IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 1753 JFT
Held at: University of Westminster
Title: TURNER, John Francis Charlewood (b 1927)
Date(s): 1950s-1990s
Level of description: Collection (fonds)
Extent: c120 boxes
Name of creator(s): Turner | John Francis Charlewood | b 1927 | development planner
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
Born in London, 1927; Architectural Association Diploma, London, 1954; Associate, RIBA; self-employed, working mainly for clients obtaining improvement grants for small dwellings, and a new home self-builder, 1955-1957; employed, mainly by Peruvian government agencies, on improvement and self-help housing projects, and by the British Department of Technical Co-operation, setting up a Voluntary Service Overseas project for training young electricians, 1957-1965; Research Fellow at the Harvard-MIT Joint Centre for Urban Studies and subsequently a lecturer at MIT, publishing papers and developing a course on Housing in Development, and carrying out consultancies, mainly in Latin America, 1965-1973; lecturer at the Architectural Association Graduate School and subsequently at the Development Planning Unit, University College London, developing courses on Housing in Development, and carrying out consultancies in Africa and Asia, 1974-1983; received the Sir Robert Matthew Prize for Architecture, UIA, Paris, 1977; self-employed partner of AHAS, a consultancy on housing and local development, and undertook advisory work in London and Paris, 1984-1989; directed Habitat International Coalition's project for the UN International Year of Shelter for the Homeless, culminating in a conference of community activists and enablers at the Reichstag in Berlin, 1987; received the Right Livelihood Award, Stockholm, 1988; served on the Board of Hastings (local development ) Trust, 1991-2000; received the Habitat Scroll of Honour, United Nations, New York, 1992; received the Johannes Olivegren Memorial Award, Gothenburg, 1994; advised on projects at the Max Lock Centre (a research and consultancy group) at the School of the Built Environment, University of Westminster; volunteer on the Tools for Community Regeneration (TCR) project, an information and advisory service for self-managed community development initiatives, from 1997; Turner's work was influenced by the ecological, urban sociology of Sir Patrick Geddes (1854-1932). Publications include: edited and co-authored Dwelling Resources in South America, a special number of Architectural Design (Aug 1963); 'Barriers and Channels for Housing Development in Modernizing Countries', Journal of the American Institute of Planners, vol xxxiii, no 3 (1967); 'Uncontrolled Urban Settlement, problems and policies', International Social Development Review, no 1 (United Nations, New York, 1968); co-edited, with Robert Fichter, Freedom to Build, dweller control of the housing process (Macmillan, New York, 1972, and translated into Italian and Spanish); Housing By People, towards autonomy in building environments (London, 1976, and translated into Dutch, German, French, Italian and Spanish); 'Tools for Building Community, an examination of 13 hypotheses', in Habitat International, vol xx, no 3 (1996); 'From housing to building community, a mirror and a directive agency', in City, analysis of urban trends, culture, theory, policy, action (London, 1996); with Renate Ruether-Greaves, 'Tools for community regeneration (TCR) - a Hastings Trust project', in Building Civil Society, current initiatives in voluntary action, ed Barry Knight et al (Charities Aid Foundation, 1998).
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Papers, 1950s-1990s, accumulated by John F C Turner and relating to his work on housing and planning, mainly community-based initiatives in less developed countries, especially Latin America. The papers mainly comprise printed material and unpublished research and consultancy reports and typescripts, including works by other authors, and also include some maps. The material ranges across national and international projects in the UK and Europe; Africa; the Middle East; Asia, including East, South and South-East Asia; South America, in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela; Central America, in El Salvador, Guatemala and Panama; the Caribbean, in Cuba, Jamaica and Puerto Rico; Mexico; and North America.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: Mainly English; some other languages, especially Spanish
System of arrangement:
As received: currently boxed by world region and country.
Conditions governing access:
Open, subject to signing the Regulations for Access form.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Copies may be supplied, for research use only, unless copyright restrictions apply or the item is too fragile to be copied. Requests to publish original material should be addressed to the University Archivist.
Physical characteristics:
Finding aids:
Uncatalogued.
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:
Accruals:
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
Deposited on indefinite loan in 1999.
ALLIED MATERIALS
Existence and location of originals:
Existence and location of copies:
Related material:
The University of Westminster Archives also holds papers of the planner Max Lock (Ref: DC MLA).
Publication note:
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Note:
Archivist's note: Compiled by Rachel Kemsley as part of the RSLP AIM25 project. Sources: information provided by John F C Turner; website of the Max Lock Centre, University of Westminster: http://www.wmin.ac.uk/builtenv/maxlock
Date(s) of descriptions: Dec 2001