Francis Reginald Stevens Yorke (3 December 1906 – 10 June 1962), known professionally as F. R. S. Yorke[1] and informally as "Kay" or "K," was an
Englisharchitect and
author.
One of the first native British architects to design in a
modernist style,[2] he made numerous contacts with leading European architects while contributing to Architects' Journal in the 1930s, and in 1933 was secretary and founder member of the
MARS Group.[3] From 1935 until 1962 he was the editor of an annual publication Specification.[4] Between 1935 and 1937 he worked in partnership with the
Hungarian architect and former
Bauhaus teacher
Marcel Breuer, before forming the
Yorke Rosenberg Mardall partnership in 1944 together with
Eugene Rosenberg (1907-1990) and
Cyril Mardall (Sjöström) (1909-1994), with whom he designed many post-war buildings including
Gatwick Airport.[5]
In 1934, Yorke wrote The Modern House, a book that introduced modernist houses, fourteen pages of which were dedicated to English examples. Yorke was inspired by seeing modern architecture on his
Prague visit in 1931 and initially collaborated on the book with the Czech architect Karel Honzík.[6][7] He wrote a follow-up article in the Architectural Review in 1936 focusing on the use of concrete and this included a further eleven English houses. These contributions helped lay the basis for the postwar English fascination with concrete.[8] In 1937 he published The Modern House in England which illustrated houses from a number of his fellows from the MARS group. The book was split into chapters on brick and stone, timber frame and concrete. It included a foreword by
William Lethaby.[9] Also in 1937 Yorke together with
Frederick Gibberd published The Modern Flat and in 1939 with Colin Penn A Key to Modern Architecture.
Notable buildings
Torilla, a house at Nast Hyde, Hatfield (1935)[10]
^Pile, John F. (2005) [2000]. "The Spread of Early Modernism in Europe". A History of Interior Design (2nd ed.). London: Laurence King Publishing. p. 370.
ISBN1-85669-418-6.
^Bullock, Nicholas (2002). "Rethinking the new architecture". Building the Post-war World: Modern Architecture and Reconstruction in Britain. London: Routledge. p. 28.
ISBN0-415-22179-X.
^Melvin, Jeremy (2003). FRS Yorke and the Evolution of English Modernism. Wiley-Academy. p. 131.
Mallgrave, Harry, F (2009). Modern Architectural Theory - A Historical Survey, 1673-1968. Cambridge University Press.{{
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Yorke, Francis, R S (1934). The Modern House. The Architectural Press.{{
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Yorke, Francis, R S (1947). The Modern English House. The Architectural Press.{{
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Yorke & Gibberd, Francis, R S & Frederick (1937). The Modern Flat. The Architectural Press.{{
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link)
Yorke & Penn, Francis, R S & Colin (1939). A Key to Modern Architecture. Blackie & Son.{{
cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
link)
Melvin, Jeremy (2003). FRS Yorke and the Evolution of English Modernism. Wiley-Academy.