Keith's Architectural Designs

Buckminster Fuller wrote of Critchlow:

"Keith Critchlow has one of the century’s rare conceptual minds. He is continually inspired by the conceptioning of both earliest and latest record. He lauds the work of others while himself pouring forth, in great modesty, whole vista-filling new realizations of nature’s mathematical structuring.… He is one of the most inspiring scholar-teachers I have had the privilege to know".

Keith's Architectural Works

Krishnamurti Centre, Hampshire, UK

Keith Critchlow was chosen to Design The Krishnamurti building. This Retreat Centre now dedicated to Krishnamurti's own life's works, captures a sense of place, using materials found in the architecture or rural Hampshire, such as local flint, oak beams, clay tile and handmade brick.

Throughout the process, Krishnamurti was involved in selecting the materials used in the building. The intention behind the design of this building was to reference aspects of the human body and how it related to sacred geometry, and divine proportion.

The building is designed to inspire and uplift; referencing a figure sitting cross-legged looking at the landscape, combined with phrase ‘The world is you, and you are the world’.

The structure unfolds from the quiet room - a peaceful round room with overhead light. The clean lines and simple walls and structure, with symmetry and balance, evokes a sense of unity that extends all the way to the ends of the two guestroom wings. There is a central courtyard, around which the main rooms are placed. The design is such that one can see the outdoors from anywhere in the building, from more than one direction, ensuring plenty of light and a remembrance of the divine.

The building and design essentially became a memorial to Krishnamurti, who died just before it was completed in 1986.

See more here: Krishnamurti Centre Designed by Keith Critchlow

Sathya Sai Hospital, India

The story of the design and construction of the magnificent Sri Sathya Sai Super Speciality Hospital , Puttaparthi, India in 1989–90.  

The client on this occasion was Isaac Tigrett, who commissioned Keith (and a team of engineers and architects) to design the hospital that Tigrett was organising, having donated a large part of the proceeds of the sale of his European Hard Rock Empire to the scheme.

To initiate the project Keith Critchlow and Jon Allen, the project architect on both the Hospital and Brockwood Park, were persuaded by Isaac Tigrett to accompany him to Bangalore in India to meet Sri Sathya Sai himself, here the project was conceived. On the day of the site viewing, he watched no less than five eagles circling in the sky above, this was a good omen, he told me.  

Keith began his design by drawing the main elevation of what was to become, within little over a year, a 300-bed working hospital – The inspiration behind the design of this building was of a figure sitting with encircled arms around a court yard, Critchlow was careful to include the natural world into the design, as he believed in order to heal one must not lose contact with nature. There were to be many changes to the original design, but it is this elevation that has remained closest to the original intention.

See the Documentary with amazing stories on the design and building of this hospital in the Videos Section of this site. 

The Cambridge Central Mosque, UK

The last, and perhaps most beautiful of the buildings that Keith gave design advice on is the Cambridge Central Mosque which opened in 2019.

This was designed by the late David Marks and Julia Barfield, who had been some of the first of his students at the Architectural Association and lived around the corner from him in London. The mosque’s garden, unusually at the entrance rather than within, was designed by Emma Clark – another of his VITA students from the Royal College of Art and a close friend.

Much of the inner design work was painstakingly drawn by hand as Keith would never use a computer. The building is therefore the culmination of a collaborative effort that started almost 60 years earlier. At the commencement of the Prince’s School in 1993, which coincided with Keith’s 60th birthday, he commented that for him this was the result of the second cycle of Saturn (each one lasts for 27–30 years). So, he had just finished his further cycle at 87 - the age he passed away.

The Cambridge Central Mosque won the RIBA Stirling Prize People's Vote in 2021.

www.cambridgecentralmosque.org