Augustus W.N. Pugin: Restless Genius

Abstract

A.W.N. Pugin, arguably a leading architect and a distinguished engraver and designer of the Gothic Revival movement in Regency England, was a controversial theorist and builder of church who reinvented and refined the ornate Gothic architectural style of pre-modern times by creatively combining it with the rational concept of utility and functionality of the developing industrial civilization and artistic taste of his day. His theoretical writings and church buildings elicited praise as well as ridicule and rancour from fellow professionals and church leaders alike. The predicament of his tumultuous public life complicated by his conversion to the Catholic faith was further exacerbated by his declining health and tragic personal life, resulting in his death at a relatively young age of 40. Yet his relentless struggle to defend his theory and practice of ecclesiastical architecture demonstrates not only his adamant resolve and resilience in the face of overwhelming odds but also his genius as the originator of a reformed artistic and architectural style that elevates him to the rank of the avant-garde intellectuals of early Victorian England.