A Life in Education and Architecture

Prize: Winner of Anne Bloomfield Book Prize 2014, History of Education Society 'This is a generous, well-crafted review of the life of Bradford-born public sector architect Mary Medd (née Crowley, 1907-2005). As a means of gaining insight into how to design schools, Catherine Burke’s book beautifully illuminates her subject’s profound impact on the thinking and processes involved... Burke, a historian of education, shows mastery of her subject here and delivers it through a light, accessible style.' Times Higher Education 'Michael Gove should stop reinventing the wheel and get a history lesson on architecture and education by reading Catherine Burke’s newly published book on Mary Medd, née Crowley. In A Life in Education and Architecture, Gove will learn about the remarkable work of a socially committed Quaker family who were at the forefront of the reformation of child welfare and school building design.' The Architects' Journal '[Burke’s] book is most informative in making links between Mary Medd and the schools she and her father admired around the world, and in discussing the training courses at Dartington and Bishop Grosseteste College, Lincoln, where the Medds collaborated with educationalists. Burke’s work and enthusiasm is valuable in that she can bring the post-war architectural world to a new and important audience of users ...' C20 Magazine '...this splendid volume, engagingly written and lavishly supplied with over 100 illustrations, is the most interesting, informative and inspirational book on the history of education that I have read in 2013'. Paedagogica Historica: International Journal of the History of Education 'Burke’s investigation, through the use of a chronologically structured biography, astutely develops the connection between architecture and education, but also seeks to establish a further connection with Mary’s own life. Using original manuscripts, plans, photographs and documentation, the text explores the significan