Design Icons: Denys Lasdun

The second in our series of Design Icons is the polarising Denys Lasdun. Best known for his design of the Royal National Theatre, one of the most notable and divisive examples of Brutalist architecture in London, Lasdun has gentler and more classical influences than our previous Design Icons, the Smithsons, including the likes of Nicholas Hawksmoor.

Cubic towers, bare concrete and jutting foyers are typical of Lasdun’s aesthetic, demonstrated in his university buildings (including Fitzwilliam College Cambridge, the University of East Anglia and the Royal College of Physicians in Regent’s Park) and often compared to the designs of Frank Lloyd Wright. His geometric forms and use of shape to create balanced buildings, working in harmony with their surroundings, have been hugely influential for the design of our new Silversmith collection of solid silver cufflinks, cuff bracelets for men and our first tie bar. His use of cement and concrete, sculptured beautifully and precisely, expresses the contrast between the rough and the smooth, the raw and the refined, that our new collection aims to explore.

design-icons_journal_Denys-Lasdun