John Richard Steerwood Studied 1954-1955

John Steerwood was born in Edmonton, Greater London, in 1927. From the age of 9 John’s attended a boys’ home in Frien Barnet, before winning a place at Trinity County School, Wood Green, where he matriculated with distinction in Art and Mathematics in 1945. John was diagnosed with tuberculosis and instead of National Service was sent to convalesce at Papworth Village Colony, Cambridgeshire, where he joined the drawing office of the Building Department for Papworth Industries. A love of architecture followed (he recalls having visited about 450 medieval churches, roman ruins and prehistoric sites in the UK between 1940-54) and he attended evening classes at Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology, leaving Papworth in 1949. After further architectural studies at Tottenham Technical College and then the Northern Polytechnic evening school, in London, from 1950-53, he enrolled at the Architectural Association, entering the AA Fourth Year in September 1953. As part of his final year’s studies, in 1954-55, John joined the first cohort of the newly formed AA Department of Tropical Architecture (DTA). Upon graduation, John Steerwood joined for the London-based firm of Ronald Ward and Partners, where he worked on designs for a factory in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, warehousing for the British American Tobacco Co. Ltd. in Lagos, and wharf offices for the Aden Port Trust, Yemen. In 1956 he found employment with the practice of his old DTA Course Director, Maxwell Fry, and DTA lecturer, Jane Drew, where he worked on a port authority building for Accra, Ghana and village housing in Iran. After a year with Fry and Drew, Steerwood relocated to Switzerland, where he found employment with Ernst Gisel, in Zurich, followed by Martin Kuhn, in Steinach, before settling with Heinrich Danzeisen and Hans Voser, one of the most significant architectural Swiss practices of the post-war period. Steerwood was to remain with Danzeisen & Voser from 1958 until his retirement in 1989. Amongst his many significant projects, are the Fire Department and Electricity building at St. Gallen, (1966-69), the Publicitas Branch Office, at St Gallen (1979) and the commercial buildings for the Helvetica Group, again in St Gallen, c1980.

 Sources

• Architectural Association Student Register 1945-1972, AA Archives
• Architectural Association Diploma Roll Book, 1924-1963, AA Archives
• Department of Tropical Architecture, student listing, Otto Koenigsberger Collection, Box OK27, AA Archives
• General Register Office, UK, England and Wales Birth Index, 1916-2005; Reference Volume 3a, Page 932.
• Kalendar of the Royal Institute of British Architects, 1965, p213
• Royal Institute of British Architects Directory, 1985, pM317
• John Steerwood, ‘John Steerwood: School Life in Trinity, Wood Green and Hatfield Peverel, Garfield Primary School, Training to be an Architect, and Health Recovery in Papworth Everard’ Trinity Grammar School, Wood Green website. Accessed 30th December, 2024. http://www.trinitygrammarschoolwoodgreen.org.uk/stories-people/John_Steerwood_1939_to_1944_Wood_Green_Hatfield_Peverel_Architect.pdf
• Personal correspondence with Sheena Steerwood, February 2025.

 With grateful thanks to Sheena Steerwood.