(Mary) Jacqueline Tyrwhitt

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Dates of Birth and Death

May 25, 1905-1983

Birthplace

Pretoria, South Africa

Education

  • St Paul's Girls School, Hammersmith, UK
  • Royal Horticultural School, UK (1923-24)
  • Architectural Association School (London)

Years of practice

1924–1983 (estimated)

Affiliations/Firms

  • Parliamentary Secretary to the M.P. Sir Richard Bull
  • Harvard University, MA
  • School of Graduate Studies (Toronto)
  • School of Planning and Regional Reconstruction (London)
  • School of Planning and Research for Regional Development (London)
  • United Nations

Related websites

Keywords

Cambridge, Canada, Greece, London, Massachusetts, Toronto, institutional, landscape

Biography

Early life and education

Mary Jacqueline (Jacky) Tyrwhitt was born in Pretoria, South Africa on 25 May 1905. Her father was a British architect that has moved his family to South Africa, where Tyrwhitt and her sister were born. Tyrwhitt moved back to London as a toddler, where she would grow up and attend school. After her secondary schooling ended, Tyrwhitt was awarded a scholrship to Oxford to study history, but her father wouldn’t allow her to go. She enrolled in the Royal Horticultural School in 1923 and completed a General Hortcultural Diploma in 1924. Tyrwitt also took a class at the Architectural Association School, where she was inflenced by the teachings of Patrick Geddes about town planning as part of a society’s organic growth. Her gardening training was under British horticulturist Ellen Willmott at Warley Place.Tyrwitt became Assistant Organizer for the League of Industry, where she traveled to other countries to study factories and manage negotiations.

Career in Architecture

Tyrwhitt was known for her work in landscape and garden design, as well as her work in city planning and education. During WWII and lasting after the war, Tyrwhitt served as Director of Research at the School of Planning and Regional Reconstruction, followed by Director of Studies at the School of Planning and Research for Regional Development. In 1947, Tyrwhitt met Swiss art historian Siegfried Giedion and became interested in his works, translating and editing his major writings. In 1951, she left England, livng in first in Canada and teaching in Tornoto. She later worked for the UN in India and taught at Havard’s Graduate School of Design.

Tyrwhitt began Ekstics journal in 1954 with Greek architect Constantine Doxiades. She was the founding editor of the journal and reamined active with the staff until her death in 1983. Tyrwhitt resigned from teaching at Harvard in 1969 and moved to Greece, which inspired her gardening book.

Major Buildings and Projects

  • Book: Making a Garden on a Greek Hillside
  • Founder and editor of Ekistics, the journal of the Athens Centre of Ekistics

Writings

  • Ekistics Journal on planning issues in third world nations (Editor)
  • Book: Making a Garden on a Greek Hillside by Mary Jaqueline Tyrwhitt. Denise Harvey (Publisher), 1998.

Institutional Affiliations

  • The United Nations
  • Harvard University GSD
  • School of Graduate Studies (Toronto)
  • School of Planning and Regional Reconstruction (London)
  • School of Planning and Research for Regional Development (London)