Su Rogers facts for kids

Susan Jane Rogers (born February 22, 1939) is a British designer and teacher. She helped start and worked with two important architecture firms in the 1960s and 1970s: Team 4 and Richard + Su Rogers. Later, from 1986 to 2011, she was a partner at John Miller + Partners.

Su Rogers was part of the team that designed the famous Pompidou Centre in Paris. She also helped create the idea for the Zip-Up House in the 1960s. Two houses she designed for her parents, Creek Vean and Pillwood House, are special buildings in the UK.

Her Life and Education

Su Rogers was born in 1939. Her parents were Marcus and Irene Brumwell. Her father ran an advertising company and later started a design research group.

Su went to Frensham Heights School. She studied Sociology at the London School of Economics. Then she studied Town Planning at Yale School of Architecture from 1961 to 1963.

She met Richard Rogers, who was also an architect, at the London School of Economics. They got married in 1960. Su and Richard had three sons: Ab, Ben, and Zad. They later divorced in the 1970s.

In 1985, she married her second husband, John Miller, who was also an architect. She joined his company the next year. John Miller was a professor at the Royal College of Art. Su also has two step-daughters, Sarah and Harriet.

Her Work as an Architect

Creek Vean, a house in Feock, Cornwall

In 1963, Su Rogers helped start a firm called Team 4. She worked with her husband Richard Rogers, Norman Foster, and Wendy Cheesman. The group worked together until 1967.

One of their first projects was to design a new house for Su's parents in Feock, Cornwall. This house was called Creek Vean. To pay for the house, her parents sold a painting by the artist Piet Mondrian. Creek Vean is now a very important listed building.

Team 4 also designed a plan for 120 houses for Wates Housing in Surrey. Richard Rogers said this was a very important project for their firm. They also designed Skybreak House in Hertfordshire. The inside of this house was used in the movie A Clockwork Orange. Their last project was the Reliance Controls building in Swindon, finished in 1967.

22 Parkside, a house in Wimbledon, London

After Team 4 ended, Su and Richard started a new firm called Richard + Su Rogers Architects. This firm worked until about 1970. They designed a house for Richard's parents at 22 Parkside in Wimbledon.

Before this, Richard and Su Rogers had designed a concept house called the Zip-Up House. This house was never built, but its ideas were used for the 22 Parkside house.

The Pompidou Centre in Paris

In 1971, Su and Richard Rogers teamed up with an Italian architect named Renzo Piano. They formed a new firm called Piano + Rogers. This team designed the famous Pompidou Centre in Paris.

Su Rogers left the firm in 1972. She became a teacher at the Architectural Association and the Royal College of Art. From 1977 to 1986, she was the Director of the Royal College of Art Project Office.

In 1986, she became a partner at Colquhoun, Miller and Partners, which later became John Miller + Partners in 1990. This firm focused on buildings for universities, art galleries, and affordable homes.

Some of their notable projects included:

• In 1999, they won a competition to redesign the Royal Scottish Academy.
• In 2001, John Miller + Partners finished redesigning Tate Britain.
• In 2004, the firm completed work on the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.

John Miller + Partners closed in 2011.

Su Rogers has also been a visiting teacher at many universities.

See also

• List of British architects