Group architecture tours unveiled

Next year, ACE Cultural Tours and the Twentieth Century Society (C20) will collaborate to offer three joint tours of 20th century architecture, which can be booked privately by groups.

The tours will be led by author, historian and former chairman of the society – Alan Powers and will explore 20th Century art and architecture in Cornwall, the Cotswolds and East Anglia.

The Cotswolds: From Arts & Crafts to Modernism will take groups to explore small museums alongside arts and crafts and Modernist houses.

The tour will also include visits to Rodmarton Manor, a new house built with old methods to help sustain traditional skills, whereas in contrast, an outing to Snowshill Manor represents an old building given new meaning by architect-collector Charles Wade.

20th Century Cornwall: Art, Architecture & Design will reveal how the independent Celtic culture, vibrant light and remote landscape attracted artists and architects who left a legacy of spectacular private houses, museums and studios in the county.

20th Century! Art & Architecture, meanwhile, will explore the relationship between modernism and regional character in architecture and art during a tour of the artist’s colony of North West Essex and Great Bardfield.

The Suffolk coast and some post-war council housing alongside the well-known buildings of the University of East Anglia will also be visited on this tour.

This collaboration follows on from ACE’s sponsorship of C20 Society’s spring and autumn lecture series.

C20 was founded in 1979 and aims to safeguard the heritage of architecture and design in Britain.

For more information visit www.aceculturaltours.co.uk or www.c20society.org.uk.