Roles
1928 – 1956 Attended the first postwar meetings of CIAM: Congres International d'Architecture Moderne
1933 – 1957 Active member of the MARS (Modern Architectural Research) Group
1948 Attended the founding of the Union International des Architectes (UIA)
1961 Organiser of the International Union of Architects’ (UIA) conference, London
Education
1933 – 1935 Interior Design Diploma, Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London (UCL)
Career Employment
1941 – 1946 Joined and worked at Architectural Design (AD)
1946 – 1975 Editor Architectural Design (AD)
1960 An Anthology of Houses, Monica Pidgeon and Theo Crosby
1975 – 1979 Editor RIBA Journal
1979 Launched Pidgeon Audio Visual (PAV), now Pidgeon Digital
Awards an Honours
1970 Honorary Fellow RIBA
1979 Honorary Member AA
1987 Honorary Fellowship of the American Institute of Architects for PAV
Monica Pidgeon
Architectural Editor (1913 – 2009)
“Monica Pidgeon never lost her view that architecture and architects were agents of social change and improvement.”
Peter Murray, Architects’ Journal, 24 September 2022
Architectural Editor Monica Pidgeon was a significant figure in the world of postwar Modernism and a driving force within the British architectural discourse for many decades. She studied at the Bartlett School of Architecture at UCL. In 1946. having succeeded the previous editor of Architectural Design and Construction, as the magazine was originally named, she was appointed editor of Architectural Design. In the 1950s AD played an important role in encouraging and promoting new approaches to architecture and developing dialogue nationally and internationally. In 1975 Pidgeon resigned as editor of AD and became the editor of the RIBA journal, a post she held for four years. In 1979 she launched a new series of recorded, half-hour-long talks by architects under the title “Pidgeon Audio Visual”. This series brought together many of the prominent figures who had first appeared in the pages of AD. Pidgeon continued to produce new profiles well into her eighties. The Pidgeon Digital collection continues and is made available nationally and internationally to students, architects and the public. Monica Pidgeon’s photographic archive is held by the RIBA Library Photographs Collections.
download profile:
Monica Pidgeon
further links:
Architectural Association Independent Radio: Letters for Monica Pidgeon broadcast
AD Memoir by Kenneth Frampton: Homage to Monica Pidgeon
Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation
RIBA Journal: Monica Pidgeon
Pidgeon Digital
RIBA Library Photographs Collection