Roles
1943 Founder Member of the Council of Industrial Design’s Design Research Unit (DRU)
Education
1926 – 1929 Degree in Architecture, School of Architecture, Manchester University
Main Projects
1938 “Good Form” range of modular furniture, W. Rowntree and Sons, with Leslie Martin
Nursery, Northwich, Cheshire
1938 Morton House, Brampton, Cumberland
1944 Contributed to Design Review (in Architectural Review) from 1944
1946 “Inside the House” essay published in The Practice of Design, London: Lund Humphries
1950s Accessories Shop for “Gay Kaye” with Leonard Manasseh
1955 Rosie Lee Cafeteria, Festival Live Architecture exhibition, Festival of Britain 1951, with Leonard Manasseh
Sadie Speight
Architect and Industrial Designer (1907 – 1992)
“ ‘Among the women who designed for the applied arts’, she writes, ‘none was more versatile and energetic than Sadie Speight, whose work included product, textile, interior design as well as shop-window displays.’ ”
RIBA exhibition ‘British Women in Architecture 1671 – 1951’,
Lynne Walker
Born in Lancashire in 1906, Sadie Speight was studied at Manchester University, in the School of Architecture where she graduated in 1929 with first class honours. A Prix de Rome finalist, in 1930 Speight was awarded the RIBA’s silver medal and elected an associate.
During the 1930’s, Sadie Speight and Leslie Martin, whom she married in 1935, worked as architectural partners
During this decade, Speight and Martin wrote two important design books, Everyday Things, 1931, and The Flat Book, 1939, the latter commissioned by Herbert Read.
After World War Two, whilst Martin became involved in the public sphere, Speight remained in private practice, designing for both industrial production and commercial interiors, contributing to the Festival of Britain and writing for the Architectural Review. Her work in the fields of industrial and commercial design and her writing were both significant and influential. She was a founder member of the Council of Industrial Design’s Design Research Unit.
download profile:
Sadie Speight
further links:
The Independent: Sadie Speight
University of Brighton: The Career of Sadie Speight