In 2014 The Manser Practice commissioned Peter Murray to write a book about the history of the practice’s houses, from Michael Manser’s first house in Surrey to his son Jonathan Manser’s latest house on the Isle of Wight.
The book describes the link between Michael’s modernist influences and his desire to create more intimate family homes than his predecessors, and the struggles he and the current practice has had to deliver simple, elegant steel and glass houses in difficult sites and conservative areas.
Pulling together information from the archives of the Victoria & Albert Museum, the RIBA, The Manser Practice, and even a number of clients’ family photo albums; the book contains floor plans, site plans and high resolution photographs that document over fifty years of the practice’s house designs.
We were delighted with the turnout, and it was particularly enjoyable for the younger staff to meet some of Michael Manser’s first clients, who incidentally still live in the modernist homes he created for them in the 1960s!
