Casson, Hugh Maxwell

Casson attended Cambridge, then Bartlett School of Architecture in London. During World War II, he worked in the disguise service of the Ministry of the Air Force.

The cardinal rise of Casson's career was associated with the fact that in 1948 he was appointed chief architect of the British Festival scheduled for 1951 - a festival to demonstrate the country's revival and the unity of the people after the devastating effects of the war. By the festival, the poorly built suburb of London Lambeth-Marsh was supposed to appear radically updated thanks to the new architecture. Casson enthusiastically set to work, inviting to participate in the project only the same young architects. As a result, the festival turned into a parade of new architectural ideas that had a significant impact on the subsequent development of British architecture, despite the fact that almost all the buildings were built as temporary and were demolished in the foreseeable future: now in the South Bank ( eng. South Bank ) During the festival, the district received a new name) of all the buildings of the turn of the 1940s and 50s, only the Royal Festival Hall ( English Festival Royal ) remained tunable. For the successful implementation of the architectural program of the festival, Casson was raised to a knighthood in 1952 .

Later, Kasson, often in collaboration with his younger colleague Neville Conder, designed and built a number of large and spectacular buildings in England - in particular, the building of the Royal College of Art (where Kasson was a professor of interior design in 1955–75) et al. As a close friend of the royal family, Casson also designed the decoration of the royal yacht and gave watercolor lessons to Prince Charles .

In 1970 , Casson was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts , in 1976 - 1984 he was its president. In 1984 he received the Albert Medal .