Wessex Project: Thomas Hardy, Architect

Kester Rattenbury is Professor of Architecture at the University of Westminster and as an architectural writer contributes to numerous national and international magazines and newspapers. In 2003, she set up EXP research group at Westminster, with acclaimed projects including the Archigram Archival Project and Supercrit series. Her publications include This Is Not Architecture (2002) Architects Today (2006, with Robert Bevan and Kieran Long), and the Supercrit Books series (2007–, with Samantha Hardingham).

• Part 1: VISION. 1: Not Much of an Architect; 2: A Kind of Education; 3: Ways of Seeing: the Early Novels; 4: Doubt and Experiment: 'Oddities and Failures'; 5: Unsafe Pictures: The Return of the Native; 6: Different Constructions: Built and Imagined Part 2: REALISATION. 7: The Invention of Wessex; 8: The Character of the Streets: The Mayor of Casterbridge; 9: A Little Influence: The Wessex Campaign; 10: Building Up: Max Gate Phase 1; 11: How That Book Rustles: The Woodlanders; 12: Wessex Copyright: Names and Maps; 13: Stepping Out: Authored and Anonymous Part 3: RECONSTRUCTION. 14: Time and Place; 15: Troublesome Land: Tess of the D'Urbervilles; 16: Obstructed Visions: Jude the Obscure; 17: Horizons Open: Poems and Photographs; 18: Building On: Max Gate Extended; 19: An Imaginary Story: The Conservation of Wessex; 20: A Partial Completion: Plays, Poetry, Performances

“Kester Rattenbury […] takes what is usually seen as a footnote of Hardy’s life and puts it at the centre. Again, the privilege is that of looking into a great mind.” – Rowan Moore, The Observer's Best Books of 2018