This Manplan panel talk brings together different perspectives, examining the interconnected worlds of photography, graphic design, architecture, and publishing as seen through the pages of the Manplan series.
Experts explore how these disciplines intertwine, shaping perspectives on architectural journalism, visual storytelling, and graphic communication. They discuss the transformative power of Manplan, its bold objectives, and how the imagery and themes resonate today and influence practice within the different fields.
Register for the event for a chance to win a fine art print from the Manplan series.*
About the speakers
Chair
Catherine Slessor
Catherine Slessor is an architectural critic, writer and editor. She studied architecture at Edinburgh, then quickly defected into writing about buildings rather than designing them. She is a former editor of the Architectural Review and currently contributes to a range of media outlets, including the Architects’ Journal, Dezeen and Architectural Record. She is also President of the 20th Century Society.
Panel
Simon Esterson
Simon Esterson worked at The Architectural Press in the 1980s. As Art Editor of The Architects’ Journal, he had the opportunity to see The Architectural Review, and the culture of Queen Anne’s Gate where both magazines were based, in action. He went on to design Blueprint and Italian architecture title Domus. He is now art editor of graphic design magazine Eye.
Jonathan Glancey
Jonathan Glancey is a journalist, author and broadcaster.
A former Assistant Editor of the Architectural Review, he was Architecture and Design Editor of the Independent from 1989 to 1997 and Architecture and Design Correspondent of the Guardian, from 1997 to 2012.
An Honorary Fellow of RIBA, Jonathan is a member of the Committee of International Architectural Critics (CICA), a Companion of the Guild of St George, a charitable education trust founded by John Ruskin, and Patron of the Betjeman Society.
He is currently writing books on architecture and flight with Norman Foster, and Venice during the Second World War.
Dr Stephen Parnell
Dr Stephen Parnell is an architect and teacher, writer, communicator, critic, and accidental historian of post-war architecture. He teaches at Newcastle University where his research is primarily focused on Brutalism and on the architectural press.
He has exhibited at the Venice Biennale, regularly writes for architectural magazines internationally, and is Joint Editor-in-Chief of ARENA’s Journal of Architectural Research (AJAR). Parnell is currently completing books on Concrete for Bloomsbury’s Object Lessons series, on the architect Theo Crosby for Lund Humphries (both due in 2025), and on Architectural Design magazine for Harvard Design Press (due in 2024).
Exhibition information
Wide-Angle View: Architecture as social space in the Manplan series 1969-70 at 66 Portland Place runs until 6 April 2024.
*Winners, chosen at random from among the attendees, will win a fine art print from the Manplan series. Winners will be notified and receive their print when they check-in for the event.
