Peter Wormersley: forgotten master of architecture

Scottish architect Neil Gillespie and historian Simon Green discuss the intriguing yet often overlooked contribution of Peter Womersley to Scottish modern architecture. Trained at the Architectural Association in London, most of Womersley's first commissions were private homes for clients including textile designer Bernat Klein. These experimental and poetic houses show their debt to Frank Lloyd Wright, while his larger public commissions followed a more brutalist tradition with in-situ concrete and strong geometric forms. These include the Gala Fairydean Stadium with its distinctive concrete origami structure and soaring cantilevers, designed in collaboration with Ove Arup, and the highly sculptural Boiler House, for the Melrose District Asylum. Although most of his works are located in the Scottish Borders, with others across the UK, he was a frequent traveller and lived and worked briefly in both Hong Kong and Kuwait.