It is with deep sadness that we announce the death of Sir Terry Farrell CBE. Terry was a true visionary with a unique understanding of the power of architecture and urbanism to shape cities for the benefit of everyone. Spanning half a century, his career was marked by decisive shifts, from High-Tech, to Postmodernism most famously in the MI6 Building in London, and then to urban design and masterplanning. Yet as his work changed stylistically, his principles remained consistent, underpinned by the belief that architecture and urban design must draw from and contribute to the culture of a place, principles that he applied in his work in cities across the UK and in Hong Kong and China where he began to build extensively in 1990s and 2000s.
Over his career, Terry was a passionate advocate for the central role that local communities should play in shaping where they live. This belief lay at the heart of the review in the UK’s built environment he was commissioned to undertake by the coalition government in 2013. Identifying a fundamental disconnection between the planning process and the people it aimed to serve, the review made the recommendation that ‘Every town and city should have an “urban room” where the past, present and future of that place can be inspected.’ And it is largely thanks to Terry’s intervention that recent years have seen urban rooms spring up across the UK, including in Newcastle where the Farrell Centre stands as an exemplar of a space where students, academics, professionals and the local community can come together to discuss the city’s future.
Terry was kind, generous and fiercely determined, one of the leading lights of his generation who did so much to elevate British architecture and urbanism at home and globally. He will be sorely missed, but his legacy lives through his buildings and masterplans that have helped transform so many cities for the better; in his practice, Farrells, which maintains offices in London and Hong Kong; and in the Farrell Centre, a place where, in Terry’s words, ‘people can come together to debate the city’s future.’ Our thoughts and sympathies are with Mei Xin and Terry’s family.
Read a tribute to Sir Terry Farrell by Professor Chris Day, Vice-Chancellor and President of Newcastle University, on the university website.
Read an obituary of Sir Terry Farrell by Farrell Centre director, Owen Hopkins, in the RIBA Journal.