Collection: Ian Nairn

Ian Nairn (1930–1983) was a British architectural critic and topographer who coined the term “subtopia” for the areas around cities that had in his view been failed by urban planning, losing their individuality and spirit of place. In the 1960s he contributed to the volumes on Surrey and Sussex in Nikolaus Pevsner’s Buildings of England series and published a number of his own books, including Nairn’s Paris and Nairn’s Towns, both published by Notting Hill Editions.

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