Kathryn Findlay

Who was Kathryn Findlay?

Kathryn Findlay was a British architect, born in Scotland, who spent 20 years working in Japan. She formed the architecture practice Ushida Findlay with her husband in 1986. In 1999 she returned to the UK where she had launched a new architecture company.

Findlay graduated from the Architectural Association in London in 1979. She was Associate Professor of Architecture at Tokyo University, Visiting Professor at the Technical University of Vienna and UCLA, and Honorary Professor at the University of Dundee.

The work of Ushida Findlay was variously described as neo-expressionist, organic modernist and surrealist. It was typified by the Soft and Hairy House, built in 1994 in Tsukuba, Japan. The roof garden was edible, surrounding a courtyard with a blue-blob bathroom protruding into the space.

Findlay died in January 2014, suffering from a brain tumour. The news of her death coincidentally broke at the same time as she was announced as winner of the 2014 Jane Drew Prize for her "outstanding contribution to the status of women in architecture".