Join Unit 5 and invited guests Prof Alastair Fitter, Irenee Scalbert and Prof Tom Emerson as they discuss R.S.R.Fitter's work from 1945 and its influence and relevance to our understanding of contemporary urban ecology.

Richard S. R. Fitter, born in 1913, was a writer and naturalist. Amongst his many works was London’s Natural History, first published in 1945. This represented the first attempt to write a comprehensive history of a great human community in terms of the animals and plants it displaced, changed, moved and removed, introduced, conserved, or lost. In selecting London as an area for such study Fitter, himself a Londoner, took the world's then largest aggregation of human beings living in a single community and showed how the spread of its activities affected the plants and animals in them, destroying some, creating others.

With a clear resonance with our contemporary debates about resource use, ecology and the anthroposcene this event will explore in depth the interconnected nature of the built habitat of London, and by extrapolation of other towns and cities. Organised as part of the work of Unit 5 of the M.Arch course this seminar forms part of Registers role in making visible research happening in the taught programmes of courses.

All welcome - just click on the teams link below - and read on for more information on our speakers

Sheep Grazing in front of Ken Wood House - image by Eric Hosking, from Londons Natural History by RSR Fitter 1945

Unit 5 - Is an M.Arch unit led by Takeshi Hayatsu, along with Salah Krichen and Francesa Merton (both of 121 collective). Working with their students they explore the primary relationship between nature and architecture, and how human emotions are provoked through forms, materials and constructions.

Prof Alastair Fitter  is a British ecologist at the University of York. Fitter was educated at Oxford and at Liverpool, and came to the Department of Biology in York in 1972. In 2004 he was appointed Pro-Vice-Chancellor, with the Research portfolio. His research has focussed on plant and microbial behaviour in a changing world. Alastair Fitter is the son of the naturalist and author Richard Fitter (1913–2005), and together in 2002 they published an article in Science on the changing phenology of wild flowers due to global warming. T hey have also collaborated on numerous field guides and other natural history books. Fitter was elected Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2005.  He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2010 New Year Honours for services to environmental science. He received a President's Medal from the British Ecological Society.

Prof Tom Emerson Tom Emerson is co-founder of 6a architects in London with Stephanie Macdonald. 6a designs buildings and landscapes for the arts and education. Alongside practice, he is dean of the Department of Architecture, ETH Zurich and professor of architecture and where he leads a studio exploring the relationship between making, landscape and ecology. Books include Never Modern with Irénée Scalbert (2014), 6a architects 2010-17 (El Croquis, 2018) and a series of Atlases on Forst (2012), Galway (2013), Glasgow (2016) and Pachacamac, Peru (2021).

Irenee Scalbert Irénée Scalbert is an architecture critic based in London. He taught at the AA for many years and was a member of the editorial board of AA Files. He has been a Visiting Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Cambridge, MA, the Politecnico Milano and several other places. He currently teaches in the School of Architecture in the University of Limerick (SAUL). He returned to the AA in 2019. His publications include Never Modern (2013) and A Real Living Contact with the Things Themselves (2018).

Typical suburban back gardens - image by John Markham from ‘Londons Natural History’ by RSR Fitter