Dr. Norman Edwards
Professor Norman Edwards, c. 1995, Portsmouth. Photograph by Mrs Robyn Edwards. Courtesy of Jonathan Edwards.
The death has occurred in London of Dr. Norman Edwards, who was Associate Professor of Architecture and Academic Head of the School of Architecture at the National University of Singapore from 1981 to 1989.
Norman will be remembered with affection by former colleagues and students as a gentle, cultured man with endless patience, who was the academic pivot in the School at a time when it was going through major changes in the 1980s.
I have fond memories of Norman. On occasions staff would be invited for parties at his rented Black and White bungalow in Ross Avenue. I have recollections of a large collection of mismatched chairs acquired by his lovely wife Robyn from various antique shops on the island.
Along with several other expatriate academics, I was drafted in as part of a plan, I imagine devised by Liu Thai Ker, to ‘hold the fort’ as a younger generation of local academic leaders were despatched to prestigious universities in the USA and UK to obtain PhDs and management experience.
I arrived in February 1984 to find Norman at the head of a team that included Pinna Indorf, Peter Behn and Jay Bancroft from the USA, David Swallow, Derek Goad, Richard Hyde, Michael Leslie and Peter Woods from the UK and Suthipuntha Sujirathanonta from Thailand. Others joined us including Winston Yeh, Mathar Bunnag and Pai Chin. Together with Ng Kheng Lau, SP Rao, Jon Lim, K Thanarathnam, Tse Swee Ling, Evelyn Lip and Kanaga Sabapathy they formed the core.
As academic head, Norman presided over this diverse and hugely talented team alongside David Lim who headed the administration that was subsequently undertaken by Lim Soon Chye, Meng Ta Cheang, Ho Pak Toe and Chan Sau Yan.
Meanwhile Heng Chye Kiang, Wong Yunn Chii, Joseph Lim, Ong Boon Lay, Milton Tan, Lam Khee Poh, Robert Teh and Low Boon Liang were diligently studying at various prestigious universities in the USA and UK. Foo Ah Fong, Bobby Wong Chong Thai and Chan Yew Lih would also follow this path and return to lead the school in its next phase.
It was an exciting period of rapid change – the end, one might say, of an era. Ties with the old colonial system were being loosened as Identity became a major issue and Critical Regionalism was at the heart of architectural discourse. External examiners, including Andy McMillan, Lionel March, David Gosling, Ivor Smith and James Dunbar Naismith came from the RIBA but Asian heroes, such as Ken Yeang, Charles Correa and Bobby Mañosa were invited too. Students of that era are now at the helm of various renowned Singapore architecture practices and government departments as well as the Department of Architecture within the School of Design and Environment. All will remember Norman at the heart of the School in this period.
Norman hailed from Australia. En route to Singapore he had gained considerable experience in academia and practice. Growing up in Sydney as an only child in WWll, his earliest memories were of the lanoline smell of the wool bales at the brokerage where his father worked as a financial director, visits to the parched rural countryside in their Triumph 4–seater to visit cousins, with whom he’d chase rabbits and pick blackberries. Also of rationing, black blinkers fitted to shield the Triumph’s headlights from detection by Japanese aircraft; and his evacuation to Ingris Farm.
Convinced early of his calling, he enrolled as a young man to study architecture at University of Sydney. On graduating, he began to move, and his curiosity for new places did not stop until he entered his 80’s. America beckoned. There followed several years in the US and Canada, first completing a Masters at MIT, then working for prestigious architectural firms, with several pioneers of modern architecture including Walter Gropius, Richard Neutra and Moshe Safdie as well as a stint in the UK teaching at the Architectural Association. During these travels he also met, re-met and fell in love with Robyn, a fellow art lover, traveller and free spirit, also on her travels from Australia.
Not a macho or aggressive personality, he gradually turned his focus principally to teaching, which proved a lifelong passion. Back in Sydney he took up a teaching post at the University of Sydney and completed a PhD in Urban Design. He was awarded tenure, and stayed for 13 years, producing 4 children along the way (that was 6 less than he had hoped for) while also designing and adapting multiple buildings. He was awarded a prestigious scholarship to take a sabbatical in Paris, an Urban Design scholarship in Japan and, in 1978 a National Science Council Professorship in Taiwan.
In 1981 he was appointed as academic head of the School of Architecture at the National University of Singapore, a post he held until 1989. In that time he produced two seminal publications. The first was Singapore: A Guide to Buildings, Streets, Places, researched and written with fellow Australian Peter Keys and published in 1988 by Times Editions. It was the first major guide to Singapore built environment – an ambitious undertaking that ran to more than 400 pages. It has never been surpassed. The second book was The Singapore House and Residential Life 1819 – 1939 published by Oxford University Press in 1991 and republished in 2017 by Talisman Publishing. Norman encouraged multi-disciplinary research and brought sociologist Chua Beng Huat and Kenson Kwok into the studio.
In 1989 he moved again to take up an appointment at Tunghai University (Taiwan) and in his 60’s he moved to London and held a visiting post at the Middle East Technical University (Turkey).
Norman was proud and protective of his family. He provided for, supported, encouraged and adored his wife and children. A man with diverse loves and interests with his family and architecture at the forefront, including but not limited to meeting new people, travelling, sketching, reading, music, politics, philosophy, tinned peaches and ice cream. I recall an occasion when his two daughters Gisele and Marguerita performed a ‘skit’ at a student party in the foyer of the NUS School of Architecture, to an appreciative audience. Interestingly, unlike most expatriates Norman and Robyn enrolled their kids in local schools to experience the culture of Singapore.
In his ‘retirement’ years he and Robyn lived in Kew, London, not far from the Botanic Gardens. Scholars would sometimes stay at the family house when researching colonial heritage at the UK National Record Office. I visited him there on two or three occasions. He talked enthusiastically of his involvement with local environmental action groups and in his final years was working on a new book – Modern Architecture: The Human World – that will be published posthumously.
Norman is survived by his wife Robyn and children Anthony, Gisele, Marguerita and John.
Written by Professor Robert Powell, School of Architecture Building & Design, Taylor’s University in April 1998.
