Houses for Visiting Mathematicians, Warwick University

Image: © A J Paxton Taken: 3 Jun 2023

Five houses and a pair of flats, built in cube-like shapes with rounded corners, stand in a secluded corner of the campus. They were built in 1968-70 to designs by Bill Howell. The University of Warwick, which is actually on the edge of Coventry, was founded in 1963. The first Professor of Mathematics, Christopher Zeeman, was able to secure funding for a Mathematics Research Centre, which held symposiums, which led to a need for housing to accommodate mathematicians attending these gatherings. Zeeman later recalled his conversations with Howell: "'Each house must have a study,' I said, 'away from the main part of the house so that the mathematician can work undisturbed, and there must be blackboards round the walls.' 'How do you write in the corners where two walls meet?' he asked. 'I suppose you could round the corners by building the blackboards out' I suggested. 'Better still' he replied, 'I could build the walls in.' 'Fine - and put the blackboards low enough for small children to use the bottom bit'." The houses are now Grade II* listed buildings; the list entry can be seen at the Historic England site https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1392017?section=official-list-entry , which comments that 'from certain angles the individual blocks have the appearance of toy forts'.

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