Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens OM KCIE PRA FRIBA (/ˈlʌtjənz/ LUT-yənz; 29 March 1869 – 1 January 1944[2]) was an English architect known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era.

In his biography, the writer Christopher Hussey wrote, "In his lifetime (Lutyens) was widely held to be our greatest architect since Wren if not, as many maintained, his superior".

In collaboration with Sir Herbert Baker, he was also the main architect of several monuments in New Delhi such as the India Gate; he also designed the Viceroy's House, which is now known as the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

[11][12] His sister, Mary Constance Elphinstone Lutyens (1868–1951), wrote novels under her married name of Mrs George Wemyss.

Lutyens's fame grew largely through the popularity of the new lifestyle magazine Country Life created by Edward Hudson, which featured many of his house designs.

Important works of this period include Munstead Wood,[16] Tigbourne Court, Orchards and Goddards in Surrey, Deanery Garden and Folly Farm in Berkshire, Overstrand Hall in Norfolk and Le Bois des Moutiers in France.

After about 1900 this style gave way to a more conventional Classicism, a change of direction which had a profound influence on wider British architectural practice.

His commissions were of a varied nature from private houses to two churches for the new Hampstead Garden Suburb in London to Julius Drewe's Castle Drogo near Drewsteignton in Devon and on to his contributions to India's new imperial capital, New Delhi (where he worked as chief architect with Herbert Baker and others).

Here he added elements of local architectural styles to his classicism, and based his urbanisation scheme on Mughal water gardens.

The Cenotaph was originally commissioned by David Lloyd George as a temporary structure to be the centrepiece of the Allied Victory Parade in 1919.

[24] While work continued in New Delhi, Lutyens received other commissions including several commercial buildings in London and the Embassy of the United Kingdom in Washington, D.C..

He planned a vast building of brick and granite, topped with towers and a 510-foot (160 m) dome, with commissioned sculpture work by Charles Sargeant Jagger and W. C. H. King.

He was also involved in the Royal Academy's planning for post-war London, an endeavour dismissed by Osbert Lancaster as "... not unlike what the new Nuremberg might have been had the Führer enjoyed the inestimable advantage of the advice and guidance of the late Sir Aston Webb".

[26] Works in Ireland include the Irish National War Memorial Gardens in Islandbridge in Dublin, which consists of a bridge over the railway and a bridge over the River Liffey (unbuilt) and two tiered sunken gardens; Heywood House Gardens, County Laois (open to the public), consisting of a hedge garden, lawns, tiered sunken garden and a belvedere; extensive changes and extensions to Lambay Castle, Lambay Island, near Dublin, consisting of a circular battlement enclosing the restored and extended castle and farm building complex, upgraded cottages and stores near the harbour, a real tennis court, a large guest house (The White House), a boathouse and a chapel; alterations and extensions to Howth Castle, County Dublin; the unbuilt Hugh Lane gallery straddling the River Liffey on the site of the Ha'penny Bridge and the unbuilt Hugh Lane Gallery on the west side of St Stephen's Green; and Costelloe Lodge at Casla (also known as Costelloe), County Galway (that was used for refuge by J. Bruce Ismay, the Chairman of the White Star Line, following the sinking of the RMS Titanic).

The new city contains both the Parliament buildings and government offices (many designed by Herbert Baker) and was built distinctively of the local red sandstone using the traditional Mughal style.

Built in the spirit of British colonial rule, the place where the new imperial city and the older native settlement met was intended to be a market.

It was there that Lutyens imagined the Indian traders would participate in "the grand shopping centre for the residents of Shahjahanabad and New Delhi", thus giving rise to the D-shaped market seen today.

[34] In recognition of his architectural accomplishments for the British Raj, Lutyens was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire (KCIE) on 1 January 1930.

In spite of his monumental work in India, Lutyens believed that the peoples of the Indian sub-continent were less civilised and less intelligent than Europeans, although these views were common at the time among many of his contemporaries.

[38] In Madrid, Lutyens's work can be seen in the interiors of the Liria Palace, a neoclassical building which was severely damaged during the Spanish Civil War.

[41] Their marriage was largely unsatisfactory, practically from the start, with Lady Emily developing interests in theosophy, Eastern religions, and being drawn both emotionally and philosophically to Jiddu Krishnamurti.

His ashes were interred in the crypt of St. Paul's Cathedral, beneath a memorial designed by his friend and fellow architect William Curtis Green.

In November 2015 the British government announced that all 44 of Lutyens's surviving First World War memorials in Britain[note 1] had now been listed on the advice of Historic England, and were therefore all protected by law.