| Description | An interview with Philip SINGLETON, a married man with one son, one daughter, who is a Architect, born in Albrighton, Shropshire and now living in Birmingham. Philip SINGLETON’s father was a Insurance surveyor, born in England and his mother a Teacher born in England. In the interview, he talks about …
'SINGLETON, Philip MS2255/2/146 Logged by Simon Cotterill
01
Born 7th December 1963 in Shropshire. Moved from Shropshire to Penn, Wolverhampton aged four and a half. Went to St. Bartholomew's Infant and Junior School. Father was brought up in Harborne, his father was a grocer who had a chain of shops around Birmingham. Mother was brought up just outside Stratford-upon-Avon, moved to Birmingham aged 18 to go to Birmingham University. Mother was teacher, father was in insurance from aged sixteen. School moving into a new building from a Victorian one. Walking to school. Mother teaching English as a second language to mothers of Asian pupils at her school. Going to an all-white school.
02
Going to St. Peter’s Collegiate Secondary School. Being a Christadelphian and going to a Church of England school. School not being results driven. Doing a drawing when on Grandfather's farm.
3.10 Mother said 'I think Philip would make a good architect'. Not knowing what an architect did at the time.
4.00 'That was a very formative moment in my life'.
Choosing 'A' levels. Family all being Christadelphians.
03
Going to church youth club and bible class. Applying to University. Having to prioritise different universities. Making Sheffield first option and applying on a separate application form to Birmingham Polytechnic as a back up option.
Solely applying to architecture courses.
4.00 'It was the Falklands War when my 'A' level results came out'.
04
Handling own finances at university. Leading a sheltered life before university.
1.13 'My pre-university social life was about standing really nervously in kitchens at parties'.
Starting to go to bars. Sheffield university accepting him despite not getting the grades. Having to live in unsatisfactory accommodation. Joining the Amateur Radio Society.
05
Subscribing to the Architects’ Journal.
06
1985 - Applying for placements with architectural firms. Working for partnership in Birmingham.
2.40 'Looking back probably not a brilliant piece of experience'. Looking up to Richard Roberts and Norman Foster.
4.19 'I had no desire to work in London so I admired these people from afar'.
An irksome wave of post-modernism.
07
Going on an inter-rail holiday. Spending thirty two days touring the architecture of Europe.
08
Dominant architectural movements. Admiring certain types of architecture. Architects he admires.
09
(continued).
Upon leaving university, wanting to write the professors of Sheffield University a letter to tell them what should be done differently.
10
Being critical of architectural education.
40" 'Architecture is about money and politics and place and people and construction and builders and management and there's a constant challenge on all of those issues'.
Sheffield being a socialist, working class town. Women to men on the course being 1:5.
11
Salary being £4,700 in the eighties. Large unemployment. Working for a company owned by a socialist. Leaving Sheffield when an engagement broke off
2.12" 'I decided to leave Sheffield, I'd spent eight years there, and move either to Hong Kong or London or Birmingham. I ended up in Birmingham.' Becoming a chartered architect.
12
Working Associated Architects. Working on housing projects. Working for Birmingham Polytechnic as it changed into University of Central England. Designing the School of Jewellery. Winning a design award. Creating the design for an arts facility that would house ethnic arts - The Drum. Leaving Associated Architects to form a three person partnership. Leaving the firm he created. Setting up Metropolis Architecture.
13
Current projects.
1992 - married wife Sarah. Sold house in Stirchley. Moved to Oxford Road, Acocks Green.
April 1994 - had first child, Helena May Singleton.
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Son Matthew was born on the 14th February 1997. A very smiley, happy chap.
Running company on own. Wishing he had more time.
3.01 'There's a very strong cultural mix in Birmingham and I suppose the Drum has given me an awareness of that more first-hand than I had before'.
15
Changes to Birmingham
6" 'I have a memory of Birmingham as the big city I used to visit from Wolverhampton'.
Emergence of lots of bars on the west side of the city. Birmingham having more canals than Venice. Current project - MAID.
ENDS |