Groundplan

Corner Green Chapter 2 (Summary)

Span Developments Ltd was formed in 1957 in a pioneering idealistic quest to provide house buyers with radically better homes than they were being offered by speculative housebuilders. Architects Eric Lyons and Geoffrey Townsend, the founders of Span, recognised that they were unlikely to find a client who would share their aspirations. Their solution was to form their own development company, but although they had the contacts and experience to run such an enterprise, the rules at the time prevented architects from trading as developers. In response the entrepreneurial Townsend resigned his RIBA membership to form Span with Leslie Bilsby. Officially Span was the client and Eric Lyons and partners were the architects, but the principles shared by those involved resulted in a unique collaboration that allowed Lyons and his partner Ivor Cunningham an exceptional level of freedom in the design of the developments. Span was very much an ideology and as such they worked on profit margins of just 10% (whereas most other developers of the time were working to a figure of around 20%).