Staff Profile

Owen Hopkins is Director of the Farrell Centre at Newcastle University. Previously he was Senior Curator of Exhibitions and Education at Sir John Soane’s Museum and before that he was Architecture Programme Curator at the Royal Academy of Arts.

He is curator of numerous exhibitions, including most recently at the Soane Museum, Langlands & Bell: Degrees of Truth (2020), Eric Parry: Drawing (2019), Code Builder (with Mamou-Mani Architects), Out of Character (with Studio MUTT), The Return of the Past: Postmodernism in British Architecture (all 2018) and Adam Nathaniel Furman: The Roman Singularity (2017). His previous exhibitions and displays at the RA include Origins: A Project by Ordinary Architecture (2016), Urban Jigsaw (2016) and Nicholas Hawksmoor: Architect of the Imagination (2012).

He is author of eight books and has also edited eight books / essay series / journal special issues. He writes widely on architecture for publications such as The Independent, CNN, Dezeen, domus, Icon, The Architectural Review, Blueprint, Architecture Today, The Architects’ Newspaper, topos, The Architects’ Journal, Building Design, Apollo, and The Burlington Magazine.

His work has been featured or reviewed in a range of international media including BBC Television, the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Financial Times, The Guardian, The Times, El Mundo, Wallpaper* and Dezeen.

He has lectured internationally at institutions such as Yale School of Architecture; University of Oxford; Vizcaya Museum and Garden, Miami and the Courtauld Institute of Art. He has also appeared on BBC2 Newsnight, BBC Look North, ARTE, the European culture TV channel, Asharq News, BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio London, and Monocle Radio. 

He is a regular guest critic at a number of architecture schools, and has been a judge for the BD Architect of the Year Awards, the AJ Architecture Awards and at the World Architecture Festival.

• Hopkins O. The Art of Architecture: A review of Maureen Cassidy-Geiger (ed.), Living with Architecture as Art: The Peter W. May Collection of Architectural Drawings, Models, and Artefacts. London: Ad Ilissvm, 2021. Architectural Histories 2022, 10(1), 2-6.
• Hopkins O. The fragmentary exhibition: tactics towards making architecture visible. In: Paul Coldwell and Ruth M. Morgan, ed. Picturing the Invisible: Exploring interdisciplinary synergies from the arts and the sciences. London: UCL Press, 2022, pp.135-159.
• Hopkins O. The Museum: From its Origins to the 21st Century. Francis Lincoln, 2021.
• Hopkins O, McKellar E, ed. Multiform: Architecture in an Age of Transition. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2021.
• Hopkins O, ed. Langlands & Bell: Degrees of Truth. London: Sir John Soane’s Museum, 2020.
• Hopkins O. Less is a Bore: Postmodern Architecture. Phaidon, 2020.
• Hopkins O, ed. Eric Parry: Drawing. London: Sir John Soane's Museum, 2019.
• Hopkins O, McKellar E, ed. The Return of the Past: Conversations on Postmodernism. London: Sir John Soane's Museum, 2018.
• Hopkins O, ed. Year Zero. Machine Books, 2018.
• Hopkins O, ed. Architecture and Freedom: Searching for Agency in a Changing World. John Wiley & Sons, 2018.
• Hopkins O. Lost Futures: The Disappearing Architecture of Post-War Britain. London: Royal Academy Publications, 2017.
• Hopkins O, ed. Sensing Architecture: Essays on the Nature of Architectural Experience. London: Royal Academy Publications, 2017.
• Hopkins O. Mavericks: Breaking the Mould of British Architecture. London: Royal Academy Publications, 2016.
• Hopkins O. From the Shadows: The Architecture and Afterlife of Nicholas Hawksmoor. London: Reaktion Books, 2015.
• Hopkins O. Architectural Styles: A Visual Guide. London: Laurence King Publishing, 2014.
• Hopkins O. Reading Architecture: A Visual Lexicon. Laurence King Publishing, 2012.
• Hopkins O. There and Back Again: Council Housing, Right to Buy and the Politics of Architectural Pluralism. Footprint 2022, 15(2).