Legendary architecture writer and editor Monica Pidgeon has digitised her collection of recordings of talks by architects and designers.
Pidgeon Digital is a subscription-only service and contains over 200 talks by figures including Buckminster Fuller, Philip Johnson and the Smithsons as well as living architects such as Frank Gehry and Richard Rogers.
Pidgeon, 93, was editor of both Architectural Design and RIBA Journal and started the archive in 1979. The online archive will be officially launched on 27 April. Press info follows:
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The digitising programme has been overseen by Monica Pidgeon who, at the age of 93, has decided to retire. The archive is to be a continuing website under the same publishers with Peter Murray of Wordsearch in charge of new additions.
Monica Pidgeon Hon FRIBA, Hon AA Dip, former editor of Architectural Design and the RIBA Journal, was a major figure on post war architectural scene. She was a member of the MARS (Modern Architecture Research) Group, taking part in CIAM (Congres International d'Architecture Moderne) and its breakaway group Team Ten with Alison and Peter Smithson, Aldo van Eyck and George Candilis. In the 50s and 60s Architectural Design became the mouthpiece of Team Ten.
Monica started Pidgeon Audivisual in 1970. The collection includes talks by major figures who have died since being recorded including Buckminster Fuller, Harry Seidler, Maxwell Fry, Philip Johnson, Denys Lasdun, Cedric Price, James Stirling as well as the Smithsons.
Living figures in the archive include Frank Gehry, Kisho Kurakawa, Richard Rogers, Frei Otto, Norman Foster and Will Alsop.