HARRY FOLEY


I am a Scunthorpe-born Architectural Designer, Educator, and Historian. As a practitioner, I have worked in New York, Beijing, and London, most notably with Stirling Prize-winning practice Stanton Williams, where I designed new interiors for the Royal Opera House as part of its RIBA award-winning ‘Open Up’ programme. A graduate of The Bartlett School of Architecture, I have taught Architecture, Interior Design, and Architectural History at several higher education institutions, and have served as a Guest Reviewer at University of the Arts London and the Royal College of Art.


RESEARCH


[a]rchitecture with a small ‘a’. My research examines obscure ephemera of the built environment, emphasising unbuilt, everyday, and working-class territories. It is multidisciplinary, spanning architectural history, material culture and media studies fields, prioritising page matter and popular culture (video games, tv, film) as critical tools for enquiry.
Selected Outputs

Coventry Cathedral
Exhibition. 75: Towards a New Cathedral. Reflects upon a curated selection of unpublished entries to the 1951 Coventry Cathedral competition on its 75th anniversary. August - October 2026.
Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain
Public Lecture. ‘Re-Mediating the Modern Church: Represention, Rhetoric, and the Unbuilt in Architectural Competition.’ June 2026.
Design History Society
Text. Provocative Objects. Things in Fields: Objects of the Car Boot Sale as Matter Out of Place. June 2026.
Drawing Matter
Text. Visibility, and the Unseen. ‘The Architectural Competition: Shopfront to the Trade’. March 2026.
The Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London
Conference. Research Introductions. ‘Media Representations of Modern Anglican Architecture, 1950-60.’ December 2025.
Twentieth Century Society
Chapter. ‘Yesterday’s Church of Tomorrow: St John the Baptist, Ermine Estate, Lincoln’ in Holy Houses. Authored with Karolina Szynalska Mcaleavey. June 2023.
Adidas
Exhibition. ‘Things in Fields’ diptych exhibited for a sold-out drawing exhibition at Adidas’ flagship Oxford Street store. April 2022.
Awards

Royal Opera House ‘Open Up’
For and on behalf of Stanton Williams
RIBA London Award
RIBA National Award
Civic Trust Award
Architecture Master Prize
Simon Sainsbury Centre, Cambridge Judge Business School
For and on behalf of Stanton Williams
RIBA East Award
RIBA National Award
Civic Trust Award
Cambridge Design and Construction Award

NEWS




August - October 2026 | Exhibition

COVENTRY CATHEDRAL: 75: TOWARDS A NEW CATHEDRAL

 Image: 75: Towards a New Cathedral exhibition in the Chapel of Unity, Coventry Cathedral.
Source: Author

75: Towards a New Cathedral marks 75 years since Basil Spence was pronounced winner of the 1951 Coventry Cathedral competition. It presents early findings from my PhD research, which returns to Coventry’s unsuccessful entries as part of a wider study on the representation of mid-century Anglican design discourse, architectural media and competitions, and the unbuilt in Britain. Applying Helene Lipstadt’s understanding of both architectural competitions and exhibitions as forms of publication, 75 examines a range of media material generated by the Coventry Cathedral competition. In doing so, it re-frames a selection of the competition’s losing submissions as underexplored yet valuable contributions displaying an overlooked diversity of design thinking in architects’ early attempts to define a post-war ecclesiastical architecture in Britain.  

March 2026 | Text

DRAWING MATTER: VISIBILITY, AND THE UNSEEN

 Image: W H Smith Newsboy mascot designed by Septimus E. Scott in 1905.
Source: W H Smith Business Archive.

‘Alexander Scott Carter’s early twentieth century designs for single and double-fronted W. H. Smith shopfronts form a remote bookend to a troubled time for architectural competitions in Britain.’ My text for Drawing Matter contextualises Carter’s winning drawings in a period when competition, in life and in trade, had become institutionalised in British thinking. Read the full article at Drawing Matter.


Jun 2026 | Public Lecture

SOCIETY OF ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIANS

 Image: Entry 191 by Cotton, Bramhill & Cotton Proposed Design for the Coventry Cathedral Competition (1950-51).
Source: Coventry Cathedral Archive.

Lecture for the society on my ongoing PhD research at The Bartlett School of Architecture. Highlighting a number of unpublished entries to the 1950-51 Coventry Cathedral Competition, the talk argues that a critical reappriasal of the competition on its 75th anniversary, prioritising its unbuilt proposals and mediated debate, can broaden understandings of twentieth century church design to include more diverse architectural contributions in Brtiain in the years immediately after the Second World War.


Dec 2025 | Lecture

THE BARTLETT SCHOOL OF 

ARCHITECTURE


Image: Entries to the Nebraska State Capitol competition (1920). Competing teams present their design in a charrette format.
Source: The Journal of Architectural Education (1982).

Talk on the early scope of my PhD research, which explores ecclesiastical design as developed through architectural competitions in Britain. The presentation began with a satirical drawing produced to open Augustus Pugin’s Contrasts (1836). It displays a shopfront, deriding the practice of architecture in the 19th century, its facade adorned with ironic motifs that ascribe to it a visual quality akin to that of a headstone, which Pugin dedicated to ‘The Trade’ of architecture.


Jun 2023 | Book Chapter

TWENTIETH CENTURY SOCIETY: HOLY HOUSES


Image: Cast in-situ concrete font and altar; congregation; physical model (later sat on) for Church of St John, Lincoln by Sam Scorer (1963).
Source: Church of St John Archive.

Book chapter on St John the Baptist, Lincoln, named the ‘Church of Tomorrow’ by parish publications. According to Pevsner, it was the first church in Lincolnshire to break the tradition of the Gothic revival. It was revolutionary. The church represented a direct victory over historic architecture, continuing the modernist tradition through an honesty of materials and rationality derived - paradoxically - from nineteenth-century Viollet-le-Duc’s interpretation of Gothic. Purchase a copy of the book from the C20 Society.
Jun 2026 | Text

DESIGN HISTORY SOCIETY: PROVOCATIVE OBJECTS

Image: Objects assembled on tarpaulin sheet at Hemswell Car Boot Sale, Lincolnshire.
Source: Photograph by author.

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Ongoing | Teaching

NOTTINGHAM TRENT UNIVERSITY: [2523] THE MONASTERY

Image: Narrative mapping of situated processional activity in paper, ink, and concrete. Thesis project by Neve Rutter.
Source: Nottingham Trent University.

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Ongoing | Teaching

ST ANNS ALLOTMENTS: URBAN PUBLIC GARDEN

 Image: Narrative mapping of garden shed contents in digital media. Design Studio project by Hannah Scrimshaw.
Source: Nottingham Trent University.

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