He was born
Walter Bukbinder in
Vienna, the son of a secular
Jewish
Czech chemical engineer. He studied architecture at
Prague University, before escaping the
German occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1938 with his friend, the actor
Herbert Lom, and travelling to Britain. Many members of his family subsequently died at the
Birkenau concentration camp. He then became a partner in the private architectural and planning consultancy of
Llewelyn-Davies, Weeks, Forestier-Walker & Bor, and began working on the development of
Washington new town, in
County Durham, and on a large new urban development,
Ciudad Losada, 50 km. south of
Caracas in Venezuela. He was appointed as consultant to the
Shenzhen Urban Planning Commission in
Guangdong, China, and also returned as a consultant to work on the planning of Prague. He was married three times, and died in 1999 at the age of 82. ==References==