20. Sir Terry Farrell

Farrell Centre

Sir Terry Farrell is one of the UK’s leading architect-planners. During fifty years in practice he has completed many award-winning buildings and masterplans, including the MI6 Building, Alban Gate, Embankment Place and The Home Office Headquarters in London as well as millennium projects, such as The Deep in Hull, and UK masterplans including those for Greenwich Peninsula and Paddington Basin. Notable projects in East Asia include Incheon airport in Seoul, Beijing Station and Guangzhou Station in China (the largest in the world), and the Peak Tower and Kowloon Station development, both in Hong Kong. Farrell has longstanding connections to Newcastle. He grew up in the city and studied at Newcastle University (1956–61). He produced the masterplan for regenerating the quayside in the early 1990s, and has since undertaken several major projects in the city, including the Centre for Life (2000), the Newcastle University campus masterplan (2004) and the extension to the Great North Museum (2009). In 2018, Farrell generously donated his practice archive to Newcastle University as a resource for research and public engagement. At the same time, he agreed to give £1 million towards the creation of the Farrell Centre as an ‘urban room’ focused on Tyneside which would also contribute to broader national and international debates around architecture and cities and the future of how we live. Sir Terry Farrell stepped back from the practice he founded in 1965 – known today as Farrells – in 2019. Part of the series 20x20 – a podcast where we ask leading architects, urbanists and thinkers 20 questions over 20 minutes, exploring everything from their ideas and interests to the present and future of architecture and cities. Hosted by Owen Hopkins.