Charles Knevitt
Charles Knevitt is a journalist, author, broadcaster, curator and playwright.
Born in America in 1952, of British parents (he has dual US/UK nationality), he was educated in Britain at Stonyhurst and the University of Manchester.
He was Architecture Correspondent of the Sunday Telegraph (1980-84) and The Times (1984-91), and later Director of the RIBA Trust (2004-11) which manages the cultural assets and delivers the public outreach programme of the Royal Institute of British Architects.
He is the author/editor of 12 books, including Community Architecture (Penguin, 1987, with Nick Wates; reissued in the Routledge Revivals series in 2013), the Top 20 bestseller, One's Life (Michael Joseph, 1988), Shelter: Human Habitats from around the World (Polymath, 1994; US edition by Pomegranate Artbooks, 1996), and Perspectives: An Anthology of 1001 Architectural Quotations (Lund Humphries, 1986).
In 1985 he was consultant on the six-part Anglia Television series for Channel 4, Space on Earth, and wrote the accompanying book (Thames Methuen). He has also worked for Thames Television and Granada Television.
He was UK Director of the Le Corbusier: The Art of Architecture travelling exhibition and season in Venice (Biennale), Liverpool (European Capital of Culture) and London (RIBA, Barbican Arts Centre, Architectural Association) in 2008-09.
Writer and performer of a one-man show, Le Corbusier's Women, which premiered at Riverside Studios, Hammersmith (2012) then Chelsea Arts Club, London, and Bowery Poetry Club, New York (2013). It is currently in development as a musical with Peter Manning, Concertmaster of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (Edinburgh International Festival Fringe, 2014).
He has curated several exhibitions in London (Monstrous Carbuncles, 1986; One's Life, 1988; and Lifelines, 2012, for the European Commission) and in Malta (Richard England: Architect and Artist, 2013, for the Bank of Valletta).
He is Chairman of the Swiss Cultural Fund in Britain (since 2007) and Patron of Invisible Structures (with Tim Burton and Helena Bonham Carter).