Roberto Fabbri, “Patterns of Practice: The architecture of Antony Irving and Gordon Jones (Design Construction Group)”

Roberto Fabbri
Roberto Fabbri is an architect and researcher. He is an associate professor at the College of Arts and Creative Enterprises of Zayed University, Abu Dhabi. He alternates professional practice with theoretical studies, with research interests that focus on modern and contemporary architectural design. He contributed to several international seminars and conferences, published in international magazines, and recently released a book on the architectural work of Max Bill and the first systematic study on the modern heritage of Kuwait.

Patterns of Practice: The architecture of Antony Irving and Gordon Jones (Design Construction Group)
British architects Anthony Irving and Gordon Jones arrived in Beirut in 1955 for a temporary consultancy and did not leave until the mid-1980s. In the early 1960s, they formed the partnership Design Construction Group (DCG), which successfully operated in the Levant and the Gulf for almost 30 years. They were very active in Kuwait, where they delivered a series of office buildings for the rising banking market. Following the lecturer’s recent retrieval of part of the DCG’s original archive, this lecture will uncover an untold and important chapter of the region’s urban development. It will also attempt to define the trajectories of professional practice in the post-oil Gulf and weave this narrative with British post-colonial architecture