ABOUT

About

Professor Robert Adam has been a principal in practice for 45 years and has an international reputation as one of the leading exponents of modern traditional and classical design. Educated at the University of Westminster, he won the Bannister Fletcher Prize and gained a special scholarship to the British School at Rome Scholarship in 1972. From 1977 he was a partner in a Winchester firm. In 2021 he gained a Doctorate in philosophy from Oxford Brookes University.

In 1992, from the original practice, he founded ADAM Architecture, now the largest architecture practice specialising in traditional design in Europe. He has also pioneered contextual urban design on a number of urban extensions and new districts. Other design work includes furniture, with one piece on permanent display in the Victoria and Albert Museum. He has written six books, including the principal textbook on classical architecture and an analysis of how globalisation has affected world architecture, and is a regular contributor of papers, articles and chapters to books, journals and newspapers. 

He is a visiting professor of urban design at the University of Strathclyde and has established a summer school of classical architecture in Sweden. In his career he has held many positions on government and other committees, was the honorary secretary of the RIBA, and has founded two charities. He has won numerous prizes including the world’s highest value architectural award, the Richard H. Driehaus Prize, for “the highest ideals of traditional and classical architecture in contemporary society”.
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Publications

Robert Adam has written six books and published numerous articles and papers. Books have also been written on his work.

Education

Robert Adam is a visiting professor of urban design at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. He has taught architecture at the Prince of Wales’ School of Architecture and has been a visiting critic at several universities in the UK and abroad. He lectures regularly at universities and in public venues. He established the Englesberg course in classical architecture in Sweden, which ran for four years. He teaches in summer schools in the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands. He established a part time course in classical design at the University of Oxford, from 2023. He has established a week’s course in Composition and Symbolism in Classical Architecture for 2024. 

Architect Robert Adam: A Place at the Table — With Geoffrey Baer 

Defining Tradition


The Modernity of Tradition


How Chicago Traditions Became Global and How Global Architecture has come back to Chicago

The Role of Evolution and the Invention of Tradition in Identity in the Built Environment

Tradition and Rural Regeneration


Anywhere and Somewhere: Globalisation, Populism and Modern Architecture 

Memory is the Treasury and Guardian of all Things



Time for Architecture' by Dr Robert Adam CSCA


An interview with Robert Adam by Samuel Hughes for the Roger Scruton Legacy Foundation.

The role of evolution and invention of tradition in identity and the built environment. 

The Problem and Traditions of Modernity for the Traditional Architecture Group

Why are modern buildings so weird?




Vernacular as Style 


The Architectural Wisdom of the General Population





Activism

Robert Adam has been active in the promotion of good design, the professional acceptance of traditional design and the advancement of scholarship for 35 years. He has been one of the founders of several national and international organisations, has been elected by his profession to the governance of their institute, and continues to engage in design review nationally and locally.


Founder
The Popular Housing Group, 1995. Merged with Design for Homes, 2003.

Founder with the Prince of Wales 
The International Network for Traditional Building, Architecture and Urbanism (INTBAU), 2001

Founder 
The Council for European Urbanism, 2003

Founder
The Traditional Architecture Group, 2003

Founder
The Academy of Urbanism, 2006

Senior Fellow
The Prince’s Foundation, from 2005

Elected Councillor
Royal Institute of British Architects, 1999-2005

Honorary Secretary
Royal Institute of British Architects, 2000-2003

Chair
Faculty of Fine Arts, British School at Rome, 1993-1997
Design Review
London Advisory Committee, English Heritage (now Historic England), 1996-2001

Design Review
The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) (now Design Council CABE), from 2012

Design Review
South Downs National Park, from 2012

Chair
Selection committee the Raphael Manzano Prize, Spain and Portugal, 2016 to 2022. 

Planning Reform
Board Member, the Office for Place, Arm’s Length Group, the Department Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, the UK Government, 2023 to present.

Scholarship
Endow Robert Adam Rome Scholarship in Architecture for 3 month bursary at the British School at Rome, from 2024 in perpetuity.

Design Review
Design Council Expert in Architecture, from 2021.



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