Peter Blundell Jones: Architecture, Landscape and the City

Peter Blundell Jones: Architecture, Landscape and the City celebrates the work and legacy of the late British architect, writer, and teacher Peter Blundell Jones (1949-2016), who taught at the University of Sheffield School of Architecture from 1994 to 2016. It is the first full-scale retrospective devoted to him and also marks the 30th anniversary of one of his major intellectual legacies – the research unit East-West Studies in Architecture and Landscape.

Peter Blundell Jones, or PBJ as he was fondly known, has been described as the pre-eminent architectural historian of his generation; a scholar who ‘saw architecture essentially as a human discipline’, truly appreciating the historical and social purpose of a building, and inspiring thousands of his students to do the same. 

He published on a prolific scale, writing over 500 journal articles and thirteen books, including monographs on the work of previously marginalised architects including Hans Scharoun and Hugo Häring. Although predominantly an academic, Peter also practised as an architect, designing a number of buildings including The Round House in Stoke Canon, Devon, which is featured in Pevsner's Buildings of England, and the conversion of an eighteenth-century water mill into his family home.

The exhibition brings together archival documents from the Peter Blundell Jones Archive, donated to the University Library by his family, and books and objects from the School of Architecture and Landscape to explore his influences, career and legacy. The exhibition is structured into three thematic sections following the order of Peter Blundell Jones’s self-identification as an architect, writer and teacher – Practice, Research and Teaching.

This exhibition is free and is open to staff, students and the general public.