Adrian Forty is professor emeritus of architectural history at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL and Honorary Curator of Architecture at the Royal Academy, London.

He is the author of Objects of Desire, Design and Society Since 1750 (1986); Words and Buildings, a Vocabulary of Modern Architecture (2000); and Concrete and Culture, a Material History (2012). From 2010 to 2014, he served as president of the European Architectural History Network.

Forty’s main interest is in architecture’s role in societies and culture. His research includes work on the design of consumer goods; on language and architecture; and on architecture, collective memory, and forgetting. As of lately, he is concerned with the history, aesthetics, and cultural significance of concrete as a construction material.