Professor Bruce Peter
Professor Bruce Peter
- Lecturer and Researcher
- Professional Title
- Professor of Design History
- Job Title
- Lecturer and Researcher
- School or Academic Area
- School of Design
- School or Academic Area Supervised for
- School of Design
- B.Peter@gsa.ac.uk
- Contact Number
- 0044 141 353 4553
- Professional Address
- 167 Renfrew Street Glasgow G36RQ
- Country
- United Kingdom
Biography
Bruce Peter is the Professor of Design History in the Glasgow School of Art’s School of Design. He has researched and published extensively on modern architecture and design for transport, pleasure and hospitality and is also internationally known as a maritime historian, specialising in the design history of modern merchant ships.
As an undergraduate student in the early-1990s, Bruce wrote his first book, Glasgow’s Amazing Cinemas, published in 1996 to coincide with the centenary of the earliest film show in the city. His PhD, Form Follows Fun: Modernism and Modernity in British Pleasure Architecture 1925-1940, was published by Routledge in 2007. His interests in passenger ships and their interiors then led to him co-authoring Cruise: Identity, Design and Culture, which was followed by three further works: Ship Style: Modernism and Modernity at Sea in the Twentieth Century, QE2: Britain’s Greatest Liner and The Ferry: A Drive-though History.
In Denmark, Bruce was commissioned
Research Interests
Twentieth century architecture and design in Britain and Scandinavia; transport design history, especially the design and operational contexts of modern merchant ships, and the industrial design and branding of rail and road transport
Research Funding
Bruce Peter’s recent and current funded projects include:
Lusitania to QE2: The great Clyde-built ships and the design of their interiors (PI, project duration 2019-2022), supported by the Royal Society of Edinburgh
DSB Design: Jens Nielsen og Designprogrammet 1972-1992 (PI, project duration 2021-2024), supported by Den Hielmstierne-Rosencroneske Stiftelse, Landsdommer V. Gieses Legat and Arne V. Schleschs Fond
Modern Art onboard British ships 1930-1970 (PI project duration 2025-2027), supported by The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art
PGR Supervision Interests
Twentieth century architecture and design in Britain and Scandinavia; transport design history, especially the design and operational contexts of modern merchant ships and the industrial design and branding of rail and road transport
Former PGR Students
Thom Gorst, Modern Maritime Ruins: an investigation into the aesthetic, cultural and historical value of modern ship-ruins around the British coast
Teaching
UG Year 1 DHT - contributor to Designed Objects course
UG Year 2 DHT - coordinator of Worlds and Words of Design courses
UG Year 2 DHT - coordinator of History of Interiors course
UG Year 3 DHT - contributor to Concepts and Territories of Design courses
UG Year 3 DHT - coordinator of Alternative Narratives course
UG Year 4 DHT - essay/dissertation supervisor
PG DHT - coordinator of Writing Art, Design and Architecture course
Latest Additions
- Peter, Bruce (2026) Kay Fisker’s Ship Interiors and Their Consequences for Subsequent Ship Interior Design. Magasin for Bygningskunst og Kultur, 1 (11). ISSN 2597-3126
- Peter, Bruce (2026) DAMPA – 75 Years of Quiet Design/DAMPA – 75 år med Quiet Design. DAMPA A/S, Tommerup.
- Peter, Bruce (2026) Precedents and the context of DSB’s Design Programme. In: Success by Design – Design Management in Denmark. Taylor & Francis, Abingdon.
- Peter, Bruce (2025) Modernist Scotland: 150 Post-war Buildings and Places. The Modernist, Manchester. ISBN 9781068299513
- Peter, Bruce and Plunkett, Drew (2025) British Interior Design since 1925: A Critical History. Lund Humphries, London. ISBN 9781848225626
- Peter, Bruce (2025) Art Deco Scotland: Design and Architecture in the Jazz Age Exhibition. Five different venues: GSA Reid Gallery, Glasgow; Institut Francais, Edinburgh; Bo'ness Library; Rothesay Pavilion Annexe; University of Aberdeen, 4-28 April 2025; 1-21 July 2025; 21 February-25 April 2026; between 1 May-1 September 2026 ; TBA
- Peter, Bruce (2025) Art Deco Scotland: Design and Architecture in the Jazz Age. Historic Environment Scotland, Edinburgh. ISBN 9781849173445
- Peter, Bruce (2024) DSB Design: Jens Nielsen og designprogrammet 1972-1992. Dansk Jernbane-Klub BaneBoger, Copenhagen, Denmark. ISBN 9788787050272
- Peter, Bruce (2024) Baltic Ferries: The New Generation. Ferry Publications, Ramsey, Isle of Man. ISBN 9781911268826
- Peter, Bruce (2023) Denmark in Britain: Architecture, Design and Lifestyle 1945-1970. Peter Lang Verlag, Oxford. ISBN 978-1-78997-277-1
