In the 300 years since Christopher Wren’s death, we examine his impact on artists and designers working in his churches. How does Wren’s imagination and skill give rise to creative responses in others? And what do their interventions in Wren’s churches look like today?
Moritz Waldemeyer
Moritz Waldemeyer is a designer whose practice (Studio Waldemeyer, founded in 2004) was built on a philosophy of playful experimentation by forging links between technology, art, fashion and design. His specially created work Halo will be installed at St Stephen’s Walbrook (one of Wren’s churches) for London Design Festival 16-24 Sep 2023.
Biba Dow
Biba Dow co-founded Dow Jones Architects in 2000 with Alun Jones. She has led many projects including Grand Junction at St Mary Magdalene, Bevis Marks Synagogue and the crypt at Christ Church Spitalfields. Biba was short-listed for Architect of the Year for the Women in Architecture Award 2018. She is an architectural assessor and writes about architecture and culture. She has lectured widely on the work of her practice and on architecture and design. She is a member of the Cathedral Fabric Committee at Coventry Cathedral, as well as several design review panels. She is an external examiner at the Cass, and has been involved with teaching architecture at a number of UK universities, teaching a diploma unit at the Cass and as a visiting critic at Cambridge University, Kingston School of Architecture, and other schools.
Luka Pajovic
Luka Pajovic is a PhD student in architectural history, with a particular interest in classical vaulting, its conception and reception by the architectural public from the 15th Century onwards, and its central, if often unacknowledged, role in the evolution of the classical tradition down to our time.
His current research focuses on the construction of domes in Post-Restoration England, from the unexecuted designs of John Webb and the young Christopher Wren, to the latter’s mature triumphs, carried on in the work of Hawksmoor and Gibbs. Drawing on precedents both ancient and modern, and displaying a range of different attitudes to construction, surface decoration, and the organisation of the “space beautiful” (kallichoros) beneath the dome, these structures embody manyof classical architecture’s central preoccupations.
Far from exhausting themselves in early modern England, these themes continued to inform the work of classically inspired designers well into the twentieth century – from Joze Plecnik and Erik Gunnar Asplund to Rudolf Schwarz, in whose work Luka maintains an active scholarly and personal interest.
Andrew Nunn
Andrew Nunn was Dean of Southwark until July 2023. Before becoming Dean in 2012 he had served at Southwark Cathedral since 1999 as Sub Dean and Precentor. Andrew trained for the priesthood at the College of the Resurrection, Mirfield. Whilst Dean he established various art projects at the Cathedral including the Lent art installation working with David Mach, Nick Fiddian-Green, Angela Wright and others. His interests are around spirituality and liturgy and the interplay with them of art and architecture.
(We regret that due to unforeseen circumstances Elizabeth Deans can no longer participate in this event.)
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