Mavericks: Breaking the Mould of British Architecture
Royal Academy Publications, 2016
The history of architecture is a story of continual innovation, and yet at certain points within that story comes an architect whose vision completely defies convention. Mavericks: Architects who Broke the Mould of British Architecture focuses on twelve such figures from the history of British architecture, including Sir John Soane, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Cedric Price and Zaha Hadid. Published by the Royal Academy of Arts in 2016, this book offers a fresh take on these architects’ work, establishing new and sometimes surprising historical connections, while posing an intriguing alternative narrative to the history of British Architecture.
Press and reviews
Interview on ‘Free Thinking’, 12 January 2016 – BBC Radio 3
“Owen Hopkins delves into history to identify a British tradition of architects determined to do things their own way, at any price, no matter what their peers might think. … He has put his finger on a void in contemporary architecture, an unsatisfied hunger for buildings whose personalities are both strong and interactive.” – Rowan Moore, The Observer
“A wholly subjective and partial compilation of free-spirited, convention-defying British architects. In a age of peer-reviewed committee-written academic books, that comes close to being rather refreshing.” – Hugh Pearman, RIBA Journal
“[Zaha] Hadid was unquestionably someone who extended the range of possibilities in architecture. … Owen Hopkins's thoughtful book, conceived long before Hadid's death, puts her name in a roster of architects who bucked orthodoxies and transformed the profession. It's a pretty convincing thesis when it is laid out like this.” – Kieran Long, The Sunday Times
“What unites the RA’s strange bedfellows is that they had a vision of how architecture might be seized by the scruff of the neck and radically reconceptualised for their respective eras.” – Catherine Slessor, The Architects’ Journal
“A short small, well-written and very readable book [that] does stimulate thought about the very nature of maverick-ness and the need for it.” – Katharine Heron, Art Quarterly
“Hopkins’s erudite yet accessible study [presents] an intriguing and informative journey through British architecture, offered through the prism of the unconventional work that continues to advance the discipline.” – Aesthetica
“[A] short and pithy, well-researched text. The book is a welcome digestible essay on each of the nominated; an illustrated introduction into the careers of some interesting characters.” – BD Online
Also reviewed or featured in The Times, The Independent, The Herald, Dezeen, and Architecture Today.