1953 in architecture

Events

• Gordon Ryder and Peter Yates form an architectural practice based in Newcastle upon Tyne in the north of England.

Buildings and structures completed

• Main building of Moscow State University, the tallest building in Europe and the tallest educational building in the world, designed by Lev Rudnev.
• St Crispin's School, Wokingham, Berkshire, England, designed by the U.K. Ministry of Education.
• YMCA Indian Student Hostel, Fitzrovia, London, designed by Ralph Tubbs.
• Housing at Chandigarh, Punjab (India), designed by Le Corbusier in collaboration with Pierre Jeanneret, Jane Drew, Maxwell Fry, B. V. Doshi and others.
• Mardyke Road, Harlow New Town, England, designed by Frederick Gibberd.
• Air Forces Memorial, Runnymede, England, designed by Edward Maufe, dedicated October 17.
• English Martyrs' Church, Wallasey, designed by F. X. Velarde, dedicated August 31.
• New building for Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut, the first major commission for Louis Kahn, opened November.
• Lijnbaan pedestrianised shopping street in Rotterdam, designed by Jo van den Broek and Jacob B. Bakema.

Awards

• American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal – Frank Lloyd Wright.
• AIA Gold Medal – William Adams Delano.
• RIBA Royal Gold Medal – Le Corbusier.
• Grand Prix de Rome, architecture – Olivier-Clément Cacoub.

Publications

• Ivan Chtcheglov – Formulaire pour un urbanisme nouveau.
• John Summerson – Architecture in Britain, 1530–1830.

Births

• March 26 - Phil Freelon, American architect
• November 7 – Peter Janesch, Hungarian architect
• December 18 – David Chipperfield, English architect
• Sheila O'Donnell, Irish architect
• Richard Weston, English architect

Deaths

• May 31 – Vladimir Tatlin, Soviet Russian architect
• August 17 – Sir Banister Fletcher, English architectural historian
• September 15 – Erich Mendelsohn, German-born architect
• December 13 – Ad van der Steur, Dutch architect