Newcastle University

When 'Sir Terry Farrell: Designs for Life' opens in the Hatton Gallery, Newcastle University next weekend (28 September), it will be a public celebration of a 40-year career as remarkable as the high-profile building schemes and masterplans for which he is renowned, while at the same time it will be a uniquely personal event.

The Hatton Gallery is the first and only UK venue to host this remarkable exhibition of the life work of Sir Terry Farrell, the internationally-recognized architect and urban designer, and Principal of Terry Farrell & Partners (TFP), with offices in London, Edinburgh and Hong Kong.

Sir Terry has personally selected highlights from his 40 year career, and has chosen to exhibit them in the Hatton Gallery, immediately next door to 'where it all began' – Newcastle University's Department of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, from which he graduated in 1961.

The exhibition of Sir Terry's work will occupy four of the Hatton's five galleries. One room includes a collection featuring 40 years of built projects, ranging from 1961 to the present day, with 30 models which bring the projects to life. In another, using the theme 'How architects visualise: a lifetime in drawings', there is a diverse mix of Sir Terry's creative work, featuring sequences of images – sketches, faxes, and computer-assisted drawings – from his early work at school and university right up to the present day.

Another room is given over to a slide show, accompanied by a narrative by Sir Terry, on the theme '10 years: 10 cities'.

The fourth room is dedicated exclusively to Sir Terry's work in Newcastle upon Tyne. TFP's East Quayside Masterplan has seen the dramatic regeneration of this once run-down area of the city into the focal point for its bid to become European Capital of Culture in 2008, with the acclaimed Millennium Bridge and the link to the BALTIC 'art factory' and the new Music Centre. The award-winning International Centre for Life, for which TFP won the commission in 1996, is one of the most successful of the Millennium projects in the UK, and has helped to attract major international research funding for genetics research to the city and region.

In the final gallery, adding yet another dimension, there will be an exhibition of works from the Hatton's permanent collection, which Sir Terry has personally selected, with each image annotated with his comments about what the images represent to him.

Sir Terry's links with the city and the University of Newcastle upon Tyne remain strong. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Civil Law by the University in 2000, and one of his most recent projects has seen him again working closely with the institution on a masterplan for the University estate. The plan includes the creation of a new 'front door' for the University, making art facilities more accessible to the public as the city bids to be named European Capital of Culture for 2008.

During the exhibition, Sir Terry Farrell will also be giving a public lecture entitled '10 years, 10 cities: from Newcastle, round the world and back again'. The lecture takes place on Thursday 10 October in the Curtis Auditorium, Herschel Building, Newcastle University, beginning at 5.30 pm.For further information about Sir Terry's Public Lecture, click here

NOTES FOR EDITORS

1. Images to accompany the exhibition are available in electronic format by contacting the University Press Office on 0191 222 5791 (e-mail press.office@ncl.ac.uk). Please see the attached image request form for details.

2. Sir Terry Farrell: biographical notes

Born in Manchester in 1938, Sir Terry Farrell spent his formative years in Newcastle upon Tyne where he attended first St Charles, Gosforth, and then St Cuthbert's Grammar School, Benwell, where he was singled out and encouraged at an early stage as a pupil with particular creative flair.

From 1956 to 1961 he studied at the then Durham University School of Architecture (now Newcastle University's School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape), graduating with a BArch First Class Honours degree. Further studies took him to Pennsylvania, USA, and Japan, before his first practice, the Farrell/Grimshaw Partnership, was established in 1965. In 1980 he started his own practice.

He has held teaching positions at the Universities of Cambridge, Strathclyde, Sheffield Westminster and UCL, at the Architectural Association, and at the University of Pennsylvania, and has lectured extensively at home and abroad. His work has also been published widely, in the UK and internationally. Throughout his career, he has served on the committees of numerous national professional bodies, including Royal Institution of British Architects (RIBA), English Heritage and the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI).

He was awarded the OBE in 1978 and the CBE in 1996 for services to architecture, and was knighted in 2001.

ENDS

For further information contact Melanie Reed in the University Press Office on 0191 222 5791 (international +44 191 222 5791); fax: 0191 222 5447; e-mail press.office@ncl.ac.uk