Amyas Douglas Connell [commonly known as Amyas Connell] was born in Eltham, New Zealand on 23 June 1901 and was articled to the architect Stanley Fearn in Wellington for three years. In 1924 [or 1923 - sources differ], Connell and fellow New Zealand architect Basil Robert Ward (1902-1978), moved to London where they continued their studies at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College, London. In 1926 Connell won the Rome prize for architecture. His best-known building from this period was the 'High and Over' house in Amersham, Buckinghamshire (1928) which was built with a reinforced-concrete frame on a three-pointed star-shaped plan.
In 1932, after three years working in Rangoon, he and Ward formed the architectural partnership Connell & Ward. They were joined in May 1934* [or 1933 - sources differ] by Colin Anderson Lucas (1906-1984) and the firm was renamed Connell, Ward & Lucas. The practice was known for it uncompromising advocacy of the International Modernist style and all three partners were founder-members of the MARS. Modern Architectural Research Group (1933).
With the approach of war in 1939 the partnership was dissolved. After employment with the Ministry of Works, Connell worked independently in Tanganyika [now Tanzania] and, later, in Kenya, where he established a new practice, Triad. Projects by him from this period included the Kenya legislative council building [with H. Thornley Dyer] in 1952 and 1963, the Aga Khan Hospital in Nairobi, built between 1956 and 1963, and the crown law offices in Nairobi, completed in 1960. Connell returned permanently to England in 1977. He died in London on 19 April 1980.
* The Dictionary of National Biography entry on Colin Anderson Lucas gives this date when he joined the partnership, however, most sources give the year he joined as 1933. It is possible that he joined in 1933 but did not become a partner until 1934
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Brunskill, Charlotte, et al. Concrete and controversy: the architecture of Connell Ward and Lucas: material from the Dennis Sharp Archive. London: Paul Mellon Centre, 2015
Findlay, Michael. Amyas Connell, 'High and Over' and the role of New Zealand architects in the British modern movement. MCApSc thesis, University of Otago, 2011
Heeley, Edward. Amyas Douglas Connell (1901-1980): the English modern movement phase of his architectural career. Ph.D. thesis, University of Liverpool, 1994
Macdonald, Susan. ‘Long Live modern Architecture. A technical appraisal of three 1930s houses’. Twentieth Century Architecture. The Journal of the Twentieth Century Society [The Modern House Revisited special issue] no.2, 1996 pp. 102-110 [Discusses the White House in Grayswood, near Haslemere, Surrey designed by Amyas Connell in 1932]
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Sharp, Dennis and Rendel, Sally. Connell Ward and Lucas : Modern movement architects in England 1929-1939. London : Frances Lincoln, 2008.
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