The architect H. T. Cadbury-Brown (known to his friends as 'Jim' after the best man at his parents' wedding) was born on 20 May 1913 at Sarratt, Hertfordshire [1]. He trained at the Architectural Association in 1930-35 where he was first introduced by another student to the work of the pioneering modernist architect, Le Corbusier, and was immediately, in his own words, 'hooked'. When he left the AA he worked for a year under the modernist architect Ernö Goldfinger RA and also joined the Modern Architecture Research (MARS) Group. In 1938 he worked with Hugh Casson PRA and Ralph Tubbs on mounting an exhibition on the subject of New Architecture.

Cadbury-Brown set up his own architecture practice before serving in the war, being demobilised in 1945 with the rank of major. Through Casson and Tubbs, Cadbury-Brown was commissioned to design two exhibition pavilions and the river-side concourse for the Festival of Britain on the South Bank in 1951. Working on this commission, he met the American architect Elizabeth Romeyn Elwyn (1922-2002), known as 'Betty', who became his wife and key collaborator. Later, with Casson as the front man, the couple designed the Royal College of Art building, part of the architectural ensemble of Kensington Gore, set off by the landscaped beauty of Kensington Gardens.

In 1975 Cadbury-Brown, working with the designer Robin Wade, was invited by the Jordanian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities to present a report on a new Jordan Archaeological Museum atop the historic Citadel site in the capital city of Amman. The proposal - which was to remain unrealised - was forwarded in September. The following month, Cadbury-Brown submitted this presentation drawing for the scheme as his Diploma Work to the Royal Academy, upon his election as a Royal Academician [2].

The Citadel is the location of significant ancient structures, among them the Roman Temple of Hercules and the Islamic Umayyad Palace built by a caliph in the early eighth century. Cadbury-Brown's intention was to create 'not a monumental building imposed on the landscape, but one skilfully integrated into it and playing a secondary visual role to the archaeological remains and the Citadel which is the real monument'. Consequently, the proposed plans extended beyond the museum building and were to include the re-erection of three of the temple's fallen columns, pleasant walks, a picnic area and newly planted trees framing views over the city's landmark mosques and Roman amphitheatre. Other proposed attractions included a giant sundial, a solar-powered machine, son et lumière spectacles and a camera obscura in the museum offering views over Amman.

The museum building was intended to create 'free-flowing spaces alternating with courtyards', with a pool and perhaps arcades, suggesting that, although modern, the design embodied elements of traditional Islamic planning. The museum, a cluster of octagonal 'cells', was to have been constructed of concrete and reused stones from the site. In the drawing, the building appears squat and fortress-like, its terrace a continuation of the ancient ramparts.

Jim and Betty Cadbury-Brown's last major work, executed in the late 1980s and early 1990s, was their most beautiful and intimate space, the Library and Print Room of the Royal Academy in Burlington House, a modern jewel in an historic setting [3] and [4].