Sean Griffiths
Biographical interview
SUMMARY
In this interview, Sean Griffiths reflected on how shifts in architectural discourse shaped his trajectory. At Manchester Polytechnic in the mid-1980s, Joe Jessop introduced him to phenomenological concepts of place, truth, and authenticity. Later, while studying Frank Gehry at Westminster, his advisor Robin Evans directed him to Theodor Adorno’s The Jargon of Authenticity, prompting a critique of Heideggerian thought and the conviction that architectural authenticity was impossible under capitalism.
This shift occurred as phenomenology and postmodernism gave way to deconstructivism, Deleuzean theory, and neomodernism. Griffiths encountered Deleuzean ideas through Kevin Rhowbotham, whose teaching explored mapping and curvilinear experimentation around 1989–90. In 1991, they co-founded a practice that evolved into FAT with Sam Jacob and Charles Holland in 1996.
In the mid-1990s, FAT repurposed the then-unfashionable postmodernism of Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown as a critical challenge to the neomodernist establishment and a tool of class critique. Although this position ran counter to the neoliberal climate of the 1990s, Griffiths argued that it acquired renewed relevance after the 2008 financial crisis.
This shift occurred as phenomenology and postmodernism gave way to deconstructivism, Deleuzean theory, and neomodernism. Griffiths encountered Deleuzean ideas through Kevin Rhowbotham, whose teaching explored mapping and curvilinear experimentation around 1989–90. In 1991, they co-founded a practice that evolved into FAT with Sam Jacob and Charles Holland in 1996.
In the mid-1990s, FAT repurposed the then-unfashionable postmodernism of Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown as a critical challenge to the neomodernist establishment and a tool of class critique. Although this position ran counter to the neoliberal climate of the 1990s, Griffiths argued that it acquired renewed relevance after the 2008 financial crisis.
BIOGRAPHY
Professor Sean Griffiths is the principle of Modern Architect and a practicing architect, artist and writer. Alongside teaching he designs architecture, makes gallery-based installations and writes extensively.
Sean was the founding director of the art-architecture collaborative FAT whose design work and art projects have been widely published and discussed. Sean’s work as an individual and as a director of FAT has been exhibited at major national and international institutions including the RIBA, the V&A, the ICA, the Royal Academy, and Tate Modern in London, and the Carnegie Mellon Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Stroom in Den Haag, Arc en Réve in Bourdeaux, the Seccession Haus in Vienna, amongst many others. FAT represented the UK at the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale.
Besides his prolific architecture and design projects, art work, media work and his regular curation of group exhibitions and installations, Sean Griffiths has taught extensively both in this country and as visiting critic and professor and as invited lecturer in institutions around the world. He has been Visiting Professor of Architectural Design at Yale University on four occasions between 2007-2016.
Sean was the founding director of the art-architecture collaborative FAT whose design work and art projects have been widely published and discussed. Sean’s work as an individual and as a director of FAT has been exhibited at major national and international institutions including the RIBA, the V&A, the ICA, the Royal Academy, and Tate Modern in London, and the Carnegie Mellon Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Stroom in Den Haag, Arc en Réve in Bourdeaux, the Seccession Haus in Vienna, amongst many others. FAT represented the UK at the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale.
Besides his prolific architecture and design projects, art work, media work and his regular curation of group exhibitions and installations, Sean Griffiths has taught extensively both in this country and as visiting critic and professor and as invited lecturer in institutions around the world. He has been Visiting Professor of Architectural Design at Yale University on four occasions between 2007-2016.
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