Memory of Richard Rogers

He was the first architect I ever knew. Of course, only through books. In 1993, when I arrived in England as an 18-year-old high school student, I discovered the book New Architecture: Foster Rogers Stirling. This "new architecture" literally came from space. Inspired by Buckminster Fuller, it was light, elegant, structural, and incredibly spatially interesting. It was my entry into the world of architecture. I was captivated. I began to explore more.

In the winter of 1995, I started writing my thesis at Eaton School in Norwich about Richard Rogers's early houses. His buildings fascinated me the most. I wasn't in college yet, but I knew I wanted to be an architect. As good as Richard Rogers. I decided to write about his family homes, the buildings that existed before he became a significant figure in world architecture. Everything before the Pompidou Center. I wrote letters. First to his mother, Mrs. Dada Rogers. She lived in the house that young Richard designed for her and his father in 1969 in Wimbledon. I didn't wait long, and Mrs. Dada called me in Norwich and invited me for a visit. It was audacious for a young boy, but it worked. I arrived in Wimbledon, and Dada sat me in a Le Corbusier chair, and we talked for almost two hours, mostly about her son Richard. For the first time, I was physically in architecture. Great architecture! A steel house made of yellow rolled profiles, framelessly glazed on both sides, located in a beautiful garden, captivated me for life, I dare say. A sliding partition in pistachio color, next to which hung an original drawing by Pablo Picasso, got its shade after Richard and his brother returned from a nearby pub painted in the same color. Dada let me take photographs. I had an analog Praktica camera at the time and poorly wound the film. I didn't capture anything at all.

The next Rogers house I visited was a row of three small houses in Murray Mews in Camden. My letter made an impression again, this time on the elderly owners, Mr. and Mrs. Williams. They were the original clients for whom Richard Rogers and Norman Foster built these modest houses. Yes, these two titans of world architecture started together in 1963 in a small office called Team 4! Why four? The other partners at that time were their wives Wendy Foster and Su Rogers. Together, they managed to realize the first icons of the new British architecture dubbed High-tech within four years. The Williamses welcomed me very warmly. Their modernist interior in Murray Mews (1967) was complemented by historical furniture. That was when I realized that modern and historical architecture can complement each other beautifully.

I also wanted to see Richard Rogers's own house. So, in February 1995, I wrote him a letter. His reply arrived within a few days and opened the door for me into the world of architecture. Since then, through his secretary Jo Murtagh, I have been able to visit his own house repeatedly and go back to Dada Rogers in Wimbledon to take more photographs. The second time, Dada welcomed me very warmly with homemade buns. For my journey, she gave me Richard Rogers's monograph by Kenneth Powell with a beautiful dedication. My first own book on architecture! That very day, I headed to Chelsea, where I had already arranged a tour of Richard's own house on Royal Avenue. It was two connected classical houses by the famous architect John Nash, whose shared wall was removed to create one large living atrium. The interior embodied for me the ideals of modernism and Richard's vision of a home for a large family. Richard's mother-in-law welcomed me; her name, as he often joked, he forgot due to his severe dyslexia. The attic of the generously designed house housed a huge children's room, whose aluminum furniture and sliding roll partition were designed by Richard's then colleague Eva Jiřičná. Next to it, Richard had a small study lined with books that had been published about his buildings. "Do you have any of his books?" his mother-in-law asked me. I showed her the small monograph from Dada Rogers. She pulled the largest book from the library and handed it to me. The Japanese edition of Architecture and Urbanism, Extra Edition: Richard Rogers 1978-1988. It is still in my library today.

I got into Richard's house one more time in the fall after the interior had been completely renovated. There was no trace left of the children's room by Jiřičná; the two-story space expanded to three stories. The generous architect Richard Rogers took away from the area of his own house to create a more open and welcoming family space.

Richard's letter opened more doors for me. I could, for example, visit the house of another outstanding architect, his friend Sir Michael Hopkins, in Hampstead in London. I used it to compare with Rogers's examples of the high-tech approach in residential architecture.

I completed my thesis and submitted it in the summer of 1995. I successfully passed the entrance exams at the Faculty of Architecture at ČVUT in Prague after I shared my experiences during the interview. I don't know if the committee believed me then.

Recently, in 2018, I visited the London Open House with friends, an amazing architecture festival. We took the opportunity to visit Rogers's office on Rainville Road in South London. I confided in the young architect who guided us about my study experiences and asked about Jo Murtagh, the secretary who organized everything back then. “Jo is still with us, she's standing over there” he said. Mrs. Jo was still Richard's secretary at that time, and surprisingly, she remembered our correspondence. “Do you want to wait for Richie? He should arrive on his bike any minute”. Unfortunately, we had to continue, and we missed Mr. Rogers then.

Richard Rogers was an architect I never met personally but who had a profoundly impactful influence on me. Because of him, I pursued a degree in architecture. In his houses, I first experienced that inner thrill an architect gets when truly physically overwhelmed and awed by architecture.

He was a kind, generous, and very talented person. He became one of the most influential figures in London over the last 30 years, significantly affecting its urban development as an advisor to the mayor. His buildings embody a human dimension and radiate the positive energy that he so readily shared with everyone around him, just like his Italian smile. For me, he will always be the one who opened the doors for me and pushed me forward into architecture, for which I am immensely grateful.

Thank you, Lord Rogers of Riverside!