Hunstanton: What Next?
Credit: Dion Barrett / Jestico + Whiles
A discussion with Jon Wright, Ben Marston, Daniel Talesnik
19.00-21.00 on 21st April 2026
at the Alan Baxter Associates Gallery, 77 Cowcross St, London EC1M 6EL and online.
Docomomo members go free. To book a member’s ticket please see here. To become a member see here.
Tickets for attendance in person and online are available here. Tickets will also be available on the door for £15.
For online attendance, please book your ticket before 18.00 on the day of the event. A link to watch the talk online will be sent to attendees before it begins.
An evening’s discussion on the proposed refurbishment of Hunstanton School, the first major project by Alison and Peter Smithson completed in 1954. The building is now listed Grade II* and speakers will reflect on the current proposals that address environmental measures, seventy years of use and alteration, and "innocent mistakes”.
Jon Wright is one of the UK’s leading experts on 20th Century buildings and is an Associate at Purcell. He manages heritage projects with a focus on the architectural history and conservation issues affecting twentieth century buildings, with a further specialism in post-war architecture. An architectural historian by training, Jon has worked for the Twentieth Century Society, The Council for British Archaeology and the War Memorials Trust in senior conservation roles and has been at Purcell now for over a decade. He has lectured and published widely and is a member both of the Docomomo WP for UK but also the C20 Society Casework Committee. He has just completed his first book on the regional modern architect Mervyn Seal that will be published by C20/RIBA in 2027.
Ben Marston joined Jestico + Whiles as a graduate architect. Now a Principal, he leads the practice's education studio, which he co-founded and has steered to win an unprecedented four Education Estates awards in 2023, including Architectural Practice of the Year. School design sits at the heart of Ben's work. He has contributed to over 100 school campuses across the UK and internationally, in both the state and independent sectors. Ben also works in other sectors and has a parallel specialism in the conservation and adaptation of heritage buildings, with experience spanning Spitalfields Market in London, Tower Works in Leeds, Sandbach School in Cheshire, and the modernist Smithdon School in Norfolk. Ben served as Chair of the NLA Expert Panel on Education from 2021 to 2025 and is an accredited RIBA Client Design Advisor for Education.
Daniel Talesnik is a Lecturer in Architecture History at the University of Bath. He is an architect from the Universidad Católica de Chile and holds a MSc and PhD from Columbia University. At the Architekturmuseum der TUM, where he worked between 2017-2022, he curated “Access for All: São Paulo’s Architectural Infrastructures” (2019), and “Who’s Next? Homelessness, Architecture, and Cities” (2021-2022), and is the co-editor of both exhibition catalogues. He has published numerous essays and book chapters, and is the author of Kenneth Frampton: Conversations with Daniel Talesnik (New York: Columbia Books on Architecture and the City, 2023).
