RIBA celebrates The Brits Who Built The Modern World' at its new London exhibition space

Exhibition space with art on the walls and on white podiums

(Image credit: Riba)

last updated 17 October 2022

Launched in conjunction with a three-part documentary of the same name on the BBC, the new exhibition at the RIBA entitled 'The Brits Who Built The Modern World' celebrates the generation of British architects who launched the High-tech architectural movement in the 20th century. The show is presented through a wealth of drawings, models, photographs and videos in the sleek and streamlined addition to the RIBA's display halls on the ground floor, designed by award-winning London practice Carmody Groarke.

Focusing on the work of seminal British architects Norman Foster, Richard Rogers, Terry Farrell, Nicholas Grimshaw and Michael and Patti Hopkins, the show explores the historical, social, economic and architectural context that fueled one of the most characteristic architectural approaches of the 20th century.

These architects - born within five years of each other in the 1930s - played a critical role in defining today's British architecture and contributing immensely to its current international success. Through a series of landmark buildings across a globe, the group became protagonists in the High-tech movement, whose industrial nature came as a response to Modernism's dominant concrete at the time.

The show is complemented by two further exhibitions: 'New British Voices: Today and Tomorrow' is on display at RIBA's first floor galleries and investigates current international projects by 17 British based practices, while 'Empire Builders: 1750-1950' at the V&A looks back to the history of British building abroad.

The exhibition event — The show celebrates the generation of British architects who played a starring role in the birth of the High-tech architecture movement in the 20th century, presented through a wealth of drawings, models, photographs and videos

the exhibition show — Through a series of landmark buildings across the globe, the featured architects played a critical role in defining British architecture and contributing to its current international success

The Pompidou Centre designed by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers and built in 1977.

A hand-drawn section of the Pompidou illustrates its different internal functions.

The iconic Reichstag in Berlin designed by Norman Foster.

A working sketch by Foster of the Reichstag

One of Foster + Partner's most recognisable projects, the Hearst Tower in New York

The Dubai Hilton Hotel and Dubai International Trade and Exhibition Centre was a work by John R Harris & Partners

The Peak Tower by Terry Farrell (left) and HSBC's headquarters by Norman Foster (right) in Hong Kong are among two builds that have defined the city's skyline

The show explores the historical, social, economic and architectural context that fueled one of the most characteristic architectural approaches of the 20th century

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Ellie Stathaki is the Architecture Editor at Wallpaper*. She trained as an architect at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and studied architectural history at the Bartlett in London. Now an established journalist, she has been a member of the Wallpaper* team since 2006, visiting buildings across the globe and interviewing leading architects such as Tadao Ando and Rem Koolhaas. Ellie has also taken part in judging panels, moderated events, curated shows and contributed in books, such as The Contemporary House (Thames & Hudson, 2018) and Glenn Sestig Architecture Diary (2020).

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