Peter Alford Andrews was born in Lyme Regis, UK, in 1936, and was educated at Stowe School, Buckinghamshire. He studied at Cambridge University, where he obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in 1958. He then enrolling at Regents Street, Polytechnic, graduating in 1961 with a Diploma in Architecture - his final thesis being a study of low-cost housing in Ahmedabad. Andrews is also recorded as enrolled to attend ‘lectures only’ for the Architectural Association Department of Tropical Architecture post-graduate course. Shortly after completion of the course, Andrews joined Robert Matthew, Johnson Marshall and Partners, as an architectural assistant, working upon the National Library and National Museum at Islamabad. He then moved to Sweden in 1963, where he joined the practice of Thurfjells Arkitektkontor, in Kiruna. He subsequently returned to the UK in 1964 and undertook a Masters Degree at the School of Architecture, University of Cambridge and completed his architectural professional practice qualification the following year. During this time he was also employed by the Architects Co-Partnership, in London (1964-66), working on designs for schools at Gafsa and Sfax, in Tunisia. Subsequently he took up a position as an Architect at the Ministry of Works (1967), assisting with the design of an airport in Akrotiri, Cyprus. Alongside his architectural work, Andrews was also engaged in academia, serving as a Studio Supervisor and then Tutor at Oxford Polytechnic (now Oxford Brookes University), whilst also carrying out post-graduate research at the School of Oriental and African Studies, culminating in a PhD in 1980. Academic positions followed, including Research Fellow at the University of Cologne (1981-1986) and an Endowed Professorship in Islamic Art and Architecture at the University of Bamberg (1990-1991). Andrews became an acknowledged world expert on nomadic architecture, particularly tents, contributing numerous articles, books, research publications and conference papers. In a recent interview, Andrews describes how his early research, aiming to produce a survey of tents across the Muslim world, was much encouraged by Otto Koenigsberger, the head of the AA’s Department of Tropical Architecture. Today, his contribution to the field is enormous, having made complete surveys of nomad tents in Morocco, Turkey, Iran, and Qatar, and carried out extensive fieldwork in Mongolia and Qirgizstan. In 2022 his work was honoured by the award of the Sir Richard Burton Medal, from the Royal Asiatic Society.
Sources
- Architectural Association Student Register, 1945-71. AA Archives
- ‘Curriculum Vitae Peter Alford Andrews’, Official Website of Dr Peter Alford Andrews, accessed 18th June 2025: https://andrewspeter.info/index.html
- ‘Interview with Peter Alford Andrews – recipient of the Sir Richard Burton Medal, 2022’, Royal Asiatic Society. Accessed 18th June, 2025: https://royalasiaticsociety.org/interview-with-peter-alford-andrews-recipient-of-the-sir-richard-burton-medal-2022/
