Colin Anderson Lucas was born in London, England on 29 December 1906 and studied architecture at Trinity College, Cambridge from 1925 to 1928. He then worked as manager of his father's building firm, Lucas, Lloyd & Co., responsible for technical aspects of construction. In 1929 the firm designed and built Noah's House, beside the River Thames at Bourne End, Buckinghamshire, the first monolithic concrete house to be constructed in England. Over the next five years, despite the difficult economic climate, Lucas's career as an architect progressed, mainly the result of family commissions.
In May 1934 [or 1933 - sources differ] he joined the London architectural practice Connell & Ward, which had been formed in 1932 by Amyas Douglas Connell (1901-1980) and Basil Robert Ward (1902-1978. The practice subsequently became Connell, Ward & Lucas. Following the outbreak of war in 1939, the partnership was dissolved. During the war Lucas worked for the Forest Products Research Laboratory at Princes Risborough, where he specialized in developing defensive concrete structures. Towards the end of the war he moved to the USA but returned in the late 1940s. He then worked in the development section of London County Council, where he experimented with the use of concrete as a building material and was involved in various housing schemes. He died in Camden, London on 25 August 1984
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* 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
Lucas, Colin. ’Colin Lucas’ in Unit 1: The Modern Movement in English Architecture, Painting and Sculpture. Edited by Herbert Read. London: Cassell & Company, Ltd., 1934 pp. 117-124
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Sharp, Dennis and Rendel, Sally. Connell Ward and Lucas: Modern movement architects in England 1929–1939. London: Frances Lincoln, 2008
Thirties: British Art and Design before the War. London: Arts Council of Great Britain, 1979 [Catalogue of an exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, London, 25 October-13 January 1979]