The Architecture and Writings of E.S. Prior

'This book brings together for the first time the highly original and intriguing work of E.S. Prior, a leading but previously underrated member of the experimental wing of Arts and Crafts architecture. David Valinsky shows us Prior, the architect and the writer, and uses the writings to explain his architecture. From garden making to conservation, from structure to stained glass, Prior promoted the centrality of makers and materials, developing new roles and methods for architects and building workers in an uncommercial construction process outside the contract system. Valinsky considers how these ideas played out in his domestic architecture, churches, schools and college buildings and were most fully achieved at Voewood, a house in the Norfolk countryside, which was Prior's magnum opus. 'However, this book is not a hagiography but a contextualised, closely considered critique of Prior's work, which is unusual in architectural biography. Valinsky also pushes our understanding of Arts and Crafts ideas beyond vernacular architecture and simplicity in design to include Prior's experiments in reinforced concrete, turn-of-the century Classicism, and architectural education (at Cambridge). 'In E.S. Prior, each building is exceptionally well-represented through archival photographs and shown at its best, in excellent, freshly minted photographs and drawings by the author with value added by Prior's formerly unpublished drawings. As someone who researched E.S. Prior for the good part of a decade, I cannot recommend this book too highly.' - Dr Lynne Walker, Institute of Historical Research, London