Turner , John Francis Charlewood , b 1927 , development planner

Born in London, 1927; Architectural Association Diploma, London, 1954; Associate, RIBA; self-employed, working mainly for clients obtaining improvement grants for small dwellings, and a new home self-builder, 1955-1957; employed, mainly by Peruvian government agencies, on improvement and self-help housing projects, and by the British Department of Technical Co-operation, setting up a Voluntary Service Overseas project for training young electricians, 1957-1965; Research Fellow at the Harvard-MIT Joint Centre for Urban Studies and subsequently a lecturer at MIT, publishing papers and developing a course on Housing in Development, and carrying out consultancies, mainly in Latin America, 1965-1973; lecturer at the Architectural Association Graduate School and subsequently at the Development Planning Unit, University College London, developing courses on Housing in Development, and carrying out consultancies in Africa and Asia, 1974-1983; received the Sir Robert Matthew Prize for Architecture, UIA, Paris, 1977; self-employed partner of AHAS, a consultancy on housing and local development, and undertook advisory work in London and Paris, 1984-1989; directed Habitat International Coalition's project for the UN International Year of Shelter for the Homeless, culminating in a conference of community activists and enablers at the Reichstag in Berlin, 1987; received the Right Livelihood Award, Stockholm, 1988; served on the Board of Hastings (local development ) Trust, 1991-2000; received the Habitat Scroll of Honour, United Nations, New York, 1992; received the Johannes Olivegren Memorial Award, Gothenburg, 1994; advised on projects at the Max Lock Centre (a research and consultancy group) at the School of the Built Environment, University of Westminster; volunteer on the Tools for Community Regeneration (TCR) project, an information and advisory service for self-managed community development initiatives, from 1997; Turner's work was influenced by the ecological, urban sociology of Sir Patrick Geddes (1854-1932). Publications include: edited and co-authored Dwelling Resources in South America, a special number of Architectural Design (Aug 1963); 'Barriers and Channels for Housing Development in Modernizing Countries', Journal of the American Institute of Planners, vol xxxiii, no 3 (1967); 'Uncontrolled Urban Settlement, problems and policies', International Social Development Review, no 1 (United Nations, New York, 1968); co-edited, with Robert Fichter, Freedom to Build, dweller control of the housing process (Macmillan, New York, 1972, and translated into Italian and Spanish); Housing By People, towards autonomy in building environments (London, 1976, and translated into Dutch, German, French, Italian and Spanish); 'Tools for Building Community, an examination of 13 hypotheses', in Habitat International, vol xx, no 3 (1996); 'From housing to building community, a mirror and a directive agency', in City, analysis of urban trends, culture, theory, policy, action (London, 1996); with Renate Ruether-Greaves, 'Tools for community regeneration (TCR) - a Hastings Trust project', in Building Civil Society, current initiatives in voluntary action, ed Barry Knight et al (Charities Aid Foundation, 1998).