SCOTTISH SOCIETY OF ARCHITECT-ARTISTS (SSAA)

SSAA MEMBER No. 212 

Robin Webster OBE RSA FRIAS is a partner with cameronwebster architects Glasgow (www.cameronwebster.com)  and Professor Emeritus at the Scott Sutherland School of Architecture at the Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen.  

Robin studied Architecture at Cambridge and at the Bartlett at UCL and, after working with Gillespie Kidd and Coia in Glasgow, set up in practice, Spence and Webster, in London with Robin Spence. 

In the past architects such as Michaelangelo and Mackintosh were consummate artists who communicated their architectural ideas through drawings and sketches: but perhaps at that time there was no alternative. In a recent text for SSAA publication, Robin asked whether with photographic and digital technology, “ ...is skill with a pencil any longer relevant? “ 

I do not accept that architects need to be so different from artists: imagination and creativity is required by both, but what might we expect when an architect wishes also to be an artist, even if this is to be seen as something separate from architecture? 

What might be necessary, or could be expected, is that there should be evidence of some intellect in the work. This might be in the manner in which an unfamiliar quality of a building or landscape is revealed.

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[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\//////////////////////////////////////////////,,,,,Robin has always been enthusiastic about teaching and took the chair of Architecture in Aberdeen in 1984, retiring in 2004. He is still actively involved in architecture and building research, and formed his current practice with his daughter and son-in-law in 2005.  The practice’s work includes a number of private art galleries and residential buildings. Although his painting output is mainly landscapes in watercolour, he has been at it for a considerable time.