Wadham College at Oxford University is hosting Wren 300, a symposium that looks back on Wren’s intellectual, medical and practical achievements prior to him becoming an architect, on Saturday 24th June
Standing out of the flames and smoke of surrounding blazing buildings, St Paul’s Cathedral during the blitz in London, 29 December 1940. (Courtesy Wiki Commons)
Top UK and US architecture scholars, scientists, mathematicians, astronomers, and practising architects descend on Wadham College at Oxford University on Saturday 24th June for a symposium on Britain’s greatest architect, Sir Christopher Wren (1632-1723). Wren was admitted to Wadham as a child prodigy in 1649 after the execution of Charles I.
The Oxford Wren 300 Symposium is the brainchild of Rory Coonan, former Director of Architecture at the Arts Council of Great Britain, and himself a graduate of Wadham. Coonan is chair of VIVAT Foundation for people with learning disabilities and a founder of Coral Living housing. Â As a director at Circle BMI healthcare, he commissioned Foster+Partners to design the Bath Sulis hospital, which was recently bought by the NHS. In 1994-97 he created NESTA, the innovation endowment enacted by Parliament.
The Symposium examines Wren’s intellectual, medical and practical achievements long before he took up architecture at the age of 30. Often described as ‘The English Leonardo’, Wren taught himself building design with the aid of books. At the precocious age of only 25, Wren was appointed Savilian Professor of Astronomy at Oxford, in which role he identified the Rings of Saturn. Wren was the first person to prove intravenous transfusion of blood. He was first to identify the major arteries of the brain. He revived a serving-maid who had been hanged for murder. He served six monarchs as surveyor general. He was responsible for major buildings that remain at the centre of national life in England, including St Paul’s Cathedral and the masterplan for London after the Great Fire.
Speakers include Katherine Blundell, professor of Astrophysics at Oxford and Gresham Professor of Astronomy in direct line of succession to Wren, the architect Eric Parry RA, whose contemporary designs added to Pembroke College, Cambridge, Wren’s first commission as an architect; and Tim Riley, director and chief curator of the US National Churchill Museum, designated by Congress, at Fulton, Missouri, which has a reconstructed Wren church. Although the event is aimed principally at graduates and donors, a limited number of places may be available by applying to Wadham:
