Ted Cullinan: “In the XXI century we have to move to an architecture which is fundamentally green"

The Royal Gold Medal awarded architect Ted Cullinan speaks about green ways of building in the 21st century

Ted Cullinan at his office in Islington

Edward Cullinan, better known as “Ted Cullinan”, is unquestionably one of the most hard-working men in contemporary English architecture. He has been building, in some cases literally, sustainable architecture for more than half a century now and he is still working, at 79, part time at his company, Edward Cullinan Architects, in north London.

Cullinan is one of those people whose charismatic presence immediately fills an empty room as soon as he walks in. I am meeting him on a Monday morning at his office in Islington and he is wearing a pair of jeans and a plain black sweater and trainers. On the table, one of his distinctive pens rests on a few white A4 sheets. His friendly smile matches perfectly with his impressive, yet still down-to-earth, architecture.   

“I wanted to be an architect when I was eight. Maybe that is just what I wanted to be, but also my uncle, my mother’s brother, wanted me to be an architect, so he used to induct me,” says Ted. Fortunately, he did not change his mind and his childhood aspiration became true. Educated in Cambridge, Berkeley (California) and the Architectural Association in London, he established the Edward Cullinan Architects co-operative in 1965, after having worked freelance for Denys Lasdun. 

The best of working in architecture for him is, “being allowed to make a living by your imagination, being allowed to imagine things and then to be paid for it, when you do get paid,” claims Ted, smiling enigmatically as if he couldn’t believe his luck.

Since the very beginning of his career he has been focused on building sustainable architecture and his inventive designs have always blended, most of the times in a unique way, with their surroundings. Cullinan is convinced that the pro-green way of constructing buildings “won´t just be a trend, it will be an underlined precept in the arts and crafts movement.” To support his conviction, he argues that “in the XIX they wanted to use natural materials, be natural with the countryside and the city to respond to the situations they found. In the XX modern architecture wanted to be both abstract and at the same time very healthy and to work with the weather and to be very sun-orientated, very optimistic and without decoration. In the XXI we have to move to an architecture which is fundamentally green and stands saving of carbon, natural systems for heating and making electricity and all those things.” Ted is optimistic and seems very sure about it. “The formal nature of architecture is going to do these things; it’s just beginning to emerge. It is a fundamental basis for a new way of composing buildings. It’s not just a functional matter; it is an aesthetic matter too, as buildings are seen to respond to the sun and to the situation,” states the architect.

His interest in sustainable architecture first started through looking at history. He explains that “in the XVIII in the country houses in England, all the main rooms faced south and all the kitchens and servant quarters faced north, so they knew very well the nature of comfort and climate and they worked with it and I want to work with it.”

His self-built house stands by what he believes.  “Our house that we built ourselves in Camden is a passive solar house, facing south and with all glass in the south side to warm in the winter,” says the architect. The house was Graded II* listed in 2007. He started building his own house in 1964 and he claims that the best memories from then are “the help I got from other people.” He spent two and a half years working on the construction of that house in which they still live during the weekends, while he was working for Dennins Lasdun. “Every Sunday friends used to turn up to help and I loved that, it was so wonderful,” remembers Ted with a shade of nostalgia. He already had built a conversion of a lighthouse on a cliff near Eastbourne for his parents and he admits that “this self-built tenancy was very much encouraged by going to California in 1956 and 1957. Building things yourself was in those days much more common in the west of the United States than in England, so that encouraged me a lot.” 

He recognizes that sustainable architecture costs more to build but “it’s affordable in the long term, because in the long term it makes the world cheaper. You have to look at the savings in energy bills, especially in climates like England, which are moderate climates, the difference between being warm and cold in the winter is not as extreme as it is in Canada or Scandinavia, so we can do it very easily.”  The best advice he gives to be greener is “using double or triple glazing, adding more insulation on the outside or the inside, photovoltaic cells and solar water heaters on the roof.” He assures that by doing that “you will probably see all the money back in ten years.”

Ted’s favourite buildings are St. Notre Dame du Ronchamp, designed by Le Corbusier, in eastern France, Durham cathedral in northern England and Schindler’s Lovell beach house in Los Angeles. When it comes to his own designs, he claims that “a great favourite would be the Horder House in Hampshire, which has actually just been pulled down, and the faculty of divinity in Cambridge.” 

The Horder House was not only one of his all time favourites, but also one of his most emblematic buildings. It was built in 1958-60 to his designs for his uncle Mervyn Horder. Ted built it himself with the help of a retired gardener and with no contractors. It was a house which incorporated the surrounding landscape, as for example the sliding windows in the bedrooms. The Twentieth Century Society failed in its attempt to put Horder House on the listed building register and the house was sadly pulled down. 

The charismatic architect is currently rebuilding his own farm in the north of England, close to Buxton. Most likely his only everlasting project –he has been working on it for the last thirty five years- he affirms that “it’s nearly finished but it won’t be finished until I am.” 

The man who felt surprised and thrilled when he was awarded the Royal Gold Medal thinks that inspiration “comes by thinking and dreaming.” He explains that “first you get involved in the side of the programme, then you might try a few things, just sketching, but the real inspiration comes in your head, when you are dreaming and thinking and wondering about and doing other things.” As the DIY-man that he is, he recognizes that he finds inspiration really easily “when doing physical things, like building and carpentry or furniture making.” 

Ted still retains the old romantic feel of architecture by hand drawing all his projects. Had he started his career now, he admits that he would “probably do both, by hand and computer.” At his office there are obviously co-workers who work with computers. “I think the combination of thoughtfulness and imagination and the hand is a really wonderful combination. It happens at about the same speed; computers are too quick for me,” says Ted.

He started teaching at Cambridge in 1965. “I enjoy teaching a bit, not too much,” and he adds “the importance of teaching is that it is continuously reminding you to do your best.” There is no better evidence than looking at his talented work to understand that he has been doing his best since the very beginning of his career. His honest passion for architecture makes him the best example one can think of to motivate architects-to-be in seminars and classes while at university. “You need to love architecture; it needs to engage you and you need to need to need to do it,” says Ted. And he certainly does.