Julia Barfield

Julia Barfield, FRSA MBE RIBA, (born 1952) is a British architect and director of Marks Barfield Architects, established in 1989. Barfield created the London Eye together with husband partner David Marks. Barfield has interest in vernacular architecture, geometry and in the way nature "designs and organizes itself so efficiently". She was influenced by Buckminster Fuller and his beliefs on how architects have a social and environmental responsibility. Barfield remains involved in a diverse array of projects within architecture, including the categories of culture, education, transportation, sports, leisure, and master planning.

Julia Barfield studied at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London from 1972 to 1978. During her year out, she went to South America and worked in the barriadas (squatter settlements) of Lima in Peru designing housing and a community centre. According to an interview with the Architects Journal Magazine, Barfield was drawn to architecture because of her parents' best friend's father, also an architect. She was interested in the arts and sciences, and believes that "architecture is a bridge" between these.

After graduation, Barfield worked for Foster and Partners for nine years. In 1990, together with husband David Marks, they founded Marks Barfield Architects. During the last 13 years, with Marks, she has designed projects in the leisure, housing, transport, education and cultural sectors. Barfield has served as an Awards' assessor for RIBA and Civic Trust, as well as a judge for various architectural competitions. A recent competition Barfield judged was the RIBA forgotten Spaces Competition.

Barfield serves as a leader within the field of architectural education, continuing to lecture at conferences and universities, advising for the Interdisciplinary Design for the Built Environment Masters' course at Cambridge University, is a Governor at Godolphin & Latymer School for girls, and was previously the Vice President of the Architectural Association School of Architecture.

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