Basic Biographical Details Name: | Christopher Charles MacIntosh Buntain | Designation: | | Born: | 1941 or 1942 | Died: | 10 November 2005 | Bio Notes: | Christopher Charles MacIntosh Buntain was born in 1941 or 1942. When he was five years old he contracted polio and lost the use of one arm. He was educated at Greenock Academy where he showed an early aptitude in art and model-making. He studied architecture at the Royal College of Science & Technology in Glasgow (later Strathclyde University) and he was one of the earliest students to be awarded a First Class Honours degree in Architecture. He studied for a further year at the School of Architecture before working for a year with Keppie Henderson & Partners. He then took a post as architect with Greenock Corporation Architects Department where he stayed for five years.
During the period with Greenock Corporation he designed and built his own house in Gourock. This was on a steeply sloping site and straddled a burn.
He took a post with Drew Forbes for a year in about 1974 or 1975 but returned to the post of Depute Burgh Architect in the newly formed Inverclyde District Council. Much of his work in this post involved the refurbishment of council housing, both high and low rise, built in the 1950s and 1960s.
Buntain then moved to the construction side of the business and worked for a company called Gunac which specialised in remedial work for buildings, including external insulation treatments. He then moved to work for Eglinton Stone and became an expert in external wall treatments and renders. He was then in demand as a lecturer and this took him to many parts of the UK and Ireland. In his apre time he devloped a fully dry construction high thermal performance building system called 'Fit' which was manufactured by a new company, 'Thermalex'.
In 2001 he fell ill and although he underwent a successful operation, the illness recurred in late 2004. He died on 10 November 2005, survived by his wife, Christine, and two daughters, Lesley, an architect with Keppie Design, and Jennifer, a modern languages teacher.
| Private and Business AddressesThe following private or business addresses are associated with this : | | Address | Type | Date from | Date to | Notes | | 154, Cumbrae Court, Grieve Road, Greenock, Renfrewshire, Scotland | Private | 1970 * | | | | 8, Park Avenue, Greenock, Renfrewshire, Scotland | Private | Before 1979 | 2005 | |
* earliest date known from documented sources.
Employment and TrainingEmployers
ReferencesArchive ReferencesThe following archives hold material relating to this : | | Source | Archive Name | Source Catalogue No. | Notes | | RIAS, Rutland Square | Records of membership | | Obituary by Jim Cuthbertson |
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