John F. C. Turner

John Francis Charlewood Turner (9 July 1927 – 3 September 2023) was a British architect and theorist known for his work on informal self-help housing and neighbourhood building in Peru, the United States, and the United Kingdom. His work on housing in the 1960s and 1970s has seen him described as the most influential post-war writer on housing in the developing world and as a "principal architect" in United Nations and World Bank policies on self-help urban assistance to developing countries. He was awarded the Right Livelihood Award in 1988 for "championing the rights of people to build, manage and sustain their own shelter and communities".

Early influences Turner was born in Kensington, London, to Joscelyne Gaskin and Austin Charlewood Turner, and was raised in Kent. His maternal grandparents were the artists Georgie and Arthur Gaskin. Turner attended St Edmund's School in Surrey and Wellington College in Berkshire. At this time he also contributed to Freedom on the encouragement of editor Colin Ward, drawing connections between Geddes and anarchism.

In 1963 the Chilean-born architect and journal editor Monica Pidgeon invited Turner to edit an issue of Architectural Design on his and others work in Peru.

United States In 1965 Turner moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA where he began working as a research assistant at the Harvard–MIT Joint Center for Urban Studies, and then as a lecturer at MIT's Department of Urban Studies and Planning until 1973. Much of his key academic writings date from this period.

In 1970–1971 Turner led an evaluation of self-help housing in the USA carried out by OSTI (Organization for Technical and Social Innovation) under Donald Schön, for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. This work formed the basis of the 1972 book Freedom to Build: Dweller Control of the Housing Process which he co-edited with Robert Fichter.

In 1988 he was awarded the Right Livelihood Award for "championing the rights of people to build, manage and sustain their own shelter and communities". In 1992 he was awarded the UN-Habitat Scroll of Honour Award. Turner was awarded honorary doctorates from the National University of Engineering in Lima and the National University of the Center of Peru in Huancayo.