strictly regional architect of the period has so many houses listed – an indication of the skill and quality of his designs.

Discover more in our Directory of Architects and Designers.

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